Role Models in Literacy: Shyah (VIDEO)

Here's the link to the very first Role Models in Literacy video.  Check it out!!

http://vimeo.com/80568083

First Video Nearly Complete!

I'm almost done editing the first Role Models in Literacy video.  The main attraction of the video is a 2nd grade American girl named Shyah.  We are friends with her family, and she goes to elementary school right around the corner from our house so we recorded footage in both places.

There will be another video coming up soon of her sister, Boston.  Stay tuned!

Fertility Rate & Literacy Rate Correlation

After taking a peek at Indexmundi.com, I have learned that there is a correlation between Literacy Rates and Fertility Rates.  Although it's not a very strong correlation, there is enough evidence to prove that more educated countries tend to have less of a population issue.

Some examples of nations with high literacy rates:

Country:                    Lit. Rate:               Birth rate:

Switzerland               99%                       1.48
USA                          99%                       2.07
UK                            99%                       1.66
Germany                   99%                       1.37
Russia                       99.5%                    1.33

Pretty much everyone can read in these kinds of countries.  And the average amount of kids a woman will give birth to falls in the range of 1 or 2.  Now, let's take a look at some countries with poor literacy rates:

Country:                    Lit. Rate:               Birth rate:

Tanzania                    70.7%                    5.24
Ethiopia                     35.1%                    5.55
Haiti                           51.2%                   4.86
Burkina Faso             16.6%                    6.34
Niger                          9.7%                     6.91

Clearly, the women of these nations give birth to too many children for them to handle.  My goal, using Role Model In Literacy, is to elevate the literacy rate of such a country to a point in which the women are giving birth to one or two children.

Check out the Indexmundi website for more data: http://www.indexmundi.com/g/correlation.aspx?v1=31&v2=39

New Role Model: Boge

Today, we had a very successful and productive day in Hawasa.  My highlight of the day was going to my dad's friend Tesfaye's house to shoot a video of his niece for Role Models in Literacy! Her name is Boge (pronounced BO-gay) and she is in the second grade at her local elementary school.

This is going to be a great addition to the growing library of RMIL videos.  Hopefully seeing a girl in a developing country pursuing her education and showing her love for reading will inspire young, less-fortunate kids in similar countries to do the same.

Luckily there were also two boys (6 and 11) in the house we went to, so I recorded a few videos of them as well.  I will try to upload at least one of the videos before I come back to the US.  Stay tuned!

GeoCDI Classes on Technology at the Furra Institute

I just spent the day with my dad and a few of his associates in Hawasa today.  We went to a couple of coffee plantations as well as the Furra Institute, where we held our first class on software programs for GeoCDI.

Technology is spreading throughout Ethiopia at a fast pace, reaching even the most isolated villages.  This is the first of a series of classes teaching people how to use Microsoft Word, Excel, etc.  The class consisted of adults over 30 years old, most of them farmers.  Since computers are becoming more available to even the most isolated towns, it's important to teach farmers how to use them to their advantage.

Ethiopian architecture

This site always amazed me. Addis ababa is a geographically larger city than Boston with a good number of big buildings like this one. And all of these massive buildings are built with concrete  and hundreds of eucalyptus trunks!

Second trip to Ethiopia under way

My dad and I are heading out to Addis ababa on the 3rd of November.  There I'm hoping to meet some high ranking personnel including ambassador Konjit with whom I'll share my RMIL project.

Then we'll be going to Hawasa on the 7th to meet with some coffee cooperatives working with my dad's company, GeoCertify.

I'm very excited to be going back to Ethiopia; many updates to come!

Shot of Ethiopian Landscape

Awesome photo from up on a hill where our CAR BROKE DOWN...for a while at least.  Luckily we managed to get it started before nightfall and made it to Hawassa.

Ethiopian Road

(From my trip in June) I believe this was taken in a town called Ziway during our drive down to Hawassa.  It's not hard to tell the differences between Ethiopian highways and American highways.

The Lowdown

One of our goals on this project is to spread the word on the benefits of education and literacy to kids in Ethiopia, especially girls. They need more role models to inspire them to learn how to read and write.

That's where our "Role Models in Literacy" videos come into play.  We're basically making short (3 min max) videos of people (again, mostly girls) we know who can serve as role models. We're not really trying to use extremely famous or rich people like Oprah because it's a long shot for these Ethiopian kids to make it that far, and they know it, too. 

The video I'm working on right now involves a girl named Anna who's studying at Mass College of Art and Design.  She's a good role model for our videos because she's a regular girl going to college with a solid 12 years of education behind her. But, now she's designing books for an up and coming university in Tanzania.  

I've already put together a script and storyboard, plus we've got some video footage.  I still need to get a few more shots.  Then all that's left is a bit of editing.

Role Models In Literacy

The main method we'll be using to inspire these children to read and be educated is by showing them short videos of role models in literacy.  Exceeding no longer than two or three minutes, these short videos will hopefully spark a desire to read and write in these young kids.

We definitely are targeting girls more heavily than boys, although we aim to encourage ALL kids to extend their education.  The reason for this is that girls have much less access to education, and they're

Dropout rate for girls : 60%

Dropout rate for girls between primary and secondary school is about 60% in Ethiopia:
http://www.unesco.org/eri/cp/factsheets_ed/ET_EDFactSheet.pdf

Roots of Stunted Growth

It is critical to receive the proper nutrition during the first two years of a child's life in order to become healthy.  This is a major struggle in the Sidama region of Ethiopia, which is why nearly 40% of children there are suffering from stunted growth. There appear to be two primary reasons as to why this figure is so high in this region.

Firstly, mothers are having babies at far too young ages.  The average age of women (or, girls I should say) having their first baby in the Sidama region lies somewhere in the range of 12 to 15 years of age.  This is far too young for a girl to be having another body inside of her; it's impossible to give the growing baby all of the proper nutrients it needs.

Secondly, babies often suffer from malnutrition during the first two years of their life.  According to the PanAfrican Medical Journal, approximately 14.4% of mothers feed their babies optimally in the Sidama region.  Obviously, there are not enough food resources available to these trying mothers, which begs the question: why have a baby you can't support?

Instead, these young mothers should be in school getting a proper education rather than struggling to raise a child, a message we hope to effectively communicate through our program.

"Half The Sky"

Just read an inspirational section of Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn's book called "Half The Sky."  I recommend this book to anybody who shares the same concern as I over the lack of education for girls across the world.

Chapter ten of this book, called "Investing in Education," told the story of a girl named Dai Manju.  She grew up in an impoverished village located in the Dabie Mountains of central China, along with her parents, two brothers, and great aunt.  Dai Manju treasured her education dearly, and she was among the top of her class.  However, she was forced to drop out of school at the age of thirteen since she was the oldest child; it was her duty to help around the house.

After reading an article about Dai Manju, a sympathetic reader donated $10,000 for her to receive free tuition.  Her school got hold of the money, and used it to educate the whole town as well as build a new school.  Since Dai Manju was the reason for the kind donation, she received free tuition for as long as she would pass exams.  She finished elementary school, middle school, high school, and accounting school.  Now, she works as an accountant for local factories in the Guangdong Province.  She sends home growing amounts of money each month to her family, who became among the richest of her hometown.

Thanks to her schooling and desire for education, Dai Manju was able to provide for herself, her family, and even her hometown!  She is a role model with a story that we plan on sharing with young Ethiopian girls.

Girls can't be strictly used for reproduction

Just read an intriguing article at prb.org (the Population Reference Bureau website) detailing the importance of education in poverty stricken communities.  One of the main points made in this article is the fact that educated women tend to run smaller, healthier families.  It's essential that we communicate this to the world so we can reverse the trend of our increasing population. 

The reason that educated women usually have smaller families is due to their childhood being occupied with schoolwork, not marrying at the age of 13 and having a baby three years later.  Educated women have their first sexual encounter later, marry later, and have children later as than women with less than a decade's worth of education. 

Why does education make the difference, you may ask?  In school, girls and boys learn about the possibilities in their futures, such as becoming a doctor, a teacher, etc.  Without education, girls feel as though their purpose in life is the bare minimum: to have babies. 

Web address of the full article: http://www.prb.org/pdf/IsEducat-Contracept_Eng.pdf

More on Bokaso

Just another piece to add on Bokaso: stunted growth is a big problem here.  While chatting with one of the leaders of the coffee cooperative, Debebe discovered that kids traditionally marry in their early teens. More specifically, girls marry at ages 12 to 15, and boys 15 to 18.  Arranged marriage is on the decline- so the kids choose each other these days, but...12?

This usually results in girls giving birth at ridiculously young ages, far too soon for their bodies to nourish another body inside of them.  Therefore, their children will suffer from stunted growth.  Just about all the children that flocked to me and my dad didn't stand taller than my waist (granted I am 6'4, but still).

Bokaso

Just a couple hours south of Hawassa lies the small village of Bokaso.  Coffee farming is what makes this town tick; most men and women are coffee growers and most children will grow up to farm coffee.  Upon entrance, we got the same welcome that we usually receive when going to small, rural villages: a couple dozen small children flocking to see the white people up close.  That's how disconnected they are from the outside world.

My dad, Debebe, Tesfaye, and I headed to the small office at the coffee plantation to meet with the leaders of the coffee cooperative.  We discussed the matters of education, technology, and business management. All the people there were very friendly and took our ideas seriously.  I could tell that my dad's proposal touched upon their needs perfectly because their office was in complete and utter disarray.  They kept track of all transactions and production patterns in handwritten posters.  The first need that they addressed was technology education; they already had a computer ordered for them, but they didn't know how to use one.

If towns like this had access to technology and technology education, such as accounting, business management, statistics, it would help them become competitive in a global marketplace.

Beyaynetu: The Cornerstone of Ethiopian Cuisine

Here's a picture I took of a dish of beyaynetu we ate in Hawassa.  It's essentially a plate of injerra bread topped with different kinds of beans and bean pastes, cooked/raw vegetables, rice, and tibs.  Tibs are just little bits of meats often sauteed in a spicy sauce.  This dish is consumed by tearing off a small fragment of the injerra bread (in your right hand, traditionally) and scooping up some ingredients from the assortment in front of you.

I enjoyed eating this dish because it's a much more communal activity than your average American dining.  Usually you're in a group of four to six people eating from the same plate of food.  Plus, the etiquette of the meal is much more casual since you grab your food with your hands and there are no utensils involved...my kind of meal!

Meeting with the president of The East Africa University of Science and Technology

Today I accompanied my dad in going to the Mass College of Art and Design to meet up with his good friend Deo Baribwugere. He is the president of The East Africa University of Science and Technology which is currently being built in Tanzania.  We will definitely try to involve him in our efforts to bring the importance of education to light in Ethiopia.

We also met up with Anna, a junior at Mass College of Art and Design, who will be designing a book for EAUST.  She is also a potential role model we will be using to inspire children in Ethiopia to learn how to read and write.  We're working on a short video featuring her to show to the children.

Research on Ethiopian Education

In order to fully understand what the educational needs of Ethiopia are, I visited the UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization) website.  Upon reading the first two sentences of a factsheet I found on the website, I was already shocked by some disturbing information: Ethiopia is ranked 126th out of 127 countries in the Education for All (EFA) development index and it is unlikely to meet the EFA Goals by 2015.

 Needless to say, the nation's education system as a whole requires a lot of help if Ethiopia wishes to blossom into a developed country.  However, the education of girls is ailing especially.

 The above chart represents the female literacy rates in Ethiopia in 2004 and 2008. The list of literacy rates on Wikipedia shows that in 2003, the female literacy rate was 35.1%.  Oddly enough, the literacy rate of girls in Ethiopia is on the decline!

This is a trend that GeoCDI is targeting to reverse by inspiring young Ethiopian girls to read and write.

Mount Wenchi (Crater Lake pt. 2)

We finally completed the 24 km journey up the rocky mountainside to the summit of Mount Wenchi.  Here, we would continue to the base of the crater lake via horseback, which made me a little nervous since I'd never ridden a horse before.  Along with a guide, two people came down with us to make sure we didn't fall off the horses.

This is what crater lake looked like from the top of the mountain:


As you can see, there's a lake surrounded by a ring of elevated land covered by trees.  In the middle of this lake was a small island with an old church on it- a very old church, from the 1500s.  In order to see this remote island for ourselves my dad and I had to be escorted by a dugout canoe to the center of the lake.  These canoes were amazing to me because they were so old looking.  I could've sworn I had seen these in my history textbooks from the 16th century! 

In fact, just about everything about the Wenchi lifestyle had an outdated feel to it.  When I asked about the fishing in crater lake, our guide told me that spearfishing was the most popular method.  This simple, yet happy lifestyle of the Wenchi people was enlightening to me, and gave me a new perspective on technology and modern society.

Charming Young Lad of the Mountains (Crater Lake pt. 1)

The paved road ended at Ambo.  My dad and I would have to be escorted by our driver 24 kilometers up a rocky road to the peak of the dormant volcano of Wenchi.  We were making our way to the storied Crater Lake of Wenchi.  Pretty soon we exceeded the boundaries of civilization, where village people gazed at us bumping down their road.  Stray dogs and donkeys carrying supplies mingled about.

One curt encounter that stuck with me occurred half way up the hillside.  A small boy no older than 6 years old was standing alone in front of a dozen cows grazing a small bit of pasture behind him.  With a stern look on his face, he was swinging a 10 foot long whip above his head.  It took every cent of strength and coordination the child had to maintain the whip's circular motion.  I grew tense thinking about what this young man was aiming to do with this huge whip.  We passed him slowly, and then he cracked the whip behind us, making a deafening blast that made all three people in the car jump.  I looked in my side mirror, and the boy was bent over laughing at us with his whip lying limp in his hand.

We had a good laugh about it and continued up the road, spoiled by the breathtaking landscape that surrounded us.

Why Ethiopia LOVES Bob Marley

Haile Selassie is the most adored Ethiopian of all time.  He led the country from 1930 to 1974, overcoming Italian invasions during the 1930s.  In fact, Ethiopia is the only African country to maintain independence during the colonial era.

But it is not for this reason that he was deemed the god, or "jah,"of Rastafari.  Legend has it that upon arrival for a visit in Jamaica, he ended a long drought.  The people of Jamaica believed he was the performer of this miracle; thus claiming him to be Jesus.  This was obviously an idea that Ethiopians could agree with, to say the least.

As we all know, Bob Marley was the head advocate of the Rastafari lifestyle, gaining the love and support of Ethiopians throughout his career as a musician.  So you see, there really is a strong...

                             

(Photo by: www.ethiopianrestaurant.com)

First Impressions (pt. 1)

Boston to Ethiopia was a much more grueling itinerary than you'd expect.  My dad and I had to stopover in New York and then Istanbul en route to Addis Ababa.  JFK is basically hell on earth in my opinion, but Turkish Airlines is a flight fit for royalty.  After more than a day of flying, we finally touched down in Ethiopia.

It was interesting to see what a graveyard of an airport Bole International really is.  I mean wow, the people looked like zombies in a place that just had the color sucked right out of it.  My first impression of the place was that it resembled a building in America from the 60s or 70s (even though I was never alive in those decades, it still felt like a time machine).  That's kind of what Ethiopia's like...they're behind on things, like architecture.

Stepping out of the airport is always my favorite part of the trip.  That's how you know you're all done with the traveling; the sitting, the waiting, the standing, the wailing babies seated two rows away from you.  It was great to just breathe some air and look over the lights that illuminated the sleepy city of Addis.

Introduction

So far there's two trips planned for 2013:

a.)  the late June visit (which, indeed, has already happened) to get a grasp on the lay of the land; and b.)  the month long voyage in Aug/Sept in which I will be filming instructional videos with Ethiopian citizens.

 I'll be posting everything from pictures, videos, conversations, thoughts...you name it!  This is a journal of my own experiences in Ethiopia.