by lwang | May 16, 2014 | Community Development, Education, FAWE, Female Empowerment
Why is 1,200 a magic number? Because it refers to all of the young Rwandan women from vulnerable families who will have a chance to finish their schooling thanks to a project co-created by the Rwandan Chapter of the Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE). The 2008 recipient of the Henry R. Kravis Prize in Leadership, FAWE started in the early 1990s when the female ministers of education in five African countries decided that more education advocacy was needed on behalf of women across the continent. FAWE’s inception in five countries has grown to 32 African countries today. This month FAWE’s Rwanda chapter in collaboration with the Canadian MasterCard Foundation has launched The MasterCard Foundation Scholars Programme to enable as many as 1,200 schoolgirls to continue their educations through the elementary, secondary, and university levels. Already, in the weeks since the scholars program began, some 200 school-age women have been enrolled in the program, according to a report featured in The New Times of Kigali. Eugénie Mukanoheli, the Rwanda chapter’s coordinator, said a similar project will soon be operating in Ethiopia as well. “The idea is to keep as many girls as possible in school,” she told The New Times. “The scholars will have everything they need to study comfortably… but the beneficiaries must be schoolgirls who are academically bright but from vulnerable families.” When the new program is fully operational, organizers plan to identify potential candidates across the country, including at least ten selected high schools. *** In a related story: 15 girls in a FAWE secondary school in Sierra Leone have also received scholarship assistance that will ensure...
by lwang | Jun 21, 2013 | FAWE, Kravis Prize, Landesa, Pratham
The needs of the poor and the disadvantaged don’t stop in the summer, and neither have the efforts of several Kravis Prize recipients, who are continuing to deliver innovative aid to communities around the world. In recent weeks, a new Pratham partnership enjoyed major media attention, Landesa produced an impact video, and FAWE launched a remarkable African research series. ************** The recent partnership between Pratham and the Wrigley Company Foundation was featured in the Times of India. According to the article, the Wrigley Company Foundation announced the launch of a three-year, $1 million educational partnership with Pratham, the largest non-governmental education organization in India. The goal of the new effort is to bring more quality education to underprivileged children in India. Specifically, the initiative plans to target learning gaps in the farming districts of Uttar Pradesh. The organization’s executives hope to reach 40,000 children in 1,000 villages. In an interview with the Times, Pratham co-founder and CEO Madhav Chavan explained that ”Uttar Pradesh has low learning levels as shown by the Annual Survey of Educational Report/2012 and we hope to address these problems in the region.” ************** This month, Landesa released a video to allow viewers to watch what happens when women are given equal rights to land and family resources as a result of Kenya’s new constitution and an innovation pilot program. The short video follows Mary Sadera, who lives in the forested area of Ol Pusimoru. She explains her day-to-day life, as well as how her and her children’s futures will change because of the tribal elders’ new thinking on women’s land rights. View the five-minute video, titled “A Revolution from the Ground...
by lwang | Jun 5, 2013 | FAWE, Female Empowerment, Kravis Prize
The Forum for Women Educationalists (FAWE) gives attention to “girls everybody else has dropped”—that was the message of the honorary secretary of FAWE’s executive board, Christine Dranzoa, in a recent interview with Women Thrive Worldwide, a key partner organization. The interview outlines the major issues facing women and girls in Uganda and traces Dranzoa’s involvement in FAWE, which is a past recipient of the Kravis Prize. When asked how FAWE makes a difference for girls, Dranzoa, who is also a professor in her native Uganda, gave this eloquent response: “Over 20,000 girls have gained access to education. Without, 20,000 plus would have gone another way. FAWE has impacted over 15,000 girls to get integrated into science, mathematics and technology – or engineering for that matter. FAWE has picked girls everybody else has dropped. Some of the FAWE beneficiaries are now medical doctors, lawyers, engineers serving their families and communities effectively. FAWE has transformed families who were desperate to see one kid get an education at higher or basic levels. FAWE has transformed the thinking of so many governments.” Also in May, the Huffington Post published an interview and profile of Oley Dibba-Wadda, FAWE’s executive director, by Augusta Thomson, who’s a student at Oxford University. The interview focuses on Oley’s personal journey, vision for FAWE, and her belief in the transformative power of identity. At the end of the interview, Oley shared her personal insight into how she relates to her identity as an African woman. “For me, as an African woman I believe in an identity. I believe in who I am, where I come from, and what...
by lwang | Apr 19, 2013 | Award Ceremony, Escuela Nueva, FAWE, Johann Olav Koss, Kravis Prize, Landesa, m2m, Pratham, Right 2 Play
Kravis Prize founders Marie-Josée and Henry R. Kravis ’67 visited the CMC campus yesterday to present the 2013 Kravis Prize to Johann Olav Koss and his organization Right To Play. They presented the award to Koss during an evening ceremony held in the Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum (see photograph below). Click here to read a full update on the ceremony. The award ceremony wasn’t the only item on the day’s schedule, however. Koss also talked about his organization Right To Play with Kyle Weiss ’15, a CMCer who is also helping the world with FUNDaFIELD, which builds soccer fields to help disadvantaged children: Watch an interview between Johann Koss and Kyle Weiss: During the afternoon, five past recipients of the Kravis Prize (from Landesa, mothers2mothers, Escuela Nueva, Pratham, and FAWE) met for a lively discussion of high-impact leadership as part of a “Global Leaders Forum” sponsored by the Kravis Leadership Institute: Click here to read a full update on the Kravis Prize panel discussion...
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 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...
