In May 2016 FAWCO put out a call for proposals for the Target Program for Education. By the September 30th deadline, eighteen Target Project applications were received from members representing Regions 1, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 11, and FAUSA. On January 6th, three shortlisted projects were presented to members for them to cast their vote. On April 1st, Hope Beyond Displacement was announced as the 2017-2019 Target Project.
In this issue of Let’s Get Schooled, we introduce members to the other seventeen Target Project proposals to acknowledge the applicants and spotlight the organizations they endorse. These are VERY brief summaries of what were some very indepth and remarkable projects. I encourage you to learn more about the organizations which strike a chord with you and if you would like to know more about any project I will be glad to connect you to the applicant. We’ll start with the other two shortlisted projects and then proceed alphabetically.
Beogo Neere, a project of the TuaRes Foundation
Submitted by Ann Goossens of AILO Florence
The Beogo Neere project proposed working with 80 girls and their mothers in the Yagma slums of Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. Through its base programs The TuaRes Foundation would provide these girls with the necessary tools to be able to attend and complete school, including: material (e.g. food aid and hygienic kits), intellectual (e.g. additional classes), and psychological support (e.g. individual and group counselling on issues such as girls’ rights and responsibilities, sexual health, hygiene and sanitation and disease prevention). Mothers would be trained in profitable income generating activities, basic literacy, marketing and micro-finance, while the local community would be engaged to promote girls education and ensure project sustainability.
Threading the Future, a project of the Stahili Foundation
Submitted by Michelle Oliel of AWC The Hague
Stahili works to empower women and children to eradicate poverty and child exploitation through sustainable and community-based solutions. Its efforts are focused on vulnerable communities, with an emphasis on family and education rights, child trafficking, and children in armed conflict. Through Threading the Future, Stahili sought to: provide 62 women (heads of households) with vocational training in tailoring and business skills; establish a community center for women and girls; make or repair 600 school uniforms for vulnerable children, particularly girls; and facilitate graduates to form a Women’s Committee to support new students and engage the community.
www.stahili.org
Learn more about the Stahili Foundation by watching CNN's Freedom Project
2015 Development Grant Winner - Project Mwangi
Adolescent Nutrition Education Toolkit (ANET), a project of the Foundation for Mother and Child Health
Submitted by Dottie Wagle of AWC Mumbai
Foundation for Mother & Child Health (FMCH) is a grassroots organization based in Mumbai, which believes in a world where the potential of a child is not limited by poor health and nutrition. They focus on encouraging preventive health, balanced nutrition and child developmental practices in underprivileged communities. To achieve this they adopt a holistic approach by embracing, educating and empowering mothers and children in their social environment. The Adolescent Nutrition Education Toolkit (ANET) aims to provide nutrition education to adolescent girls, so that they are empowered to take action with regards to their own nutrition choices during this critical phase of growth. The premise of the project begins with the knowledge that malnutrition and poor health compromises girls’ abilities to learn and develop. The objective was to provide ANET to 5,000 adolescent girls trained as Youth Leaders who would in turn reach 20,000 adolescent girls and women.
Breaking the Cycle, a project of Voluntary Organization In Community Enterprise (VOICE)
Submitted by Mayra Johnson of AWC Mumbai
VOICE's key mission is to reach out to vulnerable and neglected girls who are living on the streets of Mumbai and, through education, enable them to become self-reliant, responsible and contributing citizens. VOICE believes that the potential of every girl is limited only by the education, love and nurturing she receives. In 2006 they built a residential home to care for 25 girls ages 6-18. Breaking the Cycle sought to increase their capacity to provide care for 50 girls through structural improvements to the center and hiring of professional staff.
Educate, Engage, Empower, a project of Safe Spaces
Submitted by Sherrie Zwail Enderman of AWC Amsterdam
Safe Spaces’ mission is to provide a safe space in the Eastland slums of Nairobi for girls and young women to envision and pursue the future they want for themselves and their communities through life-skills and reproductive health training and awareness, arts and sports, vocational training and academic education scholarship programs. Through Educate, Engage, Empower the program aimed to scale up education and vocational programs, community engagement, empowerment programs, and ensure a succession plan for organizational growth and stability. They expected to double the number of women and girls served, to reach 2,500 individuals each year.
www.safespaces-nairobi.org
Read Recent visit to Safe Spaces - by Sherrie Zwail Enderman
Educate Girls
Submitted by Nikita Sheth of AWC Mumbai
Educate Girls’ mission is to leverage existing community and government resources to ensure that all girls are in school and learning well. The proposed project’s goal was to bring Educate Girls services to the Sanchore block of Jalore district in Rajasthan impacting over 17,000 beneficiaries from 190 schools across 132 villages. Project objectives include Identification and enrollment of out-of-school girls, retention of girls enrolled in school, and improved learning outcomes for all children. A key intervention to achieve enrollment and retention is the implementation of Team Balika, a youth leadership program of about 1,700 volunteer girls who would engage in community outreach.
www.educategirls.in
July 2016 Brookings Institute coverage: Educate Girls Development Impact Bond could be a Win-Win for Investors and Students
June 29, 2017 Brookings Institute webinar: Year-Two Results of the Worlds First Development Impact Bond for Education
Educate the Leaders, a project of Supporting Her Education Changes a Nation
Submitted by Erica Higbie of FAUSA
Supporting Her Education Changes a Nation (SHE-CAN), has a mission to equip and empower young women from post-conflict countries to become leaders who change their nations. They seek to achieve this by providing pathways to tertiary educational opportunities in the USA, supportive mentoring and guidance, and leadership skills. The project goal is to scale up annual intake by increasing the number of scholars from 9 to 20 per year by 2019. FAWCO donations would be leveraged with over $5M in US international scholarship funds to reach young women in Rwanda and Cambodia.
Educate to Liberate, is a project of Rainbows4Children
Submitted by Elizabeth Lopez-Rigaudeau of AWC Zürich
Rainbows4Children (R4C) has a mission to break the cycle of poverty by giving children of the poorest families in Ethiopia access to top quality education. Their focus population are the children of disabled veterans of the civil war whose disabilities have held their families in extreme poverty due to limited or no ability to work. The project objective is to get disadvantaged and special needs children, with an equal representation of girls and boys, into decent work, by providing 160 students (ages 16-18) who are looking for a skills-based future due to less academic inclination, vocational training in the garment and hospitality fields.
www.rainbows4children.org
2016 Development Grant Winner - Solar Powered Showers for Health and Academic Excellence
ESL Girls Soacha Colombia, a project at Colegio Integral Femenino
Submitted by Inés E. Mayoral of AWC of Bogotá
Colegio Integral Femenino (CIF) provides kindergarten - 11th grade (highest academic grade in Columbia) education to 290 girls in Soacha, Colombia. CIF’s vision is to “Form a new generation of integral women capable of transforming the Colombian Society into a balanced society”. The project aimed to establish a standardized English as a Second Language (ESL) program for all grades, in order to strengthen English skills in the regular academic setting as well as in the vocational technical program, in order to better prepare the students for broader employment opportunities in their near future.
www.colegiointegralfemenino.com.co
Education for At-Risk Girls & Young Women in India: A Multi-Level Approach,
a project of GoPhilanthropic Foundation
Submitted by MIchele Jordan of AILO Florence
GoPhilanthropic’s mission is to identify, invest and strengthen the impact of already existing, community-based organizations providing access to education, health and basic human rights in impoverished communities. GoPhilanthropic vetted three India based organizations which provide shelter-care and educational support services for girls and young women in the marginalized red light districts of New Delhi and Mumbai. The project had a three-tier approach of 1. services to support educational progress for 100 girls, 2. organizational development of each NGO, and 3. strengthening the sector through cross-learning and collaboration between these NGOs and others in the region.
Hoopers Africa Trust
Submitted by Melissa Mash of AW Surrey
Hoopers Africa Trust (HAT) is a charity founded to transform the lives of disadvantaged girls in Kenya through education. HAT’s mission is to fund secondary education and where possible tertiary education for girls who would not otherwise be educated beyond primary school. The project sought to provide sholarships to 12 girls to achieve a tertiary education (4-year degree) in fields such as engineering, commerce, agriculture, and biochemistry.
Malawi Learn for Life Project, a project of Agape In Action
Submitted by Sarah Strand of AILO Florence
Agape in Action is dedicated to helping individuals reach their maximum potential, in mind, body and spirit, in a personal and authentic way. This project addresses women’s education and maternal mortality in the rural district of Ntchisi, Malawi by providing scholarship funds to young women in the fields of medicine and health (midwifery, nursing, health education, technician, and medical) and through community outreach in the forms of publicity campaigns and public seminars.
http://agapeitalia.org/malawi-hope-for-life/
Mini Mermaid Running Club
Submitted by Joan Niemi Evers of AWC Amsterdam
Mini Mermaid Running Club’s mission is to teach every girl to lead a healthy life by listening to her inner voice, valuing her uniqueness, learning to love movement and discovering the finish line is just the beginning. To reach the goals of increasing self-efficacy, reducing childhood obesity, and maintaining children's worth and value, they focus on three critical outcomes: increase in physical activity, increased compassion for self and others leading to decreased bullying, and increased resilience. They utilizing running, jogging and walking to achieve these outcomes. The project sought funding to provide programming for 1,250 girls (ages 8-15) over two years in high poverty communities in Leeds, UK, El Nino, Mexico and throughout the United States.
www.minimermaidrunningclub.org
NEEED
Submitted by Roberta Zöllner Munich IWC and Melissa Mash of AW Surrey
The principal mission of NEEED is to advance development in Burkina Faso through the promotion and expansion of educational opportunity, emphasizing the education of girls from primary school through postsecondary education/training with the goal of promoting their socio-economic contribution to, and their effective participation in, their communities. The project’s goal to promote the education of girls and young women at all levels in the Northern Region of the country would be achieved through two components: through the Lambs Project 304 girls from 20 villages would start primary school. The program’s sustainable strategy would ensure that future funding is available for each successive year of study; and the Postsecondary Professional Training and Education Project would provide scholarship funds to 90 young women to graduate from primary school teacher training and qualify for the government civil service test to be placed as primary school teachers where needed.
www.neeed.org
2007 Development Grant Winner - The Lambs Project in Ouahigouya
NEEED was a core program of The FAWCO Foundation from 2010-2016
Nurturing for Tomorrow, a joint project of Women for Girls and Hand in Hand Switzerland Association
Submitted by Ann DeSimoni and Sarah Wallace of IWC Genoa, and Vera Weill Halle of AWA Rome
Both Women for Girls and Hand in Hand Switzerland Association (HIHSA) have an organizational focus on education, skill development, and job creation for women, girls, and youth. This shared vision has brought them together to collaborate on the development of Nurture for Tomorrow, a pilot life skills curriculum to be implemented in Senegal and India. Testing in two distinct locations is intended to show the universality of the project with implications for future widespread use in other countries.
www.womenforgirls.org
2008 Development Grant Winner - The Mill Project in Mbousnakh
2012 Development Grant Winner - Women for Girls
2015 Development Grant Winner - Trees Grow in the Sahel
Teachers For Rural Futures, a project of Graduate Women International
Submitted by Stacy Lara of AWC Bern
Graduate Women International’s (GWI) mission is to promote and advocate for the right to quality and safe lifelong education for girls and women at all levels, to advocate for the advancement of the status of girls and women, and to enable women and girls to apply their knowledge and skills in leadership and decisionmaking in all forms of public and private life. The project intends to finance 50 female high school graduates from rural Uganda to attain their teaching qualification, Bachelor of Education degree, from Makerere University, thereby earning secondary school teacher degree and becoming ambassadors for girls’ education in their rural area. FAWCO support would fund about 20% of the project.
www.graduatewomen.org/what-we-do/projects/secondary-school-teachers-for-rural-futures/
TUNAWEZA (WE CAN!), a project of Mugumu Safe House
Submitted by Jane Romain of Munich IWC
Located in the Mara region of Tanzania, Mugumu Safe House’s mission is to both protect the health of girls by ensuring they are not subject to FGM and to empower them as full, economically independent citizens who can make decisions about how they want to live their life. To achieve their mission, the TUNAWEZA project proposed a multi-prong approach: strengthening current vocational training options and developing new programs in nontraditional gender fields like welding, carpentry, solar, revolving funds initiative to provide income generation which ultimately provides independence and freedom of choice to the women and girls they serve; community education & outreach about FGM to raise awareness of the harmful effects of this traditional practice on the individual girls and the community; and strengthen organizational governance and national outreach.
https://mugumusafehouse.wordpress.com
Graphic novel: Safe House - voices from the cutting season, by Marc Ellison