by nowchar | Mar 26, 2015 | Education, FAWE, Female Empowerment, MasterCard Foundation
What career paths do young African girls have? For many across Sub-Saharan Africa, opportunities have been limited primarily to a life spent in poverty in the roles of mother and wife. But the Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE) is working with The MasterCard Foundation to increase educational chances for girls in villages across the continent. The 2008 recipient of the Henry R. Kravis Prize in Nonprofit Leadership, Fawe’s efforts (since its founding in 1992) have included an ongoing partnership with The MasterCard Foundation Scholar Program to provide scholarships in some of the neediest countries, such as Rwanda, and now that partnership is extending its support to Ethiopia with a new scholarship program. According to an announcement by Fawe, the MCF Scholars Program has been launched this month in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and will provide comprehensive scholarship packages to some 800 young students. While Fawe has impacted the lives of an estimated 24 million school-age African girls over the past 23 years, the organization’s work with the MCF extends to school children of both genders as a way of improving the general welfare of all people in these towns and villages. The 800 Ethiopian awards will go to 600 girls and 200 boys as a part of the NGO’s mission to promote “gender equity and equality in Africa by fostering positive policies, practices, and attitudes towards girls’ education” by extending opportunities to all members of their communities. To read more about FAWE, visit the Kravis Prize...
by nowchar | Nov 5, 2014 | Community Development, Education, FAWE, Female Empowerment, Kravis Prize
Educational materials in Kenyan classrooms still portray old stereotypes of “boys as heroes and girls as weak,” says the executive director of the Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE). “The current methods of teaching carry a lot of gender bias to the boy,” FAWE Executive Director Hendrina Doroba told the Kenyan newspaper The Star in a recent interview. Doroba outlined the efforts of FAWE, which is the 2008 recipient of the Henry R. Kravis Prize in Nonprofit Leadership, to empower school-age girls across the African continent. That includes depictions of women in picture- and textbooks, which FAWE has been able to address thanks to several successful partnerships. “We engaged with the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development … vigorously and they looked at removing some of the pictures and set up a committee to ensure books are gender responsive,” Doroba explained. The organization has also teamed up with teachers to “improve their gender pedagogical skills” as well as their awareness and compassion for the circumstances of young female students. Founded in 1992, FAWE’s mission has been to educate and empower an estimated 24 million school-age women in sub-Saharan Africa. Over the past 22 years, FAWE has expanded its operations into 32 African countries. Despite the organization’s progress, however, Doroba acknowledged that there is still much work to do, many obstacles to confront that are not always obvious. Schoolbook gender bias, for example, can be very subtle even though it leads to more disruptive situations, including school-related gender violence, she said. Doroba’s interview with The Star also reports on the organization’s other efforts to improve educational opportunities. Such improvements are not...
by nowchar | Oct 6, 2014 | FAWE, Female Empowerment, Health, Helen Keller International, Kravis Prize
Teenager Abigail Mortey has a clear vision: to manufacture a mosquito repellent aimed to control malaria in Ghana. The Forum for African Women Educationalist (FAWE), a non-governmental organization founded to support education for girls across Africa and a 2008 recipient of the Henry R. Kravis Prize in Leadership, selected Miss Mortey as the winner of this year’s FAWE Science and Technology competition, according to VibeGhana.com. Mortey was among 18 other contestants who invented various technologies on FAWE’s theme this year: “Enhancing the study of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Among Girls in Ghana.” FAWE hopes that competitions and programs like this one will help unearth undiscovered talent within the country’s female population. Seeking to inspire girls to take a role in their education, FAWE aims to help girls assume their integral role in solving the urgent problems affecting Ghana and the rest of the African continent. Founded in 1992, FAWE is now the leading non-governmental organization directly confronting issues of girls’ education in Africa. The threat of mosquitoes and malaria is an issue that FAWE has in common with many other organizations, especially Helen Keller International, which distributes Vitamin A capsules to children and breastfeeding mothers to boost their immunity against the risk of infection. Like FAWE, HKI is also a recipient of the Kravis Prize, which it was awarded earlier this year. RELATED: More about the Kravis Prize Kravis Prize Blog: More ‘bucks’ for Landesa Kravis Prize Blog: Victoria Beckham empties her closets for mothers2mothers...
by lwang | Aug 18, 2014 | Female Empowerment, Health, HIV transmission, m2m, mothers2mothers
Fashion designer and pop singer Victoria Beckham celebrated the work of mothers2mothers earlier this year in the pages of Vogue and People Magazine, but she isn’t done yet. Later this month, Beckham will auction off more than 600 items of clothing from her personal wardrobe, in a partnership with The Outnet, to support the work of m2m, a 2012 recipient of the Henry R. Kravis Prize in Leadership, in reducing mother-to-child HIV transmission. In a recent blog item in Vogue, Beckham explains, We approached The Outnet as they have an incredible global reputation and are the perfect partner for us to build awareness and raise as much money as possible for Mothers2mothers. Visit here for more information on the upcoming Beckham auction. RELATED: Read more about the Henry R. Kravis Prize in Leadership Who has won the Kravis Prize? Learn more about past recipients Learn about mothers2mothers at the Kravis Prize...
by lwang | Jul 31, 2014 | Female Empowerment, Health, HIV transmission, Kravis Prize, m2m, mothers2mothers
For Former U.S. President Bill Clinton, the key to the successful future treatment and prevention of HIV and AIDS must focus on the most intimate human relationship of all. Mother and child. “We are trying to help countries eliminate mother-to-child transmission,” he told an audience at a world AIDS conference held in Melbourne, Australia, “and this is one of the most exciting goals in public health … and essential to achieving an AIDS-free generation.” Mother-to-child transmission has also been the focus of the work of mothers2mothers, a 2012 recipient of the Henry R. Kravis Prize in Leadership, since the organization was founded in 2001. In its efforts to highlight the problem of mother-to-child transmission, the non-profit organization has recently found unexpected allies in the celebrity community, including pop star and fashion designer Victoria Beckham and music producer and musician Ryan Lewis. Beckham spent time with m2m’s founder in South Africa, while Lewis revealed a personal story of his mother’s plight with HIV transmission in a video receiving much media attention. The organization was thrilled to have this issue highlighted by the former president. “Like President Clinton, we at m2m believe that eliminating pediatric AIDS and achieving an AIDS-free generation is possible,” the organization said in a statement. “No one is better placed to address this stigma [of mother-to-child transmission] than the Mentor Mothers” which is a hallmark of m2m’s work. In addition to Clinton’s remarks, the issue was also highlighted at the AIDS conference by several m2m members who served as conference participants. Details of m2m’s participation at the Melbourne conference is described on the m2m website. RELATED: Visit...
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...
