Archive for category: Children

Information and stories addressing children.

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Dollar a Week Private Schools in Developing Countries

Private_Schools_in_Developing_CountriesPrivate schools costing as little as $1 per week are beginning to take off in the developing world.

According to the World Bank, one-fifth of primary-school students are enrolled in private schools across developing countries. This is twice as many as there were 20 years ago. Many private schools in developing countries are also unregistered, so this number is thought to be even higher.

Private schools are a great alternative to overcrowded public schools. For example, in Mathare, a slum located in Kenya, there are only four public schools available for nearly half a million people. Private schools are necessary in these communities in order to accommodate such a large amount of students.

The fastest growing private schools are low-cost and accommodate people living on less than $2 a day. They are usually run by entrepreneurs or charities within these poor communities.

James Tooley, a professor at University of Newcastle, said, “These private schools, my research has shown, outperform the government schools, at a fraction of the cost.”

Ken-Ade Private School was founded in April of 1990 and has grown into a successful private school in Makoko, Nigeria. It is one of the 32 unregistered private schools located in Makoko. In December 2008, there were 185 students enrolled and 13 staff members.

The school offers many different subjects including Handwriting, Computer Studies and Agricultural Science. It offers extracurricular activities as well, such as a reading club, a drum band and an all girls choir.

Ken-Ade charges around $4 a month, which is practical for a family who only earns $1 per day. Not all children have to pay fees, though. According to Mr. Bawo Sabo Elieu Ayeseminikan, owner of Ken-Ade, there are orphaned students that are allowed to attend school for free.

According to Tooley, 75 percent of all school children in communities similar to Makoko are attending private schools. This is considerably higher than those who attend public schools.

Tooley also found in his research that private schools in these regions, whether registered or not, outperformed public schools in all subjects. Overall, private schools achieved higher success than public schools with only a quarter of teacher salary costs.

The private schools described above provide a grass-roots solution to achieving universal basic education. They give children in developing countries an opportunity to have an education where they are the priority. Private schools are a successful alternative to public schools and continue to grow in poor communities across the globe.

– Jordan Connell

Sources: CATO Institute, The Economist 1, The Economist 2, Ken-Ade Private School Website
Photo: Wikimedia

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Education for Girls in Developing Countries

supporting education for girls in developing countriesMichelle Obama recently spoke on the importance of education for girls in developing countries at the 2015 World Innovation Summit for Education in Qatar.

According to EFA Global Monitoring Report, there are 66 million girls out of school globally. There are 33 million fewer girls than boys in primary school.

Michelle Obama is traveling through the Middle East discussing the importance of education for girls in developing countries in order to promote “Let Girls Learn,” her girls’ education initiative. She encouraged men in developing countries to support the cause of educating girls in order to improve their societies.

 

Health Benefits of Supporting Education for Girls in Developing Countries

 

Education is one of the most significant ways that women can empower themselves, and educating women provides many benefits to developing countries.

Girls with eight years of education are four times less likely to be married as children. Women who are educated marry later and, therefore, have fewer children. Multiple studies show that an extra year of schooling for girls reduces fertility rate by five to 10 percent.

The children of an educated woman are more likely to survive. In addition, a child born to a literate mother is 50 percent more likely to survive past the age of five.

Educated women are better at understanding and managing health issues, which reduces infant and maternal mortality.

 

Economic Benefits of Supporting Education for Girls in Developing Countries

 

Educating women also benefits the economy. According to chief Japan strategist and co-head of Asia Economics, “educated women contribute to the quality, size and productivity of the workforce. They can get better paying jobs, allowing them to provide daily necessities, health care and education to support their families.”

A girl with an extra year of education can earn 20 percent more as an adult.

Bloomberg Business estimates a “growth premium” that would raise gross domestic product growth by 0.2 percent per year for countries such as Vietnam, Nigeria and Pakistan that put greater investments in female education. Narrowing the gender gap could raise income per capita 20 percent higher than what is projected by 2030.

According to The World Bank, if India enrolled one percent more girls in secondary school, its gross domestic product would rise by $5.5 billion.

Educating girls provides many significant benefits to developing countries and can help lift areas out of poverty. Education for girls will continue to improve conditions in developing countries across the globe.

– Jordan Connell

Sources: Bloomberg Business, CNN, Girl Rising, UNICEF
Photo: Flickr

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MDGs: What They Achieved After 15 Years

MDGsAt the Millennium Summit in 2000, history was made when a record number of world leaders gathered to adopt the U.N. Millennium Declaration, committing nations to cutting extreme poverty in half through the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015 and eradicate poverty through the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030.

Through the agreement, the MDGs target different dimensions of poverty including hunger, disease, insufficient shelter, gender inequality, global education and environmental sustainability.

With an expiration date of December 2015, the achievements made through the MDGs provide evidence that poverty can be eliminated worldwide by 2030.

MDG 1: Cut Extreme Hunger and Poverty in Half

Since 1990, the amount of people living on less than $1.25 per day decreased from 1.9 billion to 836 million in 2015. While extreme poverty was cut in half, extreme hunger narrowly missed the mark, dropping from 23.3 percent to 12.9 percent.

MDG 2: Achieve Universal Primary Education

Primary School Enrollment has seen a slight rise, increasing from 83 percent in 2000 to 91 percent in 2015.

MDG 3: Eliminate Gender Disparity in Education and Empower Women

Since 1990, approximately two-thirds of developing countries have achieved gender unity. In Southern Asia, the primary school enrollment ratio favors girls over boys in 2015.

MDG 4: Reduce Child Mortality by Two-Thirds

The child mortality rate decreased from 12.7 million in 1990 to 6 million in 2015. In addition, the measles vaccine compared to 2000 covered almost 10 percent more children worldwide.

MDG 5: Reduce the Maternal Morality Rate by 75 Percent

Compared to 1990, the maternal mortality rate has been cut in half, narrowly missing the 75 percent benchmark.

MDG 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and Other Diseases

Since 2000, the number of new HIV infections decreased by 40 percent, dropping from 3.5 million to 2.1 million in 2013.

MDG 7: Increase Environmental Sustainability

In 2010, the goal to increase access to clean water was achieved five years early. Since 1990, 2.6 billion people have gained access to improved drinking water.

MDG 8: Develop an Open Partnership for Development

Overseas development assistance from developed nations to developing countries increased 66 percent. With the expansion of technology, Internet infiltration increased significantly from 6 percent in 2000 to 43 percent in 2015.

– Alexandra Korman

Sources: The Guardian
Photo: NaijaLog

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LifeStraw Purifiers: Kenyan Schoolchildren with Drinking Water

LifeStraw Purifiers Provide Schoolchildren with Clean Drinking WaterIn Eastern Africa, 70 percent of hospital visits are related to contaminated water. This is due to a lack of clean water sources. The majority of people in developing countries depend on water sources like rivers to drink and bathe, but serious illnesses like typhoid fever, dysentery and guinea worm disease are common diagnoses for those who consume dirty water. In fact, diarrhea is the third leading cause of death in Kenya.

Vestergaard, a Swiss global health company, created a water filtration system called LifeStraw to put an end to these water-related infections. LifeStraw is a lightweight, portable filter that uses hollow fiber technology to filter up to 1,000 liters of water. The filter is also chemical-free and does not require any electrical power — instead, it depends on the suction generated by its user.

Water enters the plastic container and flows through narrow fibers under high pressure. These fibers then trap bacteria and other toxins that are flushed out of the water via backwashing. The clean water travels through pores in the walls of these fibers.

With LifeStraw, households in these regions will no longer have to boil contaminated water to make it drinkable. As a result, there will likely be a reduction in indoor pollution and house fires. People will also burn less firewood, which helps lessen deforestation. According to Vestergaard, the use of LifeStraw reduces carbon emissions by nearly three tons per year, per filter.

Of note, luxury car manufacturer Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) invested in LifeStraw in 2013 in support of sustainability. In partnership with the carbon-offset company ClimateCare, the LifeStraw Carbon for Water project was born. This partnership has provided 1,900,000 people in western Kenya with LifeStraw filters.

Within the next few years, this investment will also provide 300,000 Kenyan schoolchildren access to safe water and filtration training programs. Once LifeStraw filters are installed at a school in Kenya, a JLR team will monitor its use once every term for five years. Teachers and students will also complete training to learn about the significance of clean water.

In 2014, the Follow the Liters campaign was created by 80 LifeStraw volunteers to provide schoolchildren with safe water. If a person purchases one LifeStraw water filter, the company will provide a child from the developing world with clean drinking water for an entire year.
Last year, 158,000 African students were provided with a LifeStraw filter and 300 more schools in western Kenya also received filters.

– Kelsey Lay

Sources: Business Fights Poverty, Jaguar Land Rover, LifeStraw, The Examiner
Photo: Flickr

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Reach Every Mother and Child Act: Ending Preventable Deaths

Reach Every Mother and Child Act
The Reach Every Mother and Child Act of 2015 would work to end the preventable deaths of mothers, newborns and young children in developing countries.

U.S. Senators Chris Coons, D-Del., and Susan Collins, R-Maine, introduced the Reach Act this summer as a solution for deaths related to pregnancy and childbirth.

“Over the past several years, we have made great strides in saving moms, babies, and kids in some of the poorest parts of the world, but it’s clear that more help – and more resources – are needed,” Sen. Coons said in a press release.

The Reach Act seeks to build on the progress made over the past few years in maternal-child health. According to Countdown to 2015’s report for this year, the global maternal mortality ratio has decreased by 45 percent over the past two decades, and the number of maternal deaths has dropped from about 523,000 a year to 289,000.

Maternal education and income growth have had a significant impact on the improvement of conditions for mothers and children in developing countries, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation said, as well as technological innovations in medicine and other areas.

However, problems such as HIV, poor hospital conditions, and malnutrition still plague mothers and children in those countries. The Reach Act would help provide the means to solve these problems.

If enacted, the Act would:

  • Require a ten-year strategy to achieve the goal of ending preventable maternal, newborn, and child deaths by 2035;
  • Establish a permanent Maternal and Child Survival Coordinator at USAID who would be focused on implementing the ten-year strategy and verifying that the most effective interventions are scaled up in target countries.s
  • Require the Administration to develop a financing framework that would allow the use of U.S. government dollars to leverage additional commitments from the private sector, nonprofit organizations, partner countries, and multinational organizations.

The Reach Every Mother and Child Act of 2015 is currently being referred to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.

Email your congressional leaders in support of the Reach Every Mother and Child Act and help save the lives of 600,000 women and 15 million children by 2020.

– Ashley Tressel

Sources: Senate, Health Data, Countdown to 2015: Maternal, Newborn & Child Health Data
Photo: Flickr

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Read to Feed: Global Education Lesson Plans

Global_Education_Lesson_Plans
Anyone and everyone can change the world, even in the slightest way. An organization known as Read to Feed gives children the opportunity to make a difference in the lives of families living in poverty.

The program encourages childhood reading while raising awareness of extreme global poverty in young minds. Read to Feed teaches and informs students of the realities of malnutrition and poverty, inspiring them to help those in need and providing an educational incentive to do so.

Here’s how it works: A child chooses a sponsor for each book he or she reads during a period of time set by his or her Read to Feed leader. The sponsor agrees to provide a certain amount of money for each book read or hour spent reading. Then, after the books have been read and the funds collected, the child chooses an animal through Heifer International to give to a family experiencing poverty.

Heifer International is an organization dedicated to ending global poverty and world hunger. Heifer provides families in impoverished communities with livestock and training to combat malnutrition as well as build a sustainable lifestyle.

Furthermore, Heifer encourages the families they have helped to share the training they receive with other families in their communities and pass on the first female offspring of their livestock to another family in need, thus creating a cycle of sustainability that has the power to lift entire communities out of poverty.

The wide variety of livestock provides families with meat, milk, wool and manure to grow their own agriculture. Kids can participate in Read to Feed individually or in groups; however, the program most often takes place in a classroom setting.

Furthermore, Heifer provides Global Education Lesson Plans so that teachers can inform students of the realities of global poverty and the impact that they can make in changing its course.

Read to Feed ultimately provides children with a way to make a difference in many lives. Reading a book is a fun incentive to end extreme poverty, both stimulating a child’s mind by increasing the number of books they read, and their knowledge of the world. Anyone can make a difference and everyone– no matter what age– deserves the chance to try.

– Sarah Sheppard

Sources: Heifer 1, Heifer 2, Learning to Give
Photo: Hiefer International

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Ubuntu in the Heart of Poverty

Ubuntu

Ubuntu is a Zulu word that translates to “human kindness.” The Ubuntu Education Fund aims to create long lasting change in the impoverished townships of Port Elizabeth in South Africa.

The effectiveness of the program can be credited to its three over-arching programs: household sustainability, health and education. This strategy has “received international acclaim from Bill Clinton to the World Economic Forum.”

“Why can’t our poor children in Africa have an education? Why does it have to be a privilege? Why can’t it be a child’s right?” stated CEO and Co-Founder of The Ubuntu Education Fund Jacob Lief at the grand opening of the Ubuntu Center on Sept. 16, 2010.

The Ubuntu Center is located in the heart of Port Elizabeth’s townships, one of the largest slums in the world. The center offers a pediatric HIV center, pharmacy, classrooms, computer labs and a theater.

“Ubuntu graduates attain successes that few in their community ever realize and, in doing so, they are redefining what the world believes to be possible in disadvantaged communities,” stated Lief.

Since its establishment in 2010, the Ubuntu Center has supported the 2,000 children and indirectly supported the community. A study conducted by McKinsey & Company found that “Ubuntu graduates will contribute $195,000 to society, while their peers will cost society $9,000.”

In addition to providing child health care, the pediatric clinic offers prenatal and postnatal care, HIV and TB testing and treatment.

“Ubuntu’s impact is transformative – from HIV-positive mothers giving birth to healthy, HIV-negative babies, to vocational-tracked youth in our Ubuntu Pathways (UP) program securing employment,” said Lief.

The program also provides child protection services and psychosocial counseling to ensure stable homes in order for children to thrive in their education. The dynamic school program included university scholarships and “job readiness training.”

The program emphasizes “depth rather than breadth of impact” which is why within four years of joining Ubuntu, 82 percent of people are “on-track towards stable health and employment,” said Lief.

Former President Bill Clinton visited the Ubuntu Center in August 2013 and had this to say: “Ubuntu has come so far. We’re very proud of your work. This is an amazing organization that actually ensures its people are taken care of.”

Chelsea Clinton, his daughter, added, “The Ubuntu model is incredible; you start early and work with children their entire lives.”

– Marie Helene Ngom

Sources: Forbes, Ubuntu Blog, YouTube
Photo: Flickr

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The Rising Potential For “The Educational Journey of a Girl”

“Over 31 million primary school-age girls are out of school despite progress in achieving universal primary education,” a report published by the Global Business Coalition for Education found.

This study was released on the International Day of the Girl Child, a time “to recognize girls’ rights and the unique challenges girls face around the world,” says the UN.

The study produced an infographic and report which followed a female’s educational journey from birth to adulthood, offering insight into the obstacles faced by many seeking an education.

The infographic illustrated many of the disadvantages girls must overcome but, due to their circumstances, may be unable to. For example, a child born to a literate mother is five times more likely to survive beyond the age of 5.

However, girls who start engaging in child labor tend to be between 5-7 years old and few of them are given the opportunity of enrolling in school, which means millions never make it.

While the study recognizes that many businesses already do a great deal to empower girls in secondary education, the report encouraged companies to begin making investments at an earlier age.

“Examining the wider life cycle of a girl and investing sooner would have economic and societal benefits and help companies to support girls to become the leaders, consumers, employees, employers and innovators of the future,” says A World at School, a global campaign working to place all children in school.

After surveying 32 companies that invest in girls, the report discovered that early support in a child’s education is more helpful and transformative because it aids in building foundations in subjects, such as numeracy and literacy, which could advance them later in life.

The study suggests that the key to enabling more girls to receive an education lies in early investment; starting early will help prepare them with the necessary skills they will need to advance at work and in life.

In fact, the infographic also revealed that girls who complete both primary and secondary education “are likely to earn income, have fewer unwanted pregnancies, and break the poverty cycle.”

To build a more involved and sustainable role in girls’ educational development, the report has issued the following recommendations:

  1. Build broad-based partnerships
  2. Invest now, invest early
  3. Expand the business case for girl’s education
  4. Grow the evidence base
  5. Strengthen the corporate voice for girl’s education
  6. Play an active role in addressing the global crisis
  7. Make the health and education link for girls
  8. Train the next generation of employees and business leaders
  9. Work with the international donor community to scale what works in girl’s education

For many children’s education, their only hope rests in receiving support during their early years. As Executive Chair of GBC-Education Sarah Brown said, “We know all too well that the economic empowerment of a woman does not start when she is an adult. It starts when she is a girl.”

– Nikki Schaffer

Sources: A World at School, UN
Photo: A World at School

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Fighting Malnutrition in Honduras

Malnutrition_in_Honduras
Honduras is the third poorest nation in the Americas. One-third of the population lives below the poverty line and 1.5 million Hondurans or 20% of the population, face hunger on a daily basis.

However, malnutrition is especially problematic for children.

  • In rural Honduras, the problem is especially acute with 48% of the population suffering from malnutrition.
  • 10% of infants born in Honduras are underweight as a result of malnutrition in the country.
  • One out of two children in the poorest communities suffers from stunted growth.
  • 50% of children between the ages of 2 and 6 suffer from anemia.
  • 29% of Honduran children younger than 5 years old suffer from slow growth rates.

Fortunately, several organizations are providing funding to the country to alleviate malnutrition.

World Bank and the United Nations

The growing rates of malnutrition in Honduras have prompted the World Bank and the United Nations to act. Currently, the organization is supporting a program called the AIN-C with the United States and investing $20 million into Honduras.

The money will be divided among nearly 1,000 Honduran communities and benefit 16,000 children.

World Food Programme

In addition, the World Food Programme (WFP) implemented the School Meals Programme in Honduras, which has provided 1.2 million children in primary school with food aid.

The program targets the very poorest communities in the country and provides the children with daily meals in order to encourage school enrollment. In addition to the program, the WFP has implemented the Purchase for Progress (P4P) program.

The P4P is a program that buys products from small farmers in order to help support the community. In partnership with other buyers, they have purchased $60 million in food from local Honduran communities.

Hopefully, as the international community continues to support poverty reducing programs in Honduras, the rate of malnutrition will decrease throughout the country.

– Robert Cross

Sources: Hope International, World Bank, World Food Programme
Photo: Wikimedia

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Early Childhood Development and Economic Stability

early_childhood_development
Early childhood development (ECD), or the time from a child’s birth to turning 8 years old, is considered the most critical window of childhood development.

During this eight-year window, children undergo intensive physical and social growth, shaping their bodies and perceptions of society.

But many children in developing nations lack the nutrition, healthcare and social engagement necessary during ECD to have a strong foundation for future growth and development.

ECD initiatives, ranging from parental training to preschool, have been shown to dramatically improve children’s earning potential and help them to escape the poverty cycle.

In the post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals, the United Nations specifically addressed the value of ECD in Goal 4, stating that by 2030 all children will “have access to quality early childhood development, care and pre-primary education so that they are ready for primary education.”

The British Prime Minister, David Cameron, echoed the importance of providing aid to ECD for the termination of global poverty, saying, “Children have been educated who otherwise would have missed out.”

Through aid efforts, programs are sprouting throughout some of the world’s poorest regions, showing promising results.

The World Bank reports that children in developing nations who have participated in ECD programs have higher levels of cognitive and academic performance than their peers.

Children who have benefitted from ECD initiatives are also more prepared to enter primary school and learn more efficiently while in class. This early success in schools has led to lower levels of dropouts and grade repetitions.

As educational levels rise, so does earning potential. Especially for girls. For every year of primary education a girl receives, her earning potential rises 10 percent to 20 percent, and for every additional year of secondary education, her earning potential rises another 15 percent to 25 percent, empowering her in the workforce.

As the workforces in developing nations expand with more educated and skilled laborers, the population at large benefits from an expanded consumer base.

With increased earning and buying power comes a more complex and stable economy that is less susceptible to shock and a higher gross domestic income.

According to UNICEF, this increase in school attendance shrinks the gap between the wealthiest and poorest families, hoisting children and their families out of the poverty cycle.

– Claire Colby

Sources: The Guardian 1, The Guardian 2 UNICEF, UN, USAID, World Bank
Photo: Sharp School