©ACRA-CCS 2013
/ WHY EDUCATION
"Education is a major driving force for human development", stated UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, arguing that education "opens doors to the job market, combats inequality, improves maternal health, reduces child mortality, fosters solidarity, and promotes environmental stewardship. Education empowers people with the knowledge, skills and values they need to build a better world�1. ACRA-CCS Foundation is committed to guarantee the right to quality education, for we consider education as a key element to act on the various causes that generate poverty and discrimination. Education contributes to foster a culture of peace and human rights, of democratic participation and gender equality. Quality education allows boys and girls and their families to believe in a better future for them and for society. Access to quality education is especially important in disadvantaged rural areas, where ACRA-CCS focuses its action.
ITALY
HONDURAS EL SALVADOR
NICARAGUA
ECUADOR
BOLIVIA
CHAD
SENEGAL
INDIA
CAMEROON
BURKINA FASO
TANZANIA (and ZANZIBAR)
CONGO R.D. ZAMBIA
______________________________ 1. Source: Opening speech of the High Level Panel on Human Rights Mainstreaming, held on the 1st of March 2013, during the 22th Session of the Human Rights Council. 2
"1. States Parties recognize the right of the child to education, and with a view to achieving this right progressively and on the basis of equal opportunity, they shall, in particular: (a) Make primary education compulsory and available free to all; (b) Encourage the development of different forms of secondary education, including general and vocational education, make them available and accessible to every child, and take appropriate measures such as the introduction of free education and offering financial assistance in case of need; (…) 3. States Parties shall promote and encourage international cooperation in matters relating to education, in particular with a view to contributing to the elimination of ignorance and illiteracy throughout the world and facilitating access to scientific an technical knowledge and modern teaching methods. In this regard, particular account shall be taken of the needs of developing countries.” (Art.28 of the International Convention on the Rights of the Child, of the 20th of November 1989)
ACRA-CCS considers the Convention on the Rights of the Child as a guideline concerning children’s rights and four principles: - Non-discrimination (article n°2); - Child’s best interest (article n°3); - Right to live and to have a good development (article n°6); - Right to be listened to, to be respected and to participate (article n°12).
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/ OUR ACTIONS FOCUSED ON EDUCATION
Projects focusing on early childhood and primary school The key principle of ACRA-CCS’s approach is to strengthen the public system, in order to guarantee access, attendance and quality of education. To achieve this goal, the Foundation believes that it is important, in each country, to start a constructive dialogue with local and national authorities. Indeed, these authorities are responsible for the application of the right to education, and in particular of the right to quality, obligatory and free primary instruction. Our projects methodology is therefore based on an integrated approach, as exposed in the Chad Program. To strengthen actions based on quality education, we are working to create child friendly spaces: safe, healthy, culturally stimulating and that respect girls and boys needs. ACRA-CCS’s priority is to promote the access to a quality education for the most vulnerable groups, whose rights are often denied (women, children, refugees, ethnic minorities, migrants, persons with disabilities and people suffering from chronic poverty).
Reinforcement of the educational component in projects focused on other issues (environment, water, waste, electrification, food sovereignty) Youth education is strategic in achieving long term sustainability in projects such as the ones regarding the correct use and conservation of resources, or active citizenship. Activities are carried out both in the school and on the field.
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Technical and Vocational Formation Open to all ages and related to the various issues focused by our projects, technical and vocational training aim at creating permanent skills in the areas of intervention. In technical and vocational training we value women’s participation and stimulate autonomy and managing skills in participants.
Adult Literacy Classes, together with teacher training, provision of teaching materials and the construction of literacy centers in the villages. Such centers will become important community centers where villagers will be able to meet and share experiences.
Building networks and youth associations on the territory The creation of strong networks helps preventing young people’s migration from rural areas to urban peripheries to foreign countries, and reinforces its feeling of belonging to the community. This way, the community can recognizes its younger members as conscious and motivated citizens, able to contribute to the communitarian development and to take part in the local and national political life.
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/ THE WAY WE WORK
ACRA-CCS implements its programs and projects respecting the socio-cultural characteristics of the local populations thanks to participative strategies. ACRA-CCS recognizes the importance of the right to participate of children and young people in order to promote specific activities (thematic groups, forums, cultural exchanges). ACRA-CCS has always followed a participative approach for the implementation of its projects, this approach has been deepened with the adoption of the Human Rights Based Approach (HRBA). Therefore, we consider people who are to be educated, trained or taught literate, as rights holders. As to our approach to HRBA based education we emphasize three interdependent and mutually related dimensions: • The right to access to education, based on equal opportunities and equal inclusion, without discrimination • The right to quality education programs, in formal and informal systems • The right for children to be respected ACRA-CCS recognizes local partners established on the territory as the leading part in every phase of the projects. ACRA-CCS works to guarantee the sustainability of the access to quality education, as a decisive factor to improve the society. Furthermore, ACRACCS wants to strengthen a broader conception of education based on “Lifelong learning” especially focuses on the quality of life for women and young people. Both formal and informal education are a strategic factors of sustainability, because they allow individuals and communities to be socially active and aware of their rights and responsibilities. We are constantly researching and analyzing models of excellence, introducing innovative elements in the educational field and creating replicable best practices. These new practices will have a positive impact on the formal and informal educational systems in the various countries where ACRA-CCS is involved. For example, we give poor students the chance of obtaining good job qualifications. 6
In so doing we help them compete on the labour market or return to their families with new skills which the family business can benefit from. Finally, ACRA-CCS organizes awareness raising campaigns in order to promote education, with a constant heed to gender equality. Our goal is to make people aware of being holders of human rights, and to make them participate consciously to the management and sustainability of the educational services.
/ GIRLS AND WOMEN’ EDUCATION
Girls’ education and women's literacy can greatly improve their quality of life, both for individuals and communities worldwide. The education of girls and women helps building a society based on the recognition of differences, equality and social justice. The education of girls has very positive effects, such as the reduction of early marriages and pregnancies. It also increases the ability of mothers to raise their children and to pass on cultural, health and hygiene skills, leading thereby to a reduction in under-5 mortality rates. Children of educated women are 50% more likely to live beyond five years old and they are less at risk of contracting HIV or of catching diseases. Education makes women more independent, more capable of making their own choices and more aware of their rights. ACRA-CCS is aware of the strong correlation between local development processes and gender equality. Therefore, we consider gender as an essential element of our projects in all the countries where we operate. ACRA-CCS believes that education and literacy are key tools to increase the participation of girls and women in working life, and promotes awareness campaigns on the importance of education from the early years of life. 7
/ A COUNTRY PROGRAM: GOING TO SCHOOL IS A RIGHT!
Chad
ACRA-CCS has been operating in Chad for more than forty years, with many projects in the education sector. These projects are now developed as an organic Program managed by a Coordinating Group which meets to carry forward common aims and initiatives, ensuring a greater impact in the country. For several years, the program is implemented in various departments, scattered in different regions of Chad. In the south of the country, the intervention is taking place not only in villages but also in the 6 refugee camps, where about 60,000 people from the Central African Republic live. Their number is variable and follows the evolution of the political and social situation in their home country. In these areas the objective of the Program is to promote a process of integration between indigenous populations and refugees. To this purpose the Program works to facilitate access, to improve the quality of education and to promote a culture of peace and dialogue. To understand the kind of integrated interventions that ACRA-CCS implements, it is necessary to clarify that in Chadian rural areas, the primary education relies mostly on community schools - founded by the Pupils’ Parents Associations (APE - Associations des Parents d'Élèves; AME - Associations des Mère d'Élèves) - and community teachers, who are chosen in the villages for their mastery of certain basic skills (reading, writing and arithmetic). What are the goals of our program? Here is an example of our integrated approach to promote the right to education: • Improving the quality of education, in collaboration with public institutions, local partners and international organizations; • Promoting the access to primary school, a right that is still not guaranteed to all children; • Promoting girl education and reducing gender disparities. To this purpose creating and strengthening the AMEs is essential, since making communities aware of the importance of girl education is the AMEs’ mission;
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• Monitoring student attendance, as dropout rates are too high; • Raising awareness in the communities through national and local campaigns on the importance of education. The campaigns include: workshops in the state capital (N’Djamena) addressed to both the national and local authorities and to international partners; parents meetings; radio broadcasts in several languages; forum theater in villages; posters; brochures; t-shirts; educational materials; • Starting training activities for teachers, local authorities and Headmasters, to develop education programs on the rights of the child, environment, health and hygiene; • Promoting education of vulnerable groups (shepherd-children, minorities, disabled, refugees); • Performing structural and infrastructural interventions (schools, benches, wells, latrines); • Providing schools with teaching materials, textbooks, notebooks, dictionaries; • Promoting adult literacy, especially for women, through the construction of centers and the organization of classes; • Supporting APEs and AMEs with numerous training activities on leadership, management of funds, recruitment of teachers, schooling, peaceful coexistence; • Implementing income-generating activities managed by the APE and AME, that will contribute to the functioning of schools and provide valuable transferable skills for the implementation of further income-generating activities; • Promoting the recognition of community schools and their integration into the educational system; • Stimulating the creation of kindergartens, which are still rare in the country; • Promoting exchange programs with Italian schools based on the experience of the initiative "Twin schools beyond borders”.
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/ BEST PRACTICES: the kindergartens
ACRA-CCS supports the establishment of kindergartens as child-friendly spaces with a healthy environment, child size desks, carpets and appropriate edutainment material, in order to favour a positive impact on the children's first contact with the institution. (See photographs) ACRA-CCS considers the training of teachers and school authorities as a central element of its intervention. This enhances the quality of education through the adoption of innovative teaching methods focused on the psycho-physical development of early childhood. The permanence of children in a protected environment allows the regular checking of their health and nutrition, especially in areas at risk of malnutrition and where drinking water is scarce. Hence, the kindergartens allow to act for the prevention and family awareness. In many countries and particularly in rural areas children start going to school a year or more later than provided by the law. Supporting kindergartens help inserting children in the school system at the right age.
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/ best practices: the Professional College of Njombe
Tanzania
In Tanzania, young people and teenagers between 10 and 19 years represent 23% of the total population (estimated at 43,187,823 inhabitants in 2010), which means that one in five is part of this age group. This generation will be the driving force for changing and developing the country in the coming years. But this will be possible only if the access to quality education is guaranteed for all, especially for the poor and disadvantaged. Education & Entrepreneurship (E&E), the first non-profit social enterprise set up by ACRA-CCS Tanzania, was created to manage the Professional College of Njombe. The College is recognized by VETA (Vocational Education and Training Authority), and attended by young boys and girls -14/18 years old - coming from poor rural villages in the region. To enter the College, students must complete the seven years of primary school. The school is organized in two campuses Mfereke (Department of carpentry and masonry) and Hagafilo (agriculture and livestock). New departments will be opened gradually in the coming years, in collaboration with the institutional system of Education and Vocational Training. E&E is based on the model of "self-sufficient schools" designed by FundaciĎŒn Paraguaya. The key principle of this model is an innovative method based on teaching/learning production units which are managed by teachers and students together. These enterprises function as learning platforms for the students who have thereby the opportunity to put into practice the knowledge acquired during the course. At graduation, students will have acquired the skills they need to find a good job, to start an entrepreneurial activity or to improve their family farming. At the same time, the funds obtained from selling the goods and services produced by the students on the local market allow the school to cover its operating costs, ensuring its economic and financial viability over the long term.
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In Italy and Europe ACRA-CCS carries out actions of Global Citizenship Education (GCE). / EDUCATION GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP These are aimed to making European citizens aware of issues like development, human rights EDUCATION (GCE) and interdependence of peoples, societies and cultures. We believe that acting on the causes of poverty, exploitation and injustice is only possible if Italians and Europeans get involved in favour of a Global Citizenship based on understanding and respect, solidarity and cooperation. Deeply convinced that the world can be changed through education, we conduct activities that encourage critical thinking about values, life styles, behaviors which have an impact on development and enhance the role of individuals and communities in promoting global social justice. ACRA-CCS is aware of the changes and challenges that migration entails, and is also aware of its impact on development projects and even on the idea of citizenship. For this reason, the Foundation works with migrant communities living in Italy to promote their integration and strengthen their organizational forms. The objective is to make them become the protagonists of new synergies and innovative dynamics between Italy and their home country. According to its commitment to promote youth participation, the Foundation works with the second generation migrants, with group activities, training and promotion of active citizenship. To achieve these objectives, the project team in Italy conducts educational laboratories, training courses, projects and campaigns. These activities are addressed to schools, youth groups, associations, migrant organizations, local institutions, universities and citizens, and implemented in partnership with them. Various topics are covered: food sovereignty, water and environment, migration and interculturality, education and rights, financial education. These actions are mainly implemented in Lombardy, Liguria and Sardinia, and they are financed by the European Union, the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, bank foundations, local institutions, companies and even schools. 12
Some best practices • Capacity building of migrant associations: in recent years we have been working with migrant associations, mainly from Ecuador, Senegal and India, carrying out training on institutional strengthening, project formulation, intercultural education and administrative management. • Water and active citizenship education: the "Acqua Bene Comune" project was carried out over 5 years and involved more than 2,500 students. These students made a significant creative work, at school and on the territory, to promote a new culture of water as a human right and a common good. • Interculturality and food sovereignty through Web 2.0: teenagers from 16 schools shoot video, take pictures, post their ideas about food and agriculture, and carry on real time interaction between Italy, Uganda and Senegal, thanks to blog Eathink 2015. • Twin schools beyond borders: is an education partnership that enabled the creation of a dialogue between teachers and pupils from Italy and Chad. They developed together shared paths on identity, water and school gardens. Recently, the twinning programme was also extended to Italian and Zambian schools to promote mutual knowledge and intercultural dialogue.
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Twin schools beyond borders
/ TWIN SCHOOLS BEYOND BORDERS
Acknowledging the need for quality education in the North and South, as well as the importance of promoting intercultural dialogue and mutual understanding, ACRA-CCS launched in 2005 the Program “Twin schools beyond borders”. This initiative has two objectives. First, to promote solidarity and to support basic quality education in rural schools in the South of the world thanks to the mobilization of Italian schools and municipalities. And second, to allow Italian and African school communities (parents, children, teachers, etc.) to share enriching path made of exchanges and mutual understanding.
Italy-Chad
From 2005 to 2013, the initiative of twinning schools has connected schools of the Lombardy Region in Italy with community schools of the Guéra in Chad. Chad is one of the poorest countries in the world, in which the majority of the population is still illiterate. "Twin schools beyond borders" brought together 73 schools, 482 classes, 19,726 students and 488 teachers from Italy and Chad, to achieve: • Training and training and refresher courses for community teachers in Chad; • Introductory classes about Chad and its history for Italian teachers; • Workshops of drawing, horticulture and hygiene in Chadian classes and intercultural workshops (about human rights or natural resources) in Italian classes; • Provision of educational materials and school equipment for Chadian schools; • Provision of research materials about selected issues for Italian teachers; • Exchange of materials between schools; • Exchange visits between Italy and Chad. In addition, thanks to the support of schools, parents, local institutions and associations of the territory, the following achievements were made possible in Chad: construction of 60 buildings; awareness activities on the importance of education in 20 villages; training courses for the APE in charge of the schools; 20 schools were equipped with, well, double latrines, vegetable garden (managed by both teachers and students) and school canteen (run by APE mothers );14 community fields were stared to ensure the schools’ self sufficiency.
Italy-Zambia
Starting from 2013 ACRA-CCS has extended its initiatives and has launched "Twin schools beyond borders" bringing together Italian schools, from Lombardy and Liguria, with 11 schools from the area of Chipata in Zambia. Zambia ranks 163rd in the Human Development Index, and the majority of the population lives below the poverty line. Education is still very poor: literacy rate is currently around 71.2%, and decreases significantly as distance from urban centers increases. Our project is based on solidarity, mutual understanding and exchange of experiences between Italian and Zambian students. It will give a practical support to the education of 6,818 Zambian children, and will help to increase awareness and sense of responsibility on the North/South problems and contradictions thematic world in Italian schools.
ly Ita
North South
zambia
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/ ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION
Environmental education is an integral part of global citizenship education. ACRA-CCS develops both formal and informal environmental education activities in the various countries where it conducts projects focused on natural resources and energy. We act to promote a culture and mentality of respect for the planet ecosystems. By implementing environmental education activities, ACRA-CCS aims to promote a sustainable use of natural resources and the adoption of individual and collective behaviors of respect and preservation of the environment. Some best practices • Teacher training courses with the purpose of promoting the introduction of environmental education classes into primary and secondary school curricula and, in so doing, promoting the introduction of innovative methods and contents, in agreement with both local and national government. • Workshops with activities in the classrooms together with guided tours allowing a direct understanding of the environmental issues dealt with in the projects (water, waste, green energy). • Production of educational kits including a guide book for teachers, and structured information about environmental education for students. Materials in French produced in Burkina Faso are being used in francophone African countries and those in Spanish produced in Bolivia and Nicaragua are being used in the countries of South and Central America. • Creation of educational materials with the objective of raising awareness in communities and schools, in order to stimulate creative activities about environmental issues, at school and in extracurricular events (presentations, videos, Theatre of the Oppressed, recycling). • Organization of ecological brigades and other forms of youth association on the territory, to stimulate a better understanding of the environment and its resources through concrete actions of protection aimed to raising awareness (garbage sorting, green days). • Implementation of environmental education classes for citizens and local authorities. • Creation of three museums of local culture, history and archeology: the Museum of the archipelago of Solentiname (MUSAS) in Nicaragua, the Museum of Diapaga in the proximity of the W River Park (Parc W) in Burkina Faso, and the Museum Rumicucho Ecuador. The three museums offer educational tours to discover and understand the territory they are inserted in. 16
ACRA-CCS is member of:
• The Global Campaign for Education (CGE)
• The Working Group on the Convention on the Rights of the Child
• Coordination for the Rights of Childhood and Adolescence (PIDIDA)
• The Coordination of Global Citizenship Education of CoLomba - The Association of Organizations of International Cooperation and Solidarity of the Lombardy Region.
Support ACRA-CCS Bank account: Banca Popolare di Milano - IBAN: IT 54 T 05584 01706 000000009075 Credit card on line: www.acraccs.org
Foundation ACRA-CCS MILAN Social and operative headquarter via Lazzaretto 3 - 20124 Milan, Italy T +39 02 27000291 / 02 40700404 - F +39 02 2552270 www.acraccs.org