KnowledgeBeat – The Young Trees are the Forest
Location
About You
Location
Project Street Address
n/a
Project City
Itezhi Tezhi
Project Province/State
Southern Province
Project Postal/Zip Code
Itezhi Tezhi
Project Country
Zambia
Your idea
Country your work focuses on:
Zambia
Website URL
What stage is your project in?
Operating for 1-5 years
YouTube Upload
What is the average monthly household income in your target community, in US Dollars?
<$10
Name Your Project
KnowledgeBeat – The Young Trees are the Forest
Describe Your Idea
Innovation
Describe your idea in fewer than 50 words.
KnowledgeBeat advances underserved areas of education and ignites community participation. With four core programs that focus on Girls’ Advancement, Environmental Education, Basic Resource Provision and Community & Professional Development, KnowledgeBeat progresses children through school, promotes a healthy lifestyle and equips people with the skill training to reach financial independence.
What makes your idea unique?
KnowledgeBeat is unique in its ability to augment the educational system with a sustainable programmatic approach. By targeting four underserved areas of education we are keeping children in school, promoting gender equity and a healthy lifestyle, supporting environmental health while also strengthening life skills in the community surrounding each Partner School.
KnowledgeBeat instigates independence as opposed to dependence because we require community and teacher participation. Before entering a Partner School, KnowledgeBeat signs a Memorandum of Understanding with the school and community, that clearly spells out roles, responsibilities, contributions and expectations that each party will play in the implementation of the program over the five-year partnership.
KnowledgeBeat facilitates the formation of Program Committees, one committee for each of the four programs: Basic Resource Provision with Library/KnowledgeCneter Support, Girls’ Advancement, Environmental Education and Community & Professional Development. Committees are comprised of teachers and community members and they are responsible for supporting the programs in the school and community.
We view our work as a partnership. KnowledgeBeat provides resources and skill training, but the school and community must provide their time and commitment in order to make the program work. The result is a feeling of ownership among the faculty, students and community that ultimately leads to sustainable development.
What is your area of work? (Please check as many as apply.)
Children & Youth , At risk youth , Boys' development , Early childhood development , Education , Education reform , Girls' development , Youth development , Youth leadership , Development & Prosperity , Adult education , Community development , Corporate social responsibility , Economic development , Employment , Fundraising , Hunger , Income generation , Infrastructure , Mentorship , Networking , Philanthropy , Poverty alleviation , Rural development , Scholarships and grants , Sustainable development , Environment & Sustainability , Climate change , Conservation , Pollution , Rural , Sustainable agriculture , Waste and recycling , Water , Wildlife conservation , Health & Fitness , Health education , HIV/AIDS , Sanitation , Sexuality , Food security , Gender equity , Hunger , Vulnerable populations , Women's issues , Public Participation & Engagement , Citizen participation , Mentoring , Women's Issues , Youth leadership.
What impact have you had?
KnowledgeBeat launched in Ngoma Village of Itezhi Tezhi District in February 2008. In planning meetings with the Ministry of Education, we agreed to focus our first year of operation solely on the Ngoma School and community with the agreement that after 2008 (and based on our success in Ngoma) KnowledgeBeat would begin working in additional basic schools throughout Itezhi Tezhi District. Since the 2008 launch, KnowledgeBeat has sponsored the following:
• The provision of books, computers and other educational resources to Ngoma Basic School
• A Professional Development Workshop for the teaching faculty of Ngoma
• A Girls’ Mentorship Project including office visits and overnights with mentors, as part of the Girls’ Advancement Program
• A Girls’ Empowerment Camp as part of the Girls’ Advancement Program
• A Science Fair as part of the Environmental Education Program
• The purchase of reading books, furniture and educational materials for a KnowledgeCenter Library
• Two full scholarships for female students to attend Njase Girls Secondary School in Choma
• An extensive survey of the state of education in Itezhi Tezhi District in order to optimize KnowledgeBeat’s programs moving forward
Describe the primary problem(s) that your project is addressing.
The educational system is broken. The government does not provide adequate support and there are no education-focused NGOs in the district aside from KnowledgeBeat. The teacher-pupil ratio is 1:42, one school has 2 untrained teachers teaching 323 pupils. Itezhi Tezhi has the fewest number of students progressing on to secondary school in the entire province – only 14.8%. School infrastructure is poor. Educational resources are limited. Female students have no access to girls’ education programs, leading to drop outs due to early marriage and pregnancies. There is little environmental education. There is little HIV/AIDS prevention education. There are over 300 students living alone in Itezhi Tezhi, having moved from their rural villages to try to complete school in the town center. Without any parental supervision, these children fall victim to violence, sexual abuse and prostitution.
Describe the steps that your organization is taking to make your project successful.
Part of creating a successful approach is a solid understanding of the problem. KnowledgeBeat conducted an extensive analysis of our area of operation in order to ensure an effective approach and high impact. By targeting four underserved areas of education, KnowledgeBeat increases child progression through school, provides access to educational aids, provides training on personal and environmental health and integrates the community into the development process.
We partner with the local community to ensure sustainability. A powerful example was the opening of the Ngoma KnowledgeCenter. The Zambian Wildlife Authority donated the space, KnowledgeBeat provided the books and educational resources and the teachers and community volunteers manage the hours of operation. It is a learning sanctuary that exists because of collaboration, and because of that it will continue to thrive for years to come.
Impact
What will it take for your project to be successful over the next three years? Success in Year 1:
In 2010, KnowledgeBeat’s goal is to be actively running all four core programs in three Itezhi Tezhi schools, Ngoma Basic School, Masasabi Basic School and Kaingu Community School. If successful, KnowledgeBeat will reach 800 students and 29 teachers as well as the surrounding communities of each school.
Success in Year 2:
In 2011, KnowledgeBeat’s goal is to launch all four programs at Itezhi Tezhi Downhill Basic School, which serves 1,662 students and 41 teachers. As mentioned above, Itezhi Tezhi town center has over 300 vulnerable children living alone while attending school. We feel that there is an urgent need to reach these children, to inspire them to complete school and give them the resources to meet that goal. They also need HIV/AIDS prevention education as well as general empowerment and leadership courses.
Success in Year 3:
In 2012, KnowledgeBeat plans to enter two more schools, Kalundu Basic School and Nakabangwe Basic School. This will reach 636 students and 15 teachers. We will still be running programs at Ngoma, Masasabi, Kaingu and Itezhi Tezhi Down Hill. This is all part of our five-year plan to reach 11 schools in Itezhi Tezhi District, serving 5605 students, 133 teachers and over 28 community members.
Do you have a business plan or strategic plan? (yes/no)
Yes, we have a 2009 Implementation Strategy, outlining the deployment of our four programs in our target schools.
What are the three most important actions needed to grow your initiative or organization? STEP 1:
Validate our model. We are in the second year of program deployment. In order to effectively grow, we need to both validate and adjust the model in our beta sites such that we minimize issues during growth.
What are the three most important actions needed to grow your initiative or organization? STEP 2:
Expand our team such that we have the capacity to manage our growth. We want to continue reaching an ever increasing number of children. With each new site that we go into, we stretch our current team further. In order to succeed we not only need to effectively train community members on day to day program implementation, alleviating our staff but also build the team in country such that our program directors have the support they need to oversee additional sites and children.
What are the three most important actions needed to grow your initiative or organization? STEP 3:
Raise money to support our programs. We need to scale our team and operations within the U.S. such that we raise money to fuel our growth in Zambia. As the programs expand so does the budget and it is imperative that we access the funding needed to sustain the programs. Additionally, we need to increase fundraising efforts in Zambia.
Describe the expected results of these actions.
We expect that we will empower an ever growing number of children in Zambia. We will expand in the Itezhi Tezhi District reaching 11 schools and over 5600 students within five years. We believe that we will have a profound impact on the lives of the children and the communities in this region. Furthermore, we believe that the success of this program will serve as an example throughout Zambia and beyond.
What was the defining moment that led you to this innovation?
KnowledgeBeat was founded by a group of childhood friends with a passion and commitment to the global community. Their inspiration came from life experiences that showed them how vital education is to one’s future as well the inadequacy of educational opportunities available to children in the developing world.
Tell us about the social innovator behind this idea.
Annie Hazlehurst first went to Zambia in 2003 to volunteer for Greenforce. She lived in Ngoma while conducting conservation research. She has worked for Morgan Stanley’s Investment Banking Division and Draper Fisher Jurvetson where she focused on clean technology investing and the developing world. Today she is completing a joint MBA / MS Environment & Resources at Stanford University.
Sarah Mintz helped launch the first independent living solution for Center for Independent Futures as a college student. She received her bachelor of science in communications with a concentration in psychology from Northwestern University. Sarah has led marketing and fundraising initiatives at Massachusetts-based Eagle Hill School and worked as a Client Executive at Voce Communications. Sarah spent the last year living in Zambia, supporting KnowledgeBeat’s Zambian team with the ongoing growth of the organization. She returned to the U.S. in June 2009, and is pursuing a career in international relations.
Margaret Word’s efforts have spanned environmental clean-ups, fundraising for the San Francisco Aids Walk, and working with the homeless throughout San Francisco. Margaret taught grammar and literature for Project Reflect while in college. She works in Direct Marketing for Williams-Sonoma Inc and leads KnowledgeBeat’s marketing initiatives.
How did you first hear about Changemakers?
Yuting Bev Lien emailed Annie with an application for Changemakers. Annie had previously attended an Ashoka Fellows meeting in Bogota, Colombia in April of 2009.
This Entry is about (Issues)
Sustainability
What would prevent your project from being a success?
If we do not maintain and continue to hire the right team of people within Zambia, the project could fail. It is imperative that we have people who are innovative, hard-working, trust worthy and engaged with the communities we work in. If we lose or do not have the support of the communities we work in our project could be hindered. Our model is one of partnership and without these partners we would not succeed. Finally, continuing to access funding necessary to support our project is imperative. If we do not have appropriate funding we will not be able to implement our programs.
Financing source
no
If yes, provide organization name.
How long has this organization been operating? (i.e. less than a year; 1-5 years; more than 5 years)
KnowledgeBeat formally registered in Zambia in December 2007 and launch in Ngoma Basic School in February 2008.
Does your organization have a Board of Directors or an Advisory Board?
KnowledgeBeat has a Board of Directors in Zambia and in the U.S.
Does your organization have any non-monetary partnerships with NGOs? (yes/no)
Yes.
Does your organization have any non-monetary partnerships with businesses? (yes/no)
Yes.
The Story
Does your organization have any non-monetary partnerships with government? (yes/no)
Yes.
Please tell us more about how these partnerships are critical to the success of your innovation.
Collaboration is a critical part of development. KnowledgeBeat partners with other NGOs, businesses and government organizations to aid in the deployment of KnowledgeBeat’s programs. Examples include partnering with the Peace Corps to produce a fuel-efficient stove-building workshop as part of KnowledgeBeat’s Environmental Education Program. Additionally, representatives from government entities such as Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Education and the Zambian Wildlife Authority and businesses such as the Zambian Electrical Services Company have also partnered with KnowledgeBeat to support the Environmental Education program. All parties recognize that by enhancing environmental education we are protecting the natural environment as well as tapping into development opportunities with socio-economic and health related benefits.
How many people will your project serve annually?
1001-10,000
What is the total number of employees and total number of volunteers at your organization?
3 Full-time Zambian employees, 1 Zambian consultant and 15 volunteers
What is your organization's business classification?
Non-profit/NGO/citizen sector organization
Have you received funding from any of the following groups? (Please check as many as apply.)
None of the above.
 | wsword1111 said: Good job to see the need and respond. Pretty inspirational. Keep it up. about this Competition Entry. - 926 days ago read more > |
| Sarah Mintz updated this Competition Entry. - 960 days ago |
| yutinglien updated this Competition Entry. - 976 days ago |
| Sarah Mintz submitted this idea. - 976 days ago |
