Meet Our Blog Team

The Building Fund is happy to introduce its new Blog Team contributors Kate Clabby and Lindsay Colbert. In addition to updates on the organization you can now visit the TBF Blog for the latest news on international education, profiles of organizations, and interviews with key leaders in the field brought to you by the Blog Team!

Kate Clabby
Kate Clabby is a sophomore at The University of Texas at Austin, double majoring in Humanities, with a concentration in Women in African Culture and Development, and English. She has interned with the literary journal Farfelu Magazine and Collaboration Theater Company, and she is a writing tutor for freshman honors students. She is also involved with the UT chapter of Oxfam America. Kate plans to continue to work for social justice throughout her life, and she is excited to be a part of The Building Fund's effort to help bring education to all children.

Lindsay Colbert
Lindsay Colbert graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a Masters degree in International Development and French. She moved to Chicago to intern with Heartland International, a non-profit organization which designs, implements and manages political, economic and social development projects, as well as international education exchange programs. Previously working with other non-profit organizations in the Midwest, as well as abroad, Lindsay has gained experience in multi-cultural communications and international development projects. Appreciating the importance of education in child development, Lindsay is looking forward to volunteering with The Building Fund and encouraging others to help make a difference.

We look forward to having Kate and Lindsay join our team!!

Education in the Middle East: Improving Lives and Promoting Peace

Greg Mortenson, a former mountain climber, pledged to build his first school in Korphe, Pakistan when he stumbled into the rural village, sick and exhausted, after a failed attempt to summit the mountain K2. After receiving an endowment from the scientist Jean Hoerni, Mortenson founded the Central Asia Institute, which has successfully established 78 schools for children in rural Pakistan and Afghanistan. The CAI makes it a priority to learn from the local people, and to help the communities help themselves. Every CAI project is initiated by people in the community, and they are asked to volunteer labor for building the school. Mortenson believes that this policy helps to empower the local people as well as keeping costs low.

Mortenson and the CAI build schools because they care about helping children. Because educating girls has the biggest impact on quality of life for the entire village, they focus on enrolling girls. However, in the aftermath of 9/11, the CAIs work has taken on a greater significance for Americans. In much of Pakistan and Afghanistan, the only schools available are Islamic madrassas, which are often run by extremist Muslims who use them to advance anti-American agendas and recruit for the Taliban. Mortenson believes that if children are offered options for balanced, moderate education, support for terrorists will eventually evaporate. Therefore, the only sustainable way to fight terror is to improve access to education in the Middle East.

Since its inception, the CAI has expanded to provide women's centers and public health resources in addition to schools, teacher training, and teacher salaries. The New York Times #1 best seller Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace...One School at a Time, coauthored by Mortenson and journalist David Oliver Relin, tells the CAI's story.

For more, visit https://www.ikat.org/

Join Our Blog Team

The Building Fund is seeking volunteers to join its newly formed Blog Team.
The team will work to bring content and fresh ideas to the TBF Blog, while also increasing the visibility and viability of the Blog.

An ideal candidate for the Blog Team will have previous experience working with non-profits and an interest in international education. The position is unpaid, however, after successful tenure on the team individuals will have gained valuable skills and contacts, as well as a familiarity with the workings of a non-profit. TBF is also willing to write recommendations for future internships and jobs.

Responsibilities will include weekly postings that fully communicate current events and news in international education with a focus on Ghana and primary education.

You need:
• a strong interest in international education
• strong blog-style writing skills
• a reliable computer and internet connection
• strong internet research skills

Please submit:
• Your name
• Your contact information
• Your previous experience
• What you do full time
• 2 sample posts that you think should appear on The Building Fund Blog

Please email:
info@thebuildingfund.org
Please use subject line: Blog Team

The Building Fund Awarded Google Grant

The Building Fund announced today that it has been awarded a Google Grant providing Google AdWords services for the non-profit. The Google Grants program supports organizations sharing Google's philosophy of community service to help the world in areas such as science and technology, education, global public health, the environment, youth advocacy, and the arts.

Designed for 501(c)(3) non-profit organizations, Google Grants is a unique in-kind advertising program harnessing the power of Google AdWords advertising product. Google Grants has awarded AdWords advertising to hundreds of non-profit groups whose missions range from animal welfare to literacy, from supporting homeless children to promoting HIV education. Support from Google will allow The Building Fund to reach a greater number of people interested in supporting access to education and increase traffic to The Building Fund website.

For the full press release click here.

Thank You AFH

First and foremost, thank you to all of the architects from the Chicago Chapter of Architecture for Humanity who came out and contributed to the plans for the Young Apostles International School (YAIS) community center!! The meeting was a great success bringing together 22 Chicago architects who lent their time and talent to The Building Fund and the YAIS. The architects spent five hours discussing and planning, coming away with 4 distinctive designs for the community center. The designs, which will be presented to the school this winter, integrate cross-cultural solutions to creating a space where both the students and community members can come together. From water collection systems to multipurpose spaces each plan took into account the need of YAIS, and will bring fresh ideas to our architects in Ghana. Thank you again, to everyone who came out and we look forward to keeping you updated on the progress of the community center.

Providing Opportunities for Ghana's Women

Across the country, Ghana's robust economy has contributed to considerably improving the well-being of its people, with the proportion of Ghanaians living in poverty falling from 52 per cent in 1991-92 to 29 per cent in 2005-06, according to estimates by the Ghana Statistical Service. But Ghana's north has largely been excluded from that broader trend. One hindrance is geography. The three northern regions are far from the ports, roads, railways, markets, industrial centres and fertile farming areas that help stimulate greater economic and human development in southern Ghana. The incidence of poverty in the Northern Region declined only slightly over the same period, from 63 per cent to 52 per cent. Special programmes are needed to overcome the north's heavy concentrations of poverty, poor climate and limited economic opportunities.

One way to tackle these inequities is to get individuals to band together in order to increase their production and marketing capabilities for their local products. For example, the Africa 2000 Network-Ghana has sponsored a project to encourage women to form an association for the creation of shea butter for soap production in Tamale, the capital of Ghana's Northern Region. For these poor women, even modest increases in their incomes can make a big difference. Previously, each had collected and processed shea nuts as an individual, but earned so little she could barely get by. "We found if we came together we could make more and sell more," explains Safiya Hassan, a recent university graduate who is helping the women.

The association now includes 13 groups of shea producers, all women, in Ghana's Northern Region. Together they are able to produce more than 20 tonnes of shea butter per month. Much of this, in the form of high-quality shea soap and creams, is supplied to a Japanese company. As a group, the women are earning an additional profit of 10 Ghana cedis (US$11) for every 100 kilogrammes, compared to what they made as individual producers. That modest extra income has already changed the lives of many of the women. The shea project is still only a few years old, but that has not stopped its members from seeking to help other shea producers in the Northern Region. They have learned improved production techniques from women elsewhere, and are in turn planning to teach selected "master trainers" from all three of Ghana's northern regions. Making such wider connections "has been one of our greatest achievements," says Ms. Yakubu.
For more visit: www.modernghana.com

Help TBF Win $10,000

As The Building Fund embarks on an exciting project to build a community center at The Young Apostles International School we need your help to make it happen. This month we have a chance to win $10,000 to make this project happen.

Visit Ideablob and vote for The Building Fund's "idea" to Help Build a Community Center in Ghana. We will need over 500 votes to make this happen, so every vote will count!!

About the Community Center: The center will serve 11 thousand people housing a health clinic, library, computer lab, and space for community events. It will be the first and only community center in the area and provide much needed health and education services. $10,000 will ensure the success of this project by paying for the materials needed to construct the library and health center. The funds will go directly to the school so that they can use local resources to build the community center, and further help their community. For more visit: http://www.thebuildingfund.org/