DOHA:

The WISE is a biennial global collaborative initiative by Qatar Foundation. The WISE Award 2009, is aimed at recognising and celebrating outstanding achievements and practice within three different themes in the field of Education- Pluralism, Sustainability and Innovation in Education.

The six laureates, two each in the themes of the WISE 2009-Pluralism, Sustainability and Innovation- have made exceptional and outstanding achievements in education for the 21st century. The six 2009 WISE Awards winning projects originated from South and Latin America, North America, Africa, and Asia and Oceania.

Sheetal Mehta and Vicky Colbert won the award on behalf of the Nanhi Kali and Escuela Nueva projects in the Pluralism category respectively.

Project Nanhi Kali was established in 1996 with an objective of providing primary education to the underprivileged girl child in India.. Nanhi Kali has successfully evolved over the years into a national girl child sponsorship programme, which supports the education of girl children by providing not only academic support but also direct material support.

Escuela Nueva means “new school” in Spanish and, since 1975, Escuela Nueva educational programs have been making schools and schooling a new enterprise. It is child-centered, community-based education led by teachers who are facilitators for active, participatory and cooperative learning. Cost-effective and highly adaptable, Escuela Nueva works with—and for—millions of children around the world.

In the Innovation category, Peter Levy for Curriki project and Delio Morais for Distence learning in Amazon Forest project won the awards.

US- based Curriki is an online platform created to support the development and free distribution of world-class educational materials to anyone who needs them. The name is a play on the combination of ‘curriculum’ and ‘wiki’. The platform provides users with free tools and services necessary to develop, aggregate, evaluate and support Open Educational Resources (OER).

‘Distance learning in Amazon Forest’ is an interactive distance learning solution that transmits and receives live, two-way audio and visual classes to 25,000 students in 700 classrooms across 300 schools in Amazonas, Brazil.

Martin Burt and Joyce Dongotey-Padi won the awards in sustainability category for their Financially Self-P and Widows Alliance Network for Sustainable Economic Development in Ghana, respectively.

The Paraguay-based Financially Self-P project transforms children of chronically-poor farmers into rural entrepreneurs. It integrates high-school studies with the running of 17 small-scale rural enterprises, and covering the school’s operating costs as a result.

Widows Alliance Network is designed to emancipate and empower widows through employment skills, human rights education, reproductive health and social integration programmes in Ghana. It advocates against injustices faced by widows andchildren in Ghana.