Concern Blogs

By Nicki Sugrue

Jean Kwizerimana, 15, is a sixth-year student at Rugendo Primary School in Burundi who received a school uniform and supplies from Concern Worldwide.

September is the beginning of the school year in Burundi, but for many children it is just like any other month. Twelve years of civil conflict, which ended in 2005, left the country scarred. Reconstruction has been slow, significantly impacting the quality of education and the standard of schools available. Many families do not have the means to send their children to school and, even when they do attend, there is a high drop-out rate due to large class sizes and a lack of school materials and infrastructure. Read the rest of this entry »

Ange Kamugisha, Education Liaison Officer, Rwanda

Rachael and Sarah pictured carrying out household chores in 2009 when Concern went to check why they'd dropped out of school. Photo: Rwanda, Concern Worldwide

I cannot imagine the sadness of watching my child grow up without the chance to go to school, learn to read and write, or have opportunities to achieve her potential.

And yet, here in my native Rwanda, each time I meet an out-of-school child, I feel a measure of that sadness.

Lack of access to basic, quality primary education is one of the root causes of extreme poverty, and disproportionately affects girls: the majority of the world’s 72 million out-of-school children are girls. Read the rest of this entry »

In the absence of school buildings, children in South Sudan attend class under the shade of trees. Photo: Nina Gehm, Concern Worldwide

For nearly two years now, I have worked in South Sudan, helping Concern empower the poorest of the poor through programs in education, farming, nutrition, and water.

Even though I live here and I witness daily examples of the hardships people face just trying to survive, the statistics never fail to dishearten me.

Consider for example that a 15-year-old girl has a greater chance of dying in childbirth than of finishing school.

Read the rest of this entry »

Aster Arba, grade two, in front of her house in rural Wolayita. Photo: Ethiopia, Concern Worldwide

Aster Arba, aged nine, lives in the remote and rural village of Duguna Fango, about 450 kilometers south west of Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa. Up to when Concern intervened, Aster and her friends would walk eight kilometers every day to go to school.

In fact, they walked barefoot in extreme heat, and risked being raped and abducted, or attacked by wild animals. When I first saw the area, I was humbled by how difficult it was for a young child to travel to school in this extremely hot climate over such distances. Read the rest of this entry »

Hadija (left) pictured with her mother at new water point supported by Concern. Photo: Isla Gilmore, Concern Worldwide.

Water has always been readily available to me

As a city girl it’s hard to imagine life without clean water. Being in Tanzania I have had to adapt to not being able to drink it, and constantly being cautious about boiling, filtering and washing food in clean water. But I live in Dar es Salaam and I have access to all the water I need.

Life in rural villages in Tanzania is completely different

I visited Concern Tanzania’s water programme earlier this month. Biharamulo District is in Kagera Region, close to Rwanda. It looks a bit different to other parts of the country where we work because the villages are located in hills and valleys. Read the rest of this entry »

Concern staff working in 11 countries across the globe gather in Zomba, Malawi to make a noise about the need to provide safe schools for the poorest children.

Education is absolutely fundamental to long-term economic and social development, and yet is historically and notoriously under-funded globally. Programs that address gender-based violence in schools get even less attention and funding.

Standard 8 students in Laini Saba Primary School, Kibera, Nairobi

As I am learning in Concern’s workshop with education staff from the countries in which we work, finding solutions for ensuring that schools are safe learning environments is not the challenge. Our team has many solutions. Throughout the week, each Concern staff member talked about how they were overcoming these challenges in their respective fields. Read the rest of this entry »

Photo: Pieterella Pieterse, Malawi, Concern Worldwide

Last week the picturesque town of Zomba in Malawi was the destination point for 30 Concern education staff. The usually sleepy town was already buzzing with stories that Madonna was in town when our bus pulled into Annie’s Lodge carrying team members from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Kenya, Liberia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Somalia, US and Ireland.

Read the rest of this entry »

A grade 2 student (in Concern’s partner’s Chad-Et’s Center 1 school) with her brand new ABE Curriculum

It is great to be back in Addis Ababa to meet with the children I visited a year ago. It is inspiring to hear about what education means to them and to see it contribute to real change in their lives.  Without programs like the one here, change could simply never happen. Read the rest of this entry »

My Concern guest house room, and everything I brought with me to the field.

DENVER, COLORADO - This is going to be an interesting trip: Denver to Washington DC to Rome to Addis Ababa. I arrived at my gate in Denver to find four other people travelling straight through with me to Ethiopia.  Read the rest of this entry »