by lwang | Apr 17, 2013 | Escuela Nueva, FAWE, Female Empowerment, Kravis Prize, Pratham, Uncategorized
2008 Kravis Prize Winner FAWE’s work to educate girls in Kenya might have the added benefit of saving lives, according to a new article from the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics. FAWE’s Kenya chapter sponsors over 100 girls and 250 teachers in Kenya’s Western and Nyanza provinces, where women have a high risk of exposure to reproductive and sexual health problems, including complications during pregnancy and childbirth, exposure to HIV/AIDS, forced marriages, and female genital mutilation. The particularly high risk among rural women can be attributed in large part to the lack of awareness and education on health issues in rural Kenya. That’s where FAWE’s work comes in. The organization will teach girls about “adolescent sexual and reproductive health rights” in an effort to change the harsh realities for women in rural Kenya. This agenda fits well into FAWE’s overall mission of empowering girls and women in Africa through gender-responsive education, which it has pursued for more than two decades. FAWE CEO Oley Dibba-Wadda will talk more about the organization’s extensive education programs in sub-Saharan Africa at the Kravis Prize “Global Leaders Forum” this Thursday at Claremont McKenna College. She will be joined by Pratham co-founder Madhav Chavan and Escuela Nueva founder Vicky Colbert to discuss issues of education in India, Latin America, and sub-Saharan Africa. KRAVIS PRIZE CEREMONY AND RELATED EVENTS: This week: Kravis Prize presents the “Global Leaders Forum” event This week: This year’s Kravis Prize winner Johann Olav Koss presents a CMC lunchtime lecture ALSO RELATED: FAWE students tackle the issue of good governance in Rwanda 15.6% or 38.57%? Pratham disputes Indian government’s education figures...
by lwang | Apr 16, 2013 | BRAC, Civil Society, Community Development, Kravis Prize
Have you ever heard of frugal innovation? That’s what happens when you help improve people’s lives but have a limited budget—an all-too-familiar situation for the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee. The 2007 recipient of the Kravis Prize, BRAC and its founder Fazle Abed have turned such limitations into a powerful learning tool by staging a Frugal Innovation Forum in March. Asif Saleh, senior director of BRAC Strategy, Communications, and Capacity, shared some of the lessons of this forum in a recent article in Forbes magazine. The reason for the BRAC forum was a simple principle: By providing a venue for the exchange of ideas, you increase the reach and possibility of individual organizations with limited means. It’s an old, familiar idea that novelist E.M. Forster once expressed perfectly in two words in his novel “Howard’s End” — Only connect. When organizations in the non-profit sector connect and share ideas, solutions to common problems can be found far more easily than when these organizations face them alone. As BRAC’s Saleh writes in Forbes: It’s easy to pay lip service to the need to learn from one other, but actually how one does that is not entirely understood. Rarely can a ready-made model be dropped into a new place. Even the process of creation is hugely important in developing a sophisticated understanding of not just what works, but why it works. “Everyone needs to reinvent the wheel,” wrote Madhav Chavan, founder of Pratham, an incredible Indian organization transforming education nationally, “it’s important because all of us need our own kind of wheel.” Among the other lessons that Saleh passes along? It’s important to...
by lwang | Apr 15, 2013 | CMC, Education, Johann Olav Koss, Kravis Prize, Right 2 Play
In 2008, when Johann Olav Koss’s organization Right To Play set a goal to reach one million children weekly, the number was still a distant dream. This month, in the buildup to this week’s award ceremony for the Henry R. Kravis Prize in Leadership, Right To Play has announced that this is a dream no longer: The organization has finally achieved that milestone. Right To Play, which works to teach life skills to urban youth around the world through games and sports, has grown significantly in the decade since its founding. In addition to reaching one million children (of which 49% are girls), as of 2012 the organization can boast that: Over 13,500 local volunteers serve as Right to Play Coaches, of which 56% are female. These coaches not only lead the local programs, but also serve as mentors for the children they work with Right To Play now includes 6,300 Junior Leaders, some as young as eight, who serve as role models for their peers 10,300 children with disabilities now participate in Right To Play’s programs in over 20 countries So what’s next for the organization? Right To Play hopes to reach two million children weekly by 2017. KRAVIS PRIZE CEREMONY AND RELATED EVENTS: This week: This year’s Kravis Prize winner Johann Olav Koss presents a CMC lunchtime lecture This week: Kravis Prize presents the “Global Leaders Forum” event ALSO RELATED: Where’s Right To Play headed next? The United States CMC Breaking News: The Henry R. Kravis Prize in Leadership for 2013 Awarded to Johann Olav Koss Celebrity support for mothers2mothers and Pratham...
by lwang | Apr 11, 2013 | Community Development, Education, FAWE, Kravis Prize
Who can solve the problems facing under-developed communities in Africa? FAWE girls! 2008 Kravis Prize Winner FAWE is teaching African girls not only to improve their own lives, but also the lives of all of those around them. And the work has paid off: A team of students from FAWE’s Girls School in Rwanda just won a debate on good governance in Rwanda. The high school debate, run by the Rwanda Governance Board, was centered on the question of whether the “private sector has contributed more than the public sector in the economic development of less developed countries.” The Deputy Director General of the Rwanda Governance Board, Fatuma Ndagiza, complimented the quality of the debaters, saying that the candidates spoke “with confidence and clarity. They provided rich ideas and documented on key sectors of the country’s development.” FAWE isn’t the only Kravis Prize winner to have an impact on international education: Pratham USA was recently awarded a Social Impact award in the category of “International Contribution to India” from the Times of India. The organization was acknowledged for its work to improve the quality of education in India. RELATED: FAWE: Gender is My Agenda (GIMAC) Summit Escuela Nueva: Learning Guides in Action Egypt: Soraya Salti puts her money on Egypt’s youth...
by lwang | Apr 10, 2013 | Kravis Prize, Landesa, Pratham, Roy Prosterman
Every Indian citizen has a “right to education,” but are they receiving it? Despite attempts by the government to improve education in the Indian province of Uttar Pradesh, this year’s Annual Status of Education Report (ASER), published by 2010 Kravis Prize recipient Pratham, has revealed that the state is falling short on the implementation of its Right To Education (RTE) program. According to Pratham’s report, only 15.6% of schools have achieved a pupil-teacher ratio that meets the RTE requirements. The central government had reported that 38.57% of schools have achieved the proper ratio. The Times of India reports that other experts, adding to Pratham’s quantitative evaluation of RTE, say that: “RTE has boosted enrollment in schools, but the learning outcomes are still very low. “The focus is on infrastructure issues like building, enrollment, teacher-student ratio, mid-day meals but focus on education, a child’s ability to read, write and learn is not visible,” said a primary school teacher.” Until that imbalance is addressed, the efforts of Pratham as well as Roy Prosterman’s organization Landesa will remain crucial to improving the quality of life in India, especially in areas like Uttar Pradesh. RELATED: “Where’s Right To Play Headed Next? The United States” “Celebrity support for mothers2mothers and Pratham events” “A garden makes a difference: Seattle Times spotlights Landesa’s work with young Indian...
