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19 SEP 2011
Empowering Children through the Seeds of Africa Foundation
The Seeds of Africa Foundation helps talented Zimbabwean students find empowerment through primary and secondary education. In this interview, Martin Ganda, one of the founders of Seeds of Africa, talks about SOAF's goals and projects, including an exciting Knowledge Center currently in the works. Interview by Annie Reading Why did you decide to found the Seeds of Africa Foundation? How did it get started? We grew up in abject poverty in Zimbabwe, but education changed our lives. Strangers we had never met believed in us by sponsoring us to go to school, and we want to do the same to children in Zimbabwe – we want to give them the passport to success and empowerment, which is Education! Our goal through Seeds of Africa is transforming lives through education, empowering children that wouldn’t have got a chance to go to school due to family financial constraints. At Seeds of Africa, we believe that education is a powerful tool to eradicate poverty, in the long term, and we mobili... -
20 JUL 2011
Changing Students' Lives in Paraguay and the U.S. with Team Tobati
Team Tobati's work extends far beyond the borders of Tobati, Paraguay, for this organization is as much about providing life-changing experiences for American students as it is about helping the underprivileged children it serves abroad. What began as a service project for Connecticut students has become a profoundly influential fixture of the Tobati community: Team Tobati is responsible for funding and helping construct over two dozen classrooms in rural elementary schools, two children's parks, and a large athletic center, to enrich the quality of life for residents. The team also provides essential health resources by facilitating free medical clinics and providing medicines and medical supplies to those in need. These are just a few of the incredible projects Team Tobati is working on all the time. In this interview, Jared Carroll, the director of Tobati's Macchi School, talks to us about the history of Team Tobati and the amazing impact it has had on one Paraguayan ... -
14 JUL 2011
Delivering Health to Women and Children through Girls’ Education
Givology’s mission relies on the belief that the benefits of good education reach into many areas of life, not only for the student, but for the student’s wider community. UNICEF finds this belief to be true in a very specific way: ensuring that girls receive education drastically improves their own health during pregnancy, as well as that of their children in early life. This is a big deal in developing countries where childbirth survival rates are poor and child mortality rates high. Education may be the key to turning statistics like these around. Educated girls become healthy women, healthy women raise healthy children Improving maternal health is goal #5 in the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals, on the grounds that, as UNICEF puts it, “Healthy children need healthy mothers.” Getting girls to school is one of four strategies UNICEF has employed to reach this goal, with good reason. Studies by the Brookings Institute show that educating women is the most effective mean... -
22 JUN 2011
Fostering Reading Skills in Africa: How Libraries Produce Results in Primary Education
Many countries in sub-Saharan Africa have lately seen unprecedented growth in the numbers of students enrolling in schools. As exciting as this growth may be, it is becoming increasingly clear that just being in school isn’t enough to guarantee educational success for these students. The primary school years are important markers for a child’s success in future pursuits. Not only does the early adoption of reading skills improve learning abilities in other areas of school, but students who don’t excel in basic skills early are far more likely to get discouraged and choose to discontinue their education. Even in countries where the majority of students enroll in primary school, large numbers of children complete primary school without the basic literacy skills they need to continue to secondary school or pursue a generative livelihood. The Research Triangle Institute, which has conducted reading assessment programs in nearly 4 dozen countries, reports that in some countries, over 70%...