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Current mood:  thankful
The organization's main goal is to enable children to set their sights higher thanks to an enhanced learning environment.
We started with this quite broad goal focussing on education because we believe in every children's right to education. Also, investing on education enable children to become the future drive for the development of their entire communities. As Kwame Akonor, director of the African Development Institute and Professor of International Relations at Selton Hall University, remarked while giving a speech at African Education Initiative board meeting on June 6th - "every additional year spent in school in the developing world by a child, his/her future income potential can increase by over 10%" (quoting UNICEF datas, 2009). Similar argument was made by Obama's top economic adviser, Lawrence Summers, concerning girls' education: "educating girls yields a higher rate of return than any other investment available in the developing world".
Beyond income, we believe that education is key to the construction of a strong self-esteem and the development of creativity and imagination necessary to children' cognitive development.
However, we noticed that a "better educational environment" is (1) neither achieved only in the classrooms, (2) nor achieved only through material improvement.
(1) The classrooms are not the only domain we should focus on; indeed, a sick or malnourished child will not be able to make effective use of the improved learning environment. Therefore, our new program with the orphanage Gracia Theresa in Soutouboua, Togo, focusses on helping children have a safe and comfortable environment at home as well as in school. We attempt to provide shelter, food, medical attention, school supplies and uniforms, bathing items etc to the 31 orphans. A letter from the director of the orphanage just announced that 18 children caught malaria and need urgent medical care.
(2) Extending our action beyond material improvement is paramount also because children in isolated rural areas, especially girls, often do not believe in their own potential and set boundaries to their potential academic successes. Focussing on highlighting the uplifting parts of the history, culture, thought and emphasizing the local role models of their local environment and the beauty of their African heritage helps consider their own background in a better light and create models the children can emulate. Therefore, we are currently building the budget of a public library specialized in African literature, with poetry and novel writing workshops, along with theater plays and story telling. Also, we are starting a pen-pal program between a school in the Volta region of Ghana and a school in Harlem, New York, centered around "Africa, a source of inspiration".
The extensions we made to our original programs were given rise out of the field work we did with the local educators, teachers, parents and local administrations, focusing on one children at a time.
The programs/projects we currently have are:
In Ghana:
- Building 3 classrooms with a little computer lab powered by solar panels (to invest on one of Africa's essential ressource, and invest on green energy) and library. The land is provided by the local community.
- Managing the Harlem/Wudukpo pen-pal program
In Togo:
- Providing for all the basic needs of the 31 orphans of the orphanage Gracia
- Finding individual long-term sponsors for each orphan (35 euros ($50) per month to cover all needs)
- Thinking about how to create income yielding activities for the orphanage, like recording the songs the children sing and sell them with 100% profit towards the orphanage. Or printing T-Shirts with the drawing the children made
- Building a public library (reading material currently awaiting to be shipped from France)
General activities - in which your involvement is highly welcomed!
(a) helping to fundraising effort (grants, companies, individuals)
(b) working on media exposure to raise awareness on development issues and children' rights in Africa
(c) managing the Harlem/Wudukpo pen-pal program and management of all distant projects.
Waiting on your comments/feedbacks
Sincerely,
Elise
12:17 AM
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