KEF began in 2005 when its founder Bradley Broder, a former Peace Corps volunteer, set up a fund to help seven students attend high school. His program expanded to include destitute students from urban slums, rural villages, and nomadic communities across the country as Bradly found other sponsors for needy teenagers. In January of this year, and after two years of cooperation, Kenya Education Fund merged with Aid for Africa member Nomadic Kenyan Children’s Educational Fund and expanded its program to provide nomadic students with high school scholarships. The leadership of these two organizations saw value in pooling their resources and streamlining the administration and stewardship of both programs into one. Today KEF supports more than 500 students in 240 high schools across all eight provinces in Kenya. Funds for tuition, text books, uniforms and other necessities come from donors assigned to individual students whose progress they can track through regular correspondence. The fund maintains an equal distribution of boys and girls and nomadic and non-nomadic students.

In addition to formal education, KEF students participate in mentoring workshops where they learn study skills, gain networking opportunities, and receive HIV/AIDS prevention education. The workshops are led by inspirational Kenyan speakers and counselors who highlight the importance of Kenya’s indigenous culture. KEF also provides computers from corporate donors to schools. In exchange, the schools waive fees for severely disadvantaged students. The students in turn learn valuable computer skills that prepare them for university enrollment.

Learn more about the Kenya Education Fund by visiting their new website and find out what other Aid for Africa members are doing to make education more widely accessible in Sub Saharan Africa on our blog.

Angolan students outside a school built by RISE International and their partners.

This September throughout the United States, school-age children picked up their books and lunch money and headed off to school. They look forward to doing that every year through their time in high school and, for many, through college. Children of Africa are not so fortunate. Of the 68 million children worldwide not enrolled in school, almost half – 32 million – live in Sub Saharan Africa.

There has been progress in raising enrollments, largely due to the elimination of school fees in many African countries. Between 1999 and 2009, the percentage of children enrolled in elementary school in Sub Saharan African increased from 58 to 76 percent (for the developing world as a whole it was 89 percent).

But once a student enrolls in school in Africa, staying in school becomes the challenge.  High poverty rates often lead families to pressure children to work instead of attending school – especially as they get older. Health problems caused by poor nutrition, waterborne diseases, malaria and HIV/Aids lead to students dropping out of school.  A shortage of classrooms and qualified teachers present additional obstacles. As a result, today more than 30 percent of primary school students in Sub Saharan Africa drop out before completing elementary school.

Aid for Africa members are helping poor students go to school and stay in school. Arlington Academy of Hope has created a school in rural Uganda that uses the US approach to education, which focuses on a child’s self worth as a path to achievement.  The organization tackles health concerns by operating two community clinics linked to the school in partnership with Aid for Africa member the  Foundation for International Medical Relief of Children. Nearly all of the Academy’s more than 300 students advance to high school.

In rural Angola, where years of civil war have led to a shortage of classrooms and facilities, RISE International partners with local churches and government officials to build schools. Since 2003 they have built 135 schools and provided the opportunity for over 60,000 students to attend.

For older students, attending high-school usually means paying fees they cannot afford. As a result, Sub Saharan Africa has the lowest percentage of high school graduates in the world – 30 percent in 2007. To address this need the Kenya Education Fund recruits individuals and families from around the world to sponsor Kenyan students and pay their annual $600 tuition.

To learn more about all of our members working to improve education in Sub Saharan Africa visit members that work in education.

Children at the Sabina school enjoying fresh vegetables with their meal.

For the last three years in Rakai, Uganda, students and teachers at the Sabina School, an elementary boarding school supported by Aid for Africa member Children of Uganda, have been learning to grow their own food sustainably. Since the program began three years ago, students and teachers have planted some 100 fruit trees, including mango, jackfruit, avocado, and pawpaw.  They have also added tanks to store water collected during the rainy season to be used year-round in their gardens and have learned to compost and raise chickens. The result: Students now supplement their traditional diets of corn porridge with potatoes, carrots, beets, pumpkins, eggplants and other vegetables. Not only are the students eating better, they are also serving as examples to others.  The Sabina teachers who created the program are now working with Uganda’s Department of Education to replicate it in other schools around Uganda—which they hope will ensure a sustainable program!

The Sega Girls School is working toward becoming a full sustainable, self-supporting operation.

In Tanzania, teachers and students of the Sega Girls School in Morogoro, which began in 2008 with support from Aid for Africa member Nurturing Minds, produce fresh food used by the school community.  The school’s curriculum emphasizes environmental care and includes identifying and planting fruit and other indigenous trees.  The school uses solar panels, harvests rainwater for gardening year-round and works to minimize the school’s environmental impact.  As their programs grow, the school community hopes to become self-sufficient through student- and teacher-run small businesses.  Sega School is located in the foothills of the Uluguru Mountains, which are part of the Eastern Arc–a region that serves as the water catchment area for urban populations downstream and critical animal and plant biodiversity.  As a result, the girls attending Sega are learning how human activities affect the environment and how to better manage natural resources.

As Children of Uganda and Nurturing Minds provide their students with the tools they need to achieve in school, they are also imparting life-long lessons of sustainability and self-reliance.

Find this post interesting? Please LIKE it and leave a comment on Facebook to help spread the word. Raising awareness is the first step to promoting positive change in Africa.

Aid for Africa member the John Dau Foundation established the Duk Lost Boys Clinic, the first ever medical facility in the region. In a country that has only one trained doctor for every 100,000 people, the clinic serves as a beacon of light for the 75-150 patients cared for each day. Since 2007 more than 52,000 patients have received life-saving treatment for Malaria, HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and other diseases. More than 100 Sudanese have been trained in medical care and 18 international doctors have visited and worked at the Clinic for up to four weeks at a time. The clinic, was started by John Dau who as a boy walked more than 1,000 miles from South Sudan to a refugee camp in Kenya helping thousands of other children along the way. In the award-winning documentary God Grew Tired of Us his experiences as a Sudanese refugee trying to live the American dream were chronicled.

Congratulations to the Republic of South Sudan on its independence. We will continue to  follow its progress in the months ahead.

Tostan program participant in The Gambia leads a discussion on the different stages of pregnancy. Photo: Bjorn Westerdal

US First Lady Michelle Obama drew the world’s attention to the plight of women and youth in Sub Saharan Africa during her recent trip to South Africa and Botswana. In the third blog post in our series about the UN’s Millennium Development Goals we focus on Millennium Goal 3: promoting gender equality and empowering women.

According to the United Nations, women in Sub Saharan Africa represent a shocking 70 percent of the overall poverty burden due in part to a lack of access to education,  business credit and financial services. Only one in three jobs outside of the agricultural sector are currently held by women, often at lower wages and with little room for advancement. The percentage of employed men who own their own business is three times as many as it is for employed women in Sub Saharan Africa. And millions of women suffer from domestic abuse, rape, and other forms of violence throughout the continent.

Aid for Africa member Tostan has made huge strides in improving women’s rights in Sub Saharan Africa. Working in remote regions in ten countries, the organization provides holistic, participatory classes in human rights, hygiene, health, literacy, and project management to adults and adolescents who have not had formal schooling. Through a unique approach, Tostan encourages the use of local rituals and customs, including plays, songs and dances to spread these teachings to the rest of the community.

More than half of the participants are women and many take on leadership roles that help elevate their status within the community. Men and boys are especially encouraged to particpate in human rights discussions, which helps establish new social norms that respect the rights of women. Knowledge is shared between communities as well, leading to new ways of thinkng across regions. For example, Totsan has helped facilitate public declarations where communities come together to renounce female genital mutilation and child/forced marriages. More than 5,300 communities have participated to date. Since 1991 more than 200,000 people have participated in the programs, which have affected directly or indirectly more than two million people.

Building understanding of the importance of women as equal partners in families and communities in Sub Saharan Africa does not have to be contentious or minimize the importance of culture.  By involving all members of families and communities in the discussion, Tostan has found that new understandings of the role and importance of women in society can and are being formed.

Find this post interesting? Please LIKE it and leave a comment on Facebook to help spread the word. Raising awareness is the first step to promoting positive change in Africa.

Kenya Education Fund scholars attending primary school in Kenya.

In the second blog post in our series about the UN’s Millennium Development Goals we focus on Millennium Goal 2: Ensure that by 2015, children everywhere are able to complete a full course of primary schooling.

The World Bank estimates that there are 115 million children not attending school worldwide — 43 million of them in Africa. Some notable successes have been achieved since the goal was declared in 2005. In Ethiopia for example, three million more children are now in school than in 2,000 and in Tanzania education is nearly universal. Both are the results of increased government expenditures on education and concerted efforts to increase school enrollment. However, one of the goal’s targets – to have an equal number of boys and girls in school by 2005 has not been realized. Today, only 1 in 4 girls living in poverty attends school. In eleven African countries, 80 percent of children not in school are girls. Needless to say, without addressing the gender gap universal primary education will never become reality.

The Aid for Africa Girls Education Fund, addresses this gap by providing educational scholarships and stipends for girls. It does this through grassroots organizations already embedded in the community that know first-hand how to overcome challenges associated with cost, culture and tradition. Two participating organizations are Children of Uganda, which for more than a decade has been providing education and support to hundreds of AIDS-related orphans and other vulnerable children, and Kenya Education Fund, which provides high-school scholarships to needy girls throughout Kenya.

The fund provides an excellent return on its investment. The average annual cost to send a girl to high school in the United States is about $7,750. In Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania it is $650 – meaning 12 girls can go to school in Africa for the price of one student in the United States. Also, when a girl receives an education and earns an income, they put 90 percent of their earnings back into their family compared to 40 percent for men. They are also more likely to have fewer children and less likely to contract HIV/AIDS.

Find this post interesting? Please LIKE it and leave a comment on Facebook to help spread the word. Raising awareness is the first step to promoting positive change in Africa.

When Ann graduated from the university she said: “My gratitude is too much to be expressed in words . . . All that I have achieved for the last seven years is all because of [this program]. I am well educated, respected, and can apply for a very good and well paying job. To all those in the program, please use the opportunity that life has given you because with Growth Through Learning  in your life, good things are coming your way  . . .  it changed my life.”  Ann now works as an internal auditor for Care International.

Programs that help African girls and young women attend high school and university are life-changing to their participants. The late Roger Whiting, the founder of Growth Through Learning, knew this when he pulled together support for the organization’s first 12 scholarships in 1998.  Since then, Growth Through Learning has provided some1,900 scholarships to deserving girls and young women. The organization’s vision is “a world where all women receive the education they need to realize their own potential and fulfill their aspirations for themselves, their families, and their community.”  Growth Through Learning is a participant in the Aid for Africa Girls Education Fund.

Caroline was born in 1985 in Loitokitok, Kenya, to illiterate and very poor parents living the traditional Maasai pastoral life.  Like most Maasai men, Caroline’s father did not believe in educating girls.

When Caroline was a young child, educated women would occasionally come to Loitokitok for meetings with the local women. Caroline was struck by their “power,” and realized that this power could only be obtained through education.  She begged to go to school, and her mother took her. Because she was an excellent student, she was able to get scholarships through primary and secondary school.

After high school, Caroline wanted to go to medical school, but she had no means to pay for it.  Aid for Africa member Maasai Girls Education Fund offered her a scholarship. In December 2008 Caroline graduated from the Kenya Medical Training College with a nursing diploma, and she has since been working at a clinic near her home in Loitokitok, the only female Maasai medical professional ever in the town.  The clinic was started by Aid for Africa member Africa Infectious Disease Village Clinics, which is committed to help provide healthcare to the pastoral Maasai.  Says Caroline,“Something that makes me happy is that I went out of my community empty, but I came back as a professional and a role model to so many people. “

Want to learn more about how education is changing the lives of Maasai girls and women like Caroline? Watch Only through Education, an inspiring video.

Many of Aid for Africa members are working to change this.  The Aid for Africa Girls Education Fund is working to increase the number of girls and young women who go to school and stay in school.  While many of our members help girls and boys go to school, a number of our members focus exclusively on getting girls and young women into school or training programs.  These members include The Boma Fund, the East African Center for the Empowerment of Women and Children, Growth Through Learning, and the Maasai Girls Education Fund.

Throughout March, in honor of the 100^th anniversary of International Women’s Day, Aid for Africa is proud to highlight some of the extraordinary women who are part of the Aid for Africa family through a series of blogs.

Vice President Walter Mondale and Former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, co-chairs of Books For Africa's Law and Democracy Initiative, attend meeeing announcing partnership between Books For Africa and Thompson Reuters.

As the dust settles after events in Tunisia and Egypt, the hard part of building true democracies from the ground-up has only just begun. Established rule of law, a thriving civil society, and a flourishing educational system will all be crucial to a successful outcome.

In Sub-Saharan Africa, democracy building is also ongoing. Depending on the country, how this happens in Sub-Sharan Africa is different than in the Middle East—in many cases, law schools and bar associations possess only a few old tattered law and human rights books. Aid for Africa member Books For Africa is working to change this. In partnership with Thomson Reuters, it will provide US $1.2 million worth of law books and materials to law schools in the region during the next several years. The partnership is in support of Books For Africa’s Law and Democracy Initiative, which was formed to further the rule of law in Africa. Vice President Walter Mondale, who co-chairs the program with Kofi Annan, voiced his hope that the law books would nurture home-grown respect for “the rule of law, including the right to vote in free and fair elections, or the right to establish a business without the threat of militia rule or extortion.” A key component of the program was selecting the more than 350 titles most critical to build resource libraries, supply classroom texts, and provide the necessary background sources on human rights. Law and Democracy Initiative Director Lane Ayres made the selection process her priority.

As part of its overarching goal to combat illiteracy, Books For Africa has shipped more than 20.5 million textbooks and library books to 45 African countries since 1988.