NIGERIA: With USAID Support Community Coalition Builds Shelter for 200 Tsangaya Pupils

December 3, 2010

3 min read

Over 200 pupils at Tsangaya Mallam Sallau now have a roof over their heads. Community members, led by the local Federation of Muslim Women Associations of Nigeria (FOMWAN), constructed a learning shed for this informal learning center in Dass, located in Nigeria’s Bauchi State.

FOMWAN is a local partner of the Northern Education Initiative (NEI) funded by USAID-funded and implemented by Creative Associates. NEI works with FOMWAN to form community coalitions in Bauchi and Sokoto states. To date, NEI has established 20 coalitions. Community Action Cycle training builds programs that provide access to education tailored to the needs of orphans and vulnerable children and for children in the broader community. NEI’s support for the Tsangaya center grew out of the USAID-funded project’s advocacy visits to the area raising awareness of the needs of vulnerable children.

The number of orphans and vulnerable children, especially girls, remains high in the two northern states. Many are street children. Known as Almajarai, these children are sent by their families to attend Qur’anic schools, where they learn to recite the Qur’an without access to broader basic education. The children often come from very poor families who live a far away. The children often board at the school and are forced to beg for their food incurring stigmatization by the local communities.

Now things are really changing at the Tsangaya learning center. Previously, pupils aged 4 to 18 gathered in the open air, using tree stumps for chairs and desks. The children jostled to find a small space to sleep cheek by jowl in one of four small rooms. With some 600 pupils at the center, many sleep outside under the stars.

“When it rains, learning stops,” says Mallam Sallau Mai Azara, school proprietor. “It is not possible to teach modern education when they cannot sit.” He said his school of 600 pupils dwindles to 200 during the rainy season.

Moved by the plight of the children, the local government wing of FOMWAN canvassed the community for donations and raised N95,000.00, or $623 U.S. dollars. This money built a sturdy shelter constructed of corrugated steel. The shelter now affords the children protection from rain and sun during school and provides sleeping accommodation at night.

Mallam Tasiu Sallau, a member of the Tsangaya center’s orphan and vulnerable children support team enthusiastically noted. “I teach in this center. This is a great achievement for us. Now, nothing will interrupt our learning, rain or sun.” The children now take turns in classes of 40 pupils in the shed.

The community’s contribution to the school has since attracted further assistance. “This gesture by the community coalition and FOMWAN is great and highly commendable,” said Aliyu Idris Gital, representing the education secretary of the Dass Local Government Area, while visiting the new school. He announced that the council will provide reading boards, chalk and a teacher. It will also provide mats for the children to sleep on in their new school building. Even more noteworthy, community member, Mallam Garba Madu, a retired teacher and school principal, has volunteered to teach core subjects at Tsangaya.

Learning center proprietor Mallam Sallau expressed his appreciation and that of his pupils. “Before now, our children used to sleep in the rain, this will greatly help us. We are grateful.”

—Jossey Ogbuanoh, Reporting & Communication Officer, Nigeria Northern Education Initiative

David Barth, the director of USAID’s Office of Education, speaks with Creative Times about Technology and Education

December 3, 2010

4 min read

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David Barth

the director of USAID’s Office of Education, speaks with Creative Times about Technology and Education

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”2/3″][vc_column_text]Q: What benefits and caveats do you see with regard to the use of computers and information technology in educational reform and in the classroom?

Technology in education is highly contextual. One has to ask what technology – if any – is the most appropriate and accessible for what intended educational outcomes are fundamental questions, particularly in many of the low-resource countries where we are working. Even research in more developed countries, including the US., suggests that the utilization of technology in classrooms will not produce learning gains independent of time in the curriculum, proper integration into subject matter context, and teacher training There are indeed 21st century skills which classroom technology can facilitate – problem-based analysis, online collaboration, teamwork – but you would need creative learning opportunities and space within the curriculum within a classroom to maximize technology utilization in these areas. A particularly promising area where technology could prove extremely useful is in education system strengthening. For example, we are supporting the development of both national and school level education management information systems which can track school level administrative data, such as number of students at a school, teacher and student attendance, and other data points that can substantially improve school effectiveness and ultimately learning.

Q: Is USAID seeing a demand for this technology in schools from host countries? Are there recent examples of this that stand out?

Yes, in many of our countries there is keen interest in technology as these are seen as visible reference points of progressive and relevant 21st century skills development. One of our roles is in helping our country clients think about the associated total cost of ownership implications for various technology-supported interventions. We have a wide range of technology interventions that we have supported, from Interactive Radio Instruction in several African countries, the development of children’s television programming in Indonesia and elsewhere, and teacher training college and classroom ICT integration in Egypt, Jordan, Jamaica and Kenya just to name a few. We do insist that we will only fund technological solutions where the interventions are appropriate and where there is a demonstrated commitment to utilizing and maintaining systems. There are too many cases where technological solutions have been left to atrophy because of a failure to maintain and keep current a particular system.

Q: USAID’s implementing partners at times find it is difficult to get beneficiaries, who are just starting out with education technology, to focus on how the technology is used to improve learning or school management rather than just the infrastructure itself. Based on USAID’s experience, what is the best way to engage beneficiaries on this deeper level?

To start at the ground level in discussions with these partners and government stakeholders and to ask the fundamental questions identified above – what learning impacts are you hoping to obtain, what are your human, technical and financial resource constraints (total cost of ownership). And it is very important to assess the trade-offs. If we undertake this particular course, what are we NOT doing? Because of the relative newness of many of these programs, countries need to understand that results are not guaranteed. And without a more comprehensive program of reform, results from technology alone are not likely to be great.

Q: How has USAID used public-private partnerships to promote the effective technology in schools? Are there particular successes that come to mind? Are there cautions or limitations that readers should be aware of?

We are enormously excited by a number of current and proposed Global Development Alliance Partnerships with private sector organizations, including with Microsoft, Cisco and Intel. We are particularly proud of the models piloted in Kenya and now Tanzania, where these three organizations along with local partners have collaborated together to strengthen education programming. Being able to harness the vast experience of private providers has deepened our knowledge pool and is allowing for the flourishing of all manner of innovation. Interestingly, we find that much of the innovation is coming from our local partners. The private sector partners bring in brilliant ideas, but it is the local partners that help us understand how to put them to work for the benefit of their citizens.

Q: From your perspective, what are the main reasons why technology projects succeed or fail?

Individuals and organizations are keen to explore new approaches for education impact. Technology is often seen as a short-cut in this regard. As previously noted, it’s just one tool among many in bringing about improved learning outcomes. Its proper contributing role needs to be contextualized within a broader education framework and dialogue. In technology projects, the hardware and software typically represent 20-30% of your total project/program implementation costs. Countries fail to factor in teacher training, maintenance, upgrading, evaluation etc. They severely underestimate the cost of the programs and overestimate the immediate impacts.

Q: What role do you see donors playing in the future with regard to information technology in education?

Donors have a vital role in supporting innovative pilots, in helping evaluate program successes, and in disseminating the most current and useful information about the role of technology in education. We have the benefit of working in over fifty countries and have seen the programs that both success and fail. Donors can also play a pivotal role in helping to scale-up promising practices. Lastly and perhaps most importantly, donors can help broker the public-private alliances around technology that will provide the sustainability of the project long after our particular program has ended. If we can help in these three areas, we will have done well.[/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]

UGANDA: School ‘Family Units’ Provide Confidence, Moral Compass and Academic Achievement

June 1, 2010

3 min read

In Kampala’s slums, Ugandan children — many who have lost their parents — commonly live in one room shelters. Their guardians, facing their own daily struggle for survival, can hardly fulfill these children’s parenting needs.

A local school has stepped forward to bridge the gap. Each Monday at Railway Primary School from 4 to 5 p.m., 22 “families” of groups of forty-five children each gather under the shade of the umbrella trees scattered around the school grounds with a teacher who is their designated “Parent.”

Railway’s Headmistress Olivia Muhumuza developed her Family Formation initiative 4-years ago as a complement to the USAID-funded UNITY education project. Implemented by Creative Associates International, UNITY also supports activities under the Presidential Initiative on communicating to Young about HIV/AIDS (PIASCY), launched by Uganda’s President Y. Museveni in 2002.

With seven million school children and the population aged 10 to 24 making up 33 percent of the country, President Museveni decided that teachers would be the agents of change in passing on AIDS awareness and prevention messages to children. PIASCY has helped decrease Uganda’s prevalence rate for HIV/AIDS from was near thirty percent of the population to approximately six percent.

“The idea for the Family Formation groups started with PIASCY,” said Muhumuza, Railway’s headmistress for 9-years. “Whenever we discussed issues, the children had so many questions, we realized they needed more than AIDS awareness, many were victims of rape or violence and had behavioral problems; their guardians did not have time to instill discipline and morals, or give them love.”

Railway Primary School’s “Families” psycho-social interventions are rooted in the children’s needs and trauma. According to Muhumuza, their complex home situations deny them a sense of community and belonging that is a necessity to a child’s well being and moral development. With a teacher designated as “Mother” or “Father,” the children who range from 8 to 16-years-old are taught kindness and how to care and support each other. The units are a mix of older and younger children, so that the older ones are able to teach them basics such as how to wash their uniforms. Topics for the family units are designed at the beginning of each term by a team of teachers led by Muhumuza, so that all units are united in their mission.

When Muhumuza first took the helm of Railway, 11-year old girl students were becoming pregnant because they accepted “gifts” from strangers. After extensive research into the backgrounds of the children, Muhumuza initiated a number of clubs and vocational activities at the school. Now, her girl students make handicrafts from local materials which they sell to fund the costs of books and uniforms. That program along with the Family units has greatly reduced the dropout rate for girls due to pregnancy.

“We have 12 students at Railway living on the streets and because of our guidance and “Families,” they are able to come to school and though they return to the street at night – they are focused on their school work since they have a sense of belonging,” said Muhumuza.”They keep coming to our school every day and are doing well in class because of the support they receive.”

Leadership skills, communications skills, building healthy relationships with their “Mothers” and “Fathers” and school peers and development of moral character bring to Railway Primary School’s children the richness of hope and a grounding in academics that has enabled 60 percent of its students to pursue secondary school.

The school provides a variety of clubs, including writing, reading and drama to its 1397 students while190 children meet with designated “parents” each Monday. Asha, a student at the school, summed up the students feelings for Railway in her writing club, “Our school is evergreen, we have clean classes, latrines, a canteen. Our headmistress Mrs. Muhumuza is a very wonderful lady. She makes us proud of our school. We are disciplined and well behaved children. I thank the headmistress and the teachers for the wonderful job they have done. I will always love my school.”

—Alexandra Pratt and Roseline Tekeu

NIGERIA: Project Launch Called “Exemplary” by USAID Officer

March 12, 2010

2 min read

The USAID-funded Nigeria Northern Education Initiative (NEI) launched its first work planning session in Abuja on February 1, 2010. Speaking of the 5-day planning session, the USAID Nigeria Education Team Leader Dr. Sandy Olesksy-Ojikutu noted, “It is just this attention to programmatic details that has brought Creative Associates to the forefront of development work.”

“The Work Planning process for the NEI was quite an experience—the best I’ve seen in my 21 years with USAID! The logical progression and sequence of the week’s events unfolded gently, purposefully—engaging participants in ever increasing levels of participation and ownership. Exemplary!” added Olesksy-Ojikutu of the planning session that was led by Creative project director Semere Solomon.

The project will strengthen state and local government capacity to deliver basic education services by addressing key education management, sustainability and oversight skills. NEI will also increase the access of orphans and vulnerable children to basic education and services such as health information and counseling in Nigeria’s two northern states of Bauchi and Sokoto.

The choice of Bauchi and Sokoto presents an opportunity to make a difference in partnership with state and local governments and non-governmental agencies. Nigerian authorities recognize the need to address low education, health, gender equity, economic indicators, and drop-out and repetition rates among students that exceed the national average in Bauchi and Sokoto. Teaching conditions are more difficult, with pupil-teacher ratios of 93:1 in Bauchi and 60:1 in Sokoto. Nationally, the rate is 42:1. Similarly, the percentage of National College of Education-qualified teachers in basic education is only 26 percent in Bauchi and 42 percent in Sokoto, compared to 62 percent nationally. The number of orphaned and vulnerable children, including boys leaving home, remains high in the north, and systems for identifying and supporting them are only beginning to develop.

Under USAID’s leadership, Creative will partner with Nigerian local and state agencies to reinforce their role in delivering quality basic education services and also helping orphaned and vulnerable children integrate into the mainstream. In keeping with Creative’s community-based approach, the Northern Education Initiative will establish Community Coalitions to support vulnerable children through “compassionate communities” of established networks and institutions. Teams will track the children’s progress in school and ensure they have access to all available programs on an ongoing basis to prevent them from “falling through the cracks.”

“NEI as a contract will benefit from close collaboration with USAID—a positive partnership, I believe. I enjoyed being part of the process—and learned, too. How I wish the NEI Work Planning process was “standard” for all our Work Plan development activities,” said Olesksy-Ojikutu.

LIBERIA: Self-Adjusting Glasses Prove Visionary for World’s Poor

December 16, 2009

2 min read

Our view of the world and our possibilities are shaped by our ability to see what’s before us – literally and figuratively. Yet, the World Health Organization estimates that 153 million people live in a blurred world – at substantial cost to themselves and their communities.

The problem is uncorrected refractive error — shortsightedness or farsightedness — and it is quite widespread. In the developed world alone, some 60 to 70 percent of the population need eyeglasses.

Global Vision 2020 executive director Kevin White, a former marine, is on a mission to distribute liquid eyeglasses invented by Oxford atomic physicist Joshua Silver. The spectacles can be fitted to correct an individual’s eyesight within seconds.

“It takes eight years to create an ophthalmologist and that’s after a high school degree,” said White emphasizing a basic obstacle to getting enough specialists to attend to the millions in the developing world who need eye care. The developed world has one ophthalmologist per eight thousand individuals, while the developing world has one ophthalmologist per one million. The consequences can be tragic. White estimates that uncorrected vision leads as many as six persons per 100,000 in the developing world to die in traffic accidents.

A Maryland native, White recently distributed 500 eyeglasses in four days to his state’s sister city of Monrovia, Liberia. “The biggest barrier to distributing the glasses is distribution,” says White, who taps existing networks such as churches and NGOs to train volunteers to assist clients with outfitting themselves with the liquid eyeglasses. Using these existing networks also helps keep costs down. The glasses sell for about $19 dollars per pair.

In Monrovia, Creative Associates International, a supporter of public-private alliances, joined forces with White, providing staff and facilities for training and distribution of the glasses. Creative was implementing the USAID-funded Accelerated Learning Program PLUS, which provided six years of primary schooling to more than 55,000 youth forced out of schools during Liberia’s civil war. ALP PLUS Chief of Party, Simon James facilitated the partnership with Global Vision 2020. “If we can eliminate refractive error as a reason why kids are not doing well in school, it will have an immediate impact on productivity as kids will be less likely to drop-out,” says White.

White described the transformation in the life of a 57-year old grandmother from Rwanda whose world was a blur. White says she became a burden to her family as she could not clean the rice for the daily meal, or sew to contribute to the family’s income. The day she got her eyeglasses she cried. “She could recognize people, places and could cook and sew again, making her a contributing member of the family,” said White.

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, the mystic and Jesuit priest once said, “The whole of life lies in the verb seeing.” He meant of course the inner eye, but for those who have just recovered their sight with liquid spectacles, it’s literally a life-changing event.

NIGERIA: Tests Show Jump in Achievement with Radio Instruction

December 16, 2009

2 min read

A passerby at a humble rural school in Nigeria’s Kano state would have heard grade three school children singing “we come to make you happy learning, learning, as we go.” The deep resonant voice of their “teacher” would have belonged to “Mr. Learning Tree,” booming from an ordinary radio with a lesson on the present tense in English.

When this U.S. Agency for international Development project ended in May 2009, assessment results proved that exposure to these radio lessons helped children improve their scores in Nigeria’s mathematics and basic literacy curriculum. Working through USAID, the American people helped a remarkable seventy-five percent of the children surveyed in these schools improve their literacy and numeracy skills significantly. For example, fourth grade students in rural schools improved their test results by a statistically significant eight percentage points.

Mr. Learning Tree is the main character in an interactive basic education radio program launched in 2004 by USAID in Nigeria’s states of Kano, Nasawara and Lagos. Mr. Learning Tree is joined by his cohorts Rabbit and Tortoise, delighting children with these familiar Nigerian folklore characters and helping teachers bring mathematics and basic literacy to life. The radio lessons aired three times weekly and reached 700,000 pupils and 21,104 teachers in 1,400 schools.

“The Interactive Radio Instruction programs helped schools improve the skills of untrained teachers especially in Islamiyya schools (which provide religious and secular education) and mitigated the effect of the lack of availability of instructional materials,” said Semere Solomon, Creative’s director of the Basic Education component of the COMPASS USAID-funded project.

Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa. With 44.3 percent of its population under the age of 15, Nigeria illustrates the economic and security imperatives for realizing universal education. Nigeria and other countries are striving to achieve universal education by 2015. Radio instruction provides one proven and tangible solution to address access, equity and quality of education in an interactive and child-friendly way.

The broadcasts for grades 1 and 2 were produced in the Hausa and Yoruba languages while those for children in grades 3 to 6 were in English in line with Nigerian curriculum standards. The interactive radio program complemented and reinforced training teachers in modern instructional methodologies. Practical steps such as building separate toilets encouraged girls to go to school.

Radio broadcasts integrated health messages throughout the series of 90 programs emphasizing good practices including hand washing, sleeping under treated mosquito nets, and getting immunized.

The broadcasts will continue to enrich teachers and children beyond the life span of the project. The project trained 87 interactive radio instruction professionals (script writers, sound engineers, producers, formative evaluators, actors, musicians, and curriculum experts) who now serve as a resource for educational radio projects in Nigeria.

NIGERIA: 30 Percent Almajiri Students are Girls, USAID Study Reveals

December 16, 2009

2 min read

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NIGERIA:

30 Percent Almajiri Students are Girls, USAID Study Reveals

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USAID recently funded a study using the Creative Associates’s State Education Sub-Accounts methodology in Nigeria’s northern capital cities of Kano and Gusau. In a striking result, 30 percent of the 1.6 million students attending Almajiri (Qur’anic) schools are girls, revealing that parents in certain communities are willing to pay to give their daughters a religious education.

Based on the State Education Account (SEA) methodology, the USAID study in Kano and Gusau assessed education expenditures in the non-formal Almajiri school system for the 2007-2008 school year. Financing for these schools fall mostly to parents and communities because the Almajiri schools offer religious education.

“Almajiri schools are usually male only schools,” said Deepika Chawla, Senior Associate at Creative Associates International, which implemented the Education Account on behalf of USAID. “In fact, when we got the results the immediate reaction was that it was impossible. There were ‘no’ girls in the Almajiri system.”

At first dismissed as incorrect data, the team had to further inquire with Imams as to the validity of results showing girl students at Almajiri schools. Since additional inquiries proved the data correct, the Education Account carried out in Kano and Gusau provide the first documentation that girls are receiving religious education.

According to Phyllis Forbes, a Creative technical director who helped direct the study, policy planning for the religious education sector was carried out based on ad hoc information suggesting that girls were excluded. Therefore, it was difficult to formulate policy to meet the country’s education goals without adequate facts about where why and how education expenditures flow.

“The Education Account gave Nigerian policymakers and donors, including USAID, hard data on the ‘financial pulse’ of the Almajiri school sector on which to review and base education policy decisions,” Forbes said.

In the Kano metropolitan area, the USAID-funded Education Account found that 98 percent of financing came from the private sector and only 2 percent of expenditures were provided by the public sector. Private sector funding in Kano accounted for teacher stipends, upkeep and provision of shelter including boarding facilities (for males only) and educational resources. In Gusau, the capital of Zamfara and a predominantly Shia state, however, the study showed that the public sector contributed more than half of the financial support provided to Almajiri schools. Still, in both Kano and Gusau over 70 percent of private expenditures came from households.

“To date, all accounts of students in schools have had a gap where females were unaccounted for,” said Chawla. “These findings can have impact on policy. If these girls are attending Almajiri schools, it may be worthwhile for the government to work with Imams to have lay teachers come in to teach literacy and other subjects.”[/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]

UGANDA: AIDS Youth Education Initiative a Finalist at 2009 Commonwealth Education Awards

September 14, 2009

3 min read

Washington, D.C. –– The Government of Uganda’s Presidential Initiative on AIDS Strategy for Communication to Youth (PIASCY) was one of nine finalists in 2009 for the prestigious Commonwealth Education Good Practice Awards. Forty-nine projects were considered. The Ugandan Presidential Initiative mitigates the impact of AIDS among Ugandan youth by teaching them about the basic facts of AIDS and strategies for prevention.

Uganda was an early epicenter of the AIDS epidemic in Africa. As a finalist for the Commonwealth Awards, PIASCY has demonstrated its relevance to reducing the prevalence of AIDS which at its peak affected nearly 30 percent of Uganda’s population in urban areas.

Over 50 percent of Ugandans are under eighteen. PIASCY’s interventions focus on preventative education to empower young Ugandans to avoid risky behavior. In fact, the initiative’s largest targeted audience is primary school children who make-up 7.5 million of the country’s school-going population. At PIASCY’s launch, Uganda’s primary schools contained 80 percent of children orphaned by AIDS totaling more than 1.5 million pupils. Focusing PIASCY efforts on school children has had a ripple effect as pupils take messages home to their parents and older siblings.

The Commonwealth’s recognition of Uganda’s success is also a testament to nearly two decades of assistance to the country by U.S. Agency for International Development. The Ugandan Ministry of Education and Sports is currently implementing the Initiative for Teacher Development and Management System (UNITY) funded by USAID. Supporting the PIASCY is a pillar of this three year USAID project being implemented by Creative Associates International, Inc. Creative was also USAID’s partner in laying the groundwork for PIASCY beginning in 2003 under the Basic Education Support Program.

The UNITY project is strengthening Uganda’s education sector through professional development and expanding PIASCY’s country-wide reach. Nearly 15,000 teachers have been trained to teach their students about HIV/AIDS to help overcome cultural barriers in Uganda to discussing such personal matters with children. Another 7,500 teachers have been trained as counselors to reduce the stigma and discrimination for those battling the illness.

UNITY in particular supports Uganda’s efforts to reach out to conflict-affected north and northeastern regions of the country. Creative’s Chief of Party for Uganda, Renuka Pillay, said, “Uganda’s PIASCY has shown measurable impact. As the Commonwealth recognition attests, it is effective and has great potential to be replicated.”

As Uganda has 28 ethnic groups, PIASCY seeks to be effective country-wide by making educational materials as well as radio and television messages in various languages. More than 3,000 Model Schools have been established as ‘epicenters’ to spread messages of good practices for mitigating HIV/AIDS infection to non-model schools.

The Commonwealth Awards highlight good practices in education throughout the 53-nation Commonwealth of independent states according to six action areas: achieving universal primary education; eliminating gender disparities in education; improving quality in education; using distance learning to overcome barriers; supporting education in difficult circumstances; and, diminishing the impact of AIDS on education systems such as the PIASCY project.

The Commonwealth is a unique association which comprises countries from all major continents of the world, rich and poor, small and large, consulting and co-operating in the common interests of their peoples, estimated at nearly two billion and with half of this population under 25. Ministers of education proposed the awards for good and promising practices in education across the Commonwealth in 2003 and the first Good Practice Awards were launched in 2005. This year’s first prize awards were conferred on two school projects in Malaysia on June 25th held in Putrajaya, Malaysia.

—Alexandra Pratt

SUDAN: Frontlines Features USAID-funded HEAR Sudan Project

July 24, 2009

SOUTH SUDAN: Community Collaboration Keeps Children Learning in School

June 8, 2009

3 min read

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SOUTH SUDAN:

Community Collaboration Keeps Children Learning in School

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A hotbed of conflict during more than two decades of war, the Kurmuk community in Blue Nile State has placed its hopes for prolonged peace on educating its children. So, when the bamboo fence around Kurmuk Model School was destroyed not once, but twice, the community rallied to rebuild it.

With help from the PTA, community members saw first-hand how collaborative efforts can help keep their dreams alive for their children’s continued education. And with a small grant from the Health, Education and Reconciliation (HEAR) Sudan project, the community built the school’s fence. Implemented by Creative Associates International, HEAR Sudan is supported by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

Without a fence the school compound – situated in the heart of Kurmuk’s busy marketplace – was left exposed to vandalism, misuse of its property and stray animals coming in to graze. The situation threatened to disrupt the learning process for the school’s 600 pupils and 14 teachers.

Shortly after the fence was first built, the gate and parts of the fence were destroyed by some military forces which used the school to hold an event. “It takes minutes or seconds to destroy, but the rebuilding is a big problem,” said Hellen Samia Rajad, the Deputy Headmistress of Kurmuk Model School. “As a mother, it pains me to see the property for our children being destroyed.”

A hardy and resilient group, the PTA, which recently received training in civic action by the HEAR Sudan project, organized a meeting with community members to seek a solution. In its quest, the PTA appealed to the police and ultimately to the governor’s office. The PTA requested compensation for the destroyed fence and its reconstruction.

“We have fought for 31 years, why do we have to fight now?” said Rajad, referring to the military troops accused of having damaged the school’s property. “Even if we don’t have the power to fight them, we will make them sit down and listen to us. We have to be one, so we can achieve our goal. We have to continue working very closely with each other, for the sake of the future of our children.”

The PTA and community members successfully negotiated with the responsible parties to acknowledge their fault and agree to repair the damaged fence and gate. But only a few months later, a fire broke out at a kiosk selling fuel near the school. Within minutes, the blaze engulfed the Kurmuk Model School’s new fence, leaving it in a pile of ashes.

Discouraged but undefeated, the school’s head teacher and PTA sprang into action, again. They mobilized the community to bring materials and contribute their labor, and a new fence was put in place within just two days, without outside assistance, a testament to the community’s organizational skills acquired through HEAR Sudan training.

One of HEAR Sudan’s main components is to strengthen community support for school governance and outreach through conflict avoidance and resolution strategies. An element of this includes the role of groups such as PTAs in their collaborations with local communities, often serving in the role of a community arbiter. The PTA’s and community’s vigorous but non-violent responses to these incidents are strong indications that the project is achieving its desired goals, said Creative’s Sandhya Badrinath, who served as HEAR Sudan Interim Chief of Party earlier this year.

The community is now building latrines for the school, also an indication of a shift in the attitude toward increased community engagement in social services that will likely foster an enhanced sense of mutual ownership and responsibility.

“HEAR has really done a lot for us,” Rajad said. “They built a gate and fence for our school, trained teachers, and provided health education, which is really important to us. We really appreciate what HEAR is doing.”

—Japheth Mugumo with Sandhya Badrinath, Sabina Henneberg and Alexandra Pratt.

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LIBERIA: ALP PLUS Provides Young Adults a Second Chance at Education

June 8, 2009

3 min read

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LIBERIA:

ALP PLUS Provides Young Adults a Second Chance at Education

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Second chances are rare for Liberia’s young adults, particularly those in their early thirties who lack a basic education. But ALP PLUS is enabling many young adults to receive an education.

Susanna is among them. She’s a graduate of Creative’s ALP PLUS classes, an accelerated learning program that has enabled her to earn her sixth-grade certificate in just three years.

To help convey the challenges that Liberia’s young adults confront, Susanna plays a character in an ALP PLUS workshop performance. In the play, Sarah’s character must withstand the taunts of loitering, unemployed youth on her way to and from school. She finally complains about the youth to her school leaders and town elders and soon, dialogue between the youth and elders helps convince a few of Sarah’s tormentors to return to school themselves.

The workshop drama was created by graduates of the ALP PLUS program and produced under the direction of Talking Drum Studios, a program partner that also produces the program’s weekly broadcast about youth issues, “Let’s Learn Together.”ALP PLUS is implemented by Creative Associates International, Inc. with support from the U.S. Agency for International Development.

At the Gbarnga retreat center in Liberia’s Bong County, the audience applauds and the play’s cast introduce themselves.

“I am Susanna and I am a graduate of ALP PLUS and am now in the seventh grade.”

“I am Stephen and I am a graduate of ALP PLUS and am now in the seventh grade.”

When she was 11, Susanna’s hometown came under attack by various factions vying for power. For the next 15 years, periods of calm were followed by periods of extreme violence, making normal life impossible, including attending school. When the fighting came close to Gbarnga, Susanna and her neighbors fled to the forest. “But, still, it was not safe,” said Susanna. Still, during this period, she managed to acquire three years of schooling.

Liberia is a country transitioning from nearly 23 years of civil strife, a period during which the government lost the capacity to provide educational services. Even where rudimentary schooling was available, families could hardly benefit because they were constantly on the move to avoid capture.

The ALP PLUS program gives Liberian youth hope for a better future. The program’s youth component serves youth and young adults ages 15 to 35 in six of the country’s 15 counties and enables participants to acquire basic primary education plus life skills training. Since the program’s launch, 833 have graduated. Without ALP PLUS, Susanna, Stephen and the majority of their fellow students would have to resort to learning to read and write in classes with children six, seven and eight years old.

“At the age of 31, there is no way that I could have gone to day school to sit among young children,” said Susanna recalling that her son, 6 years old at the time, told her, ‘Mommie, you’re too big to go to school!’ “I told him he was wrong.”

To Stephen, 26, relative calm prevailed in his hometown in the 1990s, enabling him to attend school for five years. He joined ALP PLUS in 2007. “I found the ALP PLUS classes different from the classes that I attended in the past,” he said. “ALP allows us to openly discuss among ourselves. In the conventional classes the teacher did most of the talking.”

ALP PLUS’ student-centered curriculum also includes math, language arts, social studies and life skills. Last May, Susanna and Stephen were two of 148 Bong County youth who completed ALP PLUS.

Susanna plans to continue her schooling and wants ultimately to study economics and attend Cuttington University, Liberia’s oldest. Stephen’s personal aspiration is to improve his masonry skills and move beyond the status of a daily hire so that he could “learn a new vocational trade that will enable me to be productive.”

—Gail von Hahmann with assistance from Aaron Kokolie, ALP PLUS Monitoring and Evaluation Officer, Phoebe Waritay, ALP PLUS Training Officer, Kenneth Harding, ALP PLUS Program Development Officer for Youth and from Talking Drum Studio radio drama production team.[/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]

Creative Experts Lead the Firm’s New Initiative in Jordan

June 8, 2009

1 min read

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Creative Experts Lead the Firm’s New Initiative in Jordan

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Creative’s newly awarded Jordan Education Reform Support Program (ERSP) will be led by two development veterans who have distinguished records of accomplishment at the firm.

Peggy Poling, who until recently served as Chief of Party of the Accelerated Learning Program PLUS education project in Liberia, will serve as Chief of Party of the Jordan ERSP. She will be joined by Eileen St. George, as Deputy Chief of Party. St. George led Creative’s Afghanistan Primary Education Program (APEP) and served as Deputy Director of the Basic Education Policy Support (BEPS) activity, until 2006.

In addition to Liberia, Poling has served in Afghanistan and Pakistan where she successfully managed and implemented complex education projects in post-conflict environments. Under the $15 million Accelerated Learning Program PLUS, she led the program to bring literacy to nearly 20,000 former combatants and youth. An education expert, Poling brings more than 20 years of experience in program and project design, management and implementation, teacher training and accelerated learning. She received a Ph.D in Adult and Vocational Education from Pennsylvania State University.

St. George brings 23 years of experience working in Africa, Asia and the United States. As project director of the $95 million APEP, she led the program’s expansion and reach from three to 17 provinces in Afghanistan. Since 2006, she has worked in Vietnam and Cambodia as an education planning and monitoring and evaluation consultant. She received a D.Phil from Florida State University.[/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]