Education

Ethnic tension is rampant in Burma.  Skewed spending on defence has stagnated economic growth and development indicators are ubiquitously dubious.  The government refuses basic services to some minorities and the military targets them in ruthless bouts of conflict.  An epidemic of statelessness has emerged whereby many Burmese are internally displaced or have taken refuge in neighbouring countries.

In the hilltop highlands of Nepal’s North East, locals live a traditional subsistence existence.  Village life is built around small scale farming and yak grazing with some young men finding employment as Sherpas in mountaineering tourism.  

On one of Indonesia’s remote islands, lack of access to clean water and quality education were seen to be two of the root causes of poverty.  Having built strong ties with the community and engaged locals in the decision-making processes, our project partner has turned aspirations into realities with the installation of a water pump and the construction of a school.

Many years of high fertility rates has resulted in Kenya’s distinct youth bulge.  People aged under 30 years comprise approximately 60% of the population, of which the majority are not gainfully employed after school.

In the Solomon Islands, national literacy rates could possibly be as low as 17% (COESI & ASPBAE survey, 2007). This is in part due to a lack of access to affordable national high schools scattered across the islands.

In one of India's most impoverished rural regions, illiteracy is generational as each child gets caught in the same web of disadvantage as their parents and grandparents.  Teacher absenteeism is high, and student enrolment is low because buildings are dilapidated and roads leading to and from schools are scarcely maintained.

In the Tobasa region of Indonesia, educational biases and inequalities take many forms. Teachers arrive hours late; students with learning difficulties are harshly treated; poor families cannot afford adequate nutrition; religious favoritism weighs upon academic results; and children are denied access to education if they cannot afford the mandatory books and uniform.

In the central highlands of Ethiopia, food security is extremely fragile.  The staple diet is comprised of an unleavened bread called ‘injera’ made from teff, a low-yielding indigenous crop that requires much labour and care.  Traditional sedentary agriculture accounts for problems of overgrazing, deforestation and soil exhaustion, placing Ethiopia’s agricultural productivity levels as one of the lowest in the world.

In the slums of Egypt, trained teachers work hard to build strong relationships with vulnerable children and their families.  Community Education Centres have been set up to nurture preschoolers in their formative years to flourish with creativity and character.

Instead of going to school, many slum-dwelling children in the Philippines roam the streets begging, peddling and sometimes stealing in order to get by.  In a prominent squatter community we have a project striving to break the cycle of poverty by providing ‘catch-up’ education and vocational training to at-risk children and their families. 

The National Department of Social Welfare estimates that there are approximately 220,000 children living on the streets of towns and cities across the Philippines.  Some willingly leave their households to escape domestic violence, neglect or hunger; others are forced out by their parents to beg, scavenge or even sell themselves into prostitution or labour.

Subsistence living is ubiquitous throughout rural Uganda.  Without the capital to purchase land and scale up small enterprises, the majority of families remain fettered to their farms and single-room clay huts with little opportunity to send their children to school.

If without financial means, highly competent and motivated students in the Tobasa region of Indonesia are met with few opportunities to pursue further education upon their completion of high school.  Places at the only government university in the area are extremely limited as applications outnumber available positions by approximately ten times, so many aspiring scholars must turn to the private sector.

As Egypt’s population sprawls beyond the capacity of social services, informal residency in slums and squatter settlements is a reality for many thousands of marginalised locals. Vocational training within these urban areas has proven to be highly effective in fostering employability and life skills for a brighter future.