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Education for Marginalized Girls in Afghanistan

Marginalized Girls in AfghanistanEducation for marginalized girls in Afghanistan is an opportunity that is often missed out on due to the government’s discouragement of women’s participation in public life. Particularly in rural communities, as women experience fear over who will marry them if they are not living up to the ideals of a woman, the pressure to conform to the traditional expectations of being a woman in society is held in high regard. A consequence of this is that marginalized girls in Afghanistan are more likely to drop out of school or never attend in the first place. 

The Mission To Improve Education 

In 2012, the U.K. government established a commitment to improving young girls’ lives around the world through education. These projects are funded by U.K. Aid and reach out to the most marginalized communities across the globe, including rural communities in Afghanistan. 

One of these projects, set to finish in September of 2023, is called Steps Towards Girls’ Education Success (STAGES). Across 16 provinces in Afghanistan, in 1078 communities, the STAGES project has supported 24,830 marginalized girls as U.K. Aid aimed to improve education for marginalized girls in Afghanistan through community-based classes. 

The Success of STAGES

The project has succeeded so far in establishing 1,411 community-based classes in Afghanistan. To improve the quality of education as a whole and ensure that girls continue their education, U.K. Aid has implemented several elements to the project. One significant element of this is mentorship. The program has built an environment where confident, more assertive students take part in activities while supporting more timid, weaker students. This mentorship is encouraged during extra-curricular activities such as creative writing and debating. 

A 2017 report on the success of STAGES in its first five years found that while this helped improve the self-esteem and attendance of the weaker students, the program also developed valuable leadership skills in the mentors. 

In extension to this, the STAGES project has given out grants to young girls from marginalized communities to have the opportunity to train to be a teacher by attending Teacher Training Colleges. So far, this has helped 1,995 young women enter teacher apprenticeship programs.

To continue education of high quality, the project ensures teachers are well trained and have implemented regular in-school teacher training lessons. The teaching practices promoted in these training sessions focus on how education must be accessible and inclusive to everyone, despite gender or disability. 

In addition to community-based classes, the STAGES project has supported 587 government schools in terms of improving academic facilities and school infrastructure.

So far, STAGES has seen great success in improving and sustaining education for marginalized girls in Afghanistan. STAGES will continue to fight for better education until September 2023 with these three goals in mind: 

  1. Support 5145 more students to complete their lower primary education (up to grade 6). 
  2. Continue the maintenance of 235 educational facilities. This will be carried out through monitoring in classes and establishing school management councils. 
  3. Undertake professional development for 358 teachers. 

Looking Ahead

The denial of women’s access to education in Afghanistan is still prevalent in many communities, but projects such as STAGES make the fight a little less daunting for young women who want to go to school. Projects like this are a key component to the improvement of education for marginalized girls in Afghanistan and thus, the improvement of the prospects of Afghanistan. 

– Poppy Harris 
Photo: Flickr

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Fighting Poverty With Female Education in China

Female Education in ChinaIn June 2022, 65-year-old Zhang Guimei escorted her students to China’s annual college entrance examinations, or ‘gaokao,’ for the 12th year in a row. If all goes well, when these students exit the exam room, they will be able to change their fate by passing the metric for college. According to Global Times, however, this would not have been possible if not for Zhang Guimei. Known as the “principal of miracles,” Zhang has sent more than 1,800 girls from the poorest parts of China to college. Not only did she receive one of China’s highest medals of honor for contribution to society, but she has also been written into the official modern history textbook compiled by the government. However, her story is a simple one about an educator who gave her all for her students to change female education in China.

The Story of Zhang Guimei

Zhang Guimei’s husband, who taught with her at a high school in Yunnan, died of cancer in 1994. Two years later, Zhang Guimei herself became ill. Because all her money had gone to treating her husband, she gave up on treatment and kept her illness a secret.

The truth emerged when she fainted in class. Despite their poverty, the people of Huaping county–the teachers, students, villagers and even the local government–all pitched in to raise money for her treatment.

Zhang knew the difficulty with which the money came by. In the early 2000s, Huaping county was extremely poor because its mountainous terrain limited agricultural growth as well as transportation. It was common for parents to pay their children’s tuition five cents at a time, using coins that are no longer popular in larger cities. Even so, they raised enough money for Zhang’s treatment.

Deeply moved, Zhang Guimei believes–to this day–that the people of Huaping saved her life. She resolved to dedicate her ‘second life’ to educating the people of Huaping–a promise she kept for 40 years.

Keeping Girls in School

During her time there, Zhang noticed a strange phenomenon: many girls who had good grades would suddenly drop out. Later, she realized that they had to withdraw either to work low-paying jobs or get engaged.

At the turn of the 21st century, China was developing at a rapid pace. But Huaping county–and Yunnan province in general–was one of the few areas that remained impoverished. Rural, poor and uneducated, families had no money to pay for school and often prioritized the education of boys over girls. In order to have one less mouth to feed, girls often became engaged or married in exchange for a bride price.

However, Zhang Guimei never stopped believing that developing female education in China was the key to changing the fate of Huaping. In her mind, “if one girl can receive higher education, she can change the fate of three generations.” To tackle the problem at its root, she resolved to establish a free public high school so the girls could have a chance to get the education they deserved.

A Difficult Path

The path to establishing the Huaping High School for Girls was difficult. Although the government was very supportive, it had no money to sustain the operations of a free high school. Zhang had to ask for donations on the street from 2002 to 2007. Things took a turn when a journalist from Beijing discovered her efforts, and with help from people across the country supporting female education in China, her high school finally opened in 2008.

When the school opened, there was only one building, with no dormitories or even bathrooms. At night, the classrooms turned into dorms that the students and female teachers slept in. Not long after, nine out of 17 original faculty members resigned. To make matters worse, the school had no students as many parents still refused to let their daughters out of the mountains.

Zhang took a very simple approach to this problem. Going from house to house, she promised that the school would do its best to help the child even if they could not finish their education. If colleges accepted the girls but they could not afford it, she would take all financial responsibility. Many parents relented, and the girls were finally able to step toward a future outside of the mountains.

One Simple Wish

 In the past decade, more than 1,800 girls have been able to leave the mountains through Zhang’s high school. More than 40% of the students at Huaping High get into first-rate colleges, and the school has ranked first in the entire Lijiang County for many years.

However, Zhang Guimei’s hard work has taken a toll on her health, with 23 different diseases that plague her. Wearing plain clothes and talking into a cheap megaphone, numerous medicinal patches were on the back of her hands as she escorted her students to the 2022 exams. Yet, the entire Huaping changed because of one educator with a simple wish: to change female education in China. Hopefully, her story will inspire many others to fight for the one wish that will better the world.

– Emilie Zhang
Photo: Flickr

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8 Facts About Education in Tonga

Facts About Education in Tonga

The Kingdom of Tonga is located in the Pacific Ocean and has a population of approximately 109,008. Despite its small size, the country has made continuous improvements to its educational system. Keep reading to learn the top eight facts about education in Tonga.

8 Facts About Education in Tonga

  1. A Colonial Past – The school system that currently exists in Tonga was first established by Wesleyan missionaries in 1826. The primary language of the country is Tongan, a dialect of Polynesian, but English is also spoken as a secondary language and is taught as such in schools.
  2. Compulsory Education – Since 1876, the first eight years of education in Tonga has been compulsory for all Tongan children beginning at age 6. Tonga has divided its education system to include six years at the primary level, three at the junior and three at the senior secondary level.
  3. Free Education – Primary and secondary schools for students from ages 6 to 14 attend government-sponsored schools for free.  In 2004, 3.91 percent of Tonga’s GDP was allotted to spending on education in Tonga. This is a decrease from 5.59 percent in 1998.
  4. High Literacy Rates – The efforts of the Tongan government to create a strong base of literacy within the country has been widely successful. In 1996, the adult literacy rate of Tonga was 98.5 percent. That number has now risen to 99.0 percent in 2018, making Tonga one of the leaders of adult literacy of the nations in the Pacific.
  5. Girls’ Education – In 2015, girls were enrolled at higher rates than boys at all three levels of education. Enrollment in primary school was at 94 percent for girls and 92 percent for boys in 2015. This number dropped roughly 10 percentage points for each gender going into lower secondary schools.
  6. Ministry of Education – The Ministry of Education works to create and maintain a system of strong education in Tonga. The Ministry manages all of the government schools in the country at all education levels and ensures that the private schools within the country adhere to the national standards of education. There are two main exams that the Ministry of Education administers to all students. The first is the Tonga School Certificate. This exam is taken by students at the end of their fifth year while they are in secondary school. The second major state exam is the Pacific Senior Secondary Certificate, which is taken by students at the end of secondary schooling. Both exams serve as a measure of the thoroughness of a student’s education. The exams are administered in English, though they do emphasize knowledge of Tongan culture.
  7. Brain Drain – Following the conclusion of their secondary school education, many young scholars from Tonga seek their tertiary education abroad at universities in Australia or New Zealand. Upon completion of their degrees at university, most Tongan scholars remain in Australia or New Zealand to live and work and do not return to their homes in Tonga. In 2018, approximately 25 percent of those who furthered their education within Tonga now exist below the poverty line.
  8. Plan for Educational Improvement – Beginning in 2003, Tonga began a project for educational reform that focuses on providing access to a strong education for all Tongans. The Tonga Education Support Program (TESP) has two tiers. TESP I aims to improve equitable access to education up to Year 8, to improve education past primary school and to improve the administration of Tongan schools. TESP II aims to maximize the amount of learning that students can find within Tongan schools, to increase the teaching abilities of teachers and to improve educational facilities. The Tongan government has received financial contributions from Australia and New Zealand to do so.

– Anne Pietrow
Photo: Flickr

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An Update on Girls’ Education in Zambia

Girls' Education in ZambiaDue to extreme poverty, girls’ education in Zambia suffers. Many Zambian girls and young women miss out on the opportunity to receive an education. With 64 percent of the population living on less than $1.25 a day, Zambia is one of the poorest countries in the world. Unfortunately, this leads to serious repercussions for the Zambian youth.

Background

In fact, the Southern African Consortium for Measuring Education Quality found Zambia comes in at No. 13 out of 15 countries for literacy and numeracy. In rural areas, 27 percent of females receive no education. This is primarily due to poverty, pregnancy and early marriages.

The United Nations’ Girls’ Education Initiative found female literacy measures at 67 percent while male literacy is measured as 82 percent. This disparity holds females back in terms of economic advancement and independence from their male counterparts. The legal age for marriage in Zambia is 16. Subsequently, 46.3 percent of girls get married before the age of 18. Early marriages contribute to female dropout rates. Therefore, initiatives encouraging women to delay marriage or continue education while married can decrease dropout rates.

Calling for Change

In October 2018, Permanent Representative of Zambia Christine Kalamwina recognized girls’ education in Zambia is imperative in ensuring gender equality and economic advancement of females. In response to this, the Zambian government enacted a law mandating an equal male-female enrollment rate. This law aims to close the education gender gap. Additionally, many girls drop out of school due to menstruation. As a result, the Zambian government began distributing free sanitary towels in rural areas.

Fortunately, there are many organizations working to improve the girls’ education in Zambia. The Campaign for Female Education works with the local government to promote gender equality and child protection. They have already provided secondary scholarships for 38,168 girls in Zambia alone.

The World Bank’s International Development Association also does important work to improve girls’ education in Zambia. The Girl’s Education and Women’s Empowerment and Livelihood Project (GEWEL) helps the Zambian government decrease the rate of child marriage. To do so, they increase access to secondary school for young girls from poor families. One method include the Keep Girls in School bursary. Financial issues often force girls to drop out of school. Therefore, the KGS bursary provides the funds necessary to continue girls’ education. Similarly, the Support Women’s Livelihood program supports working-age women. It offers training, startup funds, additional savings and mentorship programs. Ultimately, GEWEL helped 20,000 in 2017 and projected they would help over 50,000 women in 2018.

– Jessica Haidet
Photo: Flickr

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Gender Equality in Rwanda

Gender Equality in RwandaThis year marks the 25th anniversary of the Rwandan Genocide. In 1994, from April 7 to July 24, approximately 800,000 Rwandans were massacred and up to 500,000 women were raped. However, 24 years later, Rwanda ranks sixth in the world for gender equality, the top non-European country besides Nicaragua.

Women and Politics

Representation of women in politics significantly helped improve gender equality in Rwanda. Since 2003, women have had a constitutionally protected place in the Rwandan government. The Rwandan constitution mandates 30 percent of representatives be female. As a result, the number of women in parliament increased from 18 percent in the 1990s to 64 percent as of 2013. In terms of a male-female ratio in parliament, Rwanda tops international rankings. Furthermore, President Paul Kagame’s current cabinet is the second in Africa to contain an equal ratio of men to women.

While better representation does not end all gender inequality, it improves women’s status in society. With female representation, society sees women as leaders. And more importantly, female representation helps create better legislation for women and encourages gender equality in Rwanda.

Women and Development

Rwanda is a largely rural country and depends on agriculture for economic growth. Rwanda’s Gross Domestic Product per capita ranks 206th in the world. However, Rwanda possesses a remarkable current GDP per capita given its recent history. Rwanda lost much of its traditional workforce to genocide, also resulting in 500,000 orphaned children. Since then, women have pioneered Rwanda’s development. The country possesses the highest rate of female labor force participation in the workforce compared to the rest of the African continent. Additionally, over 70 percent of women are engaged in a sector of the primary economy, and they make up 79 percent of the agricultural workforce, though not all are paid.

Consequently, women in development programs bolster gender equality in Rwanda, as they spearhead the country’s fast growth. Rwanda is currently hosting a wide range of development projects. These projects aim to both modernize the business of agriculture and ensure women are prepared for this modernization. Launched in 2015, the Capacity Development for Agricultural Innovation Systems program is being piloted in eight countries worldwide. This program aims to equip communities with the technological and soft skills necessary to navigate modern markets.

Mukamusoni Alexia, a cassava farmer, is one of 106 members in the newly formed ‘Ubumwe Mbuye’ Cooperative. According to Alexia, the cooperative facilitates a dialogue addressing local challenges and enabled her processing plant to acquire loans. Now, Alexia’s cooperative generates over 800 tons of cassava a month and provides 30 tons per week to a processing plant.

Many of these farming cooperatives are female-led or reserved for women, a long-term project to redefine gender roles and allow women to bring home family income.

Women and Education

Educating women is the key to gender equality. However, Rwanda’s education system struggles from a lack of resources. As a result, fewer students continue to secondary education. Moreover, Rwanda ranks low on the United Nations’ Development Programme’s Life Course Gender-Gap index.

Several of the most successful education projects focus on reducing gender-based violence. In doing so, empowered women can succeed at home and will, therefore, stay in school. A troubling statistic reflects 34.4 percent of Rwandan women experience violence from an intimate partner.

CARE International supports a program called Safe School For Girls. This program mentors girls as they transition from lower to upper secondary school. Plus, it provides sexual health education to more than 47,000 students across the Southern Province of Rwanda. Furthermore, this program hopes to engage boys in the dialogue through “round table talks.” These talks discuss the barriers women and girls face and how boys can help end gender-based violence. So far, Safe School For Girls has engaged over 19,000 boys in these talks. Improving the climate around education and identifying where women face barriers is critical for gender equality in Rwanda.

A Model for Gender Equality

While women still face a variety of obstacles, Rwanda acts as a model for gender equality worldwide. Rwanda’s Human Development Rank is still low. Subsequently, many argue gender equality in parliament is a smokescreen for President Kagame’s authoritarian regime, now entering its 19th successive year.

However, in spite of these developmental barriers, Rwanda has demonstrated gender equality is a realistic and attainable goal. The country’s real GDP growth stands at 8.6 percent, the second highest globally, showing full integration of women in society is critical for economic development. Rwandan women helped the country’s remarkable rebirth after a devastating genocide, and they are the main drivers behind its emerging prosperity today.

– Holly Barsham
Photo: Flickr

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Boko Haram Can’t Stop Nigerian Female Education Advocate

Nigerian female education
On April 2014, tragedy struck hundreds of families in Nigeria. The terrorist group Boko Haram kidnapped 276 girls from the Chibok Government Secondary School. This event represented more than an attack on the Nigerian people; it was an attack on girls’ right to education.

Education for girls is condemned by Islamic extremists and often results in near-fatal or deadly incidents. Nigerian female education is not an exception to sexist discrimination. However, one Nigerian girl, Amina Yusuf tells her story of breaking down barriers in a TakePart series.

Yusuf’s story begins with a scholarship from the Center for Girls Education. CGE is an organization comprised of the Population & Reproductive Health Initiative (PRHI) at Ahmadu Bello University and the School of Public Health at the University of California, Berkeley.

The organization helps adolescent girls in rural Nigeria achieve an education “through innovative programming, advocacy, research and strategic partnership.” To promote bravery in dangerous times, the Center for Girls Education “safe space club” remained open after the Boko Haram abductions.

The 2014 attacks only amplified Yusuf’s fervor for education for girls; she blames Boko Haram, poverty and early marriage for parents keeping their daughters out of school.

With the help of CGE, Yusuf completed her high school education and is now in college working toward an education certificate. To promote education for girls, Yusuf initially passed on knowledge she learned at CGE to her family members who couldn’t attend school themselves.

Now, Yusuf mentors several girls through CGE and still makes a point of sharing important information to girls in her neighborhood, including topics like reproductive health. In Nigeria, many girls marry at the age of 12 and start bearing children at age 15. Yusuf advocates for access to education and knowledge of reproductive health to decrease the number of adolescent pregnancies.

Inspired by Malala Yousafzai, Yusuf has a vision of Nigeria’s future as well as lofty aspirations for her own. She hopes that one day her nation will guarantee 12 years of free schooling for all children and that better-paid teachers will ensure a quality education.

In an interview with Girl Effect, Yusuf shared her dreams for her future. Grateful for the support she received from CGE, Yusuf said “I want to start an organisation or a foundation where I’ll be the one helping to give scholarships to other girls like me.”

– Sabrina Yates

Photo: Flickr

Top 10 Reasons Why Female Education is Important

Top 10 Reasons Why Female Education is Important
From Cairo to Beijing, offering quality and universal education to young girls promotes progress for society as a whole. Carla Koppell of the United States Agency for International Development, better known as USAID, even called female education a “silver bullet” for empowerment and progress. To better understand the far-reaching effects of a few books and a classroom, here are the top 10 reasons why female education is important.

The Unmatched Importance of Female Education

  1. Increased Literacy: Of the 163 million illiterate youth across the globe, nearly 63 percent are female. Offering all children education will prop up literacy rates, pushing forward development in struggling regions.
  2. Human Trafficking: Women are most vulnerable to trafficking when they are undereducated and poor, according to the United Nations Inter-Agency Project on Human Trafficking. Through providing young girls with opportunities and fundamental skills, this billion-dollar industry can be significantly undermined.
  3. Political Representation: Across the globe, women are underrepresented as voters and restricted from political involvement. The United Nations Women’s programmes on leadership and participation suggests that civic education, training and all around empowerment will ease this gap.
  4. Thriving Babies: According to the United Nations Girls’ Education Initiative, children of educated mothers are twice as likely to survive past the age of five. Foreign aid for schoolhouses and curriculum development could greatly benefit the East African country of Burundi, where nearly 16,000 children die per year.
  5. Safe Sex: A girl who completes primary school is three times less likely to contract HIV. With these statistics in mind, The World Bank calls education a “window of hope” in preventing the spread of AIDS among today’s children.
  6. Later Marriage: As suggested by the United Nations Population Fund, in underdeveloped countries, one in every three girls is married before reaching the age of 18. In a region where a girl receives seven or more years of education, the wedding date is delayed by four years.
  7. Smaller Families: Increased participation in school reduces fertility rates over time. In Mali, women with secondary education or higher have an average of three children. Counterparts with no education have an average of seven children.
  8. Income Potential: Education also empowers a woman’s wallet by boosting her earning capabilities. According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, also known as UNESCO, a single year of primary education has shown to increase a girl’s wages later in life by 20 percent.
  9. Thriving GDP: Gross domestic product also soars when both girls and boys are being offered educational opportunities. When 10 percent more women attend school, GDP increases by three percent on average.
  10. Poverty Reduction: When women are provided with equal rights and equal access to education, they go on to participate in business and economic activity. Increased earning power and income combat against current and future poverty through feeding, clothing and providing for entire families.

The sustainability and progress of all regions depend on the success of women across the globe. As President Obama said while addressing the United Nations General Assembly in 2012, “The future must not belong to those who bully women. It must be shaped by girls who go to school and those who stand for a world where our daughters can live their dreams just like our sons.”

– Lauren Stepp

Sources: PRB, U.N. Women, CFR, World Bank

Photo: Flickr

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Six Ways Education Empowers Women in Poverty

Education Empowers WomenEducation empowers women and girls, and investing in their education is one of the most effective ways to reduce global poverty. Still, females face many barriers to educational opportunities. According to the Global Partnership for Education, 63 million girls are not in school worldwide, and women represent almost two-thirds of the world’s illiterate.

A recent report by the World Bank found that girls who receive little to no amount of education are more likely to live in poverty, be married as children, suffer domestic abuse and lack control over their own health care decisions, which is detrimental to their families and communities.

Here are six of many ways education empowers women in poverty:

1. Education Helps Women Avoid Child Marriages

“Child marriage is an appalling violation of human rights and robs girls of their education, health and long-term prospects,” Babatunde Osotimehin, M.D., the Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund, said to UNICEF. “A girl who is married as a child is one whose potential will not be fulfilled.”

Providing girls with access to educational can be an effective way to reduce child marriage rates worldwide. According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the rate of child marriage within sub-Sahara, South and West Africa would fall by 64 percent if every girl within the region received a secondary education level.

2. Education Empowers Women to Family Plan

The amount of education a woman receives influences a women’s choice and ability to plan family sizes. Family planning allows women to give birth to the number of children they desire and determine the spacing of their pregnancies.

In sub-Saharan Africa, women with no education have an average of 6.7 births on average, compared to 3.9 for women within the region who have obtained a secondary education level, as reported by UNESCO.

3. Education of Mothers Decreases Child Mortality

A woman’s education is integral to the health of her family. The more education a girl gains throughout her childhood, the better chance her future child has for survival.

According to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the probability of infant mortality decreases by five percent to 10 percent for each extra year of education a mother has.

Around four million child deaths have been prevented over the last four decades due to an increase in female education, according to a study in The Lancet journal funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

4. Education Increases the Likelihood of Women Surviving Pregnancy and Birth Complications

Education isn’t just integral to the health of a woman’s child; it is also important for the mother. Pregnancy and birth pose extreme health risks for women in poverty stricken areas, and education plays a significant role in helping mothers survive them. Women with higher levels of education are more likely to adopt simple and low cost hygienic practices throughout pregnancy, and react to health issues.

According to UNESCO, maternal mortality would fall by 66 percent if all women had completed primary education.

5. Education Gives Women Higher Income Earning Power

Each extra year of schooling a girl receives is incredibly valuable, raising her ability to enter the labor force. Every year of secondary school education a girl receives is directly correlated with an 18 percent increase in her future earning, according to a World Bank study.

6. Education Empowers Women to Stand Up to Domestic Violence

Gender-based violence is a global phenomenon. One-third of women who have been in a relationship have experienced physical or sexual violence, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Low education levels are associated with an increased risk of experiencing domestic violence.

Through education, women have the opportunity to gain knowledge to stop this phenomenon. In Sierra Leonne after a large expansion of school opportunities, women’s tolerance of domestic violence dropped from 36 percent to 26 percent according to UNESCO.

“I firmly believe that when you invest in a girl’s education she will support herself and her children and contribute to her community and her nation, charting a path towards a better world in which human rights are respected and there is dignity for all,” Prime Minister of Norway and co-chair of the MDG Advocacy Group, Erna Solberg, said in an interview with Daily Development. “Education empowers women. It increases their economic contribution, strengthens their political voice and boosts their influence across the board. That is why delivering education to all girls is so vital.”

– Lauren Lewis

Sources: United Nations Development Program, UNESCO, White House, USAID, World Bank, The Lancet, Global Partnership for Education, UNICEF, World Health Organization, Daily Development
Photo: The Clinton Foundation

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O’Donnell’s KIND Fund Raises $10.5 million for Malawi

 

KIND fundIn the 2015 holiday season, Lawrence O’Donnell’s KIND Fund (Kids in Need of Desks), which supplies desks and scholarships to students in Malawi, reached over $10.5 million in donations. The organization’s goal is to build tables for rural schools in Malawi that lack school furniture.

In 2010, Lawrence O’ Donnell saw firsthand the struggles of schoolchildren lacking essential school supplies in Malawi. Every day in rural villages, children would attend school without basic school equipment, like desks and chairs.

Most students would sit in the dirt or on hard cement floors, using their knees as makeshift tables to write notes. The lack of a physical platform would lead to poor handwriting and damaged papers. Because the students only have a single pair of clothing, their families would spend every other day washing their shirts and pants, often causing children to miss class.

Wanting to help improve the bleak situation, O’Donnell contacted UNICEF and a local woodworking shop, paying them to make 30 student desks — enough for a full classroom. Realizing how easily he could improve student education, O’ Donnell created the KIND Fund after his visit.

Since 2010, the organization has built and placed more than 148,755 desks in 575 primary schools in Malawi, creating legitimate work spaces for more than half a million students who would otherwise be sitting on the dirty floor. On his show, O’Donnell thanked his viewers for their ongoing support for the KIND Fund. To him, $10 million dollars “was beyond my wildest dreams when I started [the fund].”

The KIND Fund has also benefited the Malawian communities outside the classroom by manufacturing the desks locally, creating jobs for residents since its inception.

In addition to building desks for schools, the KIND Fund also provides scholarships to young women to complete their secondary school education. Because of their impoverished situation, families choose to not send their daughters to school.

With the scholarships that the KIND Fund offers, the girls receive an education that diminishes their chances of being exploited, making them less likely to fall victim to human trafficking. Girls who finish secondary school also marry at an older age, and their babies are more likely to survive.

Knowing this, the KIND Fund promotes its scholarships and makes sure both young men and women have a brighter future and better education.

“This is proof that small acts of kindness can make a big difference in our world,” O’Donnell said.

– John Gilmore

Sources: Look to the Stars, UNICEF USA
Photo: Flickr

 

 

Clint Borgen will be speaking at Yale on February 12th. Order tickets online.

 

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Chelsea Clinton Visits Haiti

haiti

On July 28 and 29, Chelsea Clinton, the Clinton Foundation Vice Chair, visited Clinton Foundation-funded Haitian projects in Port-au-Prince to oversee agricultural improvement, health reform and female employment progress.

The Clinton Foundation’s slogan is “Partners in Haiti’s Future,” and the organization has definitely created many opportunities for the country to flourish in the present. The work of the foundation and its supporters has aided more than 85,000 farmers with new agriculture techniques. In addition, more than 350,000 people’s lives were bettered because of the organization’s social enterprises, and 9.9 million people have access to HIV/AIDS medication.

In total, the Clinton Foundation has helped raise more than $30 million for Haiti for its Trees of Hope program, Clinton Climate Initiative, Chakipi Acceso Distribution Enterprise, the Clinton Health Access Initiative and more.

Clinton visited Haiti to supervise the projects as well as inspire those who are being helped by the foundation. Clinton observed local artisans, posting an Instagram picture of herself holding a locally crafted doll with the caption “#ActionIsGreater through partnership and collaboration.”

This photo practices some of the Clinton Foundation’s guiding principles: “We’re all in this together,” and “The greatest good is helping people live their best life story.”

To further acknowledge these principles, Clinton hosted a meeting with the Clinton Foundation President, Donna Shalala, where the two discussed women’s success in the Haitian workplace and ways to create more opportunities for female employment.

Clinton said the implementation of new programs for the betterment of Haiti’s female youth is crucial to female empowerment and achievement.

“We need programs… to help close the gap, so that girls and young women who haven’t had the chance to get educated don’t live with the burden of illiteracy their whole lives,” she said.

During her stay, Clinton made it a point to visit local female-owned businesses to show support for successful female entrepreneurship. The business, Caribbean Craft, is supported by the Clinton Foundation where products are crafted and later sold in popular U.S. stores like Anthropologie and HomeGoods.

In support of other projects, Clinton visited the Clinton Giustra Enterprise Partnership’s (CGEP) Acceso-Haiti depot. There, local farmers can store their peanuts for safe-keeping. The depot also serves to empower local farmers.

“Across Haiti, CGEP is helping more than 1,500 local smallholder farmers increase their peanut yields dramatically and better sort and store their peanuts,” Clinton said.

Because of depots like this, the Clinton Foundation has helped Haitian farmers grow higher yields of crops and improve market access. In turn, the organization’s help with agriculture creates greater opportunities for a healthy lifestyle.

To check up on the Foundation’s projects for better health in Haiti, Clinton visited Partners in Health’s Mirebalais Hospital. This hospital is the country’s top educational hospital because of the influence of one of the Clinton Foundation’s supporters, Paul Farmer.

Because of his commitment, Clinton said that the hospital employees were just as good as health workers in any developed country.

After leaving the hospital, Clinton said she took time to reflect on stories about the projects created by the Clinton Foundation in her heart. She said she feels confident that Haiti’s future is bright.

“I left with an even stronger belief in what’s possible in Haiti,” Clinton said.

The Clinton Foundation has many projects that have greatly benefited the people of Haiti, and the organization is continually editing and drafting plans to implement for the persistent improvement of the Caribbean country.

– Fallon Lineberger

Sources: ABC News, Caribbean Journal, Clinton Foundation 1, Clinton Foundation 2, Vogue
Photo: Jakarta Post