by lwang | Nov 4, 2012 | Community Development, Education, Pratham
2010 Kravis Prize winner Pratham, one of India’s largest non-governmental organizations committed to educating underprivileged children, has a leadership team dedicated to representing the educational interests of the country as a whole. Pratham News shared a column by Pratham program director, Dr. Rukmini Banerji, on what she calls the myths of education in India. Banerji breaks down five basic assumptions underlying the country’s education department, supporting her argument with data from the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER), a nationwide survey performed by citizens to gauge the success of school systems throughout the country. Originally published in the public policy and economics website, Ideas for India, Banerji’s analysis reveals the reality of the education department’s following assumptions: 1. High enrollment means children are in school; 2. Children are in school from age six onwards. India’s RTE Law “guarantees” education from the age of six to the age of fourteen; 3. Children in a given grade or class are homogenous (similar in age, ability etc.); 4. Textbooks are at appropriate age/grade level; and 5. Every year the country’s capability to deliver education is improving. Banerji’s comprehensive snapshot evidences how these assumptions misrepresent India’s educational climate and, ultimately cheat, underprivileged children of the education they deserve. She closes by challenging education department officials to “stick to reality”: “If we don’t look hard at our own reality, we will be constructing schools and curriculum for children who do not exist. If we don’t look hard at our own reality, we will be creating laws for situations that are far from real. If don’t look at our own reality, we will not be...
by lwang | Oct 29, 2012 | Community Development, Education, Pratham
2010 Kravis Prize winner Pratham, one of India’s largest NGOs committed to educating underprivileged children, is constantly innovating in order to improve education in India. In a recent posting on the Friends of Pratham blog, Namrta Kaushal addresses the question, “How well is every child learning?” and explores the tools Pratham has developed to assess children’s educational attainment. Pratham recognizes the need for educational assessments to promote greater understanding of academic performance and achievement. The program asserts that finding out, on an ongoing basis, what a child knows and can do, helps parents and teachers decide how to pose new challenges and provide children strategic guidance. Namrta Kaushal writes: “There is an increasing pressure on the average primary school teacher, especially with large, overcrowded classes of pupils with varying abilities and languages. Understandably it can be difficult for the teacher to flag a child’s difficulties.” With the goal of assessing the learning level of children, Pratham Delhi Education Initiative conducted about 20 “Assessment Melas” (Sanskrit for “gatherings”) across Delhi this October. Please click here to read the full blog post and learn more about Pratham’s...
by lwang | Oct 5, 2012 | Community Development, Education, Pratham
Since its inception in 1994, 2010 Kravis Prize winner Pratham, the largest non-governmental organization working to arm India with quality education, has opened doors for millions of underprivileged children. Their immeasurable impact has been met with overwhelming support across the country, with $1.5 million in donations last year. The San Francisco Bay Area Gala kicked off Pratham’s event trail last month raising over $400,000. Pratham first orchestrated a system that provided pre-school education to children in the slums of Mumbai, but the organization’s scope has evolved remarkably as Madhav Chavan, president and CEO of Pratham shares: “Now, we not only focus on primary school education in the slums, but also provide vocational and aid-based training, so that students can apply their education in the real world.” The evening included a teleconference that allowed children from Pratham Pune to showcase their accomplishments and share their aspirations with the audience. Swarna Khedekar, a teacher at Pratham, expressed her pride in the program and her profound gratitude for their supporters: “Our library and English education programs have grown in popularity. We have reached over 127,000 children this year through our library program…until now, we had only heard of our donors in the USA. It’s a great opportunity to be able to meet them and thank them in person.” To learn more about the inspiring work of Pratham, visit our page. “PRATHAM SF Bay Area Gala Raises 400K for Nonprofit” [India West, September 27,...
by lwang | Sep 28, 2012 | BRAC, Education, Fazle Abed, Poverty Reduction, Sustainable Development
Isn’t it remarkable how one individual can transform an entire country? Kravis Prize winner Sir Fazle Hasan Abed can most definitely be credited for Bangladesh’s tremendous progress over the last 40 years as the founder of the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC), the largest nongovernmental development organization in the world. The Asia Foundation’s Alma Freeman — blogger for In Asia, a weekly insight and analysis from the foundation — had the privilege of sitting down with the 2007 Kravis Prize winner to discuss the changes he has witnessed in Bangladesh and his goals for the future. “The most dramatic change has been women’s role in society. Women’s literacy rate used to be almost 30 percent less than men, now it’s almost equal. It has been wonderful to see so many children being educated…I can see that BRAC has changed people’s lives dramatically, particularly for those children who have had the advantage of education.” Based on the prediction that Bangladesh will become a middle-income country by 2021, Abed remarks: “If a country attains middle-income status, and 10 percent of the population is still under extreme poverty, if they can’t feed themselves and their children, then it doesn’t mean much to me… Bangladesh has done well, but that doesn’t mean that we have attained all of the things that we still want to do with our country.” To learn more about the inspiring work of Sir Fazle Abed and BRAC, go to our page. “In Conversation with BRAC’s Sir Fazle Hassan Abed”[The Asia Foundation, September 19,...
by lwang | Sep 14, 2012 | Education, Entrepreneurship, INJAZ Al-Arab
2012 Kravis Prize winner Soraya Salti’s INJAZ Al-Arab aims to inspire and cultivate entrepreneurial aspirations in a new generation of Arab youth. In doing so, the organization has implemented many different initiatives to train and equip young students with the skills they need. For example, in 2009, INJAZ-UAE partnered with HSBC Bank Middle East to pilot the Junior Achievement More than Money program in the United Arab Emirates. Through the program, HSBC staff teaches young students about earning, sharing, saving and conscientious spending of money as well as about businesses they can start or jobs they can consider for their future. Sheikh Khaled Bin Zayed Al-Nehayan, vice chairman of INJAZ Al-Arab and chairman of INJAZ-UAE, discussed the program: “It will have a positive impact on [youth’s] behavior as future professionals and conscious consumers. It can also help students apply their mathematical teachings to everyday life, resulting in more comprehensive and practical learning experience.” To find out more about Soraya Salti and INJAZ-Al Arab’s great work, go to our page. “HSBC and Injaz-UAE ‘More than Money’ teach financial skills to 6th and 7th graders” [AMEinfo, May, 14,...
by lwang | 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...
