Angus Lawson Memorial Trust reports from Cambodia

After generously contributing nearly $27,000 this year to our Girls' Access to Education project in Banteay Meanchey, the Angus Lawson Memorial Trust headed to Cambodia to meet the girls in October. Here are just a few impressions they brought back:

Residential Homes – "We visited three residential homes for girls attending high school. Their ages range from 16-22 because many have only attended school sporadically and continually have to restart the year they didn’t complete. Girls in residential housing must live over 8km away from the school and each are given a bike so that they can travel home at the weekends. The roads in Cambodia can be very difficult to travel on - at one stage our 4x4 had to be towed by a tractor through a particularly flooded stretch.

The houses are rented from local families and cost around US$40. In some of the houses, the owners continued to live on the ground floor with the girls upstairs, in another of the houses the girls lived alone. We had some concerns with this but apparently the owners are normally connected to the school, and in the houses where the girls live alone, the project has good relations with the neighbours and asks them to keep an eye out for any problems. It should be noted that almost all of the girls are over 16 years of age and not as vulnerable as younger girls might be. The girls also receive regular visits from the CWCC Programme Officers and almost all have access to mobile phones.

The houses were basic but seemed to be kept very clean with the girls dividing the chores amongst themselves. There were no beds, with girls using mats on the floor, but this seems to be the same as what they would use in their family houses. Most had electricity although one was dependent on paraffin lamps. All of the girls we met seemed very happy, giggling teenagers who enjoyed their studies. The majority wanted to further their studies and become teachers, so they could return to their home villages and help their communities. Nursing was also a popular choice."

University Residential Home – "We also visited a residential home for eight girls attending the local university situated just 100 metres away. Six of the girls had scholarships to study Korean language and literature (Korea is one of Cambodia’s biggest development partners). The two other girls were studying finance and banking. The owners lived on the ground floor of the house. As with the girls we had met in Phnom Penh, the girls each received a stipend of US$2.50 a day along with funds for tutoring and textbooks.

The GATE programme is clearly performing very well, with a dropout rate for 2011 of 0%. We were very impressed by everything that we saw. Lotus Outreach clearly has a very dedicated team, committed to ensuring that they are doing the best they can for each of the girls. There is a very effective model for monitoring and evaluation and the programme is flexible enough to continually evolve to meet the emerging need. Therefore if there is an opportunity for the ALMT to continue its contribution to this work then we would wholeheartedly support it."

We at Lotus Outreach would like to thank the Angus Lawson Memorial Trust not only for its financial support of the GATE project, but for its enthusiastic engagement with us on every level. For instance, members of the Trust didn't just go see the beneficiaries they support - they stopped by our SMART and CTC projects, too! We are truly fortunate for to have such a fantastic partner, and we look forward to a new year together in 2012.

Boys back up the Girl Effect

This post was so good, we just had to borrow it. Julie Trell of Salesforce.com brought this report back from Uganda, which she shared on the blog of a fellow Girl Effect champion, 10x10. Above the video is Julie's narrative of what took place, and below the video is a transcript of one boy's argument in favor of educating girls.

Julie:

"Youth never ceases to surprise and I was reminded of this on a recent trip to a school in Uganda. I had a chance to visit Sr. Miriam Dugan Primary School in Kamwokya, a slum in Kampala, Uganda. I dropped in on a class where 70-100 students, crammed into desks, were practicing their debating skills.

The topic at hand was whether Africa should continue to receive foreign aid. I found myself very impressed with the students’ ability to articulate and debate the weighty issues at hand, and I decided to pose a question to further the discussion: What are your beliefs on the importance of girls education? One young boy stood up and eloquently presented the following:"



Student debater:

"Yes, yes, it's just a very good question. Because, you see, these girls are not what most people perceive them to be.
Now, there's one problem, the older generation, think like the way things were done is the way they are supposed to be done now. And in the future for ever and ever. But this is not the right mentality, because, these people are also brilliant. They can be of use to a country like Uganda. Which badly..and you see, there's something that I've realized, most girls at advanced levels they take science, which is very surprising for me. And you see, Uganda needs more scientists now. To find that we have only one female engineer in Uganda is very embarrassing to me. Very embarrassing.
But with education, you find that this thing is going to be solved. And Uganda is going to be as developed as America or any other country."

Is that impressive, or what?

Do your holiday shopping from our Facebook page!

Shop, and feel good!We owe you some thanks for practicing ShopAnthropy for Lotus Outreach. As you may remember, we trumpeted the arrival of the Nonprofit Shopping Mall widget with much ado this summer, and we're pleased to say that the contributions received since we published that blog on May 25 tripled the amount we received in the six months prior - so thank you!

The good news doesn't end there - shopping to earn free money for our causes in India and Cambodia just got easier. Now all you need to do is visit our Facebook page and look for the tab on the left side that reads "Donate by Shopping Here." You'll find it under our profile picture, between "Info" and "Photos."

Click on it, and - Presto! Before your eyes will appear a list of 40 hot retailers like Amazon.com, Target, Netflix and ProFlowers. We've got less than a month left in 2011, but it's the busiest shopping month of the year we want to double our earnings! Will you help us?

Just a click away from free donationsIf you think it's easier to install a widget that will track any and all  eligible purchases made on your computer, the procedure is simple. The downside? The shopping widget is only compatible with Firefox and Internet Explorer. Those of you who browse with Google Chrome can still earn charitable dollars through your online purchases, but you must either open a compatible web browser to shop with the widget, or stop by our Facebook page before visiting your favorite retailers.

The power of micro-philanthropy is in numbers, so be sure to tell your friends and family how easy it is to contribute to the cause that is close to your heart. Share this blog, write a post on Facebook, or talk, talk talk about why you love LO. Nothing inspires action like passion!

The Literacy Lightswitch

by Glenn Fawcett
Lotus Outreach Director of Field Operations

A Lettered WomanWhile we have always been aware of the importance of numeracy and literacy, during the course of interviews with dozens of Non-Formal Education students during my recent monitoring visit on November 17 and 18, I became aware that literacy does more than impact on self worth, and it does more than increase a girl’s capacity to identify and undertake further study and training toward better life options. For many of the women in NFE, attaining literacy is very much like switching the light on in a dark room.

On many occasions the students confirmed that learning reading and writing had a profound impact on their self-esteem as well as the way others regarded and treated them. For instance, before they could read, many tended to stay home rather than put trust in taxi drivers to know where they were and how much it cost to get there, or even to receive back correct change. As women they are already highly vulnerable; as women who can’t read or do math, even more so.

Being able to read road signs, read billboards with health advice, add and subtract and eventually, and interpret and sign simple contracts profoundly lessens a Cambodian woman’s dependence on others and and amplifies her sense of self reliance. The themes of autonomous decision-making and critical thinking were repeated to me again and again on the basis of the prompt, “How has literacy and numeracy changed your life?”

There is sufficient evidence to suggest that those choosing work in the entertainment or sex industries are easily persuaded due to having to trust others to find their way. Lack of money greatly restricts mobility and increases reliance on others to get around. Without mobility it’s very difficult to achieve even basic life objectives. NFE students often describe their developing literacy as coming out of a blankness where they could only rely on others, and into a clarity where they could analyze and decide for themselves based on available options. The class curriculum is geared to enable this type of development.

During the interviews the second important benefit of the NFE course that surfaced is in health care and disease prevention. For young women engaged with multiple partners, avoiding unplanned pregnancies and STDs is fundamental to their survival. Knowing about their bodies, especially where gynecological health is concerned, is of primary importance.

After establishing literacy and thereby sparking the development of critical thinking, the young women of NFE are assisted in creating a life-plan. The steps toward achieving it often include skills training to qualify them for jobs other than beer promotion, karaoke and massage – all of which are slippery slopes toward prostitution.

Help LO partner with The Girl Effect Fund this October 19

As you may have read in our newsletter, Lotus Outreach has an incredible opportunity to join forces with an international powerhouse dedicated to beating poverty by empowering girls. The Girl Effect, a movement created by the Nike and Novo Foundations, has teamed up with the online philanthropic marketplace GlobalGiving to launch a fundraising challenge to organizations capitalizing on the power of females.

Lotus Outreach has already made the first cut! We proposed our Blossom Bus project and the Girl Effect Challenge accepted. Guaranteeing that 100 young women in Mewat, India can attend secondary school is a cause that deserves a chance to win.  

Twelve projects will be spotlighted on the Girl Effect’s GlobalGiving fundraising page for one full year, granting what for many of them will be unprecedented exposure to tens of thousands of donors. Spots will be given to six projects that attract the largest number of unique donors, and the next six will be selected based on innovation and impact.

We want to secure our place among the first set. The organizations which receive donations from the most donors - not the most money - will win. Once the contest opens on October 15, we need YOU to rally your friends and family to donate to the Blossom Bus.

The minimum donation is $10, and we're sure that our fans (YOU!) can bring in more of those than about 50 other projects in the running. The Challenge will remain open until November 15, but another campaign offered by GlobalGiving makes one day better than all the rest: October 19. On that day GlobalGiving is giving away $100,000 to match all donations (up to $1,000) 30 percent. On Wednesday the 19th, every $10 donation to the Blossom Bus receives an extra $.30; every $100 donation receives a $30 bonus, and a $1,000 donation picks up a cool $300.

Not excited about the Girl Effect yet? Check out this video by FITE, and we bet you'll be ready to jump on the Blossom Bus, too.