Jan 5, 2012 | AIL, Community Development, Female Empowerment, Sakena Yacoobi
In 2010, Sakena Yacoobi participated in the public forum “Health at Whose Cost?”, part of the Melbourne Conversations series, as a delegate at the United Nations Advance Global Health conference. She shared her thoughts about Afghanistan and discussed how the Afghan Institute of Learning is working to achieve the U.N. Millennium Development Goals by generating awareness and educating Afghan society about pertinent issues: “Our organization decided to really target universal education, gender equality and child maternal health. … As an individual, everyone is responsible to take care of everyone else’s health and to try to help. In order to help, you must give them training to be able to teach them how to help [themselves].” While discussing the importance of women’s rights, Yacoobi said: “Why [do] we target gender equality? Because in Afghanistan, you know, always half of the population has been considered. The other half, or more than the other half, are women. Women have been completely ignored. So if you really want to have a healthy nation, you must target the other half of the population. Because those half are the ones who are taking care of the rest of the population. So we must really try to teach them and work with both sex[es], male and female.” How’s that for food for thought? Listen to Yacoobi speak at the 0:29:15 mark and check out other inspiring speakers in the... read more
Dec 22, 2011 | BRAC, BRAC USA
It’s evident in their work that Kravis Prize winners are making great strides towards achieving the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. One example is BRAC, which offers programs around the world that span topics from microfinance to girls’ education and health care. BRAC-USA CEO Susan Davis recently was featured on ABC News and discussed BRAC’s involvement in the Million Moms Challenge, which aims to reduce child mortality and improve maternal health: “Things have really improved. Just look at the number of deaths that have happened from women dying from childbirth. We’ve been able to almost halve it to 12,000 a year to 7,300. … So in terms of setting a goal for the year 2015 that the whole world is striving to achieve, we’ve gotten there, at least in these few areas. And I think for Bangladesh, we’re on track to get there and that is dramatic.” She also discussed BRAC’s strategy to implement change: “BRAC has figured out a way to prevent the leading causes of death during childbirth. The solutions aren’t particularly high-tech or don’t often require advanced medical degrees. They only require that we work directly with the poor, within their communities, and trust them to do the things that are needed, with a small amount of proper training, to take care of their neighbors.” To read more of what Davis has to say, click here for her op-ed and a brief video. To find out more about 2007 Kravis Prize winner and BRAC Founder Sir Fazle Abed, go to our... read more
Dec 14, 2011 | Education, Pratham, Sustainable Development
Kravis Prize winners are tackling pertinent social issues throughout the world. For example, 2010 Kravis Prize winner Pratham has been praised for its innovative solutions in education. Pratham Books’ latest initiative, Awareness Today for a Greener Tomorrow, aims to kill two birds with one stone by promoting environmental awareness and literacy. According to the Hindu, Pratham Books is releasing environmentally themed books as part of its campaign. Manisha Chaudhry, head of content development at Pratham Books, said: “We are doing this in a way that is natural and real, rather than teaching them lessons in morals and ecology. We hope the books will make readers respect wildlife. We want the children to know that like us, animals too have many dimensions to them. We can make children more sensitive towards them.” Since 2011 was named the “International Year of the Forest” by the United Nations General Assembly, Pratham Books is holding different events throughout December to spread awareness for a greener world. Head on over to their website to check out the events and conservation tips! You can also learn more about Pratham here. “Planting an idea” [The Hindu, December 9,... read more
Dec 8, 2011 | Landesa, Poverty Reduction, Roy Prosterman
In 1981, 2006 Kravis Prize winner Roy Prosterman founded the Rural Development Institute (RDI), now Landesa, with a mission to secure land rights for the world’s poor. Landesa partners with governments around the world to extend land rights to the poor and has offices in the U.S., China, Russia and India. NPR recently discussed Landesa’s program in India, which employs young men from 12 local villages and trains them to help people through the process of acquiring title to their land. NPR interviewed RDI India State Director Sanjoy Patnaik, who discussed the pilot program in Chillipoi: “Our prime focus is securing land to the world’s poorest. And as you see, this village displaced for 40 years without titles, no food. So these are the people who actually need the kind of facilities and support that Landesa is providing.” According to the broadcast, 19 families have received title papers to their homesteads so far. Patnaik says the next big challenge for the project will be to scale up the pilot programs into an operation that can provide land title for up to 18,000 families. Listen to the broadcast here and find out more about Landesa Founder Roy Prosterman... read more
Dec 1, 2011 | AIL, Community Development, Education, Sakena Yacoobi
With their profound and inspiring work, it’s no surprise that Kravis Prize winners are acknowledged worldwide by prestigious organizations. In fact, 2009 Kravis Prize winner and Afghan Institute of Learning (AIL) Founder Sakena Yacoobi was honored as the 2006 Skoll Social Entrepreneur. The Skoll Foundation also produced a great video of Sakena Yacoobi telling the story of the people of Afghanistan. In the video, she says that the Taliban in Afghanistan caused the country to lose an “educated society.” So how is AIL remedying this problem? Yacoobi explains it best: “Afghan Institute of Learning is a non-profit organization mainly run by women. We run program[s] in the area of education, health, leadership, human rights, women’s rights, gender issues, management and peace education. So far AIL has trained 16,000 teachers and we have reached 6.8 million people.” One of the driving forces behind AIL’s success is Yacoobi’s optimism and persistence: “The future is bright because the people have this strength in them that they really want to be independent. They want to be self-sufficient. Believe me, the people of Afghanistan have the potential, have the energy to overcome and to that, I see a beautiful, very bright future of people in Afghanistan and for the new generation of Afghanistan. That would be my dream come true.” Enjoy the video below and let us know how Sakena Yacoobi and her work with AIL inspire... read more
