Haiti: Reviving hope through access to education

These Haitian children, shown here with a Save the Children employee, attend a one-room school in Maissade.

Haiti is the Western Hemisphere's poorest country. Forty-two percent of school-aged children do not go to school. Haitian parents and communities are committed to their children's education, but resources are scare and the needs enormous.

Save the Children's community schools provide some of Haiti's most vulnerable children access to a low-cost education. Over the past six years, 40 schools have been started. In the 2004-2005 school year, 17,278 children — 46 percent of them girls — attended schools established by Save the Children.

But moving beyond access — toward quality and sustainability — requires innovative partnerships, interventions, and external resources. What is working? On-site training of student teachers; curriculum support for interactive radio instruction that enables students to learn about civics, health, and math; and a portable school library book loan program. Many more such innovations are vital to ensuring a higher quality of education for more Haitian students.

Uganda: Chance for quality education

A teacher works with students on mathematics at a CHANCE school in Nakasongola.

In 1999, the Government of Uganda asked Save the Children to aid in its Universal Primary Education initiative begun two years earlier. The challenge was this: How to provide Uganda's hardest-to-reach school-aged children consistent access to a quality education. Save the Children's response, Child-centered Alternatives for Non-formal, Community-based Education (CHANCE) proved that success is possible — even for the most disadvantaged children.

For up to 20 percent of Uganda's school aged-children, remote formal schools are not a viable option. CHANCE offers a comprehensive educational delivery system close to children's homes. The CHANCE curriculum, broadly in line with that of the national system, is adapted to fit students' needs. Flexible school hours and calendars accomodate working children — especially those in semi-nomadic migrating communities. CHANCE also responds to social crises by integrating food security and HIV/AIDS education for children and their parents into its learning programs.

Today, 43 CHANCE schools serve 3,917 children in Nakasongola, an isolated and impoverished district in the heart of Uganada. Dropout rates are close to zero and 20 new schools are planned for neighboring districts. Save the Children is working in close partnership with Uganda's Ministry of Education to include nonformal education into the Government system. Demand is overwhelming, and, despite increased community and Government commitments to the continuation of the CHANCE schools, funding remains the biggest challenge.

Pakistan: Transitioning to a brighter future

Afghan girls study in a home-based school supported by Save the Children at a refugee camp in Pakistan

In Balochistan, Pakistan, 17-year-old Najiba is building a brighter future for herself and her students. After finishing primary school in the New Saranan refugee village, she completed a teacher training course supported by Save the Children. For the past two years, she has taught primary grades in the morning, continuing her secondary-school studies in the afternoon. Najiba uses her income to supplement that of her family and to support her studies. Her relatives respect her and frequently request her help. She says, "I feel very proud because I can read and write not only for myself, but also for others."

Since 1995, Save the Children has served as the main education implementing partner of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in the Balochistan refugee villages of southwest Pakistan. Over this time, enrollment has risen from 6,000 to 19,781; the number of girl enrolled has increased from 600 to 6,326. In all the refugee village schools it supports, Save the Children emphasizes increasing girls' access to education in conventional and home-based primary schools and improving children's learning and development opportunities through teacher training, learning assessment, and increasing parents' involvement in their children's education.