Monday 15 April 2013

A child reads for the first time: Goose bump moment from an African project [VIDEO]

Can you remember your parents' reaction when you first learnt to read? I'm sure they were delighted.

But I'm sure they weren't as delighted as the residents of one African village when a small boy read by himself for the first time.

The video of that moment, shown below, was played at last week's Skoll World Forum and when I saw it, I got goose bumps.

The young chap was a recipient of support from the Community Empowerment Program, an initiative of not-for-profit Senegal-based organisation Tostan. The scheme encourages parents and other community members to create an environment for children’s development in a country where research has shown that certain social norms and traditional practices can hinder the brain development of infants.

Teaching a child to read is a simple but hugely powerful achievement. It opens up a world of possibilities and the community's delight in the video below illustrates that.

Wonderful stuff.






Thursday 11 April 2013

Skoll World Forum 2013: Live video and blog

In association with BusinessZone.co.uk (yes, I also run that site!), here's a live video stream and blog from the Skoll World Forum in Oxford which runs until Friday (12 April).

The schedule is:

April 11
14:00 - 15:00: From per capita to pro capita: Launch of the Social Progress Imperative
17:30 - 19:00: Awards ceremony

April 12
09:00 - 10:45: BBC Global Business: Financing social entrepreneurship
12:30 - 14:15: Developing the development model: Re-engineering aid for the 21st century
15:00 - 16:30: Closing plenary