Think Creative Spring 2022

Field Notes

m Economic Growth

Honduras Dry Corridor From 2017 to 2022, nearly 26,000 people in 8,766 households living in extreme poverty benefited from the recently ended Honduras Dry Corridor Alliance—Promoting Food Security in the South. Known in Spanish as Alianza para el Corredor Seco—Proyecto de Seguridad Alimentaria en el Sur (ACS PROSASUR), the five-year program focused on building resilient agricultural livelihoods, while improving water, sanitation and nutrition in very poor communities in the Dry Corridor. The project was funded by the World Bank’s Global Agriculture and Food Security Program and led by the Government of Honduras through INVEST-Honduras. Ethiopia READ II The USAIDREAD II team in Ethiopia is training schoolteachers, directors, cluster supervisors and community leaders to support conflict-affected students. The training includes psychological first aid, psycho-social support and social emotional learning based onWorld Vision’s model. Since January, it has reached 1,222 teachers, 565 school directors and cluster supervisors, and 1,143 community leaders – benefiting 136,000 students in 347 primary schools and three temporary learning centers. READ II expects to reach 250,000 students byMay 2022. Morocco NPR Working along with the Moroccan government, the USAID-funded Reading for Success–National Program for Reading is narrowing the gap between developing a passion for reading at an early age and the lack of engaging reading materials in primary schools. In order to spark students’ interest in reading, 1.1 million colorful storybooks were delivered to 11,000 public schools, inspiring more than 2.5 million students in grades 1 through 4.

Somalia // Bar ama Baro From IDP to Star Teacher

Hassan Ibrahim teaches math and Arabic during the week and attends Plasma University on weekends as a part-time student. While Hassan loves education, he almost was not able to make it his profession. Hassan’s family lived for several years in the Dadaab Refugee Camp in Kenya before being repatriated to an IDP camp near Kismayo, Somalia. Despite having a high school diploma from Dadaab, Hassan could not find a job for two years in Somalia. His mother’s small business in the IDP camp supported the family, but there was not enough money for Hassan to attend the university nor for his seven siblings to study. “As returnees to Somalia, my family’s life in Kismayo was extremely difficult,” says Hassan. “At times, we even thought about going back to the refugee camp in Kenya because life in Kismayo proved to be more difficult than we initially had anticipated.” Hassan volunteered at several schools in Kismayo and was recruited to teach at Rugta Primary school as a staff teacher. While there, Hassan learned about USAID’s Bar ama Baro

accelerated basic education program and its need for teachers. To expand access to quality education to out-of-school children and youth in Kismayo, the Bar ama Baro program supports 48 schools with an enrollment of 6,241 students, 48 headteachers and 130 teachers. Hassan was accepted into Bar Ama Baro’s special training program. “The Bar Ama Baro seven-day teacher training program was an eye-opening experience for me because I learned a lot about how to deliv er lessons and manage students,” Hassan says. “I gained knowledge and perspectives during the training, and I’m grateful to be part of this nationwide education program that benefits many impoverished children.’’ Hassan says being an accelerated basic education teacher is about more than a source of income. It is a privilege to contribute and help those in the community who need free, quality education. The connection is also personal for him: Two of Hassan’s younger siblings are students in the accelerated basic education program. n

m Education

NewWin // Active Communities-Effective States Strengthening Governance Worldwide

USAID has awarded Creative the Active Communities-Effective States (ACES) indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity (IDIQ), which is designed to support the U.S. government’s efforts to strengthen good governance, transparency and accountability around the world. Creative led a team of 14 part ners to win the five-year ACES IDIQ, which will play a pivotal role in bolstering country own

ership and self-efficacy through improvements in governance systems and accountability. ACES supports USAID’s Strategy on Democracy, Human Rights, and Governance (DRG Strategy), which the agency created in 2013 with the “overarching goal to support the establishment and consolidation of inclusive and accountable democracies to advance freedom, dignity and development.” n

Photos submitted by Alinor Osman (Ibrahim); ipopba via istock.com

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