Dhamira Moja Youth Group social enterprise profile

Dhamira Moja Youth Group (DHAMO) is a community based organization founded on the principal of empowering young adults who lack skills and have little or no formal education in Kenya’s Busia County.

The Dhamo idea is an African-born global grassroots movement connecting the privileged young (and young at heart) to issues of poverty in Africa and providing them with a framework for action. Anyika Khaimba, the Executive Director was kind enough to answer a few of our questions regarding Dhamira Moja.

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2012 SNCR Excellence in New Communications Awards

The Society for New Communications Research (SNCR) Awards honor the work of corporations, governmental and nonprofit organizations, educational institutions, media outlets and individuals who are innovating the use of social media, ICT, mobile media, and collaborative technologies in the areas of business, media, and professional communications, including advertising, marketing, public relations, corporate communications, and CRM, as well as entertainment, education, politics, and social initiatives.

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Best Buy College Innovator Fund

Best Buy is uncovering the next generation of innovators! Through its College Innovator Fund, Best Buy will award cash prizes totaling $100,000 for the next big product or software idea in the areas of technology, sustainability, education, or other related field. The winner gets $50,000 prize money and a mentorship opportunity. Two runners-up will each be awarded $20,000. A “fan favorite” will win a $10,000 prize.

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VGIF Small Grants for Grassroots Projects

The Virginia Gildersleeve International Fund (VGIF) is providing small grants for grassroots projects that empower women and girls in developing countries. It supports women’s organizations based outside of the United States by providing small grants for an array of community needs up to $7,500 USD.

The areas of support are:

• Community development
• Health and nutritional support
• Literacy and leadership training
• Educational seminars and workshops
• Women’s human rights
• Organizations that are governed and directed by women.

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Qatar Foundation WISE Education Leadership Program

October 7 – 10, 2012

Doha, Qatar

 

About the Program

The WISE Education Leadership Program was launched at the Qatar Foundation’s inaugural World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE) in 2009 to support current and emerging leaders in higher education around the world.

This four-day workshop aims to help prepare the next generation of global higher education leaders to manage the challenges and opportunities that lay ahead.

The goals of the WISE Education Leadership Program are to develop the leadership and administrative skill sets of new university presidents and serve as an enabling environment for change and development. The WISE Education Leadership Program will provide experience-based training through case studies, workshops, expert speakers and role-playing exercises.

Key topics that will be covered during the WISE Education Leadership Program include:

• Best Practices in Institutional Management
• Principles of Leadership and Variety of Academic Leadership Styles
• Institutional and Personal Agendas/Goals
• Coaching and Team Building
• Decision Making
• Working with Governing and Advisory Boards
• Managing Academic Personnel and Resources

 

Participation in the WISE Education Leadership Program is free of charge. The Qatar Foundation will also provide round-trip airfare to Doha, hotel accommodations, local transport, meals and conference materials.

The WISE Education Leadership Program is being organized by the International Association of University Presidents (IAUP), the Institute of International Education (IIE), the Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU) and Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie (AUF).

 

Eligibility

Presidents, vice-chancellors, and other heads of tertiary education institutions appointed to the current position after January 1, 2011 are eligible to apply to the third WISE Education Leadership Program that will take place in Doha from October 7 – 10, 2012.

All applications must be received by July 3^rd 2012.

Participants who are selected for the program will be notified by the end of August.

Get more information on how to apply

Find more fellowship opportunities

Aga Khan International Scholarships for Meritorious Students

The Aga Khan Foundation provides a limited number of scholarships each year for postgraduate studies to outstanding students from developing countries who have no other means of financing their studies.

Scholarships are awarded on a 50% grant : 50% loan basis through a competitive application process once a year in June or July. The Foundation gives priority to requests for Master’s level courses but is also willing to consider applications for PhD programmes, when doctoral degrees are necessary for the career objectives of the student.

Requests will also be considered for travel and study awards for PhD students doing their research in Third World countries on topics judged to be of interest to the Aga Khan Development Network.

These scholarships are available in countries including:

• Bangladesh,
• India,
• Pakistan,
• Afghanistan,
• Tajikistan,
• Syria,
• Egypt,
• Kenya,
• Tanzania,
• Uganda,
• Mozambique,
• Madagascar,
• France,
• Portugal,
• UK,
• USA and Canada where the Foundation has branches.

The main criteria for selecting award winners are:

• excellent academic records,
• genuine financial need,
• admission to a reputable institution of higher learning and
• thoughtful and coherent educational and career plans.

Preference is given to students under 30 years of age.

The Foundation assists students with tuition fees and living expenses only. The cost of travel is not included in AKF scholarships. Applicants are requested to make every effort to obtain funding from other sources as well, so that the amount requested from the Foundation can be reduced to a minimum. Preference is given to those who have been able to secure some funding from alternative sources.

Half of the scholarship amount is considered as a loan, which must be reimbursed with an annual service charge of 5%.

Students may obtain application forms as of January 1st each year from AKF offices or Aga Khan Education Services / Boards in their countries of current residence.

The deadline for submission of applications is March 31^st.For more information visit

http://www.akdn.org/akf_scholarships.asp

Find fellowship opportunities for 2012 by visiting http://www.yipekenya.org/News.htm

2012 Global Youth Video Competition on Education and Skills

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) works to promote policies that are expected to improve the economic and social well-being of people around the world. OECD is currently inviting video submissions for the 2012 Global Youth Video Competition. Participants are required to send a short video of not more than 3 minutes on the theme of the competition.

 

Competition Theme

Education and Skills – what are the big issues today:

• Learning the right skills to get a job?
• Bridging the ‘digital divide’?
• Tackling inequality in access to education and training?
• Inspiring creativity and innovation?

 

The Prize

The video author (or a nominated representative, if a team effort) of each winning video will be invited to Paris to attend the OECD Forum on 22^nd – 24^th May 2012. Travel costs to and from Paris, hotel accommodation and a living allowance will be provided for the duration of the Forum. The Prize will be awarded to three winning videos selected by Jury. If a winning video is a group effort, then a nominated representative will be invited to Paris.

 

About the Videos

• Your video must be no more than 3 minutes in length.
• Any spoken language used in your video that is not English or French must be accompanied by the relevant subtitles in English or French.
• Your video must not contain violence, profanity, sex or direct attacks on individuals or organizations. Any entries deemed offensive will be immediately disqualified.
• Your video must be your own original creation – no copyrighted music, video, or images may be used.
• Your video must not infringe on any third party rights.
• Your video must not have been produced for compensation or posted previously on any OECD Web page.

 

Eligibility Criteria

You must be aged between 18 and 25 years during the period of this competition (14 December 2011 to 31 March 2012). That means you must have been born on or between 15 December 1985 and 1 April 1994. Proof of identity will be required from all finalists.

If you are a member of OECD staff (either permanent or temporary, current or former), intern, contractor, sponsor, or an immediate family member of any of the foregoing, you may participate, but are not eligible to win.

Selection Criteria

Videos will be judged on adherence to the competition challenge through creativity, originality, message content and overall presentation (sound and picture quality).

The deadline for submitting the entries is March 31^st 2012

For more information, visit http://www.oecd.org/document/8/0,3746,en_21571361_49034050_49086984_1_1_1_1,00.html

K.C.P.E Results Meaningless

By Harrison Mumia

I had been enjoying my holiday till I saw parents on Citizen TV dancing with their children for scoring 440 / 500 MKS. It was comic. The parents did not seem to realize that the world today has changed. The dancing and screaming for me was a sign of short lived pride, and a lack of understanding of the world we live in. As Sam Ongeri announced the results, I realized how backward we are as a society, how crappy our education system is.

In the United States, have you ever heard an education minister coming on CNN to announce results? Or in Canada? Did you see parents dancing on ABC, NBC, and other TV stations? It’s because their education system emphasized capability and talent, not merely education as Kenyans know it. We seem to praise the children who get 400 MKS as if they are the brightest. No !! It’s our Education System that recognizes this stupidity. Children are not all about their marks. We should create a culture of appreciating other capabilities, like football, swimming, singing, dancing, for not all children can be the same.

Our media, by going berserk about the results, is creating the impression that all that matters in Kenya is the stupid KCPE results, which most of us do not even put in our CVs. We should have an education system that recognizes that humans are capable of many many things. We should scrap KCPE, and we should avoid grading students based on marks. It’s outdated and not helpful.

Let me first congratulate the average students who got 300 MKS. For them, all is not lost. They will become the Caroline Mutoko’s of the future, the Mwalimu Kingangi’s, the business men and women who shall run vast empires.

For the celebrating parents, hold your horses. Today in Kenya, Jobs are scarce. Everyone has a degree. And degrees are not difficult to get. Even with a C+ your child can do medicine. So it does not matter that your child scored highly in primary school, let alone high school. Higher education has been liberalized. It matters less what your child did in  primary school.

And the Job market has changed. Kenyans are more jobless than ever. Degrees do not guarantee jobs. Sometimes ethnicity will do you a better job at getting a job. So to those celebrating parents, relax. You are just being rush when you celebrate. KCPE results mean nothing, if only to demonstrate that your child has basic capabilities of learning and  retaining stuff.

And Alliance High School and Starehe are no longer those prestigious schools that every parent wanted their children to go to. We have schools that have come up and are offering quality all round education, where they build talent and potential. And parents have realized this.

KCPE results are meaningless, and they just show how our Education System is messed up.

Harrison N. Mumia, Central Bank of Kenya

Copyright © The Atheist

IPRA Foundation Dorothy Marchus Senesh Fellowship

The International Peace Research Association (IPRA) Foundation invites applications for the Dorothy Marchus Senesh Fellowship in Peace and Development Studies for Women from developing countries. The Senesh Fellowship provides a biennial fellowship for two years of graduate study to a woman from the third world.

IDRA Foundation is a non-profit organization aims at furthering the purposes and activities of the International Peace Research Association, which has for the last thirty two years sought to enhance the process of peace.

 

Eligibility Criteria

The Senesh Fellowship is available to women from developing countries who:

• have completed a Bachelor’s degree,
• who have been accepted into a graduate program and
• whose graduate work is to be focused on issues related to the goals of IPRA.

Funds will only be dispersed when the selected candidate is admitted into a graduate program. Awards are considered based on need; therefore students with substantial funding sources are less likely to be considered for the award.

Fellowship Provisions

Every other year (beginning in 1990) one woman from a developing country receives school expenses in the amount of $5,000 per year for two years.

Last date for submission of applications is January 15^th 2012

For more information, visit http://www.iprafoundation.org/senesh_fellows.shtml

A.J. Muste Memorial Fund, International Nonviolence Training Grants – Call for Applications

The A.J. Muste Memorial Institute funds projects which promote the principles and practice of nonviolent social change through grantmaking programs including the International Nonviolence Training Fund (INTF).

The INTF was created in 1994 by a group of concerned donors with the aim of specifically supporting nonviolence trainings. (For information about our other grantmaking programs, please see the grants page on http://www.ajmuste.org/ajgrants.html )

Nonviolence trainings seek to help people develop and improve the skills they need to confront systemic injustice through organized, principled, nonviolent action. Trainings promote the exchange of ideas, information, and strategies, through which activists can become more effective at using nonviolent action in their struggles.

INTF GRANTMAKING PRIORITIES

The INTF supports nonviolence training outside the United States, and within Native nations in the US.

Projects eligible for support include:

• Those which build capacity and leadership among people engaged in nonviolent struggles;
• Those which prepare participants for specific nonviolent actions or campaigns;
• Those geared to “training the trainers,” in order to expand and multiply nonviolence training throughout a targeted community.

Preference is given to:

• Projects which involve trainers from the local area or region, where such trainers are available.
• Groups which are small, community-based and have less access to funding from other sources.

The maximum grant amount is US$3,000.

The INTF does not fund:

• Trainings which are geared primarily toward resolving conflicts between individuals, building life skills or job skills, or achieving personal empowerment or economic independence.
• Conflict resolution or violence reduction programs which do not directly promote activism for social justice.
• Scholarships or other funding for people to travel abroad to attend courses or training sessions.
• Trainings with budgets over US$50,000, or organizations with annual budgets over US$500,000.

The Muste Institute can and does directly fund organizations which do not have their own 501(c)3 non-profit tax-exempt status, and/or which are not incorporated. The only time the Institute requires a fiscal sponsor is if the organization does not have its own bank account. If you cannot receive a grant directly (with the grant check made out to the name of your organization), please indicate this in your proposal and include information about your fiscal sponsor, including a letter indicating the sponsor’s tax-exempt status and some basic information such as a brochure or brief annual report.

WHEN TO APPLY TO THE INTF

The next deadlines for proposals for the International Nonviolence Training Fund is December 2^nd 2011.

The review and decision process takes approximately four months.

The INTF does not consider proposals for trainings which will have already taken place by the time its decision is made, so you are urged to apply at least four to five months before your training is set to begin, especially if you need preparation time for the training after notification of the grant decision.

Groups which receive INTF grants must generally wait two years before applying again to the INTF.

HOW TO APPLY TO THE INTF

To submit a proposal, fill out completely the INTF Grant Application Form: http://ajmuste.org/INTFGrantApplicationForm.doc

Email the completed form (preferably in MS Word or RTF format) with all required attachments to intf(at)ajmuste.org  with the subject line “INTF:” followed by the name of your group.

NOTE: If you are awarded a grant, you will have to provide a complete financial accounting for all funds received from the Muste Institute, demonstrating that they were used in accord with the grant agreement. This accounting is due as soon as the money is spent or within six months, whichever comes first. If funds from a grant remain unspent after six months, you must submit an updated accounting every six months until the complete grant is spent. This financial accounting should be accompanied by copies of materials produced with Institute funds, and a brief narrative report on the project.

Go to http://www.yipekenya.org/News.htm to find more grant opportunities