|
Health Care Learning Network (HCLN) - North Shore
The Health Care Learning Network (HCLN) - North Shore is a pilot project to develop and implement a customized online and face-to-face system through which front-line health care workers gain the academic and personal skills necessary to enter and succeed in college health care programs. Ultimately, these HCLN Scholars will fill a growing industry need for Licensed Practical Nurses (LPN) and other advanced allied health occupations. The project is funded through the Workforce Competitiveness Trust Fund with fiscal oversight provided by the Commonwealth Corporation. Employer partners include Kindred Health Care, Ledgewood Rehabilitation and Skilled Nursing Center, and Seacoast Nursing and Rehabilitation Center. Workforce and community partners include the Merrimack Valley WIB, Greater Lowell WIB, Metro Southwest REB, North Shore Career Center and, Essex County Community Organization.
As the educational provider, World Education has designed and is piloting four online courses: Preparing for Health Care Careers, HCLN Math, HCLN Health Sciences, and Computers for College.
Website
|
Contact Information
Brighter Futures Program
In Nepal, one of every three children is a child laborer, with an estimated 2.6 million children between the ages of five and fourteen working on farms, in factories, in businesses, or in other people's homes. World Education is implementing a four-year project to combat child labor through education. World Education's Brighter Futures Program works closely with the International Labor Organization's International Program on the Elimination of Child Labor in Nepal. Brighter Futures activities are carried out at two levels: in communities where children come from or where they currently live and work; and at the policy level with government and international agencies.
World Education and its government and nongovernmental organization (NGO) partners use what they learn from project implementation at the community level to help inform existing and new government policies related to child labor. World Education and its partners work to increase children's access to education, and to improve the relevance and quality of education and training for children rescued from abusive forms of child labor. This includes provision of nonformal and vocational education opportunities, the strengthening of community based education, and the strengthening of monitoring and supervision systems used in primary education and nonformal education programs. Brighter Futures engages policymakers in the continuous review of lessons learned from program implementation and the study of specific barriers to children's participation in order to formulate and improve educational policy on child labor.
Contact Information
Community Action for Education and Literacy Project (ACEB)
The forest region in Eastern Guinea is historically one of the least developed in the country. In spite of the rich natural resources and growing economy, access to education and other necessities are limited.
The Community Involvement in Education and Literacy Project (ACEB) aims to improve the quality of life and opportunities for sustainable development in this region. Implemented in close collaboration with local NGO partners, ACEB extends pilot phase literacy activities to more of the Beyla, N'Zérékoré communities and incorporates post-literacy and initial French literacy programs.
The project reinforces the capacity of a host of local civil society associations to contribute to a culture of literacy, enhance economic opportunities, and to improve retention and pass rates at the secondary school level.
One aspect of ACEB is the implementation of a sustainable savings and revolving micro-credit fund, which is managed by trained Mothers' Associations. An innovation to the second phase of ACEB includes a change in the scholarship component to target secondary school students in Beyla. Finally, at the request of the funder, the Rio Tinto Group, the second phase will be expanded to include the three new communities of Nionsomoridou, Watefredou and Traorella.
The main goal of ACEB is that community-based organizations are able to identify and implement durable solutions to the development challenges they face in their everyday lives.
Contact Information
Creating Opportunities for Psychosocial Enhancement (COPE)
The political instability, unrest, violence, and socio-economic problems in Burma have driven tens of thousands of people away from their homeland. Since the early 1980's and until now Burmese, Karen, and other ethnic minorities have been fleeing their homes for refugee camps in increasing numbers. Human rights abuses have been well documented, including execution of those who do not comply with the demands of the soldiers, forced labor, rape, and denial of the right to education. The trauma of active conflict -- and the resulting loss of life, family disruption, loss of land and livelihood -- has compounded this. As a consequence, children and youth have been witnesses and/or participants in traumatic events including violence and sometimes the death of their loved ones. Many youth have lost their homes, belongings, and are separated from families. They live in constant fear of further forced displacement. The children's education has often been disrupted. They often remain silent, absorbing and reflecting the fear and anger of their parents, siblings, and community members -- but more often they do not have a way to share their personal painful experiences. If they try to express their fear and concerns, they are often not listened to or are not given the needed support.
The COPE project increases the awareness of Karen educators and leaders concerning psychosocial issues and how they affect children in schools. In addition it enhances the education system to provide a "psychosocial sensitive" environment within its schools by developing the capacity of trainers, educators and support systems to address the psychosocial needs of children and youth; developing a training of trainers curriculum; and designing a curriculum integrated into a Social Studies / Living Values curriculum for primary and secondary schools of the Karen education system in the refugee camps. The success of the program lies with the close collaboration between World Education and the Karen Education Department and the other NGOs that are working in education with the refugee and migrant population.
Website
|
Contact Information
Economic Assistance & Livelihoods Training for UXO Survivors
When people are injured by unexploded ordnance (UXO), the results are devastating in many ways. Most victims come from remote rural areas, and the medical expenses can cost as much as a year's salary. Many survivors cannot return to their former jobs and seek new livelihoods to support their families. With the support of groups including the McKnight Foundation, the U.S. Department of State/Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement, AAR, the Embassy of the Netherlands in Bangkok, and the Niarchos Foundation, World Education improves the economic situation for survivors of unexploded ordnance (UXO) accidents and their families in Xieng Khouang province of Laos. These projects provide vocational and economic assistance to UXO and landmine survivors through medical care, training courses, startup support, and follow-up technical assistance. UXO survivors and their family members attend training workshops in animal husbandry, with four-day workshops on raising cows, pigs, chickens, and ducks, which address common diseases, vaccines, nutrition, and sanitation. Additional technical training is available for recipients who are interested in fish farming, weaving, and tailoring. Children who are injured meet together in discussion groups which provide them with psychosocial support and care.
Website
|
Contact Information
Faisons Ensemble
Faisons Ensemble, a 31-month project funded by USAID/Guinea, focuses on improving basic services in health, education, agriculture, and natural resource management through better governance practices. The project targets communities in Upper Guinea, Forest Guinea, and the five communes of Conakry.
The goal of Faisons Ensemble is to increase citizen access to better services in the health, education, agriculture, and natural resources sectors, with the aim of improving living conditions for Guineans. Faisons Ensemble will recruit and work with "champions" within local government, civil society, and the media, to provide capacity building, technical, and financial support for groups that promote good governance practices.
The project has four main objectives:
1. Improved effectiveness of government institutions and decentralization and local service delivery
2. Greater visibility and effectiveness of anti-corruption efforts
3. Increased capacity and effectiveness of civil society, working through strong CSOs and CBOs that are well managed and participate, demand accountability and transparency in service delivery, and advocate for good governance.
4. Increased citizen access to more diverse sources and types of information.
World Education is responsible for managing the third and fourth components of Faisons Ensemble, which focus on the capacity and effectiveness of civil society for improved civic participation and advocacy, and citizen access to information - as well as cross-cutting adult literacy, youth engagement, and gender. World Education also oversees overall grants management of the project, ensuring that targeted champions at community, regional, and national level receive the full financial support required to advance innovations in good governance.
World Education collaborates with five other U.S. non-governmental organizations (NGO) and two Guinean NGOs in the Faisons Ensemble consortium led by the Research Triangle Institute.
Contact Information
Girls' Access to Education (GATE) Program
In rural Nepal, two-thirds of adolescent girls are not enrolled in formal schools. These illiterate, out-of-school girls are destined for lives of low status and limited opportunities. In 1998, World Education began the Girls' Access to Education (GATE) Program by developing a nine-month literacy curriculum that integrates adolescent health and girls' empowerment information with literacy training. As girls learn how to read, write and do basic mathematics, they learn about basic nutrition, reproductive health, the consequences of early marriage, early pregnancy, unsafe sex, STIs, and HIV/AIDS. World Education developed a series of booklets for the program that focus on the dangers of trafficking, child rights, and safe migration.
Out-of-school girls who participate in nonformal education programs like GATE achieve a basic primary education. This is an extraordinary and life-changing accomplishment for a low-status, illiterate girl, but it is only half the story. Many GATE graduates re-enroll into the formal school system or participate in vocational or practical skills training to continue their education.
In some of the districts where GATE classes are being given, parents have the opportunity to participate in local Parent Teacher Associations (PTAs). As these PTA members gain management skills and learn how to help students maximize their learning, they are in a position to assist the GATE graduates who transition to the formal school system. Recently, the GATE Program has also developed practical vocational training alternatives for girls who graduate from GATE, but who choose not to enroll in school. Included among these alternatives is the Self-Employment Education Program (SEEP), which teaches girls basic savings and credit principles, and gives them capacity to start their own small businesses.
Read the following success stories about the program: Preventing Trafficking and Violence through Education, A Dream Fulfilled, and How Mina Escaped from Being Sold
Contact Information
Improved Quality of Education in Mali
In 1999, the Malian Ministry of Education began an ambitious endeavor to reform and decentralize the national education system and to improve the quality of basic education for girls and boys in Mali. To support this reform, USAID contracted World Education in 2003 to implement an Improved Quality of Education Activity (IQEA). This project is designed to support the Ministry's ten-year plan for development within the education sector (called PRODEC). World Education is the prime contractor for IQEA, in partnership seven Malian nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). The project and all activities are planned and implemented in close coordination with the Ministry, with input from USAID. 105 communes in the regions of Kidal, Gao, Tomboucotu, Sikasso, Koulikoro, Ségou, and the district of Bamako have been reached. During the course of the five-year program, World Education and the Ministry will work with at least 800 schools within these communes. IQEA initiatives focus particularly on three major components: improving teacher performance by creating communities of learning; curriculum development and testing for grades 3 - 6; and improving quality and equity in education through increased community participation. This project administers grants and provides technical assistance and capacity building to parents associations (APE), APE federations, school management committees, mothers' associations, and to local NGOs. Important issues such as gender equity and HIV/AIDS awareness in education are addressed throughout each of the three project components.
Contact Information
Mali Girls' and Women's Literacy Pilot
World Education's past experience demonstrates that female-only literacy classes ensure greater participation of women, especially when taught by women using materials and methods specifically targeted for their use. Women teaching women is a successful strategy: women feel more at ease with teachers of their own gender, especially when discussing sensitive issues like reproductive health, female genital cutting, and domestic violence. Furthermore, husbands and fathers, particularly in conservative Muslim countries, are more likely to permit their wives and daughters to participate in women-only classes. Unfortunately with few literate women in rural communities, and the disinclination of husbands and fathers to allow their wives and daughters to teach, providing classes and recruiting women teachers is difficult.
In Mali, World Education developed mother/daughter classes taught by women. Appropriate measures were taken in the community to address the concerns of husbands and fathers with the hope that this pilot would pave the way for better recruitment and retention of women teachers. The idea of linking girls and their mothers encouraged older women to share local knowledge with young women in their communities. The target result was an integrated literacy program in which women teach other women and adolescent girls to read, write, and do math while learning about good health and nutrition, and promoting an exchange between mothers and girls. Working in partnership with a local NGO, World Education tested the project in 12 classrooms of 30, reaching a total of 360 women/girls. This project was made possible through the generosity of a private donor.
Contact Information
Promoting Family-Centered Maternity Care (Russia)
All too often, the medical system treats pregnancy as a disease rather than a normal life event. For pregnant women and their families, pregnancy and childbirth can be a disempowering experience, in which they are subjected to traditional practices that have proven ineffective or even harmful. An alternative approach -- family-centered maternity care -- uses education and family involvement to engage a woman in the process of her own care during pregnancy and birth. John Snow, Inc. is implementing a program funded by USAID/Russia to improve maternal and newborn health by promoting more effective models of care. As part of this initiative, World Education developed training curricula on the latest best practices in antenatal and maternity care for midwives and physicians, with the goal of promoting change in Russian maternity hospitals. World Education has also provided technical assistance with capacity building of a local Russian partner for the project's future sustainability.
Contact Information
SELECT Stop Exploitive Labor and Education Children for Tomorrow
Child trafficking and child labor are prevalent practices in some parts of Guinea. This is due to a range of factors including Guinea's geographic location and the large demand for improved education services. Until the government of Guinea can provide quality education to children, working for wages will be a viable option for many families.
Funded by the US Department of Labor, the SELECT Project will address the issues of child labor from the prevention and mitigation perspectives in the regions of Faranah, Kindia and N'Zerekore. Program objectives include:
- Withdrawing children and preventing children from participating in exploitive child labor.
-
Strengthening Guinea's capacity to combat child trafficking and exploitive child labor.
-
Promoting the long-term practical value of education.
-
Raising awareness of child trafficking and exploitive child labor.
-
Increasing national capacity to address the issues of child labor and trafficking in Guinea.
Working with local partners, as well as international NGOs such as ChildFund International, Plan International and SageFox, World Education will use a community-driven approach to promote action and change from within and create sustainable environments that keep children in school.
Contact Information
South India Girl Child Initiative
The South India Girl Child Initiative seeks to expand existing efforts of four local NGOs that ameliorate the social, environmental, and economic conditions that impede girls' education and decrease girls' vulnerability to sexual exploitation and abusive forms of child labor in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu States. The end goals of the Initiative are to improve the educational and health status of adolescent girls from poor and more conservative communities, and to help adolescent girls transition into primary school or training to increase their life options and decrease their risk of being trafficked or entering into other forms of child labor.
Through the Initiative, the four partner NGOs, who interact with at least 16 other small local NGOs, community-based groups, and family foundations and trusts in the region, will work individually and collectively on:
-
Improving the quality and effectiveness of their educational and social development programs for girls;
-
Developing and testing strategies to engage parents, community leaders, schools, and government officials to support, promote and advocate for girls' education; and,
-
Contributing to the development of relevant educational and social policy that is informed and shaped by the needs and realities of girls themselves.
The three-year South Indian Girl Child Initiative aims to increase life options for 1,000 vulnerable girls each year through direct interventions and upwards of 6,000 through secondary services over the course of the project. Secondary beneficiaries will include about 100 Indian NGO staff, field workers and teachers. The project will strengthen community participation and support for girls' education in general, and address the social, educational, economic, and cultural beliefs and practices that diminish the value of girls' education and promote abusive child labor practices, including sexual exploitation of children. It will also develop a model for collaboration and network-building by grassroots organizations that will drive systemic change and can be replicated in other parts of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.
Contact Information
Support to Health, Institution Building, Education and Leadership in Policy Dialogue (SHIELD)
Approximately 130,000 refugees from Burma live in refugee camps along the Thai-Burma border, and well over 400,000 live unofficially in Thai communities along the border. Some of the refugees have lived along the border for a decade or more, and have seen whole generations of children grow in the camp environment. The refugees wish to educate their children in the camp setting, so that some day they may return to Burma and actively partake in its transformation. Unfortunately, their resources for education activities are extremely limited.
World Education, working with the International Rescue Committee and funded by a grant from USAID, initiates projects to increase access to and quality of education for Burmese refugees and migrants in Thailand. World Education trains refugee teachers and school administrators, and works on curriculum development, special education, adult literacy, and materials development and production. To assist refugees and displaced people living outside of the refugee camps in Thai villages, and to the Thai villagers who host them, World Education also provides targeted education support to several Thai communities along the Thai-Burma border. All work is carried out in cooperation with other NGOs working along the border to ensure sustainability and effectiveness of the training efforts, and to create a sustainable education system that can be quickly adapted when the refugees return to Burma.
Read more in the World Ed Feature Stories: Training Refugee Teachers on the Thai-Burma Border.
and
Providing Special Education to Burmese Refugees
Website
|
Contact Information
Supporting War Victims and People with Disabilities in Laos
From 1964 to 1973 Laos suffered from some of the heaviest aerial bombing in world history, the equivalent of one planeload of bombs dropped every eight minutes around the clock for nine years. Many of the bombs did not explode on contact, and have been buried over time by soil and debris. This unexploded ordnance (UXO) has caused thousands of deaths and injuries, and continues to pose major threats to farmers and children living in the affected areas. Since 1995 the Consortium (World Education) has been assisting UXO-affected communities through the War Victims Assistance Project. Funded by USAID, the project works on upgrading the medical, surgical, and emergency services of district and provincial health facilities so that injured individuals have a greater chance of survival and full rehabilitation. UXO victims receive small cash assistance to help them restart livelihood activities after their rehabilitation. Funding for the victims assistance component has come from USAID, private donors, and from the Japanese International Cooperation Agency.
Read the following success stories about the program: Improving Services that Help Those Affected by UXO in Laos, Improving Health Care Management in Laos, and Reaching UXO Survivors in their Communities in Laos
Website
|
Contact Information
Swasthya Chautari
In Nepal, most young mothers live with their extended families and bear a disproportionately large share of the household chores, agricultural tasks, and other livelihood duties. In order to address health education needs among young mothers, the Ministry of Health (MOH) relies on the use of mass media (radio and television) and interactions by Female Community Health Volunteers (FCHVs) with the mothers. The FCHVs are the first contact that families have with the health service delivery system, and they play an integral role in the health education process, especially by referring the mothers to health facilities. However, these young mothers have little access to the mass media, and there is a significant disconnect between the knowledge of the FCHVs and that of surveyed mothers.
Through the Swasthya Chuatari program, World Education is working in collaboration with the Nepal Family Health Program (NFHP), the MOH, and its nongovernmental organization (NGO) partners to provide better health education to the women from the most disadvantaged communities. In Nepali, the Chautari is the village meeting place under a tree where members of the community come to discuss issues, rest, and socialize, while Swasthya means health. Thus, the translated meaning of Swasthya Chautari is "health forum." The goal of World Education's Swasthya Chuatari program is to provide young women with the opportunity to develop their knowledge of essential health issues and practical life skills by creating a safe, open environment for such learning to occur. The program also aims to build the capacity of FCHVs so that they can be more effective health educators of young women. This is being done through the use of World Education's GATE and HEAL curricula. The women and girls also participate in monthly learning circles and listening circles around various health topics in order to reinforce and enhance their health knowledge, as and in community awareness activities in order to share that knowledge.
Contact Information
UXO Education and Awareness Project
Unexploded ordnance (UXO) - bombs and ammunition that has not exploded - has caused thousands of deaths and injuries, and continues to pose major threats to farmers and children living in the affected areas. With support from the US Department of State's Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement, World Education has developed a UXO awareness curriculum for primary schools. World Ed has also trained teachers through the national teacher-training program to use effective, child-centered teaching methods to help children learn important lessons about UXO injury prevention.
The curriculum is taught in the most contaminated districts in the country. Each year, the project expands to more schools. This expansion is facilitated by training staff of the provincial and district Departments of Education, who in turn become trainers for new teachers entering the program. During the 2007 - 2008 school year, 1,500 schools in 37 districts are participating in the program, with some 4,500 teachers helping 165,000 students learn about the dangers of UXO.
Read the following success story about the program: Learning to Avoid Unexploded Ordnance (UXO) in Laos
Website
|
Contact Information
Using Education to Combat Abusive Forms of Child Labor in India
Child labor, particularly those forms that endanger children's health and general well being, is common in rural India. In rural Andhra Pradesh (AP), where families are highly dependent on agriculture for their livelihood, children, especially young girls (ages 8-15), are employed in the cotton seed industry. The girls -- many of whom work as bonded laborers returning loans given to their families by cotton farmers -- are often exposed to hazardous chemicals used on cotton, work long hours, and receive meager pay for their work. Many of the estimated 248,000 children employed in the cotton seed industry in AP are not attending school -- many have dropped out and almost a third have never attended.
World Education worked with a local NGO partner, Center for Applied Research and Extension (Care), that ran a school for girls rescued from the cotton seed industry. Project work focused on activities that included a basic health and nutrition plan; developing a locally relevant, life skills-centered curriculum; training of teachers and Care staff to implement the curriculum, developing follow-up programs for school graduates; designing a community outreach program to raise awareness about the hazards of child labor; and advocacy with local leaders and policymakers about education and child labor issues.
Read the following success story about the program: Helping Girls Protect Themselves in India
Contact Information
|
