More than one year after their first concert, high school students Allyson and Simon from Basel gave another Charity Music Concert to share their musical talents and raise money for their Philippine AiduSeeker AiduSeeker Rica. The event, which was co-organized by Aiducation, took place at the Music Academy in Basel and was again a great success.

Alysson started to play the violin when she was only five years olds, and by age 12 music was her primary passion. Simon started when he was seven years old and after playing piano and guitar for a few years, his love for music grew and he plans to dedicate his future life to music. We are honored at the two students have chosen to partner with Aidauction as we both share the same belief in the power of education.

We are exceptionally proud to share with you our new animation video which outlines the concept and core idea of Aiducation International. A big thank you to all the people involved who made this happen. Especially and most of all Michaela Šťavová.

Written by Kerstin Hockmann, Aiducaton Communications.

Aiducation is proud to announce our new President of the Alumni Organisation, Andrew Kadzoyo. In his acceptance speech, Andrew emphasised that the organisation is not about the success of a single person, but about what everyone contributes as part of the Aiducation network: “We are one family. We are going to remain united, we are going for an inclusive process and everyone is to be involved. We will do this. Build a better Kenya, build a better world!”

New President of the Alumni Organisation: Andrew Kadzoyo.

Andrew is set to take over from outgoing President Obrein Telly, to whom we are strongly indebted for this outstanding work during the past few years. The election process was completely online, with the campaigns and voting process hosted by the electoral board. “Congratulations all those who participated, both the contestants and the voters, who conducted these elections in a very mature, able and enviable manner to be copied not only in Africa but everywhere in the world”, Jeremy Kambi, CEO Aiducation Kenya, says. “This election made my heart bleed with joy: It’s the fulfillment of a long-live dream about long-live Aiducation.”

New President Andrew was the first in his family of seven to finish secondary school. scored a clean A in the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (K.C.S.E) in 2012 and managed to be the best student in Kilifi County. In 2014, Andrew started to study Commerce at the University of Nairobi, despite severe problems with financing his studies. Thanks to his creative and entrepreneurial mind, he is now able to cover university fees with an import-export business where he buys sandals at the coast and sells them in Nairobi.

High-school students in Kenya have set fire to multiple schools over the past year to vent their anger about increasing pressure, poor conditions and violent teachers (NZZ, 4.6.2017). Much to our regret we at Aiducation judge the article well-researched and accurate.

High-school students are under a lot of pressure to perform as there are currently few options for those who fail: “It’s like being banished and left alone to fend in a desert if you do”, says Jeremiah Kambi, co-founder of Aiducation. In its early days Aiducation also required its scholars to constantly earn good grades to stay in the program. This requirement was however dropped to reduce some of the pressure, explains co-founder Florian Kapitza. Also, being an average performer in a top school means you are still a top performer overall.

Written by Dr. Manuela Anstoetz, Southern Cross University, Australia.

The „war on drugs“ in the Philippines, forcefully implemented by President Rodrigo Duterte, has resulted in the death of more than 7000 people since the president’s recent election in June 2016. These deaths are largely assigned to arbitrary killings by self-declared vigilantes, or to deaths in custody. An escalation of such extrajudicial killings, a 20-fold increase compared to the first half of 2016, appears to be an accepted means, and tolerated by both the government and the public.

Human right abuses on the Philippines have fuelled public criticism and repeatedly been brought up at international meetings. Specifically, the problem of “extrajudicial, summary and arbitrary killings – a term that was clarified by the UN in 1982 – has been discussed by Dr. Maximiliar Spohr, Friedrich Nauman Stiftung, in the recent report. The new figures document the death of more people in a few months than during the entire phase of martial law under the Marcos-Regime.

Interestingly, so far, the drastic measures implemented to address the drug problem in the Philippines have not reduced President Duterte’s popularity. He had started his ruthless measures to fight drug crimes and abuse as a public prosecutor, and then as a mayor, of the city of Davao in the southern Philippines. There, he publicly supported the death squads that appeared in large numbers and conducted extrajudicial executions of alleged drug dealers. Duterte’s political popularity arose among the worldwide phenomenon of right wing populists’ successes, using polarising election campaign rhetoric, and promising complete eradication of all crime; his supposedly successful campaigns in Davao eventually led to his overwhelming election win.