We hosted our annual “General Assembly and Get Together” on 14 June 2014 at HUB Zurich, and we shared updates on how well Aiducation International is growing and expanding its impact. This successful event was attended by more than 50 friends of the Aiducation family who support our organization and have witnessed the difference Aiducation scholarships make in the lives of so many students. We were pleased to welcome our guest speaker Fernando Seglias from the Tarom Foundation. He spoke about the importance of student networking and Alumni Relations for the sustainability of our organization and our long term impact in communities. As part of the event’s theme “Expanding the Impact”, Aiducator Tara Welschinger shared details on the scholarships we are awarding in the Philippines since the beginning of 2014. In the Philippines, Aiducation has a partnership with Pathways Philippines, a local NGO with years of experience in mentoring students. Thanks to our partnership with this reliable and high-impact partner, we have already awarded 20 scholarships to students in the Philippines since our launch in October 2013.
The Aiducation International General Assembly is an annual event in Zurich.

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From June 15 through June 17, there were again two terrorist attacks that occurred in Lamu County at the Kenyan coast with death tolls estimated at over 50. In the past year and a half, there have been numerous attacks. According to information from the U.S. Bureau of Consular Affairs, in total, over 100 people have been killed in these attacks and hundreds have been injured. Altough these recent events make keep us alarmed, we still deem the situation to be safe in Kenya and therefore stay calm and continue to prepare for our academies. At the same time, the situation requires some level of monitoring that we will continue to do as normally.

The CEO of Aiducation International Kenya, Jeremy Kambi, whose office is located close to Mombasa at the Kenyan coast, says that these sad events remind him again that Kenya needs to be one country. In his opinion, these attacks are symptoms of poverty, as no one who has many opportunities in life would give in themselves to butchery and plundering. Therefore, he hopes to build one day a new and beautiful Kenya – together with our Aiducators, AiduMakers and all supporters of Aiducation.

With the announcement of scholarship number 700 in June 2014, Aiducation International has reached another milestone in its history. The newly minted AiduFellow is Athman, who strives to become a medical doctor. Athman has witnessed how people he cared about in his community lost their lives because of lack of good medical care and he wants to make sure all patients are treated properly. His father works as a small trader, his mother is a housewife, and he has six siblings, most of whom are still attending school. Looking at this, it is easy to imagine the difficulties Athman and his family are facing every day.

Jimmy Tune (Link to Jimmy’s profile) is a passionate young Kenyan – a living testimony of the efforts and zeal invested towards accomplishing the dream of building a better Kenya. Thanks to an Aiducation scholarship, he successfully finished secondary school in 2011 and is now in his third year at the Moi University doing a bachelors’ degree in Business Management. Jimmy has helped the Kenyan Aiducation team with recruiting new scholars and organizing mentorship academies and co-founding the Aiducation Alumni network. Today Jimmy is the vice president of the Aiducation Alumni network and he kindly agreed to share his experience with us.

AI: Jimmy, Aiducation is proud of the alumni having initiated the Aiducation Alumni Network. What was your motivation to help create this group?

by Gib Bulloch | 10:00 AM March 31, 2014

We all know that education is an investment — but it’s not solely a personal one. The prosperity of nations and the health of economies is linked to the educational attainment levels and size of a skilled workforce.