We are very happy to announce this year’s AiduCiné. It will be taking place on the 6th of April at the RiffRaff Cinema, Zurich. The screened film «On the Way to School» demonstrates that access to school and education unfortunately is not granted to many children today, even though many of them are indeed eager to learn, study and unfold their potential.

Let’s get together, live the Aiducation spirit and change something in this wretched situation

We are very much looking forward to welcoming you at 10 am at the Cinema’s Bistro to share a coffee, have a croissant and exchange ideas. After a smooth start in the Sunday morning, we will then screen the movie starting 11 am.

Get your ticket now: http://www.amiando.com/HRZRANS.html

Programme

10:00 Coffee and Croissants

11:00 Welcoming by Aiducation International Switzerland

11:15 Screeing of “On the Way to School”

13:00 Discussion

We’re looking forward to a great movie and meeting all of you!

+ ENGLISH VERSION BELOW +

Am Mittwoch, dem 26. Februar, hatten die Mitarbeiter der Syngenta in Basel eine wunderbare Gelegenheit, Aiducation International kennen zu lernen. Der Austausch fand im Royal Auditorium statt. Nach einer Einführung, wie alles begann, präsentierte Dr. Kristin Kapitza, Syngenta-Mitarbeiterin und Gründungsmitglied von Aiducation, die Hauptaktivitäten und Erfolge. Einige Syngenta Mitarbeiter, die Aiducation International auf verschiedenste Art und Weise unterstützen, wurden von Kristin eingeladen, ihr Mitwirken zu erörtern.

Dr. Kristin Kapitza

Die Teilnehmer der Podiumsdiskussion, die von Monica Weiss, Quality Compliance Manager geführt wurde, warem: Tanja Lampertsdoerfer, Regulatory Database Quality Specialist, Sandra Vogel, Technical Expert Consumer Safety und Paul Castle, Communication Manager für die Syngenta Foundation für nachhaltige Agrikultur. Mit dem Publikum teilten sie ihre persönlichen Geschichten, Ihre Verbindung und Verbundenheit zu Aiducation, in welchem Rahmen sich ihr Beitrag bewegt und wie sie die Zukunft für die Organisation sehen.

Sandra erklärte: „Als ich Kristin zum ersten Mal traf, war ich auf der Suche nach einer Möglichkeit, das Glück, das ich im Leben erhalten habe, der Gesellschaft zurückzugeben. In Deutschland geboren, musste ich nie einen Gedanken daran verschwenden, wie und ob ich eine Ausbildung erhalte. Somit entschied ich mich, einen talentierten Schüler aus einer bedürftigen Familie mit einem Aiducation-Stipendium zu unterstützen“.

In the Asian island nation of the Philippines, students have to battle similar hurdles in order to access education, as their counterparts in Kenya. Last year we launched a pilot program that is already changing lives through a partnership with a local NGO called Pathways Philippines. Pathways Philippines has years of experience mentoring students and we are pleased to announce the expansion of our program beyond our eight scholarship pilot thanks to this reliable, high-impact partner.

We are applying the successful principles we learned in Kenya to address similar education issues in the Philippines. Students in both countries face a gap in the education system between primary school and university, which leads to students from financially challenged backgrounds being left out from higher education. While in Kenya the bottleneck is due to the study-fees of secondary education, the situation in the Philippines is a bit different. In the Philippines, secondary public education is funded by the government but research shows three main reasons causing an education gap:

1. Students need Access to better Quality Education: Public schools rarely provide education to the same quality as private schools that charge school fees. The quality is so low that many families with financial concerns prefer have their kids work on the family farm or elsewhere rather than spend time in an education system where they don’t learn the skills and knowledge they need. Only with tutoring and additional classes, students can attend public secondary schools and still achieve the grades and knowledge needed for university.

2. Students need mentorship and to understand their Choices: Many students from poor families without any academic background simply lack the self-confidence to pursue a higher education at a university and they don’t see it as a choice. Furthermore many students are unaware of the gross differences in quality of education between the public schools and other resources available to them in order to make good choices about their education.

3. Students need funding for exam fees: Most of the students from poor families can’t afford the fees to sit for and pass the university entrance exam.

This results in high potential students with strong performance in primary school having lower performance in secondary school and lower rates of attendance at universities.

With Aiducation Scholarships, Filipino Students are empowered

Im asiatischen Inselstaat müssen Schüler auf ihrem Bildungsweg vergleichbare Hürden bewältigen wie in Kenia. Mit Pathways Philippines, einer in den Philippinen gegründeten NGO, haben wir vor Ort einen kompetenten Partner gefunden. Die Zusammenarbeit funktioniert so gut, dass bereits acht Stipendien in einer Pilotphase an philippinische Schüler vergeben werden konnten.

Die Situation auf den Philippinen gestaltet sich ähnlich derjenigen in Kenia: Auch hier besteht eine Lücke im Bildungssystem, aufgrund welcher talentierte, aber bedürftige Schüler der Weg zu einer höheren Schulbildung verunmöglicht wird. Während jedoch in Kenia vor allem die Schulgebühren den Engpass bilden, ist die Situation in den Philippinen ein wenig anders: die öffentliche High School ist zwar kostenlos, doch wir haben bei unserer Recherche in den letzten Jahren drei Hauptursachen gefunden, warum Schüler aus ärmeren Familie den Sprung zu einer guten Universität nur sehr selten schaffen:

1. Öffentliche Primarschulen können häufig im Vergleich zu den kostenpflichtigen, Privatschulen nicht die gleich hohe Qualität an Schulbildung bieten. Als Konsequenz gibt es viele Familien, die ihren Kindern raten, im elterlichen Hof mitzuarbeiten oder schon früh eigenes Geld zu verdienen, statt für ihre Begriffe zu wenig in einem öffentlichen Gymnasium zu lernen.

2. Vielen Schülern aus Familien ohne akademische Ausbildung mangelt es an Selbstvertrauen, so dass sie ein Studium an einer guten Hochschule nicht in Betracht ziehen. Ferner erkennen solche Jugendliche häufig nicht die besonders in den Philippinen stark ausgeprägten Qualitätsunterschiede zwischen den Hochschulen.

Empowering young and bright students, giving them access to education so they can live up to their potential is at the core of what we stand for at Aiducation International. Still, seeing what our AiduFellows and Alumni are able to achieve thanks to the support through our AiduMakers is times and time again a humbling and inspiring experience. Despite their young age and often big hardship they went through, these passionate and bright young people, work hard and keep coming up with new ways to help others and give back to their communities and society.

AiduAlumni Gift Pola Kiti

Please meet Gift Pola Kiti. an AiduAlumni who is now in her second year at the African Leadership Academy and founder of the Elimu Project. ‘Elimu’ is a Swahili word for Education, a topic that Gift Pola has always been passionate about. Based on her own experience of having struggled to pay for her school fees due to lacks of funding, just 4 years ago only a scholarship from Aiducation International allowed her to finish her secondary school. Inspired by the help she received she now founded this project.

Elimu is aimed at supporting bright and needy high school students in Kenya and across Africa. Gift Pola is still continuing her education at the African Leadership Academy, but despite that and her young age, she is already now turning into a role model for others, becoming an agent of change in her own society. She is a great example of how the positive impact of education grows exponentially and has the power to touch many people’s lives.