Sep 6, 2012 | Community Development, Education, Female Empowerment, Health, m2m
Although Kravis Prize winners are tackling different social problems in today’s world, they all share the same mission: Make an impact. For example, mothers2mothers harnesses the power of individuals – their mentor mothers – to empower, educate and foster a community that provides HIV-positive women with the support they need. The Huffington Post published the story of Patience Hlengiwe Kweyama, an HIV-positive mother of five and an m2m mentor mother, who discussed her own experiences: “I saw an ad for a Mentor Mother position for mothers2mothers, an NGO that helps prevent mother-to-child transmission through peer mentoring and education, and I decided to apply as I felt that providing support and education to other women going through similar experiences to me was something I could do. I wanted to help these women so that they could understand what medication is available and how they can have healthy babies. Most importantly, I didn’t want them to live with the same fear I did for almost ten years. Through the training I received, I am now able to live my life positively, living the mothers2mothers vision of saving babies and their mothers.” In addition, Kweyama emphasized the many roles that m2m plays in supporting HIV-positive mothers and pregnant women: “Mentor Mothers motivate pregnant women with HIV to adhere to their medicines. We provide a network of support for all mothers in the community. Challenges such as stigma and health worker shortages are addressed as well. Mentor Mothers are powerful agents against the stigma of HIV that causes women to live in fear and prevents them from seeking care. Mentor Mothers work alongside... read more
Aug 30, 2012 | BRAC, Fazle Abed, Poverty Reduction, Sustainable Development
Kravis Prize winners are always innovating to help solve pressing problems in today’s world. For example, BRAC, founded by 2007 Kravis Prize winner Sir Fazle Abed, has reworked microfinance to create a new “graduation model.” The groundbreaking model was featured in Live Mint: “The model targets the ultra-poor and initiates a multi-pronged intervention with them, typically comprising mandatory savings, a subsistence allowance, transfer of a productive asset (usually livestock), health and livelihood trainings, etc. The basic idea is to provide the ultra-poor a safety net and an opportunity to start thinking of savings and investment in some form of productive livelihood activities.” Since BRAC introduced this program, the graduation pilots have been replicated in multiple sites around the world, “as an intervention to reach out to the poorest of the poor with a time-bound investment aimed at providing a social safety net and building their productive capacities.” The model has been adapted and implemented in eight countries: Ethiopia, Ghana, Haiti, Honduras, Pakistan, Peru, Yemen and India. Through continuous evaluation, researchers are monitoring the impact of the graduation pilots. In fact, researchers studying the pilot in West Bengal found that per capita food consumption increased 15 percent; per capita income increased 20 percent, while income from livestock and agriculture also showed significant gains. According to the research, there is an impressive 27 percent rate of return on the program investments! To learn more about the amazing work of Sir Fazle Abed and BRAC, go to our page. “The ‘graduation model’ in microfinance.” [Live Mint, August 14,... read more
Aug 24, 2012 | Community Development, Landesa, Poverty Reduction, Roy Prosterman
In the mid 1960s, inaugural Kravis Prize winner Roy Prosterman, armed with his legal knowledge and expertise, set out to change the world. This led to the establishment of Landesa in 1981, which tackles one of the chief structural causes of global poverty, rural landlessness, by educating people around the world about land rights. In the past 25 years, Landesa has expanded and truly has a global impact. In fact, Dawn recently published an article by Prosterman and Landesa senior attorney Darryl Vhugen, who discussed the importance of upholding land rights in Pakistan: An estimated 4.7 million rural families, comprising around 33 million people, are completely landless across rural Pakistan. Their lack of land rights leaves them with no pathway to escape their deep poverty – no land on which to labour for their own reward, and no opportunity to exercise any entrepreneurial spirit. The authors introduced the idea of house-and-garden plots, which would give the recipient families a “land base” that would allow them to “literally grow themselves out of abject poverty.” “[House-and-garden plots] provide enough space for a family to build a very small house and engage in vegetable gardening, tree cultivation, small-scale raising of livestock, home-based businesses and other income-generating activities. They can make a very large difference in the livelihoods and status of the poor — including the enhancement of the role and status of women, whose names should be included on the title wherever possible — while supplementing and diversifying existing livelihood strategies. … They increase family income, enhance family nutrition, provide physical security, help assure access to a range of government benefits, serve... read more
Aug 17, 2012 | Education, Pratham
2010 Kravis Prize winner Pratham is constantly innovating in order to improve education in India. For example, Pratham’s flagship program Read India cooperates with schoolteachers, the South Delhi Municipal Corporation and village communities in order to help children between the ages of 6 to 14 read, write and learn basic mathematics. Pratham CEO A Seshadri discussed the program: “We trained volunteers from each village to teach the children in their village at government school premises. Group of young volunteers from remote villages around T Narsipura came forward.” According to Seshadri, volunteers receive computer and spoken English training, instead of payment, which will aid them in the job market. Read India holds classes in the evening after school hours. One of its programs, Kannada Vachana Karyakrama, aims at building language skills in children to correct the graded difficulties at different levels of reading and pronunciation, while another program Nagu Nagutha Ganitha teaches math through a child-led model. To learn more about Pratham’s great work, visit our page. “Welcoming kids to the world of learning” [Times of India, August 12,... read more
Aug 10, 2012 | AIL, Community Development, Education, Female Empowerment, Health, Sakena Yacoobi
In June, Voice America’s Audrey Kitagawa interviewed Sakena Yacoobi for her radio segment on love, spirituality and forgiveness. Yacoobi discussed her work at the Afghan Institute of Learning and her reasons behind focusing on providing education and health care services to people in Afghanistan: “Ninety-five percent of people of Afghanistan live in poverty so health education is very, very important. [If] a mother is healthy, she will make sure that her child is healthy. And if her child is healthy, you know and I know that a child that is healthy can learn better. … I believe in education and I think that education is the key issue for really reaching out to people.” She also shared AIL’s goal and the impact that the organization is attempting to achieve: “The issue is that we want to transform life. We want to change the status of the life of the people … We are trying to make people educated, we try to help people to be healthy and we try to make people to be economically sustainable that they have a better life.” Given the progress AIL’s made, it’s safe to say they’re not only improving people’s lives in Afghanistan, but also imparting hope on those who have suffered in the past! Listen to the full radio interview... read more
