Educate!’s Executive Director Boris Bulayev and Rwanda Country Director Donnalee Donaldson recently presented Educate!’s experience as part of a webinar hosted by Making Cents International and the Youth Employment Funders Group (YEFG). 

Juliet, an Educate! Youth Leader, is one of the people at the heart of Educate!’s partnership with the Rwandan government. She, along with ten other Youth Leaders, is helping to fulfill Educate!’s vision of integrating our model into national education systems.

One of our biggest questions of 2017 was: Have we maintained our impact as we’ve scaled the Educate! Experience across Uganda? Thanks to a new external evaluation, the results are in.

Educate!'s article "Breaking New Ground: Four Key Lessons from Launching Education Innovations in Post-Conflict Environments" was published in the journal Childhood Education: Innovations.

Educate!’s work in Rwanda is one of 19 innovative projects profiled in a new publication by Solutions for Youth Employment (S4YE). The report highlights Educate!’s model in Rwanda for supporting young entrepreneurs to generate socially responsible business ideas that factor in their community’s needs and opportunities. As a high-potential project, Educate!’s experience and proven impact can be used to influence the design of second generation projects.

Educate!'s Evaluation Director Meghan Mahoney joined a panel hosted by the Society for International Development in Washington, D.C., sharing her insights on secondary education in developing countries and specific strategies for integrating positive youth development in these contexts.

The YouthConnekt Africa Summit is Rwanda's largest youth and entrepreneurship conference. Donnalee Donaldson, Educate!’s Rwanda Country Director, joined government officials, stakeholders and policy-makers at the event as a moderator for the panel, Youth Driving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

In a recent IAB meeting, Mentors shared with Educate!’s leadership team that it would be valuable for them to observe and learn from each other’s businesses. Our programs team wasted no time incorporating this innovative idea into the Mentor’s professional development program. Project Days have spurred innovation and group problem-solving; it’s been a powerful learning opportunity for the Mentors.

With over 10 countries in Africa actively engaged in education reforms, it’s clear that there is an international movement calling for a transformation of traditional education. This movement emphasizes the need to move away from lecture and rote memorization and toward practical, student-centered, and skills-based education methods that lead to better educational and life outcomes for youth.

Agnes is a Dean of Students in the eastern district of Bugesera in Rwanda and it is her job to ensure that the teachers in her school are providing the best instruction possible to their students. Yet it was only just recently that she learned how Skills Labs can really help her teachers shine.

African youth are bursting with untapped potential. The innovative, sustainable social enterprises launched by Educate!’s Student Business Clubs showcase what happens when you couple potential with skills training. You get stories about accidental soy milk and orphanages:

Follow Grace on her journey from secondary school to employment. 

Reflections on Brookings’ annual research and policy symposium

Because of Rona’s ingenuity and hard work, her chicken project provides a steady flow of income throughout the year, allowing her family to live more comfortably and securely.

In 2016, we launched in over 90 schools across Northern Uganda, the most impoverished region in Uganda. We’ve learned some critical lessons that we'll incorporate into our scaling strategy to maximize efficiency and impact.
 

Today marks International Women’s Day, when women and men across the globe come together to celebrate women’s achievements and to advocate for continued opportunity.

At Educate!, we believe opportunity is only possible when youth have access to an education that prepares them for life after graduation. This basic right is one that alludes tens of millions youth around the globe and is a particularly significant challenge for girls.

In the small village in Eastern Uganda where George grew up, it costs about $4 per year to attend school. But after his father passed away, George’s family could no longer afford the school fees and he was forced to leave school when he was only 13 years old.