A mothers2mothers mentor shares her ‘greatest gift’

Since 2001, the 2012 Kravis Prize recipient organization Mothers2Mothers has worked to improve the quality of life for thousands of HIV-infected women around the world. On the Huffington Post’s Global Motherhood blog, Mentor mother Nozi Samela discusses how she has helped hundreds of newly diagnosed pregnant women and mothers by sharing her own experience of living with the virus. Samela tells her story in three video blogs, with the Huffington Post  providing the following summary of  the first two segments: “Samela shared her despair after learning she was HIV- positive, the critical support and information she received from    mothers2mothers to stay healthy and prevent transmission of HIV to her baby son, her devastation over the tragic death of her first son when he was three years old, and her excitement when she found out she was pregnant again.” Her most recent video blog, “The Greatest Gift,” concludes the series with the announcement of her HIV-free baby daughter. “Look at my baby,” Samela says, “and think to yourself, how wonderful it would be if all children born in Africa could be as healthy and as happy.” Click here to watch Nozi Samela’s full video...

FAWE: Gender is My Agenda Campaign (GIMAC) Summit

At the Kravis Prize, we’re proud to honor those at the forefronts of their fields and exemplary leaders in the nonprofit community, knowing that their work has a tremendous impact on the larger world. In 1992, female education ministers of from five African countries established Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE) to advocate for the education of girls across Africa. At the time, an estimated 24 million girls were out of school in sub-Saharan Africa and FAWE’s founders recognized not only the personal benefits for girls who attend school, but also the extensive benefits for society at large. Since then, FAWE has been a tireless and effective advocate for education, constantly innovating and implementing programs to address the multifaceted problems facing educators and students throughout the region. Among the group’s activities is co-chairing the annual GIMAC (“Gender is My Agenda Campaign”) Summit, which this year featured as keynote speaker the African Union’s first woman chair, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma. All Africa contributor Samantha Nkirote Mckenzie reported on Dlamini-Zuma’s address during the summit’s first day, which focused on education: With the majority of Africa’s population being youth, there is a particular responsibility to ensure that the continent’s young people have the skills they need, Dlamini-Zuma said. “Education does not wait – it is a window that closes in time,” she said, underscoring the urgency of the situation. Several FAWE scholarship recipients attended the 21st annual summit, which also featured a welcoming address by FAWE Executive Director Oley Dibba-Wadda She said: “It is imperative that women and youth are supported and provided with the right tools so that they can engage and make...

Escuela Nueva: Learning Guides in Action

Since founding the nonprofit educational organization Fundacion Escuela Nueva (FEN) 25 years ago to improve the quality and relevance of basic education in Colombia’s low-income schools, 2011 Kravis Prize winner Vicky Colbert has gained international acclaim as an educational innovator. The cornerstone of the world-renowned Escuela Nueva (“new school”) education model she co-authored is its Learning Guides – interactive tools that help children learn concepts through activities. As shown in this video, these educational tools promote collaborative learning and encourage reflection on the concepts being taught. This has a tremendous impact on students in low-income schools – and their teachers. In the coming weeks, FEN has announced that Learning Guides will be provided to nearly 200,000 students in need. Escuela Nueva Learning...

Egypt: Soraya Salti puts her money on Egypt’s youth

2012 Kravis Prize winner Soraya Salti has spent more than a decade mobilizing the private sector and ministries of education across the Arab world to join forces in creating a new generation of business-minded youth. All Africa News recently published an article by Salti regarding Egypt’s development potential under the country’s new government. In their article entitled, “Egypt: Harness the Youth to Create a Culture of Social Entrepreneurship,” Salti argues that the key to Egypt’s success is to invest in its young people. Salti formulates her argument around three divisions of Egyptian culture that have shaped the country’s identity: rising Internet usage, a large private sector economy, and the region’s most celebrated media industry. She provides the following statistical analysis to contextualize the country’s online mobility: “Magnified by the Arab Spring, millions of young Egyptians are now active on online platforms. As of June 2012, nearly 30 million Egyptians had access to Internet, a 30 percent penetration rate (Internetworldstats.com). Twenty-five percent of all Facebook users in the Arab World live in Egypt, and in 2012 it added more users than any other country in the region, 70 percent of whom were in the 15-29 age bracket (Dubai School of Government, 2012). On top of this, a recent study from the Dubai School of Government found that Arabs increasingly view social media as a tool for developing entrepreneurial skills and gaining productive knowledge. She continues by offering three examples of how to most effectively engage these principles into Egypt’s entrepreneurial culture. As the Regional Director for INJAZ Al-Arab, an organization that uses mentorship by Arab business leaders to inspire entrepreneurialism and innovation among Arab...

The Power of Education: Sakena Yacoobi’s Hopes for the Women of Afghanistan

As the keynote speaker at Global Washington’s Redefining Development Conference, Kravis Prize winner Sakena Yacoobi inspired and challenged her audience to help educate the women and children of Afghanistan. Yacoobi was selected to deliver the event’s opening address in recognition for providing education and health services to more than 9 million Afghan women and children since the founding of her organization, the Afghan Institute of Learning. Global Washington published an article by contributor Nina Carduner, who detailed Yacoobi’s speech. Yacoobi began by describing her own “happy and secure” childhood in Afghanistan. Her family did not have much, but their needs were met. After travelling to the U.S. to complete her education, Afghanistan was invaded and Yacoobi and her family became refugees, unable to return to their home. But Yacoobi’s heart remained in Afghanistan, and so she pursued a career in public health in hopes of someday returning to provide medical resources to women and children. The turning point in her career, Yacoobi said, came during a visit to an Afghan refugee camp. Her shocking testimonial described how women “were like animals. … They felt less than human,” as their fathers, husbands, and brothers were taken away from them. Yacoobi rejected the idea that women were incapable of doing things for themselves, and dedicated her life to educating Afghan women and children. She began in Pakistan, where a majority of Afghan refugee camps were located. Met with criticism at first by religious leaders who believed that education was not appropriate for children, Yacoobi eventually convinced many of them to become teachers themselves. According to the article, she reached 27,000 children...