I did, however have my curiosity peaked when I was attempting to listen to a podcast participant. I had great difficulty understanding him, but I wanted to know more, so I went to his website.
His name is Meridas Yora, and he is the Founder and Director for the Yayasan Fajar Hidayah Foundation. After the 2004 tsunami hit Aceh, there were over 140 orphans and 120 casualties under the ages of 5 years old. He knew these children needed homes, so he created a boarding school for them. The teachers had to become not only teachers, but like a mother, father, and nurse because these children had lost everything. I was impressed with his desire to ensure these children were not left homeless, and were given an education. Below are the Foundation's Vision, Mission, Strategy, and Implementation. The children as well as the teachers and Meridas give their thanks to God for allowing this to happen.
"Our Vision
A world of religious, independent, creative, and technologically advanced Moslem generation perceptive to the dynamics of global changes.
Our Mission
To continuously develop high quality Islamic educational institutions for the present and future generation of Moslems.
Our Strategy
Harnessing the spirit of Islam to endure, progress, and achieve excellence by setting mission, opportunity, resource, and timing in a balanced configuration.
Fajar Hidayah schools are developed, constructed and operated by an integrated management team which generates efficiency both in investments and operation.
Implementation
Fajar Hidayah has been given operational license and accredited fully by the Ministry of Education of The Republic Indonesia both for its primary school and junior high school. Fajar Hidayah adopts the “Active Learning” approach and method of teaching, enriched with Islamic and International orientation.
Development, construction and operation of the schools are done by an integrated management team with diverse expertise, and are fully funded by the foundation supported by receipts from operation." (http://www.fajarhidayah.com/en/aceh_web/aboutus.htm)
I also explored Harvard's website about Global Children's Initiative.
The Global Initiative focuses on 3 specific strategies:
- reframing the discourse around child health and development in the global policy arena by educating high-level decision-makers about the underlying science of learning, behavior, and health, beginning in the earliest years of life;
- supporting innovative, multi-disciplinary research and demonstration projects to expand global understanding of how healthy development happens, how it can be derailed, and how to get it back on track; and
- building leadership capacity in child development research and policy—focused on both individuals and institutions—in low- and middle-income countries to increase the number and influence of diverse voices and perspectives that are contributing to the growing global movement on behalf of young children.
Moreover, these strategies also involve activities for specific domains. They are:
- early childhood development;
- child mental health; and
- children in crisis and conflict situations.
This is quite extraordinary, in my opinion, because it allows a specific group to organize specific activities and projects beyond the community they are in. It is a collaborative effort to help children from all areas and all issues.
What an informative website! I would encourage all of you to look at it and read about it. I would love to be able to report about emails I am receiving; however, the websites we have looked at have been very informative!
Blessings,
Susan
http://developingchild.harvard.edu/index.php/activities/global_initiative/
http://www.fajarhidayah.com/en/aceh_web/aboutus.htm
http://worldforumfoundation.org/wf/wp/current-work/world-forum-radio/
The two phrases that caught my attention with the two very different organizations were, "integrated management" and "multidisciplinary... cross-disciplinary collaboration". These both would seem to emphasize the significance of collaboration within the design and implementation of an agency beginning with the strategy and implementation stages.
ReplyDeleteI think that it is too often, perhaps, when we engage in multi-disciplinary or integrated management approaches - waiting until a crisis requires us to form alliances or seek outside expertise.
Commitment to collaboration from the beginning seems like sound strategy to me.
Susan,
ReplyDeleteKnow that you are in good company, as I have not received response from my contacts either. My quest continues.
The work of Meridas Yora is very inspiring. The mission of the Yayasan Fajar Hidayah Foundation speaks volumes as to how they are providing for children's inequalities. I wonder, do they have specific assessments that measure the level of quality provided in the academic institutions they develop?
Susan,
DeleteIt is good to see there are still some people out there who have some compassion for our children during such a tragic time. Most men would probably be hesitant in taking on such a big project. Thank God, for what this man did and continues to do. Again I say not to many would have done what he has done.
Sandra
Susan,
ReplyDeleteKnow that you are in good company, as I have not heard from my contacts either. The quest continues.
The work of Meridas Yora is very inspiring. I wonder, do they use assessments that measure the quality in the academic institutions thye have developed?
It is wonderful to see that such inspired work continues. Thank you for sharing. It does sometimes take a crisis situation to initiate much needed programs.
ReplyDelete