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UNFPA Distance Learning Course Development
(2009 - 2010)
World Education, Inc. is developing a distance education course for the UNFPA's tutor-assisted and self-paced learning program, Distance Learning on Population Issues. This course, Emergency Preparedness, Humanitarian Response, and Recovery, addresses UNFPA's unique mandate to provide services in reproductive health and population data management in the context of emergency situations. UNFPA (United Nations Population Fund) staff worldwide will be able to use course materials to enhance their ability to understand and implement reproductive health services in a humanitarian relief situation.
The course uses an approach that applies principles of adult education and is relevant to the many different environments in which learners work. Scenarios, case studies, and key facts are contextualized so that learners can actively engage with course content at a level appropriate to their role and geographic location.
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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.
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Creating Opportunities for Psychosocial Enhancement (COPE)
( - 2010)
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.
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Farmer Field Schools in Nepal - The Next Generation
(2002 - 2005)
The reality for young women and out-of-school youth in rural Nepal is that agriculture is a major focus of their lives. Over 82% of Nepal's population is supported by agriculture. Rapid population growth has meant that although agricultural production is increasing, levels of malnutrition are still rising. World Education is working with older girls graduating from its Girls Access to Education (GATE) Program and out-of-school youth in its Brighter Futures Program by linking them to farmer field schools (FFS).
World Education works with its nine NGO partners to identify girls and out-of-school youth who have not entered school or who have dropped out. If a community is interested, they form groups of parents and daughters or youth interested in attending a FFS. Once groups are formed, the NGO FFS trainer conducts a Farmer Field School that lasts for approximately 18 weeks, or a full cropping season. During FFS, participating farmers gather in a village field each week to compare their own standard farming practices to Integrated Pest Management (IPM) practices. The primary learning curriculum is the paddy field itself, where most learning activities take place. At the end of the season, girls, out-of-school youth, and their parents share what they have learned with the community through a Farmer Field Day. This is their opportunity to show (and show off to) the rest of the community. Farmers can proudly share what they have learned with their families, neighbors, friends and peers. Through sharing, they also recall the whole Farmer Field School experience and reinforce their own learning.
Read the following success story about the program: Taking on the Future: Building a Better Life through Education and Agriculture
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Public Health in Complex Emergencies
( - )
In a refugee crisis or armed conflict, affected communities face daunting health problems, from epidemics to psychological trauma. While many humanitarian agencies respond to such crises, too many health workers arrive in the field without sound technical knowledge and skills. World Education collaborates with the International Rescue Committee, the American University of Beirut in Lebanon, the Institute for Public Health at Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda and the Asian Disaster Preparedness Center in Bangkok, Thailand to conduct a two-week training course in Public Health in Complex Emergencies.
Intended for the staff of NGOs and local Ministries of Health who work in humanitarian emergencies, the course addresses the planning of public health interventions that impact displaced populations, including epidemiology, nutrition, and reproductive health. Participants return to their work sites better prepared to answer the question, "If there are thousands of people coming across the border and no facilities in place for them, what do we do first?"
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Resunga Mahila Project
In rural Nepal, women do not have access to credit from banks. If they borrow money from village moneylenders, they are forced to pay back the loan at unreasonably high interest rates. It is rare to hear of female community members saving money and investing those savings into livelihoods improvement because there is no mechanism for them to do so at the local level, especially in remote areas where there is little access to local markets and services.
In Nepal, "green roads" use environmentally friendly, labor-intensive construction techniques to build roads that link isolated, rural village development committees (VDCs) with district centers. In hill districts, green roads have been promoted for the development of secondary road systems to improve access to markets and services for remote VDCs. Green roads bring immediate economic benefits to communities along the road corridor. A skeletal network of "green roads" is being developed in Gulmi and Arghakhanchi Districts that will link the district centers to more remote VDCs. As part of this initiative, expansion of microfinance and economic education will be implemented to ensure that these new routes bring economic benefit to the families that surround them.
To take advantage of those benefits, World Education is working with its NGO partners in Gulmi and Arghakhanchi to reach older women with little or no literacy skills, while at the same time providing opportunities for women with limited formal education to receive relevant nonformal education. By using the Women's Economic Empowerment and Literacy (WEEL) package along the "green roads" corridors, women will increase their literacy skills, and especially their math skills, so that they are better prepared to participate in savings and credit groups and gain knowledge and skills for improving their livelihoods.
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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.
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Providing Special Education to Burmese Refugees
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