The Qatar Foundation’s 2012 Wise (World Innovation Summit for Education) Prize for Education, Science and Community Development recognizes an individual or team of up to six people for an outstanding, world-class contribution to education.
It is presented at the WISE Summit which is the annually held three-day event in Doha, Qatar, brings together over 1,000 top decision-makers, thought-leaders, practitioners and education stakeholders from a wide variety of sectors and more than 100 countries to seek innovative solutions to today’s educational challenges and to share best practices.
The WISE Prize is enhancing the status of education by giving it similar prestige to other areas for which major international awards exist such as science, literature, peace and economics.
The Laureate receives an award of $500,000 (US) and a gold medal.
Nominations are invited from individuals and institutions with a demonstrable commitment to education, such as universities, schools, colleges, teachers’ organizations, research facilities, international organizations, governments, the media and private corporations.
The deadline to submit nominations is 31 March 2012. For more information, visit this link.
My name is Anna Moinan Shinini
NASARU is a Maasai word meaning a place of rescue and Savior.
I am writing to you from Nasaru Maasai children’s center, Arusha, Tanzania, charity number *80387*. We are in the beginning stages of setting up a center allowing children living in rural Maasai villages and orphanage to obtain an education.
Maasai people are pastoralists that live in remote areas and subsist completely off of the land. Until now, the possibility of education was nearly impossible because of the isolation of the villages and the viewed unimportance of education for the children. Also, Maasai people do not live in a cash economy, so paying school fees and transportation costs is impossible for most. In the Maasai community girls are expected to marry and start having children from the age of 13, and boys are expected to tend to the land. Body mutilation is predominant amongst the Maasai community, such as the removal of teeth, branding of cheeks, slashing of ears and most worryingly, female circumcision. We hope that gaining an education will allow the children to avoid these arranged life decisions. We hope to allow the children a prosperous life and the ability to bring knowledge back to their villages to inspire positive change.
I am the director of Nasaru Community; I am the one of 91 children in my family and the only one able to gain an education within my family. This was made possible through the help of missionaries that went to live at my village. Because Maasai Children’s Center and from Maasai of the strong influence these missionaries had on me and my people, I followed my education with work in a children’s center for 11 years. Today I’m dedicated to providing the same opportunities that I got lucky enough to be given. I strongly believe that all Maasai children should be given the opportunity to open up their minds and gain knowledge and options through education.
Currently there are 5 Maasai girls, aged 6 and 7, living in my family home and beginning to gain an education through volunteers; however this is only a temporary setup. The centre has a dream of bringing many children into the Centre, familiarizing them with the culture, and preparing them for primary education by pre-school lessons in Kiswahili and English. The children can only speak MAA (Maasai Language), which makes entering into primary school a difficult task from the onset. We also plan on obtaining funding for them to receive an education at primary schools in Arusha, whilst providing them with a safe place to live. Even when times are tough they find refuge in the Lord.
We are, at present, raising awareness of the project within the volunteering community in Arusha. However, to ensure our dream becomes a reality we are ideally looking for long term support to help us in financial set up and running of the project.
There are a lot of children who are waiting to come to the Centre but because of the challenge of fund they are in the list and we will bring them when the fund comes through. We would love if you would be interested in helping us, or would like more information on our detailed long term plan we would be very grateful. I would like to send you our project proposal and request to help these girls.
Thank you for your time,
Nasaru Maasai Children’s Centre