Communications technology plays a big role in our lives today, and will continue to do so in the future. But how? And to what end? In the first of 4 part series, Aiducation caught up with our AiduFellow Rozanne Ocampo to explore some perspectives.

Rozanne Joseph B. Ocampo („Rozy“ to her friends) recently graduated Cum Laude from Ateneo de Manila University, and is looking to build a career in the telecommunications industry. Reason? “ I believe in the power of communication technologies in terms of changing the world for the better”. I think communication technologies will penetrate into our daily lives more so than it is doing now in ways we haven’t even thought of now. Communication technologies are developing in a faster and faster rate so I think that by 2020 we have new things that we have yet to imagine now. This continuous development can go two ways: either the gap between those who can afford these technologies and those who cannot will be become wider or, hopefully, narrower. And I personally hope that more communication technologies will be more accessible to all by 2020.”

Cheers!! Selfie time for Rozanne with her family after her graduation ceremony.

Aiducation is already actively doing something about reducing the ICT gap through educating people and building nations, and we invite you to join us!

The Future is Bright for the Aiducation Pathways Partnership

In February 2014, Aiducation expanded its reach into the Philippines where many students are challenged by structural problems of the educational sector, similar to Kenya, where Aiducation started in 2007. Thanks to a partnership with “Pathways to Higher Education – Philippines”, our local partner organization in Manila, Aiducation’s expansion into the Philippines can count on specific know-how and an established network. Solvie T. Nubla-Lee, the managing director of Pathways, guided Aiducation to develop a program that differs from Kenya based on the needs of students in the Philippines. The focus on education and mentorship are the same, but students in the four year Aiducation-Pathways program join two years before high school graduation with a focus on tutoring, mentoring and college entrance exam preparation that extends through the first two years of university. In an interview, Solvie shared her positive summary of the Pathways partnership with Aiducation.

Solvie, can you please tell us a bit about yourself and your work at Pathways?

After finishing my undergraduate degree, I decided to take a gap year before proceeding to law school. I joined the business sector. There, I was acquainted with how things worked in my country. I realized I was too idealistic to deal with the pervasive corruption that had tainted all levels of the bureaucracy. I knew I wasn’t cut out for that. So I decided to stay in the corporate sector.

BREAKING NEWS BREAKING NEWS BREAKING NEWS BREAKING NEWS

Aiducation International is happy to announce a new premium partner! After 20 scholarships in autumn last year, Symphasis Foundation is supporting Aiducation again with 50 scholarships for Kenyan students and, in addition, with one Mentorships Academy – this means the biggest pitch at once in terms of scholarships and value in the history of Aiducation International.

The Symphasis Foundation is an umbrella foundation based in Zurich and devoted solely to charitable purposes. It supports and encourages social, charitable, ecological, cultural, and other philanthropic projects.

The 2014 Kenyan Certificate of Secondary Education results have been released some weeks ago, which will grant to top performing students, access to public and private university education. Meet the story of Daisy and Nathan, two Aidufellows which scored fantastic KCSE´s results!

Daisy K.M. is a young lady who comes from Kyuso, a small province in the rural area, where she suffered from hardships like drought and malnourishment. She had to attend a local primary school where overcrowding in classroom made the studying conditions difficult for the pupils. On top of it, her journey to school was particularly challenging due to the long walking distance from her home to school.

She comes from a family of five with four siblings and got raised by her father, a small business owner. Her mother unfortunately passed away. Despite all the difficulties along the way, it didn’t stop her to get in Maryhills Girls High School with the support of Aiducation and archiving 393 in her KCSE. This excellent result, a plain A, qualifies her to apply for a student’s loan from the government to pursue her studies at university. Her commitment to education and her dreams for a better future made it happen!

Daisy – Aidufellow graduating from Maryhills Girls High school

Stories like the one of Daisy are unique, however the lack of good infrastructure and the detrimental living conditions in many rural communities are a common denominator for many young students in Kenya. That was the case as well for Nathan M.

Nathan-Aidufellow graduating from Kitui School

Kenya is a very diverse country and integration of all members remains one of the major challenges of Kenya. At the same time, Kenya is full of bright, entrepreneurial young people eager to learn, realize their potential and build a better Kenya. Many of them have ideas for for-profit or for-impact projects that help promote tolerance and integration of people into society and avoid discrimination of people based for example on poverty, gender, ethnic background, skin colour, handicaps, religious or political beliefs, cultural practices, or age. However many of those projects are never implemented or only implemented partially due to lack of recognition, lack of coaching, and lack of funds.

To support such start-ups in the making, Alice Sachova-Kleisli and Michel Kleisli decided to initiate a start-up prize called the Wonderland Award with money raised during Alice’s birthday party (thank you once again to all guests who contributed and to Michel who matched all contributions).