EEddiittoorrssMichael GubserAlexandra Pratt

CCoonnttrriibbuuttoorrssWendy BlanpiedDaniel FormanPaul FreundDavid HolidayRuth Ann HudsonCarola MandelbaumMaryFaith Mount-CorsCynthia PratherHarold SibajaMajella van der Werf

DDeessiiggnn && PPrroodduuccttiioonnMarta S. MaldonadoAngie Aldave

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Photo of the Month

“A Government Primary School in rural Bangladesh. The children in the photo are a mixture of 1st to 5th graders. This photowas taken in October-November 2003 during the research on a USAID/Bangladesh requested study for the Basic Education andPolicy Support (BEPS) activity. The title of the study was “Time to Learn”: Teachers’ and Students’ Use of Time in Government PrimarySchools in Bangladesh”.

CREATIVE ASSOCIATES INTERNATIONAL INC

www.caii.net

photo by Dr. Seth Spaulding

CREATIVETIMES CREATIVETIMESWinter 2004 Volume 2, Number 1

After the summer's oppressive heat, September's cool weather was awelcome relief for Iraqis in Baghdad. In the Salah ad Din Hall in thePalestine Hotel, one of Baghdad's most exclusive hotels, a group ofteachers, administrators and supervisors from each of Iraq's gover-norates gathered for the first workshop of the Revitalization of IraqiSchools and Stabilization of Education (RISE) project's teacher trainingprograms.

In the first session of a cascade plan that will ultimately train 64,000teachers throughout the country, 64 future Master Trainers wereexposed to new child-centered methodologies and more democraticmeans of cooperating with their colleagues and students. Participantsfound the training especially illuminating after years of confinementwithin a rigid and corrupt educational system.

contd. on pg. 4 >

"A Meeting from Heaven"-Teacher Training in Iraq

Central American democracies are promoting greater transparency andpolitical accountability by embracing civil society participation in politics asa remedy to corruption. During the November 2003 national presiden-tial elections in Guatemala, Creative Associates, took public monitoring tonew heights, through the USAID-funded Guatemala Civil Society Project.A Citizen Observatory probed government spending of public funds tosupport political parties in Guatemala for the first time.

contd. on pg. 3 >

Transparency for GoodGovernance in Central America

JARASH, JORDAN (January 30, 2004)Jarash, a community made up of cluster villages with approximately44,000 people dwelling on family farms was swept up with the sud-den visit of His Majesty King Abdullah II. The King came to Jarash onan official visit to lay the corner stone of the community's jam pro-cessing facility. Surrounded by an enthusiastic crowd, His MajestyKing Abdullah II of Jordan listened intently about the communitydevelopment and capacity building process that had brought about ajam processing facility which will generate income and employmentfor villagers.

The creation of Jarash's jam processing facility is the result of intensivemeetings of village committees that identified the making of jam as ameans to increase their profits by extending the marketing life of theirfruits from a few days to months. Implemented through CreativeAssociates' Rural Community Clusters Development Program(RCCDP) and funded by the Jordanian Ministry of Planning, Jarash'sjam processing facility is one of many initiatives that is restoring andenhancing economic and social viability to rural clusters of communi-ties in Jordan. For instance, the facility will encourage expansion ofexisting orchards and cultivation of new ones and villagers will be ableto obtain better prices for their crops and still be able to produce jamat competitive prices. Villages which share common resources, sim-ilar crop production and economic livelihoods, work together torealize projects. In this way, CAII's RCCDP contributes to a sustain-able rural economy that strengthens the economic and social fabricof communities.

Locals enthusiastically recounted to the King the excitement of fullownership of the process that helped them establish this facility,which will be community managed and is expected to process 500tons of jam per year.

Since its launch in 2002, more than 140,000 citizens in more than 50villages have benefited from the Rural Community ClustersDevelopment Program (RCCDP). In northern Jordan's Mafraq dis-trict near the Syrian border, the program rehabilitated a 1.6 millioncubic meter dam which was neglected for more than a decade.

King Abdullah II Visits Jarash

photo by Noy Villalobos/ Daniel Forman

photo by Creative Associates

Creative Associates wins SWIFT II LiberiaCreative Associates has been awarded a two-year contract tosupport the peace process in Liberia. The firm will work withUSAID's Office of Transition Initiatives (OTI) to support andstrengthen the August 2003 Liberia peace agreement. Theproject will identify and address critical bottlenecks within thepeace accord and will work to increase civil society's involve-ment in the peace process. The project will provide $7 millionin grants that will focus on media development, governance andtransparency, and peace and justice.

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VVeerriittyy SSttiiffff joined CreativeAssociates in February 2004, as aField Personnel Manager. Ms.Stiff will handle personnel negoti-ations and contracts and all HR

related issues concerning field based personnel,both expatriates and third country nationals. Mostrecently, Ms. Stiff worked with the United NationsDevelopment Program's (UNDP) Kosovo PoliceService project providing human resources know-how in the area of recruitment strategy develop-ment. Prior to her work with UNDP, Ms. Stiffspent most of her career with the World WildlifeFund and other international organizations in Syria,Germany, Switzerland and the U.S. Ms. Stiff hasalso worked with the African Development Bankprincipally in the Middle East and Africa concentrat-ing on human resources consulting and manage-ment. Ms. Stiff holds a Masters Degree in PublicManagement.

SSaarraahh JJaannee SStteepphheennss joinedCreative Associates inDecember 2003, as the Chief ofParty for Albania in theEducation, Mobilization and

Communications Division. Ms. Stephens hasworked in the human rights field for over 16 yearsand brings to CAII expertise in Combating HumanTrafficking, Conference Planning, ProgramManagement and donor reporting. During thepast two years Ms. Stephens has been a point per-son for counter-trafficking programs development,serving on an expert coordination team of theStability Pact Task Force on Trafficking in Human

Rights. Ms. Stephens received her Master ofDivinity degree from San Francisco TheologicalSeminary and has completed coursework inInternational Policy Studies at the University ofBristol. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree inPolitical Studies from Whitworth College inSpokane, Washington. Ms. Stephens has worked inGeneva, Switzerland since 1995 and Pristina,Kosovo, from 2000-20001.

RReebbeeccccaa CCuussiicc joined CreativeAssociates in November 2003,as the BEPS Latin American andCaribbean Activity Coordinatorin the Education, Mobilization

and Communications Division. For the past sevenyears, Ms. Cusic has worked with Save theChildren in the USA, serving as an EducationSpecialist for the past three years. Ms. Cusic'smanaged a portfolio of 10 countries to ensurequality education programming. Her areas ofexpertise include proposal development, programimplementation/ technical support to primary,youth, and adult education. Ms. Cusic initiatedworldwide research efforts for Youth Programs andAlliance Education activities and presented thesefindings to Congress and the Basic EducationCoalition. Ms. Cusic received her Master of Arts inTeaching from Towson State University (PeaceCorp Fellow), and Bachelor of Arts in Spanish fromNorthern Illinois University. Ms. Cusic speaksSpanish, Portuguese, French and Haitian Creole.

DD.. JJeerrrryy RRuubbiinnoo joined CreativeAssociates in November 2003,as the Senior Advisor forSecurity and EmergencyPreparedness in the Office of

Operations. For the past 23 years, Mr. Rubino hasserved as the Director of the Security andEmergency Planning Staff, Justice ManagementDivision, (JMD) for the Department of Justice(DOJ). Mr. Rubino was responsible for crisis man-agement support for the DOJ's leadership, over-seeing contingency planning for civil disorders anddisturbances, and ensuring continuity of the DOJ'soperations in the event of national security emer-gencies. Managing a staff of 75 federal employeeswith an annual budget of $15 million, Mr. Rubinooversaw security operations for DOJ worldwide,supervised the design and construction of theJustice Command Center in Washington DC, anddesigned and supervised the construction of alter-nate crisis management and emergency operationscenter for the DOJ and the FBI at a remote loca-tion. Earlier in his career, Mr. Rubino also served asan Investigator, Security Specialist, and SystemsAdministrator for the United States CentralIntelligence Agency. Mr. Rubino holds a Master'sdegree in Public Administration and a Bachelor'sdegree in Social Sciences from George WashingtonUniversity.

NEW FACES

Interfaith Symposium, "The Principles of the Abrahamic Faiths: Traditionsthat Advance Education." (contd. from pg. 6)

In his closing remarks, Dr. Kenneth Goodpaster,from the Caux Round Table, quoted the phrase, "Irejoice because you are my brother and I laughbecause you can do nothing about it" to call for"siblinghood" between religions that worship thesame God and Abrahamic traditions. In explainingthe way this "siblinghood" is applied to education,Dr Goodpaster referenced the phrase by WinstonChurchill: " First we shape our institutions; thenthey will shape us.”

The symposium was attended by a distinguishedaudience composed of educators from developingcountries and the Washington, DC metropolitanarea, individuals from the Department of State, theAgency for International Development and theWorld Bank, Legislative and Senatorial aides, col-leagues from other development firms, Creativestaff and others.

On Friday February 13th, following the sympo-sium, a special "Creative staff only" session tookplace in the headquarters office. The objective ofthe Friday session was to internalize informationfrom the previous day and determine how suchknowledge can improve our effectiveness inimplementing program activities in multi-culturalsettings.

Dr. Goodpaster called for all Abrahamic traditionsto bring together their commonalities and leavebehind the violence in their name. "Religion is partof the solution" was the general consensus of theparticipants and the need of community involve-ment is key for a successful approach to our proj-ects.

NEW FACES NEW FACES--

Mustafa Jabar Hamid's parents call theirson's return to school a "golden oppor-tunity." The sixteen-year-old attends

the Al-Ta'aman Boys' School in the disadvantageddistrict of Al-Jadida in Diwaniyah and says hecan't believe he has a second chance at educa-tion. "I want my country to be free and for edu-cation to be available to everyone in order torebuild Iraq," said Mustafa.

After years of economic sanctions and decades oftyranny, Iraq's education system has collapsed.Nearly 47 percent of Iraqi students have missedyears of school. To address the needs of these outof school students, USAID has contracted withCAII to implement five pilot Accelerated Learning(AL) programs through its Revitalization of IraqiSchools and Stabilization of Education (RISE). TheAL program will be carried across Iraq and isdesigned to accelerate children aged 6 through 14through two years of school in just one year.

There are many reasons for the low enrollment: an inability to afford school fees, mistreatment byteachers, inadequate school facilities.

Mohammed Sabah, 14, is a student of Baghdad ALprogram. He has been working since the age of12, when he was forced to quit school because hisfamily couldn't afford to pay bribes to teachers.Mohammed said although he got very high markson tests, he failed his classes because he couldn'tpay the teachers. Since enrolling in the AL pro-gram, Mohammed works as a mechanic everymorning before school and every evening afterschool until 6:30 pm to help support his family.Mohammed's goal for the AL program is to learn toread and write. "I am very happy in this school andI will be even happier if I can spend my whole lifein this school," he says.

RISE's AL classes began on November 15th with aregistration of 566 students. Since the commence-ment of AL classes RISE staff and the Ministry ofEducation have been sought out by parents andstudents seeking to join AL classes. The overridingdemand for admission has prompted USAID torequest additional classes, bringing the number ofregistered students to 685 as of December 20th.For parents and students alike the AL classes are

seen as a genuine program providing a secondchance at education.

In fact, the demand for AL classes is so prevalentthat the AL Coordinator, Martina Nicolls, has hadto extend the age limit of the students. In some ALclasses, students as old as 22 are enrolled. InNasiriyah where one of the AL pilot programs isbeing offered, students range in age from 16 to 22years and many continue to work in the morningbefore attending school. The difficulty of managinga school and work schedule has forced six studentsfrom Diwaniyah and two from Nasiriyah to leavethe program for full-time work. The remainingstudents show their commitment to the programby studying diligently through their recess breakand doing additional homework.

Heba, 18, from Nasiriyah says, "It is difficult, yes,because I have missed three years of school but Iam more determined to study now. A secondchance at education is more than I could haveasked for and so all of my heart is consumed withthe desire to learn."

The AL program has not only provided opportuni-ties for students but it has also posed new chal-lenges for teachers. For Khamail Hassan Karam, ascience and math teacher in the AL program inDiwaniyah, a three-hour drive south of Baghdad,becoming an AL teacher was a step into theunknown. Unemployed after the fall of Saddam'sregime, Khamail heard of the program from theDirector General of Education and decided toattend a meeting held by Ms. Nicolls to introducethe AL Program to potential teachers. "I wanted tobe so much involved," she said, "because my stu-dents want to be back at school and they arealways willing to learn. They are so enthusiasticthat they overwhelm me."

Award in Uganda Reaches $8 Million

In January 2004, Creative Associates wasawarded $1.5 million to provide reproductivehealth and responsible sexuality materials to

more than 12,000 government-supportedschools in Uganda. These new funds will beprovided through USAID’s Basic Education andPolicy Support (BEPS) Activity, USAID’s five-yearinitiative to promote education improvementsthroughout the developing world.

This award is the latest in a series of BEPS activ-ities to support the advancement of quality edu-cation for all in Uganda. CAII’s Senior EducationPolicy and Institutional Support Advisor, RenukaPillay, and her team have been working withUganda’s Ministry of Education and Sports(MOES) since June 2000 to provide new skillsand techniques to practicing teachers through itsdecentralized Teacher Development andManagement System. In October 2002,Creative Associates began working with the

MOES in designing, implementing, and monitor-ing pilot interventions to improve teacher effec-tiveness, promote reproductive health andresponsible sexuality, and encourage age-appro-priate early childhood education. CreativeAssociates provided training on participatorylearning practices, funded the development,production, and distribution of 2,000 early child-hood learning kits, and supported the develop-ment and limited distribution of two trainingmanuals for Uganda’s Presidential Initiative onAIDS Strategy for Communication to Youth(PIASCY). A multi-media advocacy campaignwith posters, feature articles, radio spots, docu-mentaries, drama presentations, and presenta-tions by national notables complemented theseinterventions.

In November 2003, Creative Associates wasawarded a $6.5 million, 21-month contract toexpand the UPE advocacy, teacher effectiveness,

and reproductive health and responsible sexual-ity activities initiated under Phase I (2002). Inaddition, CAII is supporting MOES initiatives intwo new areas: primary education for disadvan-taged children, particularly children in conflictareas, and guidance and counseling training forteachers. The $1.5 million that was added inJanuary 2004 will allow CAII to print and distrib-ute150,000 teacher/administrator PIASCYhandbooks, provide training on the use of thedocument, develop a separate handbook forsecondary school teachers and administrators,and introduce needed guidance and counselingtechniques to pre-service teachers.

Out-of-School Students Get a Second Chance

UGANDA

IRA

Q

photo by American Islamic Congress

photo by Cynthia Prather

- 2 - - 11 -

In 2000, Creative Associates teamed with theZambian Ministries of Education and Health tolaunch an innovative School Health and Nutrition

(SHN) program in Eastern Province, Zambia. Theprogram enlists teachers to administer micronutri-ents and deworming drugs to students in order tostem the country's health crisis and improve studentlearning.

Zambia faces one of the most severe health emer-gencies in southern Africa. Malaria, malnutrition,and bilharzia are endemic to the country, andfamine and AIDS have compounded the crisis inrecent years. Life expectancy has dropped to 35years in many parts of the country, and a decline instudent performance due to illness is devastatingZambian schools.

The SHN program began to address these prob-lems in selected schools in Eastern Province, wherea baseline research sampling of 1,400 pupils(Grades 1-7) confirmed the high prevalence of bil-harzia, worm infections, and Vitamin A deficiency.Concurrently, an assessment test developed by YaleUniversity and the University of Zambia measured

the gains in cognitive ability accruing from biomed-ical treatments.

The SHN program's unprecedented incorporationof health care into the education system requiredtraining for teachers so that they could administerdrugs and a sensitization campaign to make localcommunities aware of the new roles teachers wereassuming. To serve these ends, the program devel-oped training courses and manuals, a student ques-tionnaire to determine prevalence rates of bilharzia,and a "tablet pole" to measure the correct dosage ofcertain drugs. To date, 400 teachers have beentrained and over 40,000 pupils are now receivingSHN drugs administered by teachers.

SHN program leaders have also worked with theMinistry of Education to ensure that health pro-grams are sustainable. Zambian coordinating com-mittees have been established at all levels (national,provincial, district, school, and community), andstandards officers have been trained in SHN activi-ties. A drug delivery system has been set up, andthe SHN data has been integrated into the broaderZambian Educational Management Information

The public took note when it was disclosed in thecountry's daily papers that nearly $2 million in pub-lic funds were spent by the government and polit-ical parties for elections purposes. Earlier in theyear public monitoring by the project disclosedmispending of public funds towards school feedingprograms.

Civil society groups have launched advocacy effortsin support of greater public access to informationso that the media and civic advocacy organizationscan perform their roles in the fight against corrup-tion. The Civil Society Project in Guatemala hasworked to strengthen the General Controller'sOffice and the Attorney General's Office for Anti-Corruption. The project's Coalition forTransparency has developed a national agendawhich has been adopted by Guatemala's newAdministration. The Commissioner forTransparency has requested USAID's guidance inensuring the strategy is followed. A manual thatexplains to citizens their right to access informationwas published by the project and has been dissem-inated widely. "We see transparency as the corner-

stone of all of our civil society efforts", explains thedirector of the Civil Society Project, Harold Sibaja.

In El Salvador, Creative Associates' CitizenParticipation and Governance Project supported amunicipal transparency project that established cit-izen watchdog groups to monitor public spendingin nine municipalities. Last year, the project sup-ported a local workshop on corruption and openaccess to information for legislators, media repre-sentatives and civil society leaders. The project iscurrently supporting organizations that promoteand train other civil society organizations in budgettransparency and other citizen oversight mecha-nisms, as well as a campaign to raise awarenessabout the importance of access to information.Creative Associates supports extensive institutionalstrengthening. "Just as civil society organizationsseek to hold government more accountable, theyalso have to operate in a more transparent andaccountable manner", notes David Holiday, direc-tor of the project in El Salvador.

Grantees in civil society are altering the civic land-scape by raising awareness and promoting legisla-tive reforms, but the project also works with pub-lic sector partners to open up governmentalprocesses to greater citizen participation. As aresult of the Citizen Participation and GovernanceProject, the oversight of public officials in ElSalvador could be institutionalized for the first time

if a Code of Ethics bill for public servants is passedby legislators this year. As a part of efforts to sup-port citizen involvement in the LegislativeAssembly, the Citizen Participation andGovernance Project is establishing through its sub-contractor, the University of Texas, a permanentconstituent services office at the Assembly and haslaunched a children's website explaining the work-ings of the legislative branch in El Salvador. Theestablishment of a citizens hotline, bringing citizenscloser to government, is also slated for this year.

Creative Associates has launched anti-corruptionactivities elsewhere in Latin America. In Peru, itrecently completed a two-year project known asApoyo Creativo para la Transicion (ACT). It dis-bursed more than 200 grants totaling $6.6 millionto Peruvian NGOs working for democraticreforms. The strategy included developing anti-corruption materials, training journalists in over-sight responsibilities, holding workshops tostrengthen citizen networks, providing legal assis-tance to prison inmates, and helping radio stationsinform the public on corruption and how to com-bat it.

For more information on Activities in Guatemala and El Salvador see:www.caii.netFor more information on the Citizen Observatory project:http://info.worldbank.org/etools/docs/library/33517/GuatemalaAccesoInfo.pdf

Zambia's Collaboration on Health and Education

Transparency for Good Governance in Central America(contd. from pg. 1)

contd. on pg. 5 >

Z A M B I Aphoto by Wendy Robison

photo by CREA/El Salvador- 10 - - 3 -

The Albanian Umbrella Anti-Trafficking Initiative (AUATI) contract, awarded to Creative AssociatesInternational by USAID in September 2003, welcomed its Chief of Party (COP), Sarah Stephens, toAlbania in January 2004. Since her arrival, staff members from CAII's home office have been sent toAlbania to help Ms. Stephens start up the new project office, hire staff and elaborate on program activi-ties with USAID/Albania.

Given that this is the largest anti-trafficking contract awarded in a single country by USAID to date,USAID/Albania considers the AUATI contract to be groundbreaking as well as highly visible both withinand outside of Albania. USAID is looking at the Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) work done on thisInitiative to potentially become models for other anti-trafficking programs funded by USAID. WorldLearning, CAII's subcontractor on this initiative, is providing the Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) expert-ise.

The AUATI project plans to support Albania's anti-trafficking efforts by providing a space for consensusbuilding and partnerships across the Government of Albania, civil society and the international commu-nity; distributing grants to local and international NGOs in several cycles throughout the 3 year Initiativeto improve the scope and quality of prevention and reintegration activities; and by developing andimproving mechanisms through which Albania's anti-trafficking community can collect, synthesize, ana-lyze and use trafficking data.

In February, The Basic Education and PolicySupport (BEPS) Activity completed its fourthyear of support to USAID in its mission toimprove and expand basic education, particular-ly for girls and other underserved populations.Since its inception, Creative Associates and itspartners (CARE, GroundWork, and GeorgeWashington University) have provided assess-ments, trainings, pilot interventions, and othertechnical assistance to 25 countries in areasrelated to basic education, policy reform, chil-dren in crisis, and the alleviation of abusive childlabor through education. BEPS also has provid-ed administrative and logistical support for fiveUSAID workshops designed to disseminateresearch and lessons learned to Mission staff.Task order contracts and core activities haveexceeded $43 million.

As it starts its fifth year, BEPS is actively involvedin numerous activities, a few of which aredescribed below:

TThhee CCHHAANNGGEESS PPrrooggrraamm iinn ZZaammbbiiaa:: BEPS isnearing completion of its first three-year phaseof an initiative that involves two major compo-nents -- school health and nutrition, to improvestudent performance by training teachers toadminister deworming and micronutrient sup-plements and community sensitization andmobilization to improve access to primary edu-cation for girls and other vulnerable children and

to mitigate the effects of the HIV/AIDS epidem-ic. Two crosscutting activities - a Small GrantsMechanism, and HIV/AIDS activities, also arebeing implemented. A project expansion ispending.

LLAACC:: CCeenntteerrss ffoorr EExxcceelllleennccee iinn TTeeaacchheerrTTrraaiinniinngg ((CCEETTTTss)):: CAII is continuing its effortsto support USAID supported CETTs in the LatinAmerica and Caribbean, Central America, andAndrean regions. Current activities include fieldwork focusing on pilot first grade interventionprograms in the Central American Region andassistance to the Caribbean CETT in designing aWireless Intranet System to provide teachertraining to clusters of institutions.

MMoorrooccccoo EEdduuccaattiioonn ooff GGiirrllss:: CAII began collect-ing data on the impact of the MoroccoEducation for Girls (MEG) Project, a recentlycompleted, six-year initiative funded by USAID.Task order activities also include the design andpretesting of two training modules for schooldirectors.

UUggaannddaa TTeecchhnniiccaall AAssssiissttaannccee:: BEPS began workon a $8 million expansion contract, whichshould extend education support activitiesthrough the projected end of BEPS in 2005.Activities relate to five key areas: support to dis-advantaged children, particularly children in con-flict areas; UPE advocacy; teacher effectiveness;

responsible sexuality and health education; andguidance and counseling (see separate article).

BBaannggllaaddeesshh:: BEPS began research on the thirdof a series of educational sector studies,Madrassah Schools in Bangladesh. Field workon the first two studies, Early ChildhoodLearning, and Students' and Teachers' Use ofTime in Primary Schools, has been conductedand reports are being finalized.

GGlloobbaall:: As a result of collaborative effortsbetween CAII and its subcontractor, CARE/USA,BEPS is continuing to provide technical assis-tance in planning, monitoring, and evaluatingrehabilitative and reconstructive education activ-ities for children and youth in crisis countries.The recently completed urban youth report,"Urbanization, War, and Africa's Youth at Risk," isbeing distributed, and work has begun on ayouth-at-risk toolkit, which will include a seriesof short papers on youth-at-risk-related issuesfor USAID missions in Africa.

Basic Education and Policy Support (BEPS) NOTEBOOK

Albania: Anti-Trafficking

photo by Kate Carpenter

photo by Marc Sommers

First Year Successes in Afghanistan

The Afghanistan Primary Education Project(APEP), launched in January 2003, hasbeen authorized to accelerate the imple-

mentation of its multiple programs in anticipationof additional USAID funding. The proposedAPEP expansion complements its successes inthe first phase of the program, which improvedthe quality of and access to, primary educationfor over-age learners and strengthened teachertraining.

APEP's accelerated learning program hasenrolled 15,000 over-age learners in the firstcycle of the project. The program's ultimate goalis to provide accelerated learning classes to over100,000 over-age, out of school children help-ing them to achieve grade level equivalenciesand enter the formal school system. In this way,accelerated learning helps un-enrolled youth,especially girls, make up for the years of educa-tion they missed due to civil war and state-imposed restrictions by completing two aca-demic grade levels or more each year. The pro-gram which started in the Faryab, Nangarharand Baghlan provinces has now extended to 12

other provinces. The success of the acceleratedlearning classes is best exemplified in the case ofBaghlan province. For the 5,000 slots open tostudents in Baghlan, more than 12,000 studentsrequested enrollment.

Another key success of APEP is the DistanceLearning Program, a radio-based teacher train-ing curriculum that reaches more teachers inremote jurisdictions. The innovative radio pro-gram, It is Great to Learn!, has broken throughconventional barriers by using a format of fea-tures and dramas, that entertain even as theyeducate. Nationally broadcast through RadioFree Afghanistan, as well as other national andprovincial radio stations, the educational radioprogramming trains isolated teachers in child-centered methods of teaching literacy, numera-cy, and life skills.

In anticipation of APEP's expansion plans, theMinistry of Education has asked USAID andAPEP to print additional textbooks due to thepersistent problem of the lack of textbooks inschools. The shortage of textbooks is a hin-drance on many levels including its implications

contd. on pg. 5 >

"They described the training as a meeting fromheaven," says Milook Aqiqi, a master trainer withthe Iraqi Foundation (IF) who is working with RISEproject staff to train teachers and administratorsthroughout the country.

Dr. Hind Rassam Culhane, Senior EducationSupervisor at Creative, explains that some of thenew methodologies presented at the RISE teachertraining workshops were simply unheard of in Iraq.For instance, participants learn teamwork by break-ing into groups and working on joint tasks, amethod that will be implemented by teacherswhen they return to their classrooms. While stu-dents are in groups, the teacher can monitor theirprogress. "The idea of a teacher walking around aroom and interacting with students is revolution-ary," observes Culhane. "Here a teacher just sits."

The 64 teachers and administrators who came tothe Palestine Hotel conference hall to begin the sixday Master Trainer's course were unsure what thenext few days would bring and brought with thema certain level of distrust. They were to be the firstto be trained in the RISE teacher training programand would go on to train others in subsequent fiveday training workshops.

Not all went smoothly at first. RISE and IF’s mas-ter trainers encountered resistance when theyplaced teachers and administrators in the sametraining sessions. "The administrators asked us why

we were putting them with teachers because theyshould be more privileged and receive differenttraining," explained Culhane. "There was a lot ofpouting at first, but what we were doing wasbreaking down the rank mentality and buildingteam concepts. We found that by the end of theseworkshops, administrators and teachers sit andshare a cup of tea.”

Even the most basic classroom techniques andtools must be modeled and emphasized by train-ers. "Most teachers did not use the blackboardeven to summarize points from a lesson; they havenever done this," said Culhane. "We found that alot of teachers had not done lesson plans in 10 to12 years."

The teacher training program also stressesaccountability and promotes the idea that educa-tion is about more than just math or spelling."We focus on the rights and responsibilities ofthe whole team—the students, teachers, princi-pals," said Culhane. The values component isseen as particularly important in Iraq, where theteaching profession has suffered from lowmorale and widespread corruption.

Perhaps the most important aspect of the RISEtraining -- and initially the most difficult to put intopractice -- is its message of democracy and demo-cratic rule. "We encourage them to discuss, wedivide them in groups so they can express them-

selves, speak out. We implement a kind of democ-racy," said Nadia Jadir, an Iraqi who fled Iraq forCanada in 1995 and who is now coordinator andmaster trainer for the Iraqi Foundation. Thecourse encourages participants to ask questionsand give opinions on the school system and theiraspirations for its future. "The first day of the train-ing, the participants are puzzled, they ask who isRISE, what do we want from them. They are notused to trusting each other and are afraid of theconsequences of the freedom to speak that theyare granted. The second day they realize there issomething new. We tell them you can disagree.On the third day everyone wants to speak out."

At the end of the course, each group was asked tochoose a symbol for what they had learned.Bassim Raheem's group chose a candle. "It burnsand burns and burns to light the way for theirpupils," said Raheem, a secondary school Englishteacher from Al-Anbar governorate. "Please tellyour government that we need more training likethis in order to improve ourselves and be betterteachers."

In January and February, RISE undertook the moth-er of all teacher trainings by training 33,000 teach-ers across Iraq. Ultimately, by the end of the sum-mer holidays, 64,000 teachers will have beentrained.

"A Meeting from Heaven" - Teachers Training in Iraq(contd. from pg. 1)

AFGHANISTANphoto by Katy Anis

- 4 -- 9 -

The Unit for Child Witness Researchand Training at Cape Town's VistaUniversity, is supported by CreativeAssociates' South Africa GrantsManagement and Technical Assistance(GMTA) project. Since 1997, the projecthas extended grants to South Africancivil society organizations which pro-mote access to justice, rights educationand protection, conflict resolution, andpublic policy participation.

Lawyer and researcher, Dr. Karen Muller,has devoted her career to the thousandsof child witnesses who pass through South

Africa's courts. In a country where 33 courtshandle sexual offenses alone and crime isendemic, the justice system depends on the tes-timonies of young witnesses and victims ofcrime. Child witnesses, many of whom haveendured abuse and emotional trauma, lack anunderstanding of the court process. They pro-vide ineffective testimony which leads to fewerconvictions in courts.

Dr. Muller shows me a plain white plastic box inthe office she and a colleague share at the Unit

for Child Witness Research and Training (ChildWitness Research) at Cape Town's VistaUniversity. From the box emerge a puzzle, acourt procedure timeline, role playing gamesand 'Zack and Thandi', characters from a story oftwo child witnesses that allows children to feelthey are not alone in witnessing crime. With thesupport of USAID, the Unit for Child WitnessResearch and Training has developed and pilot-ed South Africa's first child witness preparationprogram.

Extensive research, 500 interviews with youngwitnesses and consultative workshops withjudges, prosecutors, defense lawyers and police,have helped the Child Witness Research gain anunderstanding of the fears and misperceptionsthat hamper children in the court room.Research has revealed common misunderstand-ings related to court terminology; many chil-dren, for example, confuse prosecutor withexecutor. Ninety percent of young witnesseswet themselves on the stand. Most children suf-fer emotional stress during long waiting periodsbefore trials.

By law, child testimony in South Africa must takeplace in a separate room and be broadcast on aclosed-circuit TV system. Only the most dis-traught have access to an intermediary--atrained social worker who simplifies complexquestions. Most children endure the intimidat-ing trial process alone.

The Child Witness Research developed a childwitness preparation program for childrenbetween the ages of six and twelve. Hour-longinteractive sessions address a different topicevery week. Games, visual tests and role playingexercises touch on everything from key roleplayers in the court room to post-testimonyprocedure. The unit piloted the program duringtwo trials, testing its effectiveness and culturalsensitivity. Its potential to empower and edu-cate witnesses was gauged in collaboration withChild Line Family Centre, a USAID-supportedcenter for interventions with child abuse victimsand child witnesses. The trial testing the pro-gram's effectiveness was held with 11 childrenawaiting testimony in court. Many had survivedabuse and all came from impoverished back-grounds.

An Innovative Project to Protect Child Witnesses in the Court Room SOUTH AFRICA

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‘Zack and Thandi’ is a story of two child witnesses that allows children to feel they are not alone in witnessing crime.

Child laborers in Ghana's lucrative cocoaindustry commonly suffer from physicalinjuries and a lack of education, according

to a report issued by Creative consultant L. DianeMull.

While Ghana was one of the first African nationsto embrace child labor protection laws, theselaws are often ignored by communities that des-perately need the income and labor provided bychildren. Children constitute 12.6 percent ofGhana's overall labor force, but this figure rises tonearly 80 percent in some rural areas.Inconsistencies in policy make Ghana's officialminimum age of employment difficult to enforce.The 1967 decree that prohibits employmentbefore the age of 15, for example, includes aclause allowing younger children to perform lightwork.

While children derive some lessons in responsi-bility from farm work, Mull's analysis found thatchild laborers in cocoa production, under-trainedand lacking protective gear, regularly suffer frommachete cuts, falls from trees, and exposure topesticide. Their work prevents them fromattending school.

Mull's study, entitled "Analysis of Job Tasks andActivities by Children in Cocoa Production,"focuses on the district of Sefwi-Wiawso inWestern Ghana. Its findings will assist the YouthEducation and Skills (YES) Project, managed byCreative Associates in partnership with CARE, asit creates a series of public service announce-ments about the dangers of cocoa production forchildren. The project will also develop a func-tional literacy curriculum aimed at child laborers.

"My hope is that this paper will give serviceproviders insights into a methodology for defininghazardous work so that decisions about worktasks that children are involved in can be madewith their physical, mental, and emotional devel-opment in mind," said Mull.

West African countries produce nearly 70% ofthe world's cocoa. According to the BBC's WorldBusiness Report there are approximately254,000 children working in hazardous condi-tions in the West African cocoa sector. In Ghana,cocoa revenues account for more than 33% ofthe country's total export earnings. An agrarianeconomy dominated by small family farms,Ghana depends on children to supply farm labor.At least 96 percent of rural working children areinvolved in farming.

The goal of the YES project is to reduce theworst forms of child labor by delivering life skillsand functional literacy in an English language edu-cation program. The curriculum will be accom-panied by a radio campaign that will broadcastmessages on worker safety and improved agricul-tural production techniques. The project will alsosponsor a community-led social marketing andmobilization campaign to help communitiesreduce risks and increase access to education forchild workers. Community groups will becharged with increasing local school enrollmentfor children at risk and helping the families offarmers, migrants, and sharecroppers developincome sources that do not rely on the work oftheir children.

Management InformationSystem. Moreover, a small grantsmechanism, implementedthrough a sub-contract withCARE International, allows theSHN program to provide fundsfor communities and schools toimplement projects related toSchool Health and Nutrition andHIV/AIDS. The results achievedfrom the baseline research andfollow-up surveys demonstratethat worm loads and bilharziarates have dropped in the threeyears since the program began.Teachers have successfully admin-istered SHN drugs, and re-infec-tion rates remain low. Healtheducation materials are now in

classrooms, and schools and clin-ics coordinate more frequently.The fact that parents, teachers,and government officials aredemanding expansion of the SHNprogram testifies to its success.Data from the Zambian cognitiveassessment tests support thisenthusiasm. They indicate amarked improvement in pupils'learning ability after deworminghas taken place.

The Cocoa Industry and Ghana's Child Laborers

Zambia's Collaboration on Health and Education(contd. from pg. 3)

G H A N A

for the radio-based teacher trainingprogram which depends on accompa-nying textbooks to be fully effective.Consequently, the Ministry is exploringways to increase the available supply oftextbooks.

An initial estimate of 15.6 million newtextbooks is the target number forincreasing the supply of textbooksthroughout Afghanistan. While thenumber of desired textbooks seemsdaunting, it is noteworthy that last yearthe APEP program produced 10.2 mil-lion Dari and Pashto textbooks in allsubjects except religion.

Larry Goldman has been namedDeputy COP of the Afghan project andKaty Anis, Program Officer. Both Larryand Katy have relocated to Afghanistanfor a two year period. Eileen St.

George has returned from Kabul whereshe worked on finalizing the APEPexpansion. Carolyn Burnes was inKabul providing finance and accountingtraining. Gail von Hahmann continuesto serve as Senior Education Specialistand Abdul Rahman is transitioning toOperations Manager. Other new staffinclude: Francoise Beukes as theEducation Support Services (ESS)Manager and Sara Amiryar as the newESS Program Planning and StrategicManagement Advisor. Steve Landriganhas been newly named asCommunications Coordinator andLeonard Chitekwe-Mwale has arrivedin Kabul to serve as Finance Manager.Wendy Robison, Mary Faith Mount-Cors and Daniel Forman have newlyjoined the APEP team in the homeoffice.

First Year Successes in Afghanistan(contd. from pg. 2)

photo by Kevin Elkins

photo by Wendy Robison- 5 -

Aurelien Joachin is a community radio broad-caster in Anse d'Hainault, a small town inwestern Haiti. Last year his station, Radio

Rebelle, broadcast a 12-part locally produced civiceducation radio series addressing the Constitution,citizens' rights and justice issues. The storyrecounts the tale of a young woman, Mesia, whois raped and in the process of seeking justice comesto realize her civic responsibilities, includingdenouncing corruption within her town's policeforce. Mr. Joachin began to reflect on the situationin his own town and used Radio Rebelle's airwavesto report on corruption in the local police. Thelocal chief of police brought charges against Mr.Joachim. As a result of the broadcast's educationalpower, his community stood behind him and plansto arrest him were dropped.

Mr. Joachin's story is not unique. Radio is a power-ful means of communicating with Haitian commu-nities. Creative's Haiti Media Assistance and CivicEducation Program, also known in Creole asRAMAK, provides a range of support. In additionto producing and disseminating the soap operaseries nationwide, Creative Associates is providingequipment and training to 35 community radio sta-tions to increase their broadcast range. It is sup-porting stations in improving their programming oncivic education, and training them to improve theirfundraising and management skills.

RAMAK recently brought together its partner com-munity radio station broadcasters for a three-dayNational Community Radio Conference. Leadinglocal communications and community develop-ment experts mediated the sessions, which wel-comed USAID deputy director Pam Callen and theprogram's Cognizant Technical Officer at USAID,Mohamed Zahar. Participants sketched out a mis-sion for community radio in Haiti and worked ondeveloping regional networks to help bolster sta-tions locally. Participants shared experiences andattended refresher courses on management andfundraising.

The impact of the civic education soap operaseries-which through story-telling deals with arange of issues including corruption, justice, andsolidarity-was undeniable at the conference. Storyafter story indicated the transformative effect theseries is having in communities, educating citizenswhile bringing them closer together around theircommon rights.

Creative Associates has launched the Haiti MediaAssistance and Civic Education Program inSeptember 2001. Current political turmoil in Haitiis a challenge to the project, which is working withradio stations so that these may have a calminginfluence in communities.

Haiti's Community Airwaves

H A I T I

In January 2004, Creative Associates carried outan eight-day design mission in Hargeisa,Somaliland (the northwest zone of Somalia)

where MaryFaith Mount-Cors and Kim MahlingClark held more than twenty-five meetings withpartners active in education in Somaliland, theSomaliland Teacher Education College (STEC)director, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry ofPlanning and Coordination, and the Ministry ofInformation. Out of these consultations, CreativeAssociates prepared a design paper, which willserve as an input in donor coordination meetings.A combined donor proposal, from USAID, theEuropean Community, UNESCO, UNICEF andothers will go forward to the government ofSomaliland for assistance to the STEC and thedevelopment of teachers in Somaliland. CARE isworking directly with Creative Associates on thisprogram under the Basic Education Policy Support(BEPS) contract.

Following a May 2003 assessment of the educationsector carried out by Creative Associates andCARE, USAID determined that providing bettertraining and attracting more female teachers, with

communities supporting these teachers in theirpursuit of teacher education, were key objectivesfor the program. To begin the program designprocess and determine the approach needed tocarry out this scope of work, in November 2003,BEPS undertook a five-day information-gatheringtrip to Nairobi to hold meetings with 12 partnersand participate in three donor coordination meet-ings to discuss the needs of the STEC. Donorcoordination is a central interest of USAID and oth-ers working in Somaliland and with the STEC. TheUSAID strategic niche in supporting teacher devel-opment and the STEC is intended to contributepositively to the ongoing substantial efforts of otherdonors and partners in Somaliland. Somaliland isthe northwest zone of Somalia. Its status as anindependent country has not been recognized bythe international community.

Somaliland Education Program Design Takes Shape

SOMALILANDphoto by MaryFaith Mount-Cors

photo by Bronwen Morrison

- 8 -

Creative co-sponsored with the CauxRound Table the symposium, "ThePrinciples of the Abrahamic Faiths:

Traditions that Advance Education". The eventwas held at the Ronald Reagan Building onFebruary 12th. Charito Kruvant led the sympo-sium, challenging speakers and audience to dis-cuss both the common values of the Abrahamicfaiths and their role in education.

The symposium featured Dr. Abdul Said, Directorof the Global Peace Center, American University,as the keynote speaker. Dr. Said made a call for thedevelopment of "global citizenship," as a means toovercome the gaps of wealth and knowledgearound the world. The Abrahamic faiths have theirrole in this process as promoters of knowledge,science and spirituality. Dr. Said elaborated on thedangers of the advancement of technology withouta spiritual and philosophical outlook. Global citi-zenship requires "embracing the good of allhumanity". In his conclusion, Dr. Said pointed tothe importance of "moral imagination" and theimportance of each individual as a "chosen humanbeing."

Other speakers included Katherine Marshall fromthe World Bank and John Ryan from UNESCO.Ms. Marshall spoke candidly about the opportuni-

ties and collective responsibility in achieving the"millennium goals." The common phrase, "thepoor will always be with us," might have beenapplicable in the past but not today. Ms. Marshallelaborated on the good and bad sides of globaliza-tion and the importance in establishing dialogueamong the religions. Understanding dialogue as ameans towards concrete action, Ms. Marshallcalled for an analysis and review of how religioustraditions influence education.

Dr. John Ryan described his experiences inMorocco with the Moroccan Education for Girls(MEG) project. Schools in Morocco were per-ceived as instruments of the State where there wasno space for discussion and participation by theparents. "Education cannot advance without thevalues shared by the community". Dr. Ryanexpressed his concerns about the processes ofmodernization in education and said that modern-ization is not necessarily the answer, it's the combi-nation of modernization with tradition that willadvance education, claiming that "modernization islosing its magic."

Following Ms Marshall's and Dr. Ryan's speeches apanel composed of Most Reverend ThomasWenski, Dr. Haytham Al Khayat (through telecon-ference), Mr. Hamd Al Khayat, Dr. David Elcott and

Dr. Amr Abdalla discussed the values that can beextracted from the Abrahamic religions to enrichand advance education around the world. All of thepanelists agreed that religion has historically pro-moted literacy and learning. In an attempt toanswer the question which the panelist posed:"Education for what"? Dr. Said suggested that theanswer is in the creation of a "global citizenship"

Interfaith Symposium, "The Principles of the Abrahamic Faiths: Traditions that Advance Education"

contd. on pg. 11 >

In her capacities as Chair of the Small BusinessAdministration Washington Metropolitan DistrictOffice (SBA-WMDO) Advisory Council and Chairof the Greater Washington Board of Trade'sInternational Gateway Program, Charito joined theInternational Trade Center, SBA-WMDO and theUSAID's Office of Procurement in a most success-ful outreach to small business. The event, held onJanuary 21st had an attendance of over 200 smallbusinesses, many of them SBA 8(a) firms. The pur-pose of this gathering was to acquaint the GreaterWashington Metropolitan's small business commu-nity with opportunities and requirement in partner-ing with USAID and to support USAID in identify-ing small business partners.

The event, held at the Ronald Reagan Building, fea-tured presentations by Tim Beans, the Chief

Acquisition Officer for USAID and Joseph Loddo,the Director of the SBA-WMDO office. For herpart, Charito shared Creative's experience as agraduate of the SBA 8(a) program and challengedthe participants to begin networking and partneringat the conclusion of the presentations by engagingwith one another and with the USAID and SBApersonnel at the meeting. Many contacts weremade and the follow-up promises surely helpedUSAID meet its small business goals.

On November 5, 2003, The Washington Postpublished an article on the obstacles in distributingschool supplies in Iraq. The article, which quotesRobert Gordon, describes Creative's long and chal-lenging journey in delivering school bags stockedwith notebooks, rulers, pens, erasers, calculators,geometry sets, pencils, and sharpeners to 1.5 mil-lion Iraqi schoolchildren. The delivery of theseschool kits is one of the "more visible projects" inthe process of rebuilding Iraq, and "a tangible sign ofhow the new government is making people's livesbetter." Despite the logistical difficulties, the schoolkits, along with 58,500 chalkboards arrived toschools and towns around the country. If you'dlike to read the article in its entirety, please visitwashingtonpost.com (Nov 5, 2003, pg. A.19).

More recently, on February 22nd, The New YorkTimes published an article on the lack of resourcesthat exist for American companies faced with thetask of rebuilding Iraq. The article discussedCreative's programs in education reform andtouched upon the problem of school drop outs andnoted Creative's accelerated pilot program which ishelping to return Iraqi children to school. The arti-cle also quoted Robert Gordon making a compari-son of the present difficulties facing Iraq as being,"not unlike the challenges we have in the inner city"in the United States. To read the article in its entire-ty, please visit nytimes.com (Feb 22, 2004, pg. 10).

In Support of Small Businesses

Creative in the News

Creative's Open House was held on February 18thin celebration of the Chinese Year of the Monkey.This year's New Year celebration was well attend-ed, and by all accounts considered a successful andjoyful celebration.

Abdu

l Said

, The

Am

erica

n U

nive

rsity

photo by Jessica Kruvant-Wilson

photo by Carola Mandelbaum

Desks, desks, and more desks.

Over the course of a few months in Iraq, I've seen, sat on, inspected, stood on, measured, pho-tographed, taken off trucks, and loaded back on trucks more school desks than you could everimagine.

Walking through an empty Iraqi school and inspecting classrooms, you see rows of standard two-seater desks lined up like a worn-out army. Yet you still rarely find a classroom with a sufficientnumber of desks for the students. Even more often the desks are in terrible condition. The neglectendured by Iraqi schools is incredible. Secondary schools in Iraq were short almost 400,000 desksat the end of the last school year -- that's almost a million kids without a place to sit!

Some schools don't have enough desks. Some have lots of broken desks. Some schools have deskgraveyards: open lots with scores of tortured desks tumbling and falling atop one another. Everyonce and a while, you can find a school with the single-seat desk – very rare, and prized by teach-ers and students alike.

Desks and school supplies have taken on a magical quality for me since working for the RISE proj-ect. Students and teachers are appreciative and overjoyed when trucks show up at their doorswith new desks, chalkboards, and school bags. I remember how exciting it was for me to go schoolsupply shopping with my parents and get new binders and notebooks. If the Trapper Keeper isn’tone of the icons of my generation, I don't know what is. For many Iraqi students, it's been yearssince they've had a good set of brand new pencils.

The RISE procurement team in Baghdad became obsessed with the quality of these materials.Everything needed to be as close to perfect as possible for the schoolchildren. We felt that anythingless than perfect would be a letdown for the students and would be tantamount to theft. These kids,after all, had been through the war, and they deserved the best supplies we could offer.

An education project like RISE is an investment and an act of faith. The supplies and furnitureAmericans are providing to Iraq are an investment of trust, hope, and promise. We're showingstudents in Iraq that with the right tools and the right environment, we're confident that theywill succeed. Seeing the children receive the supplies, I can tell that they recognize this trust. Theylove the attention and they love seeing us commit our time to them. With all the terrifying thingshappening in Baghdad these days, you can never have too many people showing they care. I'mglad I could send this message two seats at a time.

Letter from the Field: I R A Q

Daniel Loren FormanDanielF@caii.com

- 6 - - 7 -

Be Honest -Communications Workshop

The Steve Gaffney Communications workshop willbe held on Feb. 26 and 27. The sessions will runfrom 9:00 am to 5:00 pm and the training will beheld in the West Wing Conference Room. Pleasecontact Wendy Bradford or Jessica Kruvant-Wilsonif you are interested in attending.

Open House

Creative co-sponsored with the CauxRound Table the symposium, "ThePrinciples of the Abrahamic Faiths:

Traditions that Advance Education". The eventwas held at the Ronald Reagan Building onFebruary 12th. Charito Kruvant led the sympo-sium, challenging speakers and audience to dis-cuss both the common values of the Abrahamicfaiths and their role in education.

The symposium featured Dr. Abdul Said, Directorof the Global Peace Center, American University,as the keynote speaker. Dr. Said made a call for thedevelopment of "global citizenship," as a means toovercome the gaps of wealth and knowledgearound the world. The Abrahamic faiths have theirrole in this process as promoters of knowledge,science and spirituality. Dr. Said elaborated on thedangers of the advancement of technology withouta spiritual and philosophical outlook. Global citi-zenship requires "embracing the good of allhumanity". In his conclusion, Dr. Said pointed tothe importance of "moral imagination" and theimportance of each individual as a "chosen humanbeing."

Other speakers included Katherine Marshall fromthe World Bank and John Ryan from UNESCO.Ms. Marshall spoke candidly about the opportuni-

ties and collective responsibility in achieving the"millennium goals." The common phrase, "thepoor will always be with us," might have beenapplicable in the past but not today. Ms. Marshallelaborated on the good and bad sides of globaliza-tion and the importance in establishing dialogueamong the religions. Understanding dialogue as ameans towards concrete action, Ms. Marshallcalled for an analysis and review of how religioustraditions influence education.

Dr. John Ryan described his experiences inMorocco with the Moroccan Education for Girls(MEG) project. Schools in Morocco were per-ceived as instruments of the State where there wasno space for discussion and participation by theparents. "Education cannot advance without thevalues shared by the community". Dr. Ryanexpressed his concerns about the processes ofmodernization in education and said that modern-ization is not necessarily the answer, it's the combi-nation of modernization with tradition that willadvance education, claiming that "modernization islosing its magic."

Following Ms Marshall's and Dr. Ryan's speeches apanel composed of Most Reverend ThomasWenski, Dr. Haytham Al Khayat (through telecon-ference), Mr. Hamd Al Khayat, Dr. David Elcott and

Dr. Amr Abdalla discussed the values that can beextracted from the Abrahamic religions to enrichand advance education around the world. All of thepanelists agreed that religion has historically pro-moted literacy and learning. In an attempt toanswer the question which the panelist posed:"Education for what"? Dr. Said suggested that theanswer is in the creation of a "global citizenship"

Interfaith Symposium, "The Principles of the Abrahamic Faiths: Traditions that Advance Education"

contd. on pg. 11 >

In her capacities as Chair of the Small BusinessAdministration Washington Metropolitan DistrictOffice (SBA-WMDO) Advisory Council and Chairof the Greater Washington Board of Trade'sInternational Gateway Program, Charito joined theInternational Trade Center, SBA-WMDO and theUSAID's Office of Procurement in a most success-ful outreach to small business. The event, held onJanuary 21st had an attendance of over 200 smallbusinesses, many of them SBA 8(a) firms. The pur-pose of this gathering was to acquaint the GreaterWashington Metropolitan's small business commu-nity with opportunities and requirement in partner-ing with USAID and to support USAID in identify-ing small business partners.

The event, held at the Ronald Reagan Building, fea-tured presentations by Tim Beans, the Chief

Acquisition Officer for USAID and Joseph Loddo,the Director of the SBA-WMDO office. For herpart, Charito shared Creative's experience as agraduate of the SBA 8(a) program and challengedthe participants to begin networking and partneringat the conclusion of the presentations by engagingwith one another and with the USAID and SBApersonnel at the meeting. Many contacts weremade and the follow-up promises surely helpedUSAID meet its small business goals.

On November 5, 2003, The Washington Postpublished an article on the obstacles in distributingschool supplies in Iraq. The article, which quotesRobert Gordon, describes Creative's long and chal-lenging journey in delivering school bags stockedwith notebooks, rulers, pens, erasers, calculators,geometry sets, pencils, and sharpeners to 1.5 mil-lion Iraqi schoolchildren. The delivery of theseschool kits is one of the "more visible projects" inthe process of rebuilding Iraq, and "a tangible sign ofhow the new government is making people's livesbetter." Despite the logistical difficulties, the schoolkits, along with 58,500 chalkboards arrived toschools and towns around the country. If you'dlike to read the article in its entirety, please visitwashingtonpost.com (Nov 5, 2003, pg. A.19).

More recently, on February 22nd, The New YorkTimes published an article on the lack of resourcesthat exist for American companies faced with thetask of rebuilding Iraq. The article discussedCreative's programs in education reform andtouched upon the problem of school drop outs andnoted Creative's accelerated pilot program which ishelping to return Iraqi children to school. The arti-cle also quoted Robert Gordon making a compari-son of the present difficulties facing Iraq as being,"not unlike the challenges we have in the inner city"in the United States. To read the article in its entire-ty, please visit nytimes.com (Feb 22, 2004, pg. 10).

In Support of Small Businesses

Creative in the News

Creative's Open House was held on February 18thin celebration of the Chinese Year of the Monkey.This year's New Year celebration was well attend-ed, and by all accounts considered a successful andjoyful celebration.

Abdu

l Said

, The

Am

erica

n U

nive

rsity

photo by Jessica Kruvant-Wilson

photo by Carola Mandelbaum

Desks, desks, and more desks.

Over the course of a few months in Iraq, I've seen, sat on, inspected, stood on, measured, pho-tographed, taken off trucks, and loaded back on trucks more school desks than you could everimagine.

Walking through an empty Iraqi school and inspecting classrooms, you see rows of standard two-seater desks lined up like a worn-out army. Yet you still rarely find a classroom with a sufficientnumber of desks for the students. Even more often the desks are in terrible condition. The neglectendured by Iraqi schools is incredible. Secondary schools in Iraq were short almost 400,000 desksat the end of the last school year -- that's almost a million kids without a place to sit!

Some schools don't have enough desks. Some have lots of broken desks. Some schools have deskgraveyards: open lots with scores of tortured desks tumbling and falling atop one another. Everyonce and a while, you can find a school with the single-seat desk – very rare, and prized by teach-ers and students alike.

Desks and school supplies have taken on a magical quality for me since working for the RISE proj-ect. Students and teachers are appreciative and overjoyed when trucks show up at their doorswith new desks, chalkboards, and school bags. I remember how exciting it was for me to go schoolsupply shopping with my parents and get new binders and notebooks. If the Trapper Keeper isn’tone of the icons of my generation, I don't know what is. For many Iraqi students, it's been yearssince they've had a good set of brand new pencils.

The RISE procurement team in Baghdad became obsessed with the quality of these materials.Everything needed to be as close to perfect as possible for the schoolchildren. We felt that anythingless than perfect would be a letdown for the students and would be tantamount to theft. These kids,after all, had been through the war, and they deserved the best supplies we could offer.

An education project like RISE is an investment and an act of faith. The supplies and furnitureAmericans are providing to Iraq are an investment of trust, hope, and promise. We're showingstudents in Iraq that with the right tools and the right environment, we're confident that theywill succeed. Seeing the children receive the supplies, I can tell that they recognize this trust. Theylove the attention and they love seeing us commit our time to them. With all the terrifying thingshappening in Baghdad these days, you can never have too many people showing they care. I'mglad I could send this message two seats at a time.

Letter from the Field: I R A Q

Daniel Loren FormanDanielF@caii.com

- 6 - - 7 -

Be Honest -Communications Workshop

The Steve Gaffney Communications workshop willbe held on Feb. 26 and 27. The sessions will runfrom 9:00 am to 5:00 pm and the training will beheld in the West Wing Conference Room. Pleasecontact Wendy Bradford or Jessica Kruvant-Wilsonif you are interested in attending.

Open House

Child laborers in Ghana's lucrative cocoaindustry commonly suffer from physicalinjuries and a lack of education, according

to a report issued by Creative consultant L. DianeMull.

While Ghana was one of the first African nationsto embrace child labor protection laws, theselaws are often ignored by communities that des-perately need the income and labor provided bychildren. Children constitute 12.6 percent ofGhana's overall labor force, but this figure rises tonearly 80 percent in some rural areas.Inconsistencies in policy make Ghana's officialminimum age of employment difficult to enforce.The 1967 decree that prohibits employmentbefore the age of 15, for example, includes aclause allowing younger children to perform lightwork.

While children derive some lessons in responsi-bility from farm work, Mull's analysis found thatchild laborers in cocoa production, under-trainedand lacking protective gear, regularly suffer frommachete cuts, falls from trees, and exposure topesticide. Their work prevents them fromattending school.

Mull's study, entitled "Analysis of Job Tasks andActivities by Children in Cocoa Production,"focuses on the district of Sefwi-Wiawso inWestern Ghana. Its findings will assist the YouthEducation and Skills (YES) Project, managed byCreative Associates in partnership with CARE, asit creates a series of public service announce-ments about the dangers of cocoa production forchildren. The project will also develop a func-tional literacy curriculum aimed at child laborers.

"My hope is that this paper will give serviceproviders insights into a methodology for defininghazardous work so that decisions about worktasks that children are involved in can be madewith their physical, mental, and emotional devel-opment in mind," said Mull.

West African countries produce nearly 70% ofthe world's cocoa. According to the BBC's WorldBusiness Report there are approximately254,000 children working in hazardous condi-tions in the West African cocoa sector. In Ghana,cocoa revenues account for more than 33% ofthe country's total export earnings. An agrarianeconomy dominated by small family farms,Ghana depends on children to supply farm labor.At least 96 percent of rural working children areinvolved in farming.

The goal of the YES project is to reduce theworst forms of child labor by delivering life skillsand functional literacy in an English language edu-cation program. The curriculum will be accom-panied by a radio campaign that will broadcastmessages on worker safety and improved agricul-tural production techniques. The project will alsosponsor a community-led social marketing andmobilization campaign to help communitiesreduce risks and increase access to education forchild workers. Community groups will becharged with increasing local school enrollmentfor children at risk and helping the families offarmers, migrants, and sharecroppers developincome sources that do not rely on the work oftheir children.

Management InformationSystem. Moreover, a small grantsmechanism, implementedthrough a sub-contract withCARE International, allows theSHN program to provide fundsfor communities and schools toimplement projects related toSchool Health and Nutrition andHIV/AIDS. The results achievedfrom the baseline research andfollow-up surveys demonstratethat worm loads and bilharziarates have dropped in the threeyears since the program began.Teachers have successfully admin-istered SHN drugs, and re-infec-tion rates remain low. Healtheducation materials are now in

classrooms, and schools and clin-ics coordinate more frequently.The fact that parents, teachers,and government officials aredemanding expansion of the SHNprogram testifies to its success.Data from the Zambian cognitiveassessment tests support thisenthusiasm. They indicate amarked improvement in pupils'learning ability after deworminghas taken place.

The Cocoa Industry and Ghana's Child Laborers

Zambia's Collaboration on Health and Education(contd. from pg. 3)

G H A N A

for the radio-based teacher trainingprogram which depends on accompa-nying textbooks to be fully effective.Consequently, the Ministry is exploringways to increase the available supply oftextbooks.

An initial estimate of 15.6 million newtextbooks is the target number forincreasing the supply of textbooksthroughout Afghanistan. While thenumber of desired textbooks seemsdaunting, it is noteworthy that last yearthe APEP program produced 10.2 mil-lion Dari and Pashto textbooks in allsubjects except religion.

Larry Goldman has been namedDeputy COP of the Afghan project andKaty Anis, Program Officer. Both Larryand Katy have relocated to Afghanistanfor a two year period. Eileen St.

George has returned from Kabul whereshe worked on finalizing the APEPexpansion. Carolyn Burnes was inKabul providing finance and accountingtraining. Gail von Hahmann continuesto serve as Senior Education Specialistand Abdul Rahman is transitioning toOperations Manager. Other new staffinclude: Francoise Beukes as theEducation Support Services (ESS)Manager and Sara Amiryar as the newESS Program Planning and StrategicManagement Advisor. Steve Landriganhas been newly named asCommunications Coordinator andLeonard Chitekwe-Mwale has arrivedin Kabul to serve as Finance Manager.Wendy Robison, Mary Faith Mount-Cors and Daniel Forman have newlyjoined the APEP team in the homeoffice.

First Year Successes in Afghanistan(contd. from pg. 2)

photo by Kevin Elkins

photo by Wendy Robison- 5 -

Aurelien Joachin is a community radio broad-caster in Anse d'Hainault, a small town inwestern Haiti. Last year his station, Radio

Rebelle, broadcast a 12-part locally produced civiceducation radio series addressing the Constitution,citizens' rights and justice issues. The storyrecounts the tale of a young woman, Mesia, whois raped and in the process of seeking justice comesto realize her civic responsibilities, includingdenouncing corruption within her town's policeforce. Mr. Joachin began to reflect on the situationin his own town and used Radio Rebelle's airwavesto report on corruption in the local police. Thelocal chief of police brought charges against Mr.Joachim. As a result of the broadcast's educationalpower, his community stood behind him and plansto arrest him were dropped.

Mr. Joachin's story is not unique. Radio is a power-ful means of communicating with Haitian commu-nities. Creative's Haiti Media Assistance and CivicEducation Program, also known in Creole asRAMAK, provides a range of support. In additionto producing and disseminating the soap operaseries nationwide, Creative Associates is providingequipment and training to 35 community radio sta-tions to increase their broadcast range. It is sup-porting stations in improving their programming oncivic education, and training them to improve theirfundraising and management skills.

RAMAK recently brought together its partner com-munity radio station broadcasters for a three-dayNational Community Radio Conference. Leadinglocal communications and community develop-ment experts mediated the sessions, which wel-comed USAID deputy director Pam Callen and theprogram's Cognizant Technical Officer at USAID,Mohamed Zahar. Participants sketched out a mis-sion for community radio in Haiti and worked ondeveloping regional networks to help bolster sta-tions locally. Participants shared experiences andattended refresher courses on management andfundraising.

The impact of the civic education soap operaseries-which through story-telling deals with arange of issues including corruption, justice, andsolidarity-was undeniable at the conference. Storyafter story indicated the transformative effect theseries is having in communities, educating citizenswhile bringing them closer together around theircommon rights.

Creative Associates has launched the Haiti MediaAssistance and Civic Education Program inSeptember 2001. Current political turmoil in Haitiis a challenge to the project, which is working withradio stations so that these may have a calminginfluence in communities.

Haiti's Community Airwaves

H A I T I

In January 2004, Creative Associates carried outan eight-day design mission in Hargeisa,Somaliland (the northwest zone of Somalia)

where MaryFaith Mount-Cors and Kim MahlingClark held more than twenty-five meetings withpartners active in education in Somaliland, theSomaliland Teacher Education College (STEC)director, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry ofPlanning and Coordination, and the Ministry ofInformation. Out of these consultations, CreativeAssociates prepared a design paper, which willserve as an input in donor coordination meetings.A combined donor proposal, from USAID, theEuropean Community, UNESCO, UNICEF andothers will go forward to the government ofSomaliland for assistance to the STEC and thedevelopment of teachers in Somaliland. CARE isworking directly with Creative Associates on thisprogram under the Basic Education Policy Support(BEPS) contract.

Following a May 2003 assessment of the educationsector carried out by Creative Associates andCARE, USAID determined that providing bettertraining and attracting more female teachers, with

communities supporting these teachers in theirpursuit of teacher education, were key objectivesfor the program. To begin the program designprocess and determine the approach needed tocarry out this scope of work, in November 2003,BEPS undertook a five-day information-gatheringtrip to Nairobi to hold meetings with 12 partnersand participate in three donor coordination meet-ings to discuss the needs of the STEC. Donorcoordination is a central interest of USAID and oth-ers working in Somaliland and with the STEC. TheUSAID strategic niche in supporting teacher devel-opment and the STEC is intended to contributepositively to the ongoing substantial efforts of otherdonors and partners in Somaliland. Somaliland isthe northwest zone of Somalia. Its status as anindependent country has not been recognized bythe international community.

Somaliland Education Program Design Takes Shape

SOMALILANDphoto by MaryFaith Mount-Cors

photo by Bronwen Morrison

- 8 -

First Year Successes in Afghanistan

The Afghanistan Primary Education Project(APEP), launched in January 2003, hasbeen authorized to accelerate the imple-

mentation of its multiple programs in anticipationof additional USAID funding. The proposedAPEP expansion complements its successes inthe first phase of the program, which improvedthe quality of and access to, primary educationfor over-age learners and strengthened teachertraining.

APEP's accelerated learning program hasenrolled 15,000 over-age learners in the firstcycle of the project. The program's ultimate goalis to provide accelerated learning classes to over100,000 over-age, out of school children help-ing them to achieve grade level equivalenciesand enter the formal school system. In this way,accelerated learning helps un-enrolled youth,especially girls, make up for the years of educa-tion they missed due to civil war and state-imposed restrictions by completing two aca-demic grade levels or more each year. The pro-gram which started in the Faryab, Nangarharand Baghlan provinces has now extended to 12

other provinces. The success of the acceleratedlearning classes is best exemplified in the case ofBaghlan province. For the 5,000 slots open tostudents in Baghlan, more than 12,000 studentsrequested enrollment.

Another key success of APEP is the DistanceLearning Program, a radio-based teacher train-ing curriculum that reaches more teachers inremote jurisdictions. The innovative radio pro-gram, It is Great to Learn!, has broken throughconventional barriers by using a format of fea-tures and dramas, that entertain even as theyeducate. Nationally broadcast through RadioFree Afghanistan, as well as other national andprovincial radio stations, the educational radioprogramming trains isolated teachers in child-centered methods of teaching literacy, numera-cy, and life skills.

In anticipation of APEP's expansion plans, theMinistry of Education has asked USAID andAPEP to print additional textbooks due to thepersistent problem of the lack of textbooks inschools. The shortage of textbooks is a hin-drance on many levels including its implications

contd. on pg. 5 >

"They described the training as a meeting fromheaven," says Milook Aqiqi, a master trainer withthe Iraqi Foundation (IF) who is working with RISEproject staff to train teachers and administratorsthroughout the country.

Dr. Hind Rassam Culhane, Senior EducationSupervisor at Creative, explains that some of thenew methodologies presented at the RISE teachertraining workshops were simply unheard of in Iraq.For instance, participants learn teamwork by break-ing into groups and working on joint tasks, amethod that will be implemented by teacherswhen they return to their classrooms. While stu-dents are in groups, the teacher can monitor theirprogress. "The idea of a teacher walking around aroom and interacting with students is revolution-ary," observes Culhane. "Here a teacher just sits."

The 64 teachers and administrators who came tothe Palestine Hotel conference hall to begin the sixday Master Trainer's course were unsure what thenext few days would bring and brought with thema certain level of distrust. They were to be the firstto be trained in the RISE teacher training programand would go on to train others in subsequent fiveday training workshops.

Not all went smoothly at first. RISE and IF’s mas-ter trainers encountered resistance when theyplaced teachers and administrators in the sametraining sessions. "The administrators asked us why

we were putting them with teachers because theyshould be more privileged and receive differenttraining," explained Culhane. "There was a lot ofpouting at first, but what we were doing wasbreaking down the rank mentality and buildingteam concepts. We found that by the end of theseworkshops, administrators and teachers sit andshare a cup of tea.”

Even the most basic classroom techniques andtools must be modeled and emphasized by train-ers. "Most teachers did not use the blackboardeven to summarize points from a lesson; they havenever done this," said Culhane. "We found that alot of teachers had not done lesson plans in 10 to12 years."

The teacher training program also stressesaccountability and promotes the idea that educa-tion is about more than just math or spelling."We focus on the rights and responsibilities ofthe whole team—the students, teachers, princi-pals," said Culhane. The values component isseen as particularly important in Iraq, where theteaching profession has suffered from lowmorale and widespread corruption.

Perhaps the most important aspect of the RISEtraining -- and initially the most difficult to put intopractice -- is its message of democracy and demo-cratic rule. "We encourage them to discuss, wedivide them in groups so they can express them-

selves, speak out. We implement a kind of democ-racy," said Nadia Jadir, an Iraqi who fled Iraq forCanada in 1995 and who is now coordinator andmaster trainer for the Iraqi Foundation. Thecourse encourages participants to ask questionsand give opinions on the school system and theiraspirations for its future. "The first day of the train-ing, the participants are puzzled, they ask who isRISE, what do we want from them. They are notused to trusting each other and are afraid of theconsequences of the freedom to speak that theyare granted. The second day they realize there issomething new. We tell them you can disagree.On the third day everyone wants to speak out."

At the end of the course, each group was asked tochoose a symbol for what they had learned.Bassim Raheem's group chose a candle. "It burnsand burns and burns to light the way for theirpupils," said Raheem, a secondary school Englishteacher from Al-Anbar governorate. "Please tellyour government that we need more training likethis in order to improve ourselves and be betterteachers."

In January and February, RISE undertook the moth-er of all teacher trainings by training 33,000 teach-ers across Iraq. Ultimately, by the end of the sum-mer holidays, 64,000 teachers will have beentrained.

"A Meeting from Heaven" - Teachers Training in Iraq(contd. from pg. 1)

AFGHANISTANphoto by Katy Anis

- 4 -- 9 -

The Unit for Child Witness Researchand Training at Cape Town's VistaUniversity, is supported by CreativeAssociates' South Africa GrantsManagement and Technical Assistance(GMTA) project. Since 1997, the projecthas extended grants to South Africancivil society organizations which pro-mote access to justice, rights educationand protection, conflict resolution, andpublic policy participation.

Lawyer and researcher, Dr. Karen Muller,has devoted her career to the thousandsof child witnesses who pass through South

Africa's courts. In a country where 33 courtshandle sexual offenses alone and crime isendemic, the justice system depends on the tes-timonies of young witnesses and victims ofcrime. Child witnesses, many of whom haveendured abuse and emotional trauma, lack anunderstanding of the court process. They pro-vide ineffective testimony which leads to fewerconvictions in courts.

Dr. Muller shows me a plain white plastic box inthe office she and a colleague share at the Unit

for Child Witness Research and Training (ChildWitness Research) at Cape Town's VistaUniversity. From the box emerge a puzzle, acourt procedure timeline, role playing gamesand 'Zack and Thandi', characters from a story oftwo child witnesses that allows children to feelthey are not alone in witnessing crime. With thesupport of USAID, the Unit for Child WitnessResearch and Training has developed and pilot-ed South Africa's first child witness preparationprogram.

Extensive research, 500 interviews with youngwitnesses and consultative workshops withjudges, prosecutors, defense lawyers and police,have helped the Child Witness Research gain anunderstanding of the fears and misperceptionsthat hamper children in the court room.Research has revealed common misunderstand-ings related to court terminology; many chil-dren, for example, confuse prosecutor withexecutor. Ninety percent of young witnesseswet themselves on the stand. Most children suf-fer emotional stress during long waiting periodsbefore trials.

By law, child testimony in South Africa must takeplace in a separate room and be broadcast on aclosed-circuit TV system. Only the most dis-traught have access to an intermediary--atrained social worker who simplifies complexquestions. Most children endure the intimidat-ing trial process alone.

The Child Witness Research developed a childwitness preparation program for childrenbetween the ages of six and twelve. Hour-longinteractive sessions address a different topicevery week. Games, visual tests and role playingexercises touch on everything from key roleplayers in the court room to post-testimonyprocedure. The unit piloted the program duringtwo trials, testing its effectiveness and culturalsensitivity. Its potential to empower and edu-cate witnesses was gauged in collaboration withChild Line Family Centre, a USAID-supportedcenter for interventions with child abuse victimsand child witnesses. The trial testing the pro-gram's effectiveness was held with 11 childrenawaiting testimony in court. Many had survivedabuse and all came from impoverished back-grounds.

An Innovative Project to Protect Child Witnesses in the Court Room SOUTH AFRICA

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‘Zack and Thandi’ is a story of two child witnesses that allows children to feel they are not alone in witnessing crime.

In 2000, Creative Associates teamed with theZambian Ministries of Education and Health tolaunch an innovative School Health and Nutrition

(SHN) program in Eastern Province, Zambia. Theprogram enlists teachers to administer micronutri-ents and deworming drugs to students in order tostem the country's health crisis and improve studentlearning.

Zambia faces one of the most severe health emer-gencies in southern Africa. Malaria, malnutrition,and bilharzia are endemic to the country, andfamine and AIDS have compounded the crisis inrecent years. Life expectancy has dropped to 35years in many parts of the country, and a decline instudent performance due to illness is devastatingZambian schools.

The SHN program began to address these prob-lems in selected schools in Eastern Province, wherea baseline research sampling of 1,400 pupils(Grades 1-7) confirmed the high prevalence of bil-harzia, worm infections, and Vitamin A deficiency.Concurrently, an assessment test developed by YaleUniversity and the University of Zambia measured

the gains in cognitive ability accruing from biomed-ical treatments.

The SHN program's unprecedented incorporationof health care into the education system requiredtraining for teachers so that they could administerdrugs and a sensitization campaign to make localcommunities aware of the new roles teachers wereassuming. To serve these ends, the program devel-oped training courses and manuals, a student ques-tionnaire to determine prevalence rates of bilharzia,and a "tablet pole" to measure the correct dosage ofcertain drugs. To date, 400 teachers have beentrained and over 40,000 pupils are now receivingSHN drugs administered by teachers.

SHN program leaders have also worked with theMinistry of Education to ensure that health pro-grams are sustainable. Zambian coordinating com-mittees have been established at all levels (national,provincial, district, school, and community), andstandards officers have been trained in SHN activi-ties. A drug delivery system has been set up, andthe SHN data has been integrated into the broaderZambian Educational Management Information

The public took note when it was disclosed in thecountry's daily papers that nearly $2 million in pub-lic funds were spent by the government and polit-ical parties for elections purposes. Earlier in theyear public monitoring by the project disclosedmispending of public funds towards school feedingprograms.

Civil society groups have launched advocacy effortsin support of greater public access to informationso that the media and civic advocacy organizationscan perform their roles in the fight against corrup-tion. The Civil Society Project in Guatemala hasworked to strengthen the General Controller'sOffice and the Attorney General's Office for Anti-Corruption. The project's Coalition forTransparency has developed a national agendawhich has been adopted by Guatemala's newAdministration. The Commissioner forTransparency has requested USAID's guidance inensuring the strategy is followed. A manual thatexplains to citizens their right to access informationwas published by the project and has been dissem-inated widely. "We see transparency as the corner-

stone of all of our civil society efforts", explains thedirector of the Civil Society Project, Harold Sibaja.

In El Salvador, Creative Associates' CitizenParticipation and Governance Project supported amunicipal transparency project that established cit-izen watchdog groups to monitor public spendingin nine municipalities. Last year, the project sup-ported a local workshop on corruption and openaccess to information for legislators, media repre-sentatives and civil society leaders. The project iscurrently supporting organizations that promoteand train other civil society organizations in budgettransparency and other citizen oversight mecha-nisms, as well as a campaign to raise awarenessabout the importance of access to information.Creative Associates supports extensive institutionalstrengthening. "Just as civil society organizationsseek to hold government more accountable, theyalso have to operate in a more transparent andaccountable manner", notes David Holiday, direc-tor of the project in El Salvador.

Grantees in civil society are altering the civic land-scape by raising awareness and promoting legisla-tive reforms, but the project also works with pub-lic sector partners to open up governmentalprocesses to greater citizen participation. As aresult of the Citizen Participation and GovernanceProject, the oversight of public officials in ElSalvador could be institutionalized for the first time

if a Code of Ethics bill for public servants is passedby legislators this year. As a part of efforts to sup-port citizen involvement in the LegislativeAssembly, the Citizen Participation andGovernance Project is establishing through its sub-contractor, the University of Texas, a permanentconstituent services office at the Assembly and haslaunched a children's website explaining the work-ings of the legislative branch in El Salvador. Theestablishment of a citizens hotline, bringing citizenscloser to government, is also slated for this year.

Creative Associates has launched anti-corruptionactivities elsewhere in Latin America. In Peru, itrecently completed a two-year project known asApoyo Creativo para la Transicion (ACT). It dis-bursed more than 200 grants totaling $6.6 millionto Peruvian NGOs working for democraticreforms. The strategy included developing anti-corruption materials, training journalists in over-sight responsibilities, holding workshops tostrengthen citizen networks, providing legal assis-tance to prison inmates, and helping radio stationsinform the public on corruption and how to com-bat it.

For more information on Activities in Guatemala and El Salvador see:www.caii.netFor more information on the Citizen Observatory project:http://info.worldbank.org/etools/docs/library/33517/GuatemalaAccesoInfo.pdf

Zambia's Collaboration on Health and Education

Transparency for Good Governance in Central America(contd. from pg. 1)

contd. on pg. 5 >

Z A M B I Aphoto by Wendy Robison

photo by CREA/El Salvador- 10 - - 3 -

The Albanian Umbrella Anti-Trafficking Initiative (AUATI) contract, awarded to Creative AssociatesInternational by USAID in September 2003, welcomed its Chief of Party (COP), Sarah Stephens, toAlbania in January 2004. Since her arrival, staff members from CAII's home office have been sent toAlbania to help Ms. Stephens start up the new project office, hire staff and elaborate on program activi-ties with USAID/Albania.

Given that this is the largest anti-trafficking contract awarded in a single country by USAID to date,USAID/Albania considers the AUATI contract to be groundbreaking as well as highly visible both withinand outside of Albania. USAID is looking at the Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) work done on thisInitiative to potentially become models for other anti-trafficking programs funded by USAID. WorldLearning, CAII's subcontractor on this initiative, is providing the Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) expert-ise.

The AUATI project plans to support Albania's anti-trafficking efforts by providing a space for consensusbuilding and partnerships across the Government of Albania, civil society and the international commu-nity; distributing grants to local and international NGOs in several cycles throughout the 3 year Initiativeto improve the scope and quality of prevention and reintegration activities; and by developing andimproving mechanisms through which Albania's anti-trafficking community can collect, synthesize, ana-lyze and use trafficking data.

In February, The Basic Education and PolicySupport (BEPS) Activity completed its fourthyear of support to USAID in its mission toimprove and expand basic education, particular-ly for girls and other underserved populations.Since its inception, Creative Associates and itspartners (CARE, GroundWork, and GeorgeWashington University) have provided assess-ments, trainings, pilot interventions, and othertechnical assistance to 25 countries in areasrelated to basic education, policy reform, chil-dren in crisis, and the alleviation of abusive childlabor through education. BEPS also has provid-ed administrative and logistical support for fiveUSAID workshops designed to disseminateresearch and lessons learned to Mission staff.Task order contracts and core activities haveexceeded $43 million.

As it starts its fifth year, BEPS is actively involvedin numerous activities, a few of which aredescribed below:

TThhee CCHHAANNGGEESS PPrrooggrraamm iinn ZZaammbbiiaa:: BEPS isnearing completion of its first three-year phaseof an initiative that involves two major compo-nents -- school health and nutrition, to improvestudent performance by training teachers toadminister deworming and micronutrient sup-plements and community sensitization andmobilization to improve access to primary edu-cation for girls and other vulnerable children and

to mitigate the effects of the HIV/AIDS epidem-ic. Two crosscutting activities - a Small GrantsMechanism, and HIV/AIDS activities, also arebeing implemented. A project expansion ispending.

LLAACC:: CCeenntteerrss ffoorr EExxcceelllleennccee iinn TTeeaacchheerrTTrraaiinniinngg ((CCEETTTTss)):: CAII is continuing its effortsto support USAID supported CETTs in the LatinAmerica and Caribbean, Central America, andAndrean regions. Current activities include fieldwork focusing on pilot first grade interventionprograms in the Central American Region andassistance to the Caribbean CETT in designing aWireless Intranet System to provide teachertraining to clusters of institutions.

MMoorrooccccoo EEdduuccaattiioonn ooff GGiirrllss:: CAII began collect-ing data on the impact of the MoroccoEducation for Girls (MEG) Project, a recentlycompleted, six-year initiative funded by USAID.Task order activities also include the design andpretesting of two training modules for schooldirectors.

UUggaannddaa TTeecchhnniiccaall AAssssiissttaannccee:: BEPS began workon a $8 million expansion contract, whichshould extend education support activitiesthrough the projected end of BEPS in 2005.Activities relate to five key areas: support to dis-advantaged children, particularly children in con-flict areas; UPE advocacy; teacher effectiveness;

responsible sexuality and health education; andguidance and counseling (see separate article).

BBaannggllaaddeesshh:: BEPS began research on the thirdof a series of educational sector studies,Madrassah Schools in Bangladesh. Field workon the first two studies, Early ChildhoodLearning, and Students' and Teachers' Use ofTime in Primary Schools, has been conductedand reports are being finalized.

GGlloobbaall:: As a result of collaborative effortsbetween CAII and its subcontractor, CARE/USA,BEPS is continuing to provide technical assis-tance in planning, monitoring, and evaluatingrehabilitative and reconstructive education activ-ities for children and youth in crisis countries.The recently completed urban youth report,"Urbanization, War, and Africa's Youth at Risk," isbeing distributed, and work has begun on ayouth-at-risk toolkit, which will include a seriesof short papers on youth-at-risk-related issuesfor USAID missions in Africa.

Basic Education and Policy Support (BEPS) NOTEBOOK

Albania: Anti-Trafficking

photo by Kate Carpenter

photo by Marc Sommers

VVeerriittyy SSttiiffff joined CreativeAssociates in February 2004, as aField Personnel Manager. Ms.Stiff will handle personnel negoti-ations and contracts and all HR

related issues concerning field based personnel,both expatriates and third country nationals. Mostrecently, Ms. Stiff worked with the United NationsDevelopment Program's (UNDP) Kosovo PoliceService project providing human resources know-how in the area of recruitment strategy develop-ment. Prior to her work with UNDP, Ms. Stiffspent most of her career with the World WildlifeFund and other international organizations in Syria,Germany, Switzerland and the U.S. Ms. Stiff hasalso worked with the African Development Bankprincipally in the Middle East and Africa concentrat-ing on human resources consulting and manage-ment. Ms. Stiff holds a Masters Degree in PublicManagement.

SSaarraahh JJaannee SStteepphheennss joinedCreative Associates inDecember 2003, as the Chief ofParty for Albania in theEducation, Mobilization and

Communications Division. Ms. Stephens hasworked in the human rights field for over 16 yearsand brings to CAII expertise in Combating HumanTrafficking, Conference Planning, ProgramManagement and donor reporting. During thepast two years Ms. Stephens has been a point per-son for counter-trafficking programs development,serving on an expert coordination team of theStability Pact Task Force on Trafficking in Human

Rights. Ms. Stephens received her Master ofDivinity degree from San Francisco TheologicalSeminary and has completed coursework inInternational Policy Studies at the University ofBristol. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree inPolitical Studies from Whitworth College inSpokane, Washington. Ms. Stephens has worked inGeneva, Switzerland since 1995 and Pristina,Kosovo, from 2000-20001.

RReebbeeccccaa CCuussiicc joined CreativeAssociates in November 2003,as the BEPS Latin American andCaribbean Activity Coordinatorin the Education, Mobilization

and Communications Division. For the past sevenyears, Ms. Cusic has worked with Save theChildren in the USA, serving as an EducationSpecialist for the past three years. Ms. Cusic'smanaged a portfolio of 10 countries to ensurequality education programming. Her areas ofexpertise include proposal development, programimplementation/ technical support to primary,youth, and adult education. Ms. Cusic initiatedworldwide research efforts for Youth Programs andAlliance Education activities and presented thesefindings to Congress and the Basic EducationCoalition. Ms. Cusic received her Master of Arts inTeaching from Towson State University (PeaceCorp Fellow), and Bachelor of Arts in Spanish fromNorthern Illinois University. Ms. Cusic speaksSpanish, Portuguese, French and Haitian Creole.

DD.. JJeerrrryy RRuubbiinnoo joined CreativeAssociates in November 2003,as the Senior Advisor forSecurity and EmergencyPreparedness in the Office of

Operations. For the past 23 years, Mr. Rubino hasserved as the Director of the Security andEmergency Planning Staff, Justice ManagementDivision, (JMD) for the Department of Justice(DOJ). Mr. Rubino was responsible for crisis man-agement support for the DOJ's leadership, over-seeing contingency planning for civil disorders anddisturbances, and ensuring continuity of the DOJ'soperations in the event of national security emer-gencies. Managing a staff of 75 federal employeeswith an annual budget of $15 million, Mr. Rubinooversaw security operations for DOJ worldwide,supervised the design and construction of theJustice Command Center in Washington DC, anddesigned and supervised the construction of alter-nate crisis management and emergency operationscenter for the DOJ and the FBI at a remote loca-tion. Earlier in his career, Mr. Rubino also served asan Investigator, Security Specialist, and SystemsAdministrator for the United States CentralIntelligence Agency. Mr. Rubino holds a Master'sdegree in Public Administration and a Bachelor'sdegree in Social Sciences from George WashingtonUniversity.

NEW FACES

Interfaith Symposium, "The Principles of the Abrahamic Faiths: Traditionsthat Advance Education." (contd. from pg. 6)

In his closing remarks, Dr. Kenneth Goodpaster,from the Caux Round Table, quoted the phrase, "Irejoice because you are my brother and I laughbecause you can do nothing about it" to call for"siblinghood" between religions that worship thesame God and Abrahamic traditions. In explainingthe way this "siblinghood" is applied to education,Dr Goodpaster referenced the phrase by WinstonChurchill: " First we shape our institutions; thenthey will shape us.”

The symposium was attended by a distinguishedaudience composed of educators from developingcountries and the Washington, DC metropolitanarea, individuals from the Department of State, theAgency for International Development and theWorld Bank, Legislative and Senatorial aides, col-leagues from other development firms, Creativestaff and others.

On Friday February 13th, following the sympo-sium, a special "Creative staff only" session tookplace in the headquarters office. The objective ofthe Friday session was to internalize informationfrom the previous day and determine how suchknowledge can improve our effectiveness inimplementing program activities in multi-culturalsettings.

Dr. Goodpaster called for all Abrahamic traditionsto bring together their commonalities and leavebehind the violence in their name. "Religion is partof the solution" was the general consensus of theparticipants and the need of community involve-ment is key for a successful approach to our proj-ects.

NEW FACES NEW FACES--

Mustafa Jabar Hamid's parents call theirson's return to school a "golden oppor-tunity." The sixteen-year-old attends

the Al-Ta'aman Boys' School in the disadvantageddistrict of Al-Jadida in Diwaniyah and says hecan't believe he has a second chance at educa-tion. "I want my country to be free and for edu-cation to be available to everyone in order torebuild Iraq," said Mustafa.

After years of economic sanctions and decades oftyranny, Iraq's education system has collapsed.Nearly 47 percent of Iraqi students have missedyears of school. To address the needs of these outof school students, USAID has contracted withCAII to implement five pilot Accelerated Learning(AL) programs through its Revitalization of IraqiSchools and Stabilization of Education (RISE). TheAL program will be carried across Iraq and isdesigned to accelerate children aged 6 through 14through two years of school in just one year.

There are many reasons for the low enrollment: an inability to afford school fees, mistreatment byteachers, inadequate school facilities.

Mohammed Sabah, 14, is a student of Baghdad ALprogram. He has been working since the age of12, when he was forced to quit school because hisfamily couldn't afford to pay bribes to teachers.Mohammed said although he got very high markson tests, he failed his classes because he couldn'tpay the teachers. Since enrolling in the AL pro-gram, Mohammed works as a mechanic everymorning before school and every evening afterschool until 6:30 pm to help support his family.Mohammed's goal for the AL program is to learn toread and write. "I am very happy in this school andI will be even happier if I can spend my whole lifein this school," he says.

RISE's AL classes began on November 15th with aregistration of 566 students. Since the commence-ment of AL classes RISE staff and the Ministry ofEducation have been sought out by parents andstudents seeking to join AL classes. The overridingdemand for admission has prompted USAID torequest additional classes, bringing the number ofregistered students to 685 as of December 20th.For parents and students alike the AL classes are

seen as a genuine program providing a secondchance at education.

In fact, the demand for AL classes is so prevalentthat the AL Coordinator, Martina Nicolls, has hadto extend the age limit of the students. In some ALclasses, students as old as 22 are enrolled. InNasiriyah where one of the AL pilot programs isbeing offered, students range in age from 16 to 22years and many continue to work in the morningbefore attending school. The difficulty of managinga school and work schedule has forced six studentsfrom Diwaniyah and two from Nasiriyah to leavethe program for full-time work. The remainingstudents show their commitment to the programby studying diligently through their recess breakand doing additional homework.

Heba, 18, from Nasiriyah says, "It is difficult, yes,because I have missed three years of school but Iam more determined to study now. A secondchance at education is more than I could haveasked for and so all of my heart is consumed withthe desire to learn."

The AL program has not only provided opportuni-ties for students but it has also posed new chal-lenges for teachers. For Khamail Hassan Karam, ascience and math teacher in the AL program inDiwaniyah, a three-hour drive south of Baghdad,becoming an AL teacher was a step into theunknown. Unemployed after the fall of Saddam'sregime, Khamail heard of the program from theDirector General of Education and decided toattend a meeting held by Ms. Nicolls to introducethe AL Program to potential teachers. "I wanted tobe so much involved," she said, "because my stu-dents want to be back at school and they arealways willing to learn. They are so enthusiasticthat they overwhelm me."

Award in Uganda Reaches $8 Million

In January 2004, Creative Associates wasawarded $1.5 million to provide reproductivehealth and responsible sexuality materials to

more than 12,000 government-supportedschools in Uganda. These new funds will beprovided through USAID’s Basic Education andPolicy Support (BEPS) Activity, USAID’s five-yearinitiative to promote education improvementsthroughout the developing world.

This award is the latest in a series of BEPS activ-ities to support the advancement of quality edu-cation for all in Uganda. CAII’s Senior EducationPolicy and Institutional Support Advisor, RenukaPillay, and her team have been working withUganda’s Ministry of Education and Sports(MOES) since June 2000 to provide new skillsand techniques to practicing teachers through itsdecentralized Teacher Development andManagement System. In October 2002,Creative Associates began working with the

MOES in designing, implementing, and monitor-ing pilot interventions to improve teacher effec-tiveness, promote reproductive health andresponsible sexuality, and encourage age-appro-priate early childhood education. CreativeAssociates provided training on participatorylearning practices, funded the development,production, and distribution of 2,000 early child-hood learning kits, and supported the develop-ment and limited distribution of two trainingmanuals for Uganda’s Presidential Initiative onAIDS Strategy for Communication to Youth(PIASCY). A multi-media advocacy campaignwith posters, feature articles, radio spots, docu-mentaries, drama presentations, and presenta-tions by national notables complemented theseinterventions.

In November 2003, Creative Associates wasawarded a $6.5 million, 21-month contract toexpand the UPE advocacy, teacher effectiveness,

and reproductive health and responsible sexual-ity activities initiated under Phase I (2002). Inaddition, CAII is supporting MOES initiatives intwo new areas: primary education for disadvan-taged children, particularly children in conflictareas, and guidance and counseling training forteachers. The $1.5 million that was added inJanuary 2004 will allow CAII to print and distrib-ute150,000 teacher/administrator PIASCYhandbooks, provide training on the use of thedocument, develop a separate handbook forsecondary school teachers and administrators,and introduce needed guidance and counselingtechniques to pre-service teachers.

Out-of-School Students Get a Second Chance

UGANDA

IRA

Q

photo by American Islamic Congress

photo by Cynthia Prather

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EEddiittoorrssMichael GubserAlexandra Pratt

CCoonnttrriibbuuttoorrssWendy BlanpiedDaniel FormanPaul FreundDavid HolidayRuth Ann HudsonCarola MandelbaumMaryFaith Mount-CorsCynthia PratherHarold SibajaMajella van der Werf

DDeessiiggnn && PPrroodduuccttiioonnMarta S. MaldonadoAngie Aldave

To comment on articles or for more information write to:communications@caii-dc.com

Photo of the Month

“A Government Primary School in rural Bangladesh. The children in the photo are a mixture of 1st to 5th graders. This photowas taken in October-November 2003 during the research on a USAID/Bangladesh requested study for the Basic Education andPolicy Support (BEPS) activity. The title of the study was “Time to Learn”: Teachers’ and Students’ Use of Time in Government PrimarySchools in Bangladesh”.

CREATIVE ASSOCIATES INTERNATIONAL INC

www.caii.net

photo by Dr. Seth Spaulding

CREATIVETIMES CREATIVETIMESWinter 2004 Volume 2, Number 1

After the summer's oppressive heat, September's cool weather was awelcome relief for Iraqis in Baghdad. In the Salah ad Din Hall in thePalestine Hotel, one of Baghdad's most exclusive hotels, a group ofteachers, administrators and supervisors from each of Iraq's gover-norates gathered for the first workshop of the Revitalization of IraqiSchools and Stabilization of Education (RISE) project's teacher trainingprograms.

In the first session of a cascade plan that will ultimately train 64,000teachers throughout the country, 64 future Master Trainers wereexposed to new child-centered methodologies and more democraticmeans of cooperating with their colleagues and students. Participantsfound the training especially illuminating after years of confinementwithin a rigid and corrupt educational system.

contd. on pg. 4 >

"A Meeting from Heaven"-Teacher Training in Iraq

Central American democracies are promoting greater transparency andpolitical accountability by embracing civil society participation in politics asa remedy to corruption. During the November 2003 national presiden-tial elections in Guatemala, Creative Associates, took public monitoring tonew heights, through the USAID-funded Guatemala Civil Society Project.A Citizen Observatory probed government spending of public funds tosupport political parties in Guatemala for the first time.

contd. on pg. 3 >

Transparency for GoodGovernance in Central America

JARASH, JORDAN (January 30, 2004)Jarash, a community made up of cluster villages with approximately44,000 people dwelling on family farms was swept up with the sud-den visit of His Majesty King Abdullah II. The King came to Jarash onan official visit to lay the corner stone of the community's jam pro-cessing facility. Surrounded by an enthusiastic crowd, His MajestyKing Abdullah II of Jordan listened intently about the communitydevelopment and capacity building process that had brought about ajam processing facility which will generate income and employmentfor villagers.

The creation of Jarash's jam processing facility is the result of intensivemeetings of village committees that identified the making of jam as ameans to increase their profits by extending the marketing life of theirfruits from a few days to months. Implemented through CreativeAssociates' Rural Community Clusters Development Program(RCCDP) and funded by the Jordanian Ministry of Planning, Jarash'sjam processing facility is one of many initiatives that is restoring andenhancing economic and social viability to rural clusters of communi-ties in Jordan. For instance, the facility will encourage expansion ofexisting orchards and cultivation of new ones and villagers will be ableto obtain better prices for their crops and still be able to produce jamat competitive prices. Villages which share common resources, sim-ilar crop production and economic livelihoods, work together torealize projects. In this way, CAII's RCCDP contributes to a sustain-able rural economy that strengthens the economic and social fabricof communities.

Locals enthusiastically recounted to the King the excitement of fullownership of the process that helped them establish this facility,which will be community managed and is expected to process 500tons of jam per year.

Since its launch in 2002, more than 140,000 citizens in more than 50villages have benefited from the Rural Community ClustersDevelopment Program (RCCDP). In northern Jordan's Mafraq dis-trict near the Syrian border, the program rehabilitated a 1.6 millioncubic meter dam which was neglected for more than a decade.

King Abdullah II Visits Jarash

photo by Noy Villalobos/ Daniel Forman

photo by Creative Associates

Creative Associates wins SWIFT II LiberiaCreative Associates has been awarded a two-year contract tosupport the peace process in Liberia. The firm will work withUSAID's Office of Transition Initiatives (OTI) to support andstrengthen the August 2003 Liberia peace agreement. Theproject will identify and address critical bottlenecks within thepeace accord and will work to increase civil society's involve-ment in the peace process. The project will provide $7 millionin grants that will focus on media development, governance andtransparency, and peace and justice.

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