Oct 23

Education and Developing Countries

By Sara Ortega Cambodia, Developing Countries, Education No Comments »

Sixty-one years ago, UN leaders declared education a human right. This assertion permeated the veins of academia worldwide. But this theory, bold and sensational, was interrupted by a few blood clots known as war, disease, colonization, famine, corruption, and discrimination. What’s left are 113 million children who presently have no access to primary education and 880 million illiterate adults worldwide. This 880 million is about 2.5 times the population of the U.S. alone. What do we do now, six decades later, when theories on education need a little vitamin boost to make the practice of attaining a quality education real?

The opportunity for a child’s education is linked to his/her country’s overall quality of life. While there’s no international definition of “good quality” and “bad quality” countries, the UN lists 38 high income countries and 155 emerging market countries. Of these emerging markets, the path one navigates for any type of education can be fraught with several barriers like those social “blot clots” mentioned above.

Families need kids to contribute to household income; commuting to school might be a 2 hour trek (by foot) down the nearest main road; the nearest main road is in a war zone, children lack concentration due to hunger; school houses may be ill-equipped, perhaps non-existent; teachers are underpaid and under-resourced; the list continues.

Cambodia is in the middle of this experience. While there is a long history of formal Buddhist education (prior and concurrent to French colonization), the country has battled against a waning educational system through various government administrations. French – some semblance of Western educational structure. Khmer Rouge – physical labor in, all academics out. Current Parliament – commitment to universal education, challenged ability to carry this out. In an article from last week’s The Phnom Penh Post (“Challenges Crippling Cambodia Education”), the author discusses Cambodia’s issues, many of which take place in dozens of other countries.

“Cambodia’s education system is plagued by a range of detrimental factors including an absence of suitably qualified or trained staff, rampant corruption and a lack of morale among low-paid teaching staff coupled with the high cost of schooling…Efforts by the Cambodian government to improve education in the country should be recognised, but the work has been inconsistent and greeted with mixed results.”

While the government pledges that “education is the key to sustainable development of a nation,” there have been many challenges to make a universal education, well, universal. Many NGOs are working alongside the country’s leaders to advance the efforts more rapidly and agree that we need a conduit to make the human right of education a reality – today! There are remarkable non-profit leaders spearheading supplemental educational programs. Contending, often times, with limited resources, they too are in a precarious situation to significantly boost enrolment and retention numbers in the face of pervasive poverty.

Looking at our 113 million children worldwide, the question still remains, what do we do now? The possibilities are infinite. Some of us have the talent for political action and others for philanthropic action. So, what do we do? We do what we can because we can.

 

 

References:
Dakar Framework for Action, World Education Forum 2000

New Trend and Present Situation of Adult Learning and Education, Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sport

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Oct 16

A Day in a Cambodian Village

By admin Cambodia, Education, Mira Adventures, Mira News, Mira Partnerships 1 Comment »

“Let’s go to the villages.”

I looked at Vichetr and saw him smiling, anxious to move. It was only hours ago that I set foot in Cambodia, exhausted by the heat and morning flight; but this was why I came, and I could not pass this opportunity. Minutes later, I found myself back-strapped on his motorbike whipping through the wind.

Vichetr is the director of Sao Sary Foundation, a local Cambodian organization that is dedicated to achieving lasting improvements for children living in poverty. He spends his time roaming through the poorest villages, finding families to support and children to send to school. All of these families live under $1 a day; meaning, they are lucky enough to eat rice for that day, if at all.

“Where’s Sreyown?” Vichetr asked in Khmer as we parked our motorbike and stepped through muddy ground. Several people came out of their huts to greet us, smiling, and with praying hands raised in front followed by a slight bow. Moments later, a young girl of about twelve appeared and followed suit with this traditional South Asian greet.

Vichetr began to interview her in Khmer and then translated her story. He told me that her father died of AIDS eight years ago, and the HIV status of her mother is unknown. Because of her father’s death, their only source of income was cut, and they have no assets. Her aspiration is to graduate from medical school so that she can one day take care of her mother’s flailing health.

“It’s very common for the kids to want to be doctors. Many of them have a family member who’s ill but can’t afford healthcare”, Vichetr mentioned, “When they’re sick, they can’t work.”

“These families work hard but many times they’re exploited by loan sharks or simply lack the education and know-how to do anything about their situation. It’s a trap.”

“How do you help them?” I asked.

“What we want to do is to show them how to generate financially sustainable activities. We help them start a business, providing the necessary start-up capital, and then work with them to bring this business to profit. That way, we can self-empower the people to lift themselves out of poverty.”

Several days later I would visit a family who Vichetr helped start a sweet rice business. The startup capital was $100. The family now earns profits of $5 a day selling their sweet rice squares to the local market.

After we finished our interview with Sreyown, I refastened on Vichetr’s motorbike and we headed back down the long road that lead to the village.

Passing through the wind, I stared out at the open land filled with trees, mountains and rice fields, green and full of life. Alongside, kids splashed in pools formed by the afternoon rain while mothers nursed their babies in the comfort of shade. It’s hard to imagine that amongst such pristine land and laughter the hardships that many of them endure.   But indeed, people worked, and they worked hard. This was Cambodia at its rawest.  As we drove along, I was reminded of what Grameen Bank’s founder Muhammad Yunus said: “The poor themselves can create a poverty-free world… all we have to do is to free them from the chains that we have put around them.”

The question then is, what are those chains and what can we do about them?

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Oct 14

Value of Social Entrepreneurship

By admin Social Entrepreneurship, Social Innovation No Comments »

“Traditional philanthropy and nonprofits generate a social gain, but they do not design their programs as self-sustaining business models. A charitable dollar can be used only once. A dollar invested in a self-sustaining social business is recycled endlessly.”
– Muhammad Yunus

There is a growing belief that the traditional method for doing good, giving money to a large charitable foundation, is broken. To confront this fracture, increasing numbers of passionate individuals who are motivated by doing meaningful work have started a new movement to launch self-sustaining, value-driven social enterprises. These enterprises epitomize entrepreneurship in its purest form, which is solving common social problems in an innovative way. Social entrepreneurs pioneer new approaches to address unmet needs while charitable recipients benefit from better investment in their human capital. In sum, social entrepreneurship is an all-encompassing way for multiple parties to build social value together, leveraging an initial investment and creating a sustainable social venture out of it.

Joseph Schumpeter, an Austrian Economist, wrote about the spirit of entrepreneurship and defined an entrepreneur as someone who identifies a commercial opportunity and organizes a venture to implement it.  Similarly, social entrepreneurship is also about value creation. The motivation for a social entrepreneur is not financial payout but social change. Instead of creating economic value, social entrepreneurs focus on seeking out opportunities to create social value. They gather resources to solve issues, needs and problems that are not fulfilled by either the governments or the private sector.

Furthermore, social entrepreneurship brings together deep collaboration between the non-profit and business world. Social enterprises are beginning to operate with more business vigor to create a broader more definitive social impact. Knowledge of the business eco-system helps drive social enterprises to be more effective and efficient. In order to create a sustainable organization, there is a need to have a business model that has an immense focus on value creation. This model ultimately trickles into charitable beneficiaries’ daily lives. Specifically, they become active participants in social change rather than passive recipients of donation dollars.

Just as entrepreneurship is instrumental in the advancement of the economies, social entrepreneurship is crucial to the progress of the societies as a whole. There is an increasing importance in promoting social entrepreneurship and providing support for social enterprises. Social ventures are generally considered to be small-scale change tackling a small social problem. This is going to change. With the emergence of successful social ventures such as the Grameen bank, we have witnessed that social entrepreneurship can equally create significant impact, changing the lives of millions of people.

That is the value of social entrepreneurship.

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