Empowering Adolescents to Prevent HIV and Live Positively this World AIDS Day

December 2, 2013

3 min read

Adolescent girls remain especially vulnerable to contracting HIV. World AIDS Day 2013 calls attention to the importance of improving teens' access to prevention. — Adolescent girls remain especially vulnerable to contracting HIV. World AIDS Day 2013 calls attention to the importance of improving teens’ access to prevention.

We can’t treat our way out of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, despite the advent of critical life-saving drugs. We must, as HIV/AIDS experts note, also “turn off the tap” of new infections, particularly among the most vulnerable.

For this reason, Creative Associates International welcomes the 2013 World AIDS Day focus of improving teens’ access to HIV prevention (and to treatment and care services.) Adolescents between the ages of 10 and 19 remain among the most at-risk groups for contracting HIV, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa.

This happens for many reasons: Clinics don’t offer youth-friendly or confidential services, teens live far from health access points, sexual violence targets girls and women. In addition, adolescent girls often drop out of school earlier and face economic vulnerabilities, driving up their risk. The list goes on.

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Know Your Epidemic – Know Your Response! Creative’s holistic and localized approach to HIV in Namibia

December 2, 2013

3 min read

Almost 20 percent of Namibian adults are HIV positive. The country is working on increasing access to prevention and care, and reducing stigma. — Almost 20 percent of Namibian adults are HIV positive. The country is working on reducing stigma and raising awareness through education.

Eleven-year-old Hatani knows that when it comes to HIV, some behaviors are dangerous, and others are perfectly fine. But that doesn’t mean he feels comfortable around people living with the disease.

“I know sharing food with HIV positive people is okay, I cannot get infected,” Hatani says, “but still, I am very afraid to do so.”

This honest young boy’s HIV awareness matches that of many in Namibia, a Sub-Saharan country of 2 million people where just about one out of every five adults are HIV positive.

Namibia has made huge strides with respect to raising awareness and increasing knowledge about HIV at all levels of society. Yet stigmatization of HIV positive people has remained a challenge: It results in a lack of physical and emotional care, leads people to avoid getting treatment, and even contributes to new HIV infections.

HIV stigmatization in Namibia still has deep-seated cultural, social and spiritual roots. Therefore, addressing it has to go beyond teaching facts about HIV at schools. Parents, teachers, traditional leaders and clergy all have to be involved, schools need to become open, tolerant and ‘HIV friendly’ places of learning for both students and teachers, and workplace wellness programs that promote treatment and care need to be implemented.

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Creating a safe space on Universal Children’s Day

November 20, 2013

5 min read

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Creating a safe space on Universal Children’s Day

By Jennifer Brookland and Maggie Farrand

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The smiling face of a young child in Honduras at one of Creative’s Outreach Centers. The Centers reduce local crime while providing youth with a safe space to gather and receive training. © David Escobar.

There is energy and hope in the smiles of children – even when they live amidst insecurity and violence. Too often, kids are vulnerable to exploitation, at risk of dropping out of school and made to feel small.

Creative Associates International is dedicated to extending access to education for these children. Education is even more important and needed in areas of conflict; that is where Creative specializes, ensuring children have the opportunities they deserve.

Creative’s successful post-conflict education work began in 1989 in Central America, where it used education to complement disarmament, demobilization and repatriation of youth combatants and their families into society.

Since then, it has implemented critical education interventions in more than 26 conflict, post-conflict and crisis-affected countries—including Afghanistan, Iraq, Uganda, South Sudan, Honduras and Yemen. Today, Creative has ongoing education projects in nine countries.

See how Creative’s current projects in Yemen, Central America, Nigeria and Jordan are carving out safe spaces for kids >

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Trailblazing teacher database popular in Nigeria

November 11, 2013

2 min read

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Trailblazing teacher database popular in Nigeria

By Jossey Ogbuanoh and Jennifer Brookland

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SUBEB chairman Alhaji Abdullahi Dabo (center) and board members listen to Chief of Party Ayo Oladini (left) present NEI’s project accomplishments during a courtesy visit. Photo credit: Jossey Ogbuanoh

The first teacher management database of its kind is already in high demand among government offices in Nigeria.

The Teacher Management Information System (TMIS) is a human resources tool that helps school administrators track every teacher’s postings, qualifications, training, vacation time, disciplinary action, biodata and personal history.

More than a tracking tool, TMIS will be useful in decision-making too, according to government officials at the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB).

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Program to support elections, political processes in South Sudan

November 4, 2013

2 min read

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Program to support elections, political processes in South Sudan

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Nov. 5, 2013 – A new program will continue to build democratic governance in South Sudan through electoral training and boosting civil society’s role, Creative Associates International announced today.

Funded by the United States Agency for International Development, the five-year “Systems to Uphold the Credibility and Constitutionality of Elections in South Sudan” (SUCCESS) program will push the first post-independence elections in 2015 and the implementation of the new Constitution to create more robust and mature democratic systems.

“At this pivotal moment in South Sudan’s history, we are honored to be part of another landmark election in the country,” says M. Charito Kruvant, President and CEO of Creative. “The SUCCESS program will enable South Sudanese citizens to build a more effective and responsive government.”

The implementers, led by Democracy International, also include the Electoral Institute for Sustainable Democracy in Africa, the Public International Law and Policy Group and the State University of New York Center for International Development.

Supporting peace and stability

The SUCCESS program takes a multifaceted approach that will include work with electoral authorities, political parties and national and sub-national level governance institutions, as well as civil society organizations.

Creative will support South Sudan’s National Election Commission (NEC) by providing technical assistance on all aspects of elections like electoral dispute resolution processes, management training workshops, and study tours and exchanges. Working with Democracy International, Creative will also assist the NEC in developing a conflict mitigation plan that includes an electoral security framework and conflict monitoring methodologies.

“Creative’s expertise in election management, conflict mitigation, and civil society development prepares us well for the challenges in South Sudan,” says Jeffrey Carlson, Director of Creative’s Electoral Education and Integrity Practice Area. “We’re looking forward to working with the South Sudanese on this important program.”

Building on previous experience

Creative is a recognized thought leader and practitioner in conflict prevention and management – including elections. Its widely acclaimed Best Practices in Electoral Security: A Guide for Democracy, Human Rights and Governance Programming helps stakeholders cross-reference the country context with best practices used in similar environments.

Unrelated to elections, Creative recently completed an education program in South Sudan that improved the lives of nearly 93,000 children. The program ended in September.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/12″][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/4″][vc_widget_sidebar sidebar_id=”sidebar-primary”][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Battling the Sharks at the mEducation Alliance Symposium

October 25, 2013

3 min read

The idea for CreativeU, a global e-learning platform, was the audience favorite at the mEducation Alliance Symposium.

Gone are the days when devices such as mobile phones and tablets were seen as just a distraction in the classroom or an out-of-reach tool. Throughout the world today, educators are exploring how mobile devices can be best utilized to support learning.

Mobile devices in the classroom provide teachers with a world of resources and support, and allow for student exploration and self-paced learning. It is around this theme that the USAID-funded Mobiles for Education (mEducation) Alliance convened its third annual International Symposium on Oct. 15 and 16.

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Training Teachers Pays Off for Students in Northern Nigeria

October 4, 2013

4 min read

Nigeria — Malam Tanko addresses his pupils, with parents and other teachers in attendance. Photo by: Jossey Ogbuanoh

Tanko Mohammed is proud to be a teacher at a small school in Kyata, a peasant farming village at the outskirts of a sleepy town on the western edge of Bauchi State, Nigeria. He began his career in 1980, and today Malam Tanko teaches literacy and math to 70 fifth and sixth-graders at Kyata Islamiyya Primary School.

“When children understand my lessons, I am satisfied,” Malam Tanko says.
On World Teachers Day, Creative Associates International celebrates educators like Malam Tanko, who does all he can so his students can learn and progress. He takes great pride when they are able to score well enough to enter Nigeria’s formal school system.

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Nigeria: Education program praised by U.S. Ambassador

October 2, 2013

3 min read

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Nigeria: Education program praised by U.S. Ambassador

By Caiti Goodman

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Ambassador Brennan with ANFEA Director Hajiya Yelwa Tafawa Balewa and Malam Isa Modibbo Qur’anic School proprietor Malam Isa Modibbo. Behind them are the school’s literacy and numeracy facilitators. PHOTO: Jossey Ogbuanoh

In Nigeria, fewer than 10 percent of children continue on to secondary school. The U.S. Ambassador to Nigeria had an opportunity to visit with kids who are reversing the trend.

“It makes me very happy to see you in school, studying,” Ambassador Brennan told students during his visit to one school in the Bauchi State. “This will give you a wonderful opportunity.”

Ambassador Brennan toured schools offering enhanced academics and vocational training, especially girls and Qur’anic school students, in Bauchi and Sokoto states that are supported by the Nigeria Northern Education Initiative (NEI.)

The four-year program—funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and implemented by Creative Associates International, the Nigerian government, and a consortium of local and international partners—bolsters teacher education and supports vulnerable children’s access to basic education in the two states.

NEI also offers vocational skills equipment, enabling students to learn trades such as tailoring and carpentry.

By taking a holistic approach to education, NEI addresses academic needs, but uses schools as platforms to ensure even the most vulnerable children have access to health, gender and economic equity activities.

Ambassador Brennan’s August 2013 visit included a stop at Isah Modibbo Qur’anic School, where NEI reaches 200 at-risk children with a nine-month basic education course that has so far enabled 13 of them to integrate into official schools.

In many Qur’anic schools in northern Nigeria, children pursue Islamic studies and Qur’anic recitation instead of an academic curriculum.

Through NEI, facilitators are trained to manage non-formal learning and vulnerable children, and provide psychosocial counseling, daily lunches and supplemental instruction in literacy, numeracy and life skills.

The program also distributes school supplies, such as textbooks, uniforms and crayons, to children who otherwise could not afford them.

As he visited vocational training centers and literacy classes, Ambassador Brennan spent time with female students aged 12 to 17 as they learned pastry making, hairdressing, knitting and sewing.

He applauded visible signs of improvement in girls’ education presented each of them with gifts such as school bags and water bottles.

Bauchi’s Director of Adult and Non Formal Education Agency, Hajiya Yelwa Tafawa Balewa, expressed appreciation for the way NEI has improved the state’s ability to manage schools.

A key activity is NEI’s work with the state to collect classroom data and using it to craft sustainable plans for increasing enrollment, literacy and teacher effectiveness.

Along with community and religious leaders, community representatives and NEI staff, the Ambassador also met with senior government officials from the State Universal Basic Education Board, which has provided support such as constructing classrooms, providing instructional materials and deploying a facilitator to support literacy and numeracy instruction in the school.

As his visit came to a close, Ambassador Brennan was received by the Emir of Dass, Alhaji Usman Bilyaminu Othman and given a formal chiefdom ceremony in appreciation of the U.S. government assistance in health, agriculture and education in Bauchi state.

“In the area of education, NEI has done a lot in the training and retraining of our officials and teachers and in girls’ education,” said the Emir of Dass.

Ambassador Brennan was “crowned” with a traditional headdress and given the official title of “Dan Chokalin of Dass:” the spoon that feeds Dass.

“This is really quite wonderful,” he said. “I feel so good, I may not leave.”[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/12″][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/4″][vc_widget_sidebar sidebar_id=”sidebar-primary”][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Immigrant stories: For the love of two countries

September 24, 2013

5 min read

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Immigrant stories: For the love of two countries

By Jennifer Brookland

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For someone who grew up admiring the gold-brushed waters of Egyptian beaches and the magnificent ruins of Petra and Jerash, Ramia Badri’s first glimpse of America must have been a little underwhelming.

Blame it on the art supplies.

When Ramia got off the plane at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago, transportation authorities seized her suitcase full of paints and pots, oils and chalks that had set the scanner screaming. “You sit here. We’ll get back to you,” an officer told her.

Four silent hours later, after wondering if she would be allowed into the country at all, Ramia had missed her connection, and was alone at night in a new country.

But Ramia lets few things faze her. She got into a cab and told the driver to take her to her final destination of Muncie, Indiana. “You know you’re crazy, right?” the driver asked. She didn’t know it was a four hour drive from Chicago.

Past the dark highways and cornfields of the Midwest, Ramia finally arrived to start the next chapter of her life in a dorm room of Ball State University. She planned on completing a master’s degree and taking a break from the horrible violence of wartime Iraq. It was not until years later Ramia realized she had made America her home.

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Libyan teacher brings women into democratic process

September 16, 2013

3 min read

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Libyan teacher brings women into democratic process

By Maggie Farrand

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Hoda's new center gave women a chance to gather, exchange ideas and learn more about Libya's political system. — Hoda’s new center gave women a chance to gather, exchange ideas and learn more about Libya’s political system.

Before February 2011, Hoda Mohamed El-Suqoori never would have thought she would become a political activist or start her own organization. She was just a high-school teacher in Ajdabya, a small town on the Libyan coast.

When the Arab Spring heated up in this North African country, she knew she needed to do more. The subsequent revolution gave her the opportunity.

Hoda formed the National Organization to Counter Tribal and Regional Intolerance, an organization seeking to counter biases and encourage a more united and patriotic Libyan populace.

The organization’s first initiative: provide more opportunities for women to participate in regional and national politics.

Through a small grant from Creative Associates International’s Community Driven Grants Program (CDGP), Hoda opened a women’s center in her town of Ajdabya in northeastern Libya. CDGP is funded by the Middle East Partnership Initiative of the US State Department.

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From class to community, a teacher learns to heal

September 6, 2013

3 min read

Teacher Dorina Joseph learned to help students with psychosocial problems during HEAR training. She now runs a volunteer school and community group.

In the blazing days of South Sudan’s hot season, families retreat for naps in their rakubas, outdoor structures used for relaxing in the shade. But Dorina Joseph, the only teacher in the village of Aweil Jedid, has put hers to another use: providing free education to children who cannot afford official school fees.

“Most of the time, students are just at home, sad and isolated from their fellow students who are able to attend the formal school,” says Dorina. “If we do not help now, these kids will end up being street children.”

After a long day teaching at Lokoloko Primary School, Dorina now returns to eager pupils who have camped out at her home waiting for her to teach them, too.

She did not always have such a positive relationship with young students. In the schoolroom, she used to beat them with a cane when they misbehaved. She found them rude when they were easily distracted, fell asleep, or just sat there crying.

It wasn’t until Dorina received training from USAID’s Health, Education and Reconciliation (HEAR) Project that she recognized these students were not rude, but traumatized by violence and war. The training taught her to identify children with psychosocial issues and find ways to deal with them other than corporal punishment.

As her teaching style changed, she noticed students becoming friendlier and seeking her out to discuss the issues affecting them. She began to listen more, and judge less. “I felt like a whole new teacher,” Dorina says.

The training also opened her eyes to the scope of the problem in Aweil Jedid—a village largely populated by destitute returnees from Sudan. Plenty of parents also needed psychosocial support, and were especially stressed over their inability to pay their children’s 70 South Sudanese pound ($25) school fees.

Dorina and her husband, Evaristo Khamis, set out to address both problems at once. They transformed their rakuba into a makeshift classroom, with a few salvaged benches and a blackboard hung on a pole. Then, using the lessons from the HEAR training, the couple started a community psychosocial group to help its members cope with their issues, and improve their economic standing.

With 45 members, the group is now learning to sew, bake and grow vegetables in the hopes of starting small businesses that will generate income.

“We are looking towards the bright future of our children,” says group member Christina Joseph. “When we raise the school fees, they will be better than us in the future.”

State Minister of Education, Dr. Adil Athenesio, said he was previously skeptical of short trainings provided by international organizations, but that HEAR had changed his mind.

“I have been proved wrong with the quality of trainings that the HEAR project carried out,” he said as he gave Dorina a standing ovation at the project’s closing event. “The results have been so tangible within a short time.”

Literacy spells brighter future for Nigerian student

September 3, 2013

3 min read

By Jennifer Brookland

Fourteen year-old Ammar Muhammad was not a boy who was destined for success. The son of nomadic parents in Eastern Nigeria, he was enrolled at an Almajiri school—an informal center where boys memorize the Qur’an and learn self-discipline but are also turned out to beg on the streets and live in deplorable conditions. With their limited literacy and lack of broad-based academic knowledge, Almajiri boys are rarely able to transition into formal schools.

But when Ammar’s school in Bauchi State was selected by the USAID-Nigeria Northern Education Initiative (NEI) as one of the region’s 40 demonstration schools, Ammar was exposed to a whole new way of learning—and a way out.

NEI is a four-year project implemented by a consortium of Nigerian and international partners and the Government of Nigeria that enables vulnerable children to access basic education, provides teacher education and training and strengthens state-level systems. It has developed activity-based training manuals in core subjects including literacy, and trained 3,568 teachers on how best to teach them.

The project also encouraged the participating Almajiri schools to enrich their curricula with core basic education subjects like literacy and numeracy, and to periodically examine their pupils and graduate them into formal schools.

“(Ammar) was always in class reading his primers,” says Malam Salmanu Shehu, his literacy and numeracy tutor at Tsangaya Alaramma Magayaki. “He was always curious, reading ahead of the topics for the week.”

When Ammar’s school allowed him to take the examinations that would dictate his acceptance into a formal primary school, his newfound literacy and math skills set him apart. Ammar was admitted to a formal primary school, where teachers were stunned to learn of his background.

“I was surprised to learn that he was from an Almajiri school,” said Malam Usman Khalifa, head teacher at Central Primary School. “He performed better than other pupils that had spent six years in school and took first position in his class examination.”

He performed so well during his three years at the primary school that Ammar earned a seat at the 2012 Bauchi State Special Secondary Schools Examination—the entrance exam for schools for gifted students. Ammar was one of 40 pupils out of more than 250 from his local area who passed the exams and aptitude test. He was the only one with a non-formal school background.

Thanks to his encounter two years ago with NEI’s basic literacy program, Ammar is getting the education that he was never fated to have. Today, after three months at the Special Science Secondary School, the former Almajiri has adapted to boarding school life and is doing well academically, with continuous assessment scores of around 85 percent.

Ammar’s next goal is to graduate with flying colors and earn a university admission.

“I want to be a doctor, to help my people,” he says.

His dream of continuing his education may soon become reality: The school’s management has taken note of its first student from an informal setting, and is working to secure him a scholarship to see him through secondary school. If that comes through, Ammar’s success in formal school will be an inspiration to other pupils and teachers at Almajiri schools across the state, and an example of the dreams that can be realized when schools focus on teaching literacy.