Promoting quality education for all.

Bidil’s mission to ensure all children in his Ethiopian village have the chance to learn

by Alastair Stewart, 

Bidil Abdulahi has experienced joy and heartbreak in his attempt to send his children to school.

Every day, Bidil Abdulahi would farewell his oldest son, sent off on a one hour walk to the nearest school. “It was a long walk for a child,” he says, “but I didn’t want my child to be as illiterate as I am.”

The decision paid off, with his son Yunus now in college.

Bidil’s daughter was not as fortunate.

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Increasing our Focus on Girls’ Education

by Alan Bobbett, 

A few months ago I met a grandmother. 

That’s not so remarkable, until I tell you that she is only 25. 

No matter how you calculate the math and circumstances that result in a young lady becoming a grandmother at age 25, it is horrific.  There is no instant panacea that will make instances like this history.  In this particular case, I can point to a long civil war, with its attendant atrocities, as well as child marriage, poverty, and other factors as contributory, but I really started the story this way to make the point that in our drive for accurate statistics with which to make decisions, we must never lose sight of the fact that those statistics point to real people, with real stories, and with very real barriers to overcome. 

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VR on a shoestring and solar power: How an NGO shot a 360 video in rural Africa

by Emily Anderson, 

My father-in-law squinted. “Why on earth would you want to do that?” he said when I told him I was going to a remote part of Zambia to produce a virtual reality experience for Impact Network, the NGO I work for in New York.

Impact Network runs education programs in rural, off-the-grid communities in Africa. I explained that virtual reality, or VR, would allow us to tell our story in the most immersive way possible. Short of bringing people to Zambia, the experience would transport them to a rural village where they could explore the sights and sounds of a new environment. This would help people to better understand the context and purpose of Impact Network’s work and maybe even want to visit themselves.

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Raising My Voice for Ethiopian Girls

by Achie Gezahegne Gebre, 

At Rise Up, we enable girls to stand up, raise their voices, and advocate for their rights. We have built a global network of over 400 leaders who have advocated for laws and policies impacting 115 million girls, youth, and women.  One of these inspiring leaders is Achie Gezahegne of Ethiopia. In the blog below, Achie talks about how she raises her voice for Ethiopian girls and shares her vision for a future where girls are at the center of development.

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Importance of female participation in employment & entrepreneurship programs

by Hussainatu Blake, 

There have been countless of studies about the importance of youth employment and entrepreneurship programs to educate and provide opportunity to youth in communities that really need it. There has also been studies that shows the importance of girls education and their involvement in such youth employment and entrepreneurship programs.

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Toward Student Centered Learning in the Developing World

by Education Global Access Program, 

A familiar sight: a teacher stands at the head of the classroom with a book or a sheet of paper in hand. Her eyes travel down the page as she reads out loud, pausing every so often to allow the dozens of furiously writing students to catch up. The students will take their notes home for the night. They will study, review, and rehearse until they have memorized word for word the information. And the next morning, one by one, they will stand in front of the teacher and give an oral recitation. The teacher will ask questions. She will write down a final grade. And then she will move on to the next lesson.

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Landline Schools: Balancing Innovations in Educational Quality and Access

by Bradley Broder , 

The remote Kenyan village I called home from 1999-2001 had just one reliable phone line located in a Catholic Church.  The Priest there allowed me to accept incoming calls from my parents in New York every other Sunday at 7 p.m.  If I missed that call, which happened on occasion, two long weeks would pass before that phone would ring again. 

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Giving Girls a Chance in School

by Alice Aluoch, 

In 2012 Mfariji Africa began as a small project distributing sanitary towels to girls in villages and marginalized areas in Kenya to reduce class absenteeism during menstruation. Over time the vision has expanded to improving the lives of Kenyan girls by helping them to stay in school and complete their education though different programs.

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