Day 11 - Camfed

To end our week of education a traditional aid organization- Camfed. 

In the endless list of African aid organizations Camfed has weathered the years and developed a model that works. Not only are they helping educate girls, but they are working to support them well beyond school and encouraging them to become leaders in their communities.

It's not such a controversial idea now, but early on Camfed was an organization that realized the impact of targeting girls in the community. They bring together grassroots, government and civil society representatives to tackle the obstacles women face at the individual, school district and national levels.

Since 1993 Camfed has provided education to over 2.4 million children and trained 19,550 alumnae to advocate for and lead change in their communities. By helping a girl all the way through from school to career they are building a network of community leaders that turn around and advocate for the next generation.

The Rundown
I donated $15
their website
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Day 10 - Creating Hope International

There is a category of non profits that I've yet to cover, but we'll be seeing a lot more of- American based organizations that support international grass roots programs. They tend to be a great combination of local connections and passion, with American resources, and Creating Hope International is exactly that.

Creating Hope International finds grass roots programs that are making a difference and connects them with international donors. One of my favorite of their programs is the Afghan Institute of Learning. If you have 17 minutes I suggest you watch this TED talk by the incredible Sakena Yacoobi (and break out the tissues).

If you don't have the time, here's the story:

Growing up, Sakena dreamed of being a doctor. Her father fully supported her education, and she left to go to medical school in America. While she was away the Taliban took over. As soon as she finished her education she brought her family to America, so they would be safe. But she couldn't ignore what was happening in Afghanistan. She chose to go back, and what she found was heart breaking. She went to a camp in Pakistan, there she found 7.5 million refugees, 90 percent were women and children. Women with no where to go, boys trying to fill the holes their fathers had left. In that moment she knew it was education that had saved her, and that it was education that would help her people.

At that time starting a school was risky. Educating girls was forbidden. No one trusted her, she was an outsider from America. But she didn't take no for an answer.

In one year she had 25 schools supporting 15,000 refugee children. They taught women's rights, human rights, democracy, rule of law, reproductive health. Then nine Taliban showed up at her office. She told them they were teaching girls the Koran, teaching them to be good Muslim wives. They bought her lie and left her alone.

Despite repeated death threats she persists. They have numerous projects on Global Giving to help them build the skills of the Afghan people. They support thousands of students, children, adults, men and women. They are an example of exactly why grassroots programs are often the most effective. Operating in taliban help Afghanistan would have been impossible for foreigners, but Sakena Yacoobi continues her work and has reached over 1.1 million Afghans.

I'll leave you with a quote from the Afghan poet Mawlana Rumi, "by having compassion and having love you can conquer the world" and as Sakena Yacoobi says "if we could do it in Afghanistan, I am sure 100 percent that everyone can do it in any part of the world".

The Rundown
I gave $10
their website
click here to donate
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Day 9 - Bridge International Academies

When Shannon May was in China doing research for her PhD in ecology. While she was there she taught at the local village school- and it was there she saw the incredible importance of education. She, unfortunately, also saw the state of education in rural China. The principal drank at lunch time with the teachers, who would rarely show up for afternoon classes. Most of the teachers were unqualified, and often absent. The only computer was taken home by the principal. This story, sadly, is not an uncommon one.

Shannon and her boyfriend Jay Kimmelman decided to do something. Abandoning her ecology studies, they decided to start their schools to bring high quality education to poor countries. After getting married they took a dream honeymoon- visiting Malawi, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Nigeria to investigate failures in basic education in poor rural areas.

The designed a for profit model that would be supported by tuition, not the corrupt governments. They target families that earn $2/person a day, and they have created something truly amazing.

Each school is standardized to maintain quality. Content is delivered wirelessly via computer tablets so they can track teacher development and instruction. Teachers are provided lessons so even those without training can still lead a great lesson. Students attend school for 55 hours each week and families are charged an average of $6/month.

Charging even a little has made Bridge sustainable and independent of government slowdowns. And their numbers don't lie, compared to other education available Bridge Students score up to 205% better in reading fluency, 37% better in reading comprehension, 25% better in addition skills, 24% better in subtraction skills and 42% higher in word problems.

Since they are "for profit" donations are not tax deductible, but I know that my money will be well used and I think it's important that we continue to try different approaches to solve old problems.

The Rundown
I gave $25 for a new uniform
their website
donate here
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Day 8 - Books for Africa

Consistently at the top of "best run charities" Books for Africa has been doing an incredible job of ending the book famine in Africa.

It is estimated that 40 percent of school age children in Africa do not attend school, a terrifying number for the continent's future. Then for those that do go to school- most have never owned a book. It's common for 10-20 students to share one text book! Books are the foundation of education, especially in a world without access to technology like most of the rural schools.

Books For Africa collects books donated by publishers, schools, libraries individuals and organizations. It costs only 50 cents to send a book from the United States to Africa. Now they are even working to send e readers, each of which can contain thousands of books.

The World Bank released a report in May 2015 emphasizing the urgent need to get books into the hands of sub-Saharan students stating "no other input is likely to be more cost effective than making high quality learning materials available to all students". When it comes down to it- books are one of the most cost effective way to invest in Africa's future.

While numbers are only one way to evaluate a charity- Books for Africa's Charity Navigator score of 99.95 makes it not only the highest rated education charity, but the second highest rated charity in their entire tool!

The Rundown
I gave $50
their website
donate here
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Day 7 - Malala Fund

Chances are you've heard of  Malala Yousafzai, unless you've been living under a rock the last couple years, but I'm going to introduce you to her anyway because she's undeniably amazing.

This is Malala. This year she turned 18. Two years ago she won the Nobel Peace Prize (the youngest to ever win any Nobel prize), the year before that- she was shot in the face by a Taliban gunman.

Why might one of the most powerful terrorist organizations on the planet try to assassinate a 16 year old girl? Because for years she had been BRAVELY advocating for educating girls.

Lucky for us, and unlucky for the Taliban, she survived- and she has been taking the world by storm as an incredible advocate for universal access to education. The results speak for themselves, educated women raise educated sons. Sons who learn to respect women, and see them as more than just property to be hidden away. Sons from educated mothers are far less likely to turn to extremism, and far more likely to educate their own daughters.

In addition to touring the world to speak on behalf of those without a voice Malala and her father started their own foundation that works to bring education to girls in especially difficult places. 

Here's Malala celebrating her 18th birthday by opening a school for Syrian refugee girls in Lebanon

I can't think of many people who would do better things with my money, so I am beyond happy to support Malala, her amazing father Ziauddin and all the brave girls fighting terrorism with education.

Also! Read her book "I Am Malala", not only is it beautifully written and easy to read, but it gives an wonderfully personal account of what it was like to grow up under Taliban rule. If that's not enough Malala for you, the documentary "He Named Me Malala" by Davis Guggenheim (of "An Inconvenient Truth" fame), opens this weekend. 

The Rundown

I gave $20

the website

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Day 6 - Tostan

You've probably never heard of her, but Molly Melching will go down in history as one of the world's most prolific philanthropists.

For decades the world has been working to end the absolutely atrocious act of FGM, Female Genital Mutilation. Despite the overwhelmingly obvious heinousness of this practice, great nations, charities and the UN have all been remarkably unsuccessful in ending the practice. Then came Molly Melching. 

Her incredible story is beautifully documented in one of my favorite books, "However long the night" by Aimee Molloy, but here's a quick run down.

Originally from Illinois she chose to travel to Senegal as part of her study abroad, and she hasn't come back to the US yet. While there she fell in love with the people and the local language, Wolof. Realizing there were few books written in the language she took it upon herself to begin translating some. Her work eventually morphed into a school through Unicef, working to educate the local kids in their native language (as opposed to French, which was imposed upon them by the colonists). 

Realizing that using native languages was a key break through in educating the locals, she took her educational program into the villages. This was the birth of Tostan (Wolof for "breakthrough"). 

Molly set up a series of lessons that local women could deliver to groups of women in their own villages. The women learned how to count, read, farm, how to treat disease. The power of the lessons being delivered in their own language by their own community members was incredible and the program exploded! 

Then one day a particularly active Tostan teacher came to Molly and told her she would like to discuss "the tradition" in class. Molly had never wanted to discuss FGM in the lessons because of the incredibly sensitive nature of the practice. It was considered so private it didn't even have a name, women would never discuss it for fear that it would bring spirits of bad luck upon them and their families.  Molly decided to support the teacher, and begun to integrate information about it's negative effects into the health lesson. Slowly the women began to open up, and share their stories, how it caused infertility, immense pain and sometimes death. Together the women of this first village made a bold decision- they would announce that they would not permit their daughters to be cut.

This first announcement was extremely controversial, the women suffered immense backlash from neighboring communities. But they held fast. Soon another village made a similar declaration, then another. To date 7,200 communities have made similar declarations, so many that Senegal believes it can end all practice of FGM this year! 

Thus with the incredible empathy of one women, and the unbelievable bravery of those women who chose to educate themselves, we might see an end of this practice within a single generation. 

It is one of the most beautifully designed, and immensely effective NGOs of all time, and one that I am happy to support in anyway that I can.

The Rundown

I gave $20

their website

click here to donate

Give enabled!

Day 5 - Khan Academy

Started by the fearless Salman Khan, Khan Academy's motto "to provide a free, world- class education for anyone, anywhere" cuts right to the heart of the education issue.

There are more education resources online than ever before, but Khan Academy has always felt like the one with the biggest dream. When Khan could easily focus on the lucrative post graduate adult market, they continue to expand their resources for secondary school, and for international students.

580 million lessons delivered, 1 million registered teachers, and 3.8 billion exercise problems khan has become a prolific tool that covers topics including math, science, arts, computing, economics, humanities and more. They have even addressed a topic often ignored by other educational resources- SAT prep. While it might not seem as important as "math" or "physics", SAT prep is something often only done by kids in the highest income brackets. Making these materials available to everyone is giving kids of an entirely different income level a leg up in college admissions that is sorely needed.

I'll leave you with this quote from their own site:

Most people are held back not by their innate ability, but by their mindset. They think intelligence is fixed, but it isn’t. Your brain is like a muscle. The more you use it and struggle, the more it grows.

New research shows we can take control of our ability to learn. We can all become better learners. We just need to build our brains in the right way.

The Rundown

I donated $10

their website

click here to donate

Give enabled!