Educate! President and Co-Founder Boris Bulayev just returned from a one-month visit of Educate!’s programs in Uganda,—his first visit in more than two years.  He was stunned by the progress on the ground, and here he discusses why he believes Educate! has the promise to grow substantially and unlock the potential of many more young Ugandan men and women.

I came away from my one-month trip to Uganda more inspired than ever.  I had heard much about our program’s progress and success, but I did not fully understand the transformation that has occurred thanks to the hard work of our team in Uganda, led by Country Director Emily Lutyens and Program Director Angelica Towne.

Visiting school after school, I listened to countless stories about students who had started businesses and initiatives to solve problems in their communities. More than ever before, our students believe that they are the solution to the problems their communities face.  At just one school, Greenhill College, I met two brothers, Samuel and James, who, over their holiday, made 10,000 bricks and planted 150 banana trees to pay their school fees.  One of their classmates, Nelson, organized a group of female jewelry makers in his hometown into a cooperative. He just completed a business plan outlining how they can get greater access to markets for their products. Nelson’s story was an example of exponential empowerment at its finest. 

As I stopped to process everything I was seeing and hearing, it occurred to me like never before that we have really stumbled onto something. The idea that Educate! could grow—substantially—suddenly became much more real.  The reasons are twofold: the program model we’ve designed, and the results-driven organization we’ve built behind it.

Early Success of Our Program Model

We’ve had several strong validations of our program’s success already, both internally and externally.  Internally, two examples stand out:

1. 76% of our students have taken on a new leadership role.  To be honest, this statistic didn’t mean very much to me until I went to Uganda and saw that many of the schools’ student officers were Educate! Scholars – though most weren’t before.  Several teachers told me that Educate! Scholars were taking on a greater leadership role in the school, and that they wished other students could benefit from Educate!’s program as well. 
   
   
2. Educate! Scholars have started 48 community initiatives and 12 business started in less than a year. This is a massive number, and it includes many businesses—like Mbale High’s flower growing business or Royal High’s hair salon—that were started with no seed capital.  But what surprised me, along with the rest of the Educate! team, was how many initiatives were created by students during the holiday break after their first year as Educate! Scholars.  The level of leadership exhibited by such young students is inspiring, and has far exceeded our expectations.

Externally, we are seeing increasing interest in adoption of our program model:

1. AfricAid in Tanzania, another winner of Ashoka Changemakers Quality Education in Africa Award, is directly replicating our program, and 15 other organizations worldwide are using our curriculum.
2. SOS Children’s Villages, a major international NGO, paid Educate! $1,100 to run a condensed three-week version of our program for 15 of their students.  This might say the most about how far our amazing team has taken our program – someone is willing to pay us for it already!

These internal and external validations helped show me how far the programs have come in such a short time – it is, after all, just a year-and-a-half since Emily and Angelica first arrived in Uganda.  I can’t wait to see us build on this progress over the next few years. 

A Results and Feedback Driven Organization

Furthermore, I was thoroughly impressed by the organization and culture put in place by Emily and Angelica.   A few things stood out to me:

1. Drive for results – One of Educate!’s mentors, Esther, told me that she liked working for Educate! due to our results-driven culture.  Every term, the mentors have clear, measurable goals for their students, and students are evaluated by their success in meeting those goals.
   
   
2. Focus on feedback – Every Monday, the mentors all get together with program support staff and discuss what worked and didn’t work the previous week, and what needs to improve for the following week.  Teachers and administration provide formal feedback every trimester about what can be improved.  Even in the classroom, students discuss what worked and what should be changed at the end of each trimester.  This emphasis on feedback has led to a rapidly-evolving, and, more importantly, a much-improved program model.
   
   
3. Professional development – Almost all of our mentors told me that they have grown tremendously since joining Educate!.  Why, I asked?  Because Emily and Angelica, as well as great support staff like Maggie Sheahan and Rachel Santos, have put so much energy into their development. It shows!  The mentors all have great presence and command true respect in their classrooms. From all I saw, they contribute to the development of the program model every week. 

These two achievements - a strong, externally validated program model and a results- and feedback-driven culture – show me that we’re firmly on the right track, and that we have a lot of room to grow.  Thanks to everyone who has helped us get here, and to those who will help us continue moving towards where we want to go. 

Over the last two and a half months Educate! has been training eight new mentors (teachers).  The mentors will start teaching the Educate!’s Socially Responsible Leadership Curriculum this month to our second class of students.  Below, Country Director Emily Lutyens and Program Director Angelica Towne talk about each mentor’s personality and what it took to land the job.

From left to right, Patrice, Charlotte, Jackie, Violet and Christine listen as Hawah presents on last weekend’s retreat in Kyangwali. 
This year the Educate! team decided to try a new kind of recruiting strategy. By teaching a 5 week Leadership Educator Course, we were able to further our goal of inspiring teachers to empower their students through their education. At the same time, we watched all trainees in action over 5 weeks of challenges and growth to truly test who had the most potential to teach the Educate! curriculum as an Educate! Mentor…  

We trained a total of 25 university graduates from many different backgrounds. The course culminated with each participant planning and implementing their own out-of- school youth workshop, covering topics from health to growing a business to marketing to mushroom growing. They recruited 20 local youth from the community for a 3 hour session of both practical skills and mentoring.  

The result was an outstanding new mentor class of 3 men and 5 women, all from extremely diverse backgrounds and experiences. Partnering these new recruits with the first (now very experienced) mentor class will create a dynamic duo at each partner school, deepening the support and impact we have on the 800 Educate! students this year.  

First…the ladies…  

Christine (25) is the deep-thinker. She graduated top of her class from Makerere University with a BA in Tourism. However, instead of driving safari buses, she has instead started women’s groups (poultry for income), worked as a primary school teacher, traveled to Australia for a youth leadership nonprofit and has experience in peer to peer empowerment teams.

Hawah (23) is the sporty one. She is our first Muslim mentor which we are very excited about. We hope her BA in Sports Science from Kyambogo University will serve her well in the many activities in the leadership course. Hawah volunteered to counsel young girls on how to use social entertainment events for social good. She enjoys teaching volleyball, netball (the British version of basketball) and soccer in rural areas to empower children.

Jackie (28) is the brainy one. Our first mentor from Northern Uganda, she’s very tall and a little serious. But, she has a great smile and a secret store of energy that we love to see. Jackie will use her BA in Management Science from Kyambogo University to excel as a dual mentor and office staff. Her passion is running community projects through her church ministry such as voluntary rubbish collection, road repair and house repair.

Violet (24) is the female empowerment one. Our Mbale mentor from class one, Esther Nakiirye, recruited Violet at a women’s entrepreneurship workshop. A graduate from Kampala International University with a BA in Business Administration, Violet is already a powerful female leader in Mbale, an easter region of Uganda where Educate! runs its program. Out of our new mentor class she has the most experience as a community mobilizer.

Charlotte (25) is the mother hen. She is our most experienced teacher (and former head teacher!) with a BA in Education from Kyambogo University. She wanted to leave the teaching profession to have a greater direct impact on youth, moving beyond the classroom setting to provide more mentorship. Then…she found Educate! She’ll be working with 3 partner schools and an orphanage in Kampala city centre.  
 
 
Above, Educate!’s newest class of mentors listen as Eric welcomes them to the Educate! team, via a conference call.

And now…the men…  

Richard (22) is the smile. He is the baby of the class but also the fastest learner. He has a BA in Procurement and Logistics Management from Kyambogo University. Why he studied that we have no idea, but he then worked as an HIV/AIDs peer educator providing counseling and advocacy to students and community leaders. He is partnering with the best smile from our first mentor class, Solomon Kayiwa.

George (24) is the entrepreneur. With a BA in Commerce, Accounting and Finance from Makerere University, he was the leader of his university’s AISEC microfinance and entrepreneurship project. We hope that his business skills will push our student entrepreneurship clubs to new heights. His future vision is to run his own social business.

Patrice (30) is the big daddy. Self-described as having a “Congolese nose,” Patrice is both a source of laughter and comfort. With a BA in Social Science from Makerere University, Patrice has been self employed since 2005 through his fish farm business. He has also worked as a financial services officer, managed to secure funds from the Northern Uganda Social Action Fund for a community water source, and started a self-help bee keeping project in his community.

We’re extremely excited about the potential of our new mentor class and look forward to sharing their success stories with you in the future. BOOYAKASHA!

Educate! love,

Emily & Angelica



Educate! threw a successful event, Educate!’s Annual Ball - For the Future of Uganda on Saturday, February 6, 2010, and raised over $25,000 for educational programs in Uganda. The money raised allows Educate! to empower the 830 students in 24 high schools across Uganda currently enrolled in the Educate! Experience.

“It was a truly amazing event and we’re so pleased with the outcome. All the money raised will directly benefit our students and their initiatives to solve the greatest challenges facing their community,” said Maya Ellman, Director of Communications at Educate!. “Our supporters felt a connection to Educate!’s work with students in Uganda and were eager to support us in our efforts to empower Africa’s future leaders.”

Courtesy of Jessica Ryan

The highlights of the event included a speech by Congressman Jared Polis, live performance by FACE, a nationally recognized Boulder-based vocal rock band, and a wonderful silent auction. Downtown Boulder’s  Rembrandt Yard Art Gallery & Event Center hosted the sold out event, holding 300 Colorado supporters who made the Ball a success.  Each ticket purchased sponsored a student through two months of the Educate! Experience.

Courtesy of Erica Lindberg of CU Independent
Educate! greatly appreciates all the support from Bay Window Catering, Whole Foods, BJ’s Pizza Grill & Brewery, Asher Brewery, Superior Liquors, FACE, Rembrandt Yard, Hotel Boulderado, Crocs, Sunflower Preschool, and the many other local and national companies who donated items for the silent auction and made the event possible.

Educate! runs a two year program teaching high school students how to solve Uganda’s biggest challenges.  Below, learn about this approach from Maggie Sheahan, an Educate! Program Coordinator, and read what students are doing at Green Hill College as they learn to use  practical business skills to give back to their community. 

Above, a standard classroom at Green Hill College, one of Educate!’s partner schools. 

How many people today know about all the problems Africa faces: poverty, disease, corruption, and environmental degradation? Thousands. But, how many people believe that African’s themselves are capable of solving these problems? Not many. With all the exposure Africa receives through news stories featuring the spread of HIV/AIDS, and Hollywood movies portraying the down-trodden and poor, it is understandable that most people see the enormity in Africa’s struggle and forget about the potential within Africans to solve their society’s greatest challenges. Educate! unlocks this potential in students to solve their community’s greatest problems.    

The question is how… 

Today I am at Green Hill College, shadowing James, an Educate! Mentor (teacher). The brick walls have square shaped holes where window panes might have been. I rub my fingers against the brick; it crumbles gently to dust and stone. The floors leave my shoes covered in red dirt. The roof claps and tings as the rain falls heavy on the rusty tin. This is Green Hill College.

James teaches the Educate! curriculum at Green Hill College every Tuesday. On this rainy afternoon, ten students sit on wooden benches as James breaks down market strategy. The lesson is called “Thinking Differently About Business.” It teaches how to differentiate one’s business from the competition, focusing on four categories: Price, Market, Ownership, and Ethics. The students gather in a group to discuss the business they have started— a fruit seedling business. They can cut costs by collecting and germinating seeds from around their school (price). They can sell them to the local community by leveraging the trust that is connected to the school (market). And they can give back by distributing 10% of their tree seedlings to the poor people they know, at no cost (ethics). It looks like they hit almost all the marks!

 I  buy a mango seedling after class. They are using part of their profits to host an entrepreneurship conference next week. They have invited neighboring schools and will pass on the knowledge they have learned through Educate! about business practices and public speaking to students their own age. Last week they cleaned the community well. They are gaining confidence through this experience. For the first time in their lives they are being told that they not only can think about business, but that they have a responsibility to think about their communities. This is empowerment in action. We are empowering them to become something more, not just for themselves, but for everyone around them.

Above Educate! students from Green Hill College celebrate after cleaning a community well near their school.

Educate! does not ask for donations to buy malaria nets, HIV drugs, food relief, or to build schools. We ask for donations to teach high school students in Uganda how to do all these things on their own. 

Without Educate!, the students at Green Hill College would only learn what is included in Uganda’s curriculum. They are lucky to receive an education, but would never be taught the practical skills they need to address their community’s most pressing problems. Their education would not foster a culture of social responsibility. They would lack adults in their lives who push them to become leaders. Without Educate!, our students would still face the same problems they do today- poverty, HIV/AIDS, poor water, poor waste management, the list goes on… With Educate!, our students will become the solutions to these problems. 

Invest in the solution. Invest in Africa’s next generation of socially responsible leaders. Invest in Educate!. 
 

-Maggie Sheahan, Educate! Program Coordinator