Archive for category: Education

Information and stories on education.

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Tennessee Titans’ Player Builds Schools in Kibera

Tennessee Titans’ PlayerIn 2017, Tennessee Titans’ player, Kenny Vaccaro, traveled to Kibera, a division of Kenya, to help build schools. Alongside him was Kansas City Chiefs’ player and friend, Alex Okafor. Together, the two joined the Blessed Hope Project’s mission to make education more readily available to all children in the Kibera slums. Vaccaro’s journey does not stop there, though, as his time in Kibera sparked what is now his personal devotion to creating educational opportunities for African children.

Blessed Hope Project and the Kenny Vaccaro Foundation

The Blessed Hope Project’s roots began in 2012 after Elsa Atieno founded the Blessed Hope Primary School, where she is now the school’s principal.  In 2016, after former New Zealand rugby player, Michael Hobbs, volunteered at the school, the rugby player’s vision for the Blessed Hope Project came to life. Shortly after his visit in 2017, Tennessee Titans’ Vaccaro became an official team member of the Blessed Hope Project. In the same year, Vaccaro founded the Kenny Vaccaro Foundation, which he uses to raise money for various causes but primarily, the Blessed Hope Project. Atieno, Hobbs and Vaccaro jointly make up the Blessed Hope Project’s team.

The goal of Hobbs was to build a higher quality school than the one at which he originally volunteered, which had dirt floors, iron walls and limited space. With the help of the money raised by the Kenny Vaccaro Foundation, the team accomplished this goal in January 2019 and built a solid structured, fully serviced primary school that can accommodate over 300 children. Not only does the Blessed Hope Project team plan to build more schools in Kenya but they have also placed 100% sponsorship of all students and a sports academy on the agenda as well.

Poverty Conditions in Kibera

Atieno recognized that many children from the slums of Kibera were staying at home during the day, sometimes by themselves, rather than attending school. This is not uncommon as Africa has the highest rates of marginalized education in the world. On top of that, Kibera is the largest slum in Africa. Not only are many children excluded from school but their families are living on less than $1 a day. For some children, going to school is how they are ensured a meal for the day. Kibera also faces high unemployment rates.

How Can Education Reduce Poverty?

Increasing high-quality educational access in Kibera can aid in all of the aforementioned issues by providing children with social interaction, food and the teaching of crucial skills for their futures. Specifically for reducing poverty, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) released a policy paper that outlines how the global poverty rate could be cut in half through completion of secondary schooling. As it pertains to the sub-Saharan African and South Asian regions, poverty could be reduced by nearly two-thirds. This prediction comes from UNESCO’s 45-year study on the “average effects of education on growth and poverty reduction in developing countries.”

Humanitarian support like that of the Blessed Hope Project and the Tennessee Titans’ Player, Vaccaro, plays a crucial role in eradicating global poverty as educational opportunities pave the way for families to rise up from poverty all over the world.

– Sage Ahrens-Nichols
Photo: Flickr

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Brands in the Kitchen Fighting Global Poverty

Kitchen Fighting Global PovertyIn 2015, the U.N. put out a list of Sustainable Developmental Goals (SDGs) to reach by 2030. The focus of these SDGs is to build a better, more sustainable world, inclusive of all countries. While the first SDG is specifically geared towards ending poverty as a whole, the rest of the goals have direct and indirect ways of addressing poverty as well. There are quite a few popular brands in the kitchen fighting global poverty and many are using the SDGs as a guideline for launching campaigns toward ending facets of poverty.

Brands in the Kitchen Fighting Global Poverty

1. Kellogg’s: In an effort toward achieving the second SDG, zero hunger, Kellogg’s launched its Kellogg’s® Better Days campaign. Since 2015, it has donated 2.4 billion servings of food to people around the world suffering from hunger. Among those receiving Kellogg’s food donations have been 3.2 million children. The goal is to feed 375 million people in need by the end of 2030. Kellogg’s also supports Breakfast Clubs in 21 different countries.

2. General Mills: Another cereal brand in the fight against poverty is General Mills. In 2008, CEO, Ken Powell, founded the nonprofit, Partners in Food Solutions. Various other companies have since joined the organization and work together to help African food processors succeed. The goal is to improve food security, nutrition and economic development in Africa. Over 100,000 volunteer hours have been put towards advising these food processors and planning technical or business projects in Africa. Additionally, volunteers from world-class corporations have developed 651 customized projects for their African clients.

3. Nestlé: The company Nestlé has identified a few of the SDGs to target in its sustainability strategy. The third SDG promotes good health and well-being. To support this SDG, Nestlé launched its global initiative, Nestlé for Healthier Kids, with which it hopes to help 50 million kids around the world live healthier lives through nutritional education by 2030. So far, the campaign has reached 27.2 million children. Nestlé also recognizes the need for addressing extreme poverty among workers around the world. As a stride towards SDG 8, decent work and economic growth, Nestlé launched the Nestlé Needs YOUth campaign. The initiative’s goal is to help 10 million young people access economic opportunities by providing them with skills, education and help in making agriculture a more thriving field. Yet another SDG Nestlé aims to help with is SDG 6, clean water and sanitation. Its global initiative, Caring for Water, involves “reducing withdrawals, reusing water and working with others to protect water at a catchment or community level.” Ultimately, the initiative seeks to increase access to safe water and sanitation around the world.

4. Kraft Heinz: With ending world hunger as a pillar of its foundation, Kraft Heinz is yet another brand in the kitchen fighting global poverty. In 2013, it partnered with the nonprofit Rise Against Hunger, which aids in global hunger relief. Kraft Heinz employees have since packaged 15.2 million meals in 30 to 40 countries. Furthermore, the company launched its Micronutrient Campaign in 2001. This campaign resulted in the creation of a micronutrient packet with essential vitamins and minerals, which promotes healthy growth and development in those suffering from hunger. On the 2019 World Food Day, Kraft Heinz employees from around the world included the micronutrient packet in over one million meal packages for families in need worldwide.

– Sage Ahrens-Nichols
Photo: Flickr

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Fighting Period Poverty in Tanzania

Fighting Period Poverty in TanzaniaPeriod poverty, or the inability to access sanitary products for menstruation, remains a problem in many impoverished areas of the world, with millions of women and girls denied access to products and forced to stop attending school during their menstrual cycles. This problem persists in Tanzania, where only 8% of girls finish secondary school and the average menstruating student misses three to four classes during each cycle. Menstruation is a taboo subject in many developing countries, teaching young girls that their cycles are unhealthy, dirty or something to hide and be ashamed of. However, several organizations are fighting period poverty in Tanzania to ensure that all girls receive the sanitary products and education they need to continue school and defeat the stigma around menstruation. UNFPA Tanzania, WomensChoice Industries and Made With Hope are just a handful of the groups working to make sure that period poverty in Tanzania becomes a thing of the past.

UNFPA Tanzania is Educating Both Girls and Boys on Menstruation

The United Nations Population Fund’s (UNFPA) branch in Tanzania has noted the lack of education surrounding menstruation for both men and women. In various places throughout the nation, the organization has noted girls learning that menstruation is shameful and should be hidden (even from other women) or girls are taught nothing about it at all. That is why UNFPA Tanzania has enacted various programs in the country’s Kigoma region to normalize education around menstruation for both sexes. These initiatives include Ujana Wangu Nguvu Yangu (My Youth, My Power), a four-year series of classes that teach Tanzanian adolescents about sexual and reproductive health, including menstruation.

In addition to initiating these programs, UNFPA has taken further steps to ensure that period poverty in Tanzania does not worsen due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It has kept its Adolescent and Youth Centers open with proper social distancing protocols in place so that women and girls in Tanzania still have access to the sanitary products and support they need during their menstrual cycles.

WomensChoice Industries

Lucy Odiwa, a Kenyan woman, grew up surrounded by harmful stigma about menstruation. This experience inspired her to establish WomensChoice Industries, which creates reusable sanitary products in order to decrease period poverty in Tanzania and ensure that girls in the region do not grow up in the same way she did.

Many women in rural Tanzania cannot afford sanitary products so Odiwa began selling her Salama pads, which can be reused for up to three years, for Sh5,000 ($2). In addition to the pads, WomensChoice Industries also manufactures tampons, breast pads and diapers for children and adults, all at a low cost so that the products are more accessible to Tanzania’s low-income communities.

And the work does not stop there. Like UNFPA, WomensChoice Industries provides reproductive education to Tanzanian boys and girls. Representatives from the organization travel across the region to reduce the stigma around menstruation and ensure that adolescent girls are aware of their own sexual and reproductive health. The group has reached more than 1.8 million women with its menstrual health programs as well as 1.2 million females with its affordable and reusable sanitary products.

Made With Hope

Made With Hope is an organization based in the United Kingdom that focuses on increasing access to education for children in Tanzania, whether by building schools or working to improve schools already established by the government. As girls frequently miss class due to their menstrual cycles, the organization has made it a priority to combat period poverty.

In addition to increasing education surrounding menstruation, Made With Hope has created clean and safe spaces in the girls’ schools it has built so that girls can change their sanitary products safely. It has also helped to create local income-generating programs to manufacture these products. The organization has also worked to spread awareness of period poverty in Tanzania around the United Kingdom, inspiring others to get involved with the issue, even from abroad.

While period poverty in Tanzania remains an issue, UNFPA Tanzania, WomensChoice Industries and Made With Hope are all fighting period poverty in Tanzania to ensure that all Tanzanian women and girls receive the sanitary products and menstrual health education they need.

– Daryn Lenahan
Photo: Flickr

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3 NGOs Feeding School Children in East Africa

Feeding School Children in East AfricaDespite leading the continent in incorporating students into primary and secondary systems of education, East Africa retains acute socio-economic problems. More than 55 million extremely poor people inhabit just the three nations of Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania. This situation cannot improve without addressing poor school attendance by children whose family circumstances customarily pressure them into prioritizing work over education and not obtaining the valuable knowledge and skills that could help them secure higher-paying jobs and bid farewell to poverty. NGOs are working on feeding school children in East Africa to improve attendance rates and simultaneously target issues like hunger and malnutrition.

School Attendance Rates in East Africa

In Kenya, 92% of those aged between 7 and 14 were receiving education in 2008. A decade later, UNICEF continued to record 1.5 million prospective primary schoolers missing out on learning. In other East African countries, the issue is direr. In Tanzania, from ages 5 to 6, the school attendance rates already drop by nearly 10%.

Feeding School Children in East Africa

Nonprofit organizations are actively altering this dynamic. By routinely feeding school pupils, the organizations demonstrate that enrolment in school can also involve getting adequate nutrition. It is a win-win situation as students simultaneously gain important academic and professional insights and receive a much-needed meal. Moreover, this work shows that education may improve one’s living standards not only in the long run but in the short run as well.

Food4Education

This Kenyan organization feeds young students locally sourced meals in the nation’s Kiambu and Nairobi counties at a subsidized rate of $0.15. Having started with only 25 food recipients, it has already served around one million meals, helping children enhance their school attendance and performance in class and in examinations. It hopes to reach out to all the primary school children in Kenya in the future.

In addition to attracting donations and using a mobile app, Tap2Eat, for parents to pay to subsidize their children’s low lunch fee, Food4Education also manages a restaurant in the country’s capital. Some of its revenue is used to fund school lunches and increase the NGO’s output.

The group’s impact remains localized but its recognition suggests that its efforts are sizeable. In June 2020, Wawira Nijru, the Food4Education’s founder, joined the prestigious Ford Global Fellowship Program. As part of this scheme, the United States-based Ford Foundation will invest in the NGO and offer advice to amplify its contribution in Kenya.

East African Children’s Fund

Operating in Kenya with a reported budget of $170,000, the organization supplies more than 1,000 schoolchildren in impoverished areas with a mixture of fruits, vegetables, meat and fish. By procuring these products from the local communities, this organization likewise guarantees that the funding utilized in the process stays with the people needing it the most. The organization also distributes clothes and mosquito nets among schoolchildren and helps ensure that they are vaccinated. After all, missing school due to illness is equally a problem in a country, where more than three million people contract malaria each year.

The East African Children’s Fund’s purview extends into supporting sustainable farming techniques and projects in Kenya by, inter alia, promoting beekeeping and teaching young villagers to harvest rainwater and prevent water loss during field irrigation.

In 2019, it served close to 570,000 school meals, thereby causing an 80% reduction in local infirmary visits by schoolchildren. Between 2017 and 2019, more than 10,000 rural Kenyans received training in nutrition techniques from the group as well.

Mary’s Meals

This Scottish-registered charity is alleviating hunger in Malawi, Uganda and Kenya. In the former, it boasts a network of 80,000 volunteers who serve low-cost meals to as many as 30% of the nation’s primary school students in 20 different districts. In the other two nations combined, as many as 80,000 students are benefitting from school meals. A large proportion of them inhabit areas, such as the Kenyan town of Eldoret, where every second household falls below the poverty line.

Besides relying on volunteers, the group has full-time employees based in the target countries. Their task is to ensure compliance with hygiene standards and food quality by conducting regular school visits and compiling data on pupil and teacher satisfaction.

Based on approximately 4,000 responses collected in 2016, the number of Malawi pupils experiencing hunger during the school day decreased sixfold within fewer than 12 months. A comparable household survey registered a similarly impressive 64% decline in the number of adult respondents believing that their children were hungry at school. Most importantly, many more teachers have stopped describing classroom hunger levels as worrying. Considering that all the relevant parties are recognizing a difference, the NGO’s contribution is certainly worth mentioning.

Feeding school children in East Africa also mitigates malnourishment among the locals and facilitates the process of climbing out of poverty, since, through education, children could acquire the skills to qualify for better-paid jobs and escape reliance on subsistence farming.

– Dan Mikhaylov
Photo: Flickr

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3 Ways Livelihoods in Brunei are Improving

Livelihoods in Brunei are ImprovingBrunei is an independent Islamic sultanate on the northern coast of the island of Borneo in Southeast Asia. Some statistics about the country still remain unknown, such as the percentage of Bruneians living in poverty. This is due to the fact that Brunei still does not have a poverty line as of 2018. However, one can use other means to measure Brunei’s poverty. Additionally, other data can help ascertain whether or not livelihoods in Brunei are improving citizens’ unquantified impoverished situations.

Economic Freedom Index Score (EFIS)

One way to look at this is the Economic Freedom Index Score (EFIS). One can think of this as Bruneians’ freedom of choice as well as their ability to acquire and use goods. Brunei’s EFIS is 66.6 and the nation ranks 61 out of 180 countries. Singapore, the top country, comes in at 89.4, making it the world’s most free economy in the 2020 Index. Then, there is North Korea, the bottom country, which has a score of 4.2. Despite Brunei’s moderate EFIS score, the country is working to boost that number. There are several ways livelihoods in Brunei are improving.

3 Ways Livelihoods in Brunei are Improving

  1. Self-Empowerment Initiatives. His Majesty Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah says Brunei has drafted “self-empowerment initiatives” to create more job and entrepreneurship freedoms. Oil and gas production supplies 90% of government revenue and 90% of exports. However, these industries have limited job opportunities. Now, the country strives for economic diversification to reduce reliance on oil and gas. To support these endeavors, the administration will simplify the processes to start a business and develop business regulations. The most significant changes include amending certain laws allowing businesses and investors to operate without a license and reducing the wait times for a business to open.
  2. Employment. Unemployment rates, regardless of education level, are high. Although Bruneians with a vocational background have the highest rates of unemployment, the youth are also at risk of higher rates of unemployment. According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the unemployment rate among young Brunei people increased from 25.3% to 28.9% in 2019 — the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) held the highest percentage. A suggestion from the IMF is to invest in technology and digitalization to capitalize on the tech-savvy generation. Also, the Manpower Planning Council is setting up a labor-management information system to lower unemployment among college graduates. This will be a cooperation between government agencies, the private sector and education institutions to ensure the turnout of employable graduates.
  3. Welfare. The Sultan also says that people’s welfare is of utmost importance. This assertion stems from taqwa, the basic Islamic principle of God-consciousness together with brotherhood, equality, fairness and justice. This concept is the basis of true Islamic societies. With this in mind, livelihoods in Brunei are improving by adjusting the financial aid requirements. This effort attempts to lift beneficiaries out of poverty and continue to provide assistance to citizens who need it. With these new rules, the government will be able to map welfare recipients and learn where there is a need to advance workforce skills and job opportunities. The implementation of this new system is more important than ever before due to COVID-19 and an expected increase in benefit recipients. Now, however, Brunei authorities can better prepare themselves to leave no one behind, per taqwa.

Looking Forward

Overall, livelihoods in Brunei are improving. The administration has focused itself on economic diversification to become less reliant on oil and gas. The unemployment rate has increased, but the country is undergoing steps to combat this with education and jobs. Also, Brunei is updating welfare programs to include further applicant information. This will assist in financial help as well as learning where education or job options are a factor in poverty.

These changes could create a cycle of prosperity and bring more Bruneians out of poverty. However, Brunei needs to establish a set poverty line. That way, the nation can more accurately assess its poverty situation and how much progress is still necessary.

– Heather Babka
Photo: Flickr

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A Kenyan Center’s Aim to Create Sustainable Change

Create Sustainable Change
A new resource center in Jua Kali, Kenya is using the community to maximize its impact and create sustainable change. It is working with government and school officials to provide free, life-enrichment services not previously available to locals.

Although Kenya boasts one of the fastest-growing economies in Sub-Saharan Africa, 36.1% of Kenyans live below the national poverty line, according to the latest report by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics. The Leo Project targets Kenyans aiming to empower marginalized communities.

But how does one accurately identify what a community needs to empower itself and create sustainable change? The team at The Leo Project has come up with a simple solution: just ask. By working with community leaders, schools and locals, The Leo Project has created a model of community-driven, positive social change centered on the idea that Kenyans know best what Kenyans need to create sustainable change.

The Leo Project

Jessica Danforth, executive director of The Leo Project, founded the organization in honor of her best friend Caitlin O’Hara who died of cystic fibrosis in 2016. The mission of the project is to move beyond the limits of a traditional classroom. Moreover, it intends to provide supportive services and create opportunities not traditionally available to vulnerable populations in Nanyuki, Kenya.

Schooling in Kenya is highly focused on students passing two standardized examinations that determine whether they can progress to the next level of education. As such, formal classroom settings tend to only offer subjects or activities pertaining to standardized exams. To address this issue, The Leo Project partnered with two local primary schools to teach students computer skills, digital literacy, coding, music and art. It also worked to provide them with tutoring, a library, counseling and mindfulness services.

“I think part of the reason that we opened the project is to open kids’ eyes to different opportunities that there are available for them,” Danforth said in an interview with The Borgen Project.

Danforth explained that children in Kenya often want to become lawyers, doctors or accountants because they do not have exposure to the alternatives. Part of the mission of The Leo Project is to give them exposure to opportunities in fields such as graphic design, art, coding or therapy.

Creating Sustainable Change Through Community Participation

Since the resource center’s opening in January 2020, The Leo Project’s mission and services have evolved based on conversations with community leaders and members, resting on the idea that Kenyans know what Kenyans need. The Leo Project uses these conversations to both confirm that Kenyans need the services it plans to offer and to discover new areas to dive into.

During pre-opening meetings, heads of schools expressed the need for literacy classes, because parents would come to them unable to read their child’s report card, Danforth said. The Leo Project’s numeracy and literacy classes emerged from this conversation.

Mental Health Services

According to government statistics, around 11.5 million Kenyans have suffered from a mental illness at least once in their lives, but cultural stigmas surrounding mental health prevent people from seeking help and create a lack of qualified professionals who can provide treatment. In Kenya, there are only 88 psychiatrists and 427 psychiatrist nurses trained in the mental health field. As a result, when Danforth and the team approached community leaders and heads of schools about the mental health services they planned to offer, leaders jumped at the idea.

Engaging the Community

“Spending time with the community and actually getting them very involved and hiring people from the local community and not trying to impart our beliefs or our views as an American, I think, is really important,” Danforth said.

Additionally, Danforth explained that the fact that The Leo Project is not a school or government entity has allowed it the freedom to pilot programs, react to real-time feedback and adapt as necessary without the hindrance of bureaucratic red tape.

“We’re hoping that The Leo Project becomes a place where the community can sort of unite as a whole,” Danforth said, “and we’re hoping to educate as many people as possible.” To reach more people, Danforth hopes to replicate this model across Kenya with the first step being to conduct more fieldwork and data analysis in other communities to better understand their needs, noting that every community is different.

The Leo Project currently partners with the Africa Yoga Project, Daraja Academy, Flying Kites and Education for All Children is looking to expand its partner base. The creation of sustainable change in a community is a large-scale project. The more people and partners working on a project, the broader the knowledge-base that shapes that change and the more effective it becomes. As a result, the goal is to partner with as many organizations as possible and, by doing so, make The Leo Project more sustainable in the long run, Danforth said.

The COVID-19 Shift

The Leo Project is located just outside Nanyuki, Kenya and was serving around 4,000 beneficiaries until the coronavirus pandemic hit. Despite having closed its doors in March 2020, The Leo Project has transitioned to providing relief services to its community and those farther away.

Other educational organizations in Kenya have made a similar shift in activities in response to the pandemic. Danforth and The Leo Project team have been in contact with partner organizations to discuss both strategies for aid and best practices in this new environment, applying the project’s pre-pandemic model of communication to ensure a positive impact and basing pandemic-time services on community need.

Danforth explained to The Borgen Project that people had issues getting incorrect information about COVID-19 in Kenya from social media platforms. In an effort to combat this, The Leo Project created an online learning platform where Kenyans can access factual information about the virus. Through this platform, the center has also continued its adult literacy and numeracy, financial literacy and computer classes.

How The Leo Project Inspires Other NGOs

The organization has had a number of other NGOs reach out about using the model for their own projects post-COVID-19, Danforth said. With the help of chiefs, community leaders, government officials and locals, The Leo Project has been distributing two-month supplies of food to the most vulnerable families in the surrounding communities. As of Aug. 18, 2020, The Leo Project reached over 1,000 families and plans to continue this until January 2021 when Kenya has scheduled the reopening of schools.

When the pandemic hit, The Leo Project also hired local women to make masks for distribution and built hand-washing stations throughout Jua Kali and in surrounding communities.

The organization’s model of community participation to create sustainable change has driven its efforts during the pandemic, as it has worked with local leaders, community members and partner organizations to aid Kenyans through the crisis.

– Olivia du Bois
Photo: Jessica Danforth of The Leo Project

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Examining the Challenges of Life in Mali

Challenges of Life in Mali
Mali is a hot, dry, landlocked country located in Western Africa. With the Sahara Desert dominating 65% of Mali’s land, climate conditions force many into poverty. As the country is among the 25 most impoverished countries in the world, challenges for life in Mali arise as living conditions are inadequate for natives and aid workers.

Poverty in Mali

People living in Mali rely heavily on foreign aid. The most common careers pursued are within the agriculture industry; cotton and gold exports make up 80% of Malians export earnings. Despite living in one of the driest places in the world, Malians greatly depend on farming to provide for their families.

The Borgen Project spoke with Susan Roach, who previously lived with her family in Mali’s capital, Bamako. Roach and her husband were aid workers for the International Society for Humanitarian Action. Roach’s husband taught Malians better farming techniques. Roach says, “a pitiful harvest means starvation and starvation equals poverty.”

However, poor farming conditions are not the only factors that affect life in Mali. A staggering 74.4% of the population does not have access to electricity. Although 80% of Malians have access to water, this number drops significantly in rural areas. As a result, 49% of the population falls under the poverty line due to the lack of access to basic necessities.

The Array of Cultures

There are many different ethnic groups in Mali. Tribes with their own unique language, worldview and cultural traditions live throughout the country. However, 80% of Malians are Muslim and many tribes believe in animism. There are also immense differences in leadership among the Malian government and tribes. While the Malian government is a republic consisting of elected representatives, a council of elders leads the Indigenous people. According to Roach, the honor system is strong in the villages as no one wants to dishonor their family’s name.

“I felt safer in the villages than I ever felt, even in a city in the United States.” Overall, one cannot group Malian culture into one category. “A lot of people think in Africa that they’re all the same. And that could not be any further from the truth,” Roach reflects on life in Mali.

Education for Malian Children

Public education is free for Malians. However, many children are unable to receive an education due to the cost of school fees, uniforms and school supplies. In 2015, on average, boys attended school for eight years while girls attended school for seven. Girls who pursue secondary education often cannot obtain placement and are unable to receive that education.

Roach states that families would rather send their sons to school because they are more likely to quickly find a job to support their families. On the contrary, the social role of girls is to marry and tend to the home. As a result, 25% of Malian women are illiterate. Although education receives funding from the government, the allocation of resources is not equal. Schools in rural areas typically have one teacher educating many students with limited supplies. Yet, in urban areas, school facilities are cleaner and properly staffed.

A Shorthanded Health Care System

To add to the challenges of life in Mali, doctors are scarce and overworked. Roach recalls how her husband would take patients to the hospital and lay them on a mat outside of the doctor’s door. However, the doctor would not be able to tend to the patients for a few days due to overcrowding and overwork. The life expectancy in Mali is 61 years. Fortunately, Mali announced an initiative to provide basic health care for pregnant women and children younger than 5 years old. This initiative costs approximately $120 million and will start in 2022. Additionally, Mali hopes to increase the number of health care professionals and decrease the child mortality rate.

Life in Mali is certainly challenging. Nevertheless, with new government initiatives in motion and various organizations providing aid, Mali is progressing toward a brighter future.

– Bailey Sparks
Photo: Flickr

Access to Inclusive Education in Nepal

Inclusive Education in NepalNepal has made great strides to improve education on a broad scale and currently boasts a primary net enrollment rate of 97%. However, issues of inequity persist especially in terms of factors such as gender, economic status and location. A group neglected more than the average is the large population of children with disabilities in Nepal. Of the approximately 200,000 children with disabilities in Nepal, a study found that around 30.6% of them did not attend any school at all. There are also limited lesson plans for students with disabilities and those who do not attend school have very few basic skills. For these reasons, the government and various organizations are focusing on making inclusive education in Nepal a standard and not an outlier.

Implementation of Inclusive Education in Nepal

Since 2017, the Nepal government has publicly supported legislation that would combat the lack of education services for students with disabilities. In that year, Nepal created both the Disability Rights Act and the Inclusive Education Policy for Persons with Disabilities. Both aim to put a focus on the issue and ensure that no student faces discrimination in school based on their disability. In addition, the Disability Rights Act seeks to have a curriculum set by 2030 and allow students with disabilities to obtain their education in community schools or independently.

However, lack of implementation of the Act has resulted in limited success since 2017. Despite the intent of the Disability Rights Act, inclusive education in Nepal remains very sparse and tens of thousands of children with disabilities still have no prospect of receiving some form of formal education. Some of the clearest factors behind the slow change in inclusive education include:

  • Lack of funding: The Nepal government has made acquiring the funds necessary to implement change difficult for many schools. One specific rule indicates that there must be a minimum number of students with a given disability at a specific school before the school can qualify for funding. This lack of funding means that there will be less money to improve the structure of the school, such as ramps and other accessibilities that many special needs students will require.
  • Lack of educators: In line with low funding, many schools face issues training and retaining educators to teach students with disabilities. Some schools utilize “resource classes” with advanced teaching curriculums and trained teachers to cater to specific disabilities. However, the prevalence of such classes is limited, with only 380 of the roughly 30,000 schools in Nepal offering these classes to students with disabilities. Training of teachers has also been slow, and currently, Nepal faces issues ensuring that there are enough educators for these students. Often, this will mean that students with similar disabilities will receive an education in over-packed classrooms or will not secure a position in a school able to teach them.
  • Lack of materials: Lastly, many schools are still having trouble acquiring enough materials for all students with disabilities. This includes specialized equipment, braille textbooks and audio programs. Without more focus on inclusive education in Nepal’s budget, there will be no effective way to ensure schools provide for all students.

Programs Making a Difference

  1. Nepal Youth Foundation: The Nepal Youth Foundation is a scholarship organization that assists families of children with physical disabilities with the cost of boarding school. The organization is aware of the hardships in finding affordable inclusive education in Nepal, especially for the most impoverished people in the nation. The organization aims to alleviate some of the strain on Nepal families, providing financially for students with specific dietary and living requirements.
  2. Inclusive Education Initiative: Launched by the World Bank in 2019, the Inclusive Education Initiative aims to broaden inclusive education in impoverished nations, including Nepal, where it provides training and other materials. As part of the broader initiative, there is also a pilot program that has delivered an additional $2 million in funding for students with disabilities. In the coming year, the program aims to create a working response to the COVID-19 outbreak that will still allow students with disabilities to receive some education.
  3. Autism Care Nepal Society: The Autism Care Nepal Society is responsible for the creation of daycare centers focused on children and young adults with autism. This includes daily attendance at the centers, education and development assistance and adult supervision. Even now, as the COVID-19 outbreak forces children out of the center, there is still some assistance available online. While not an exact substitute for classroom education, the Society ensures that more young people with disabilities have at least some options to pursue an education.

Looking Ahead

While relief for students with disabilities has been slow to begin, it is clear that the Nepal government and outside groups are determined to find a solution. Ongoing support for inclusive education in Nepal and added funding to structural improvements and accommodating materials in the country could accelerate development across the country.

– Matthew McKee
Photo: Flickr

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How Russia is Improving Public Health and Education

Public Health and Education
Russia is a country located in Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. Russia is one of 10 nations that the World Bank has recognized for the greatest improvements to public health and education over the last decade. This improvement in human capital has had positive implications for the country’s economic and social prosperity. Here is some information about public health and education in Russia.

Improvements in Health

Russia has made strides in improving public health care since the collapse of the Soviet Union. In the 1990s, the country’s health care system was underfunded and lacked resources, which resulted in many people being unable to receive treatment for common illnesses. In the 30 years since, Russia has vastly reformed and improved this system. Here are three ways that Russia amended its healthcare system.

  1. Quality Improvement Methodology – U.S. and Russian Federal officials worked together with the Quality Assurance Project (QAP) to implement quality improvement methods in doctor’s offices and hospitals, some examples being increased focus on patients, teamwork and use of data. Officials sought to set attainable and realistic goals for improvement that the country could fulfill in the foreseeable future.
  2. Increased Health Financing – Officials sought to direct more money into the health care system, using several methods including establishing payroll taxes for employers and private financing through commercial companies. In addition, the financing of health care was decentralized to regional and local levels to decrease strain on the national budget. Furthermore, larger cities used voluntary health insurance as a way for employers to purchase access to higher-level facilities.
  3. Pharmaceutical Reforms – Several reforms have emerged to better regulate pharmaceutical prices and production. For example, vital and essential drug lists set products at a fixed price at the federal level. This management of drug prices has increased medicinal accessibility for low-income Russians.

These measures have had several implications for overall public health improvements. Several previously common ailments have drastically decreased in prevalence. For example, pregnancy-induced hypertension, which occurred among 43.8% of women in 1998, is only present among 5.6% of women presently. In addition, better use of resources has cut costs for medical treatment of several conditions; hypertension treatment costs, for example, have decreased by 41% since the 1990s. In the future, Russia’s health care system will continue to develop with focuses on further increasing accessibility and developing primary healthcare.

Improvements in Education

Russia has demonstrated a strong education system, and the quality of education is continually improving as enrollment in higher education increases. Here are three improvements that Russia has made to its education system.

  1. State Education Strategy – Russia’s education system has incorporated a standardized curriculum, including clear milestones, implementation metrics and an action plan. This regularity has improved the quality of education nationwide by establishing the same educational expectations across all regions. In addition, the organization of two ministries, the Education Ministry and the Science and Higher Education Ministry, have improved the management of the quality of secondary and higher education.
  2. Increase in Higher Education Enrollment – From 2013 to 2017, enrollment in Russian universities increased by 40%. In addition, Russia boasts about 200,000 international students, a figure which expectations have determined could triple in the coming years. Furthermore, higher education in Russia is more affordable than Western higher education, increasing access to education for those in rural regions and low-income communities.
  3. Private Education Reform – In recent years, Russia has experienced an increase in investment in private education, with more wealthy Russians sending their children to private schools with Western-style curriculums. In accompaniment with this, teachers have been moving to Russia from other countries to teach in these schools, many coming from Britain in particular to teach English curriculums. Along with this, Russia has been cracking down on private institutions pushing ideologically irresponsible messages, limiting access to fraudulent or incomplete educations.

These measures have drastically improved the overall quality of education in Russia, which has led to increased expected years of schooling and improvements in secondary school enrollment. An overall better-educated population will be more productive in the long-term, as they will be able to transition into a competitive job market more easily and produce greater economic outcomes.

Conclusion

Education quality is strong in Russia and performance expectations are high. Health outcomes, however, are a work in progress, with Russia’s public health quality lying below the global average. Improvements in this sector will not only allow this gap to reduce but will also increase the quality of Russia’s human capital.

According to Renaud Seligmann, the World Bank Country Director in Russia, “Human capital contributes greatly to improving economic growth in every country. Investments in knowledge and health that people accumulate during their lives are of paramount concern to governments around the world.” By increasing the quality of public health and education in Russia, the country is making an investment in its population for years to come, guaranteeing that future generations will have longer life expectancies and educational attainment than those that came before them.

– Natasha Cornelissen
Photo: Flickr

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Eliminating Child Poverty in Nicaragua

Child Poverty in Nicaragua
Nicaragua is among one of the poorest nations in the Western Hemisphere. In fact, child poverty in Nicaragua impacts one out of two children. Nicaragua’s population is young; out of 6 million people, 2 million are school-age children. To tackle the issue of child poverty, the Nicaraguan government has promised to create more access to education, sanitation and food security.

Nicaragua has a long history of chronic poverty. For much of the 20th century, the country was under a dictatorship. A revolution beginning in the late 1970s further decimated the well-being of many throughout the 1980s. The revolution ended with thousands dead and a need for Nicaragua to rebuild itself.

Child Poverty in Nicaragua

Child poverty in Nicaragua remains a critical issue. According to UNICEF, 50% of Nicaraguan children live in poverty, with 19% of them in extreme poverty. Furthermore, child poverty is much more prevalent on the Atlantic coast of the country. About 58% of children on the Atlantic coast had completed six years of primary education as opposed to 72% for the country as a whole. Moreover, 500,000 Nicaraguan children do not attend school at all, mainly because of the cost of education and the need to support their families.

When families need financial support, many children and adolescents have no choice but to enter the workforce. An estimated 250,000 to 320,000 Nicaraguans are child laborers. Some children work in sugar cane fields and mines, creating a dangerous work environment for them. In addition to child labor, human trafficking is a growing issue impacting young girls.

Preventing Child Labor

To curtail child poverty, the Nicaraguan government has signed agreements to make sure companies do not hire child workers. In 2019, the Nicaraguan government and private employers have signed 6,129 cooperative agreements that prevent the hiring of child laborers. The U.S. Department of Labor has found that the Nicaraguan government has done little to actually reduce young children in the workforce. However, the international community has been pressuring the country to be more aggressive in diminishing child labor.

Improving Education

An area of increased government involvement is educational spending. Accepting the help of supranational organizations, such as The World Bank, the country has invested in education. The Alliance for Education Quality Project for Nicaragua has helped fund the training of primary school teachers and the construction of forty schools. More than 1,250 teachers received mentoring and more than 9,000 pre-school teachers obtained training. Additionally, the project supplied materials and equipment for the staff and students. Construction of most of the schools occurred in rural areas, improving these communities’ access to education.

Reducing the Infant Mortality Rate

The infant mortality rate is high, with child poverty in Nicaragua being the culprit. According to UNICEF, 74% of Nicaraguans use standard sanitation services and 52% have access to clean drinking water. Furthermore, 40% of children under 5 are malnourished. The Nicaraguan government and The World Bank have created strategies to tackle these issues. The Sustainable Rural Water Supply and Sanitation (WSS) Sector Project (PROSASR), provided rural communities with adequate infrastructure for sanitation. Furthermore, access to food and clean drinking water has also seen improvements. The Nicaraguan Caribbean Coast Food Security Project has invested in agricultural and fishery techniques for farmers and improved socio-environmental practices. Impacting mostly rural communities, food security increased with 33% of beneficiaries being the youth.

Political and economic instability, stemming from the civil war, has created chronic child poverty in Nicaragua. Nonetheless, Nicaragua has implemented changes, with the help of the World Bank, to decrease the child poverty rate.

– Andy Calderon
Photo: Unsplash