3 Innovative NGOs who’re playing effective role in Education
3 Innovative NGOs who’re playing effective role in Education.Education is one of the most powerful weapons in fighting poverty. However, countries lacking substantial educational infrastructure can face a number of unique problems: rural access, gender inequalities, child labor, and more.
These problems required equally unconventional solutions–here’s how ten NGOs are working to solve the education gap.
Tostan
Founded: 1991
Primary Work: Community development education
Located): Djibouti, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Mauritania, Senegal, Somalia, The Gambia
Website: https://www.tostan.org External link
Interesting fact: At least nine positions in the 17-member, democratically-elected Community Management Committee in each village must be filled by women.
Tostan means “breakthrough” in Wolof, a language indigenous to West Africa. After spending time in Senegalese villages in the 1970s as a Peace Corps volunteer, Tostan’s founder Molly Melching recognized the need for a system of development that was tailored to individual communities, and therefore more relevant. Her unconventional model combines education and development goals in a “three year nonformal education program,” which seeks to help rural communities develop their own localized strategies for development.
Two classes with 25-30 community members are established, one for adults and one for adolescents. In the first phase of classes, students are introduced to basic human rights concepts and health practices through traditional and non formal teaching methods.
Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE)
Founded: 1992
Primary Work: Education advocacy
Located: 34 African countries
Website: https://www.fawe.org External link
Interesting fact: The Tuseme (“Let Us Speak Out”) initiative uses drama, song and creative arts to train girls to identify and understand the problems that affect them, articulate these problems and take action to solve them.
Five female ministers of education came together in 1992 to create the Forum for African Women Educationalists, the first organization of its kind on the continent. Unlike many other education organizations, which focus on improving conditions in one particular region, FAWE concentrates the energy of its multi-national coalition on advocating before governments and communities, and encouraging the adoption of education best practices across Africa. As a pan-African NGO, FAWE acts as a network of researchers, education advocates.
CARE Education
Founded: 1994
Primary Work: Teacher training and issue-based education
Located: 36 countries worldwide
Website: https://www.care.org/careswork/whatwedo/education/index.asp External link
Interesting fact: CARE’s “The Girl Effect External link ” video shows how reaching a girl before adolescence can change the course of her life.
It is especially well-known for its efforts to rebuild education systems in post-conflict states, as well as other countries in crisis–whether the catalyst is political disorder or natural disaster; However, CARE has a number of other educational initiatives which are less well known. CARE programs seek to help cushion education systems against the impact of HIV/AIDs–particularly through addressing the emotional needs of orphans and institutional needs of systems in areas with devastated adult populations.
