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Meet Irerero School (Rwanda): Mona's new grassroots partner

Fri, 09 Jan 2026 23:41:13 GMT

Meet Irerero School (Rwanda) and the empowered Indigenous community it serves

In October 2025, we were thrilled to visit and welcome the Irerero School in Rwanda as Mona Foundation's newest grassroots partner. Closely collaborating with Pygmy Survival Alliance (PSA) in the United States and Health Development Initiative (HDI), a Rwandan nonprofit, Irerero supports the educational needs of the people historically referred to as "Batwa" or Pygmies.

The Batwa are an Indigenous forest-dwelling people of Central Africa. In Rwanda, they number roughly 33,000. Displaced from their ancestral lands decades ago by conservation and agricultural expansion, the Batwa were left landless and marginalized. Today, they remain among Rwanda’s most vulnerable communities . Only 16% of Batwa children complete primary school, just 3% reach secondary school, and adult illiteracy exceeds 50%.

A Community Defines Its Reality

The Irerero School's story begins many years ago when Dr. Karl Weyrauch happened to visit a small Batwa village outside Kigali, Rwanda.

Historically marginalized, living in extreme poverty, and on the brink of extinction, he asked about their greatest daily challenges. They answered plainly:

“ We have no food , and we are hungry.”
“ We have no roofs over our heads to protect us from the rain, and our children cry at night when they are wet and cold.”
“ We have no clothes to wear and when we leave the forest, people living nearby say that we are naked and dirty like animals.”

The absence of life’s most basic necessities was stark and heartbreaking.

Karl then asked a second question: What resources do you have to help face these challenges? After consulting together, the villagers answered:

“ We have life ,” one elder said. “We are not all dead yet.”

“ We have health . That is, we are all not sick with disease and we have our strength and humanity.”

And after a pause, “Happiness. We have happiness .”

In a place with almost no material wealth—and where discrimination against the Batwa runs deep—this response was both humbling and profound. It was not a denial of hardship, but a powerful affirmation of humanity and hope. A reminder that dignity is not defined by possessions , but by the unyielding strength of the human spirit.

That answer marked a turning point. Karl founded Pygmy Survival Alliance (PSA) and, in partnership with Rwandan nonprofit Health Development Initiative (HDI), began walking alongside this community toward a better future.

The transformative power of partnership and education

As the people were empowered to address basic needs and conditions improved, the mothers said, “Before, many of our children were dying … Now, so many are surviving, we need a nursery school where they can go.” In response to their request, local development leader Claude Bizimana, founded Irerero School in 2015 as a nonprofit Early Childhood Development center.

Over the years, Irerero has grown to now serve hundreds of Batwa children, youth, and adults across three villages -- including one youth who is the first from the village to attend university . Programs include early childhood education, academic support, scholarships, skills training, girls empowerment, and development and cultural programs—all shaped by the community itself.

During Mona's visit to the school this past fall, it was deeply moving to seeing how far the school and the community have come—and how the people's original foundation of values has been further strengthened through education and long-term partnership.

Poverty remains visible—but so do pride, resilience, and progress.

With PSA and HDI's empowering support, Irerero has developed a community-led model where local leaders, teachers, parents, and youth work hand-in-hand to create lasting educational opportunity. Children are succeeding in school. Youth are developing skills. Women have formed business collectives. Together, the community is shaping its own future.

Mona Foundation is honored to now be a part of their extraordinary journey.

Transform Movie Night into a Catalyst for Global Change

Hope@monafoundation.org (Hope Kalegi) — Thu, 17 Jul 2025 01:41:01 GMT

Transform Movie Night into a Catalyst for Global Change

July 12, 2025 -- On this first-ever International Day of Hope , Mona Foundation invites you to join a movement where community screenings spark local conversations—and global transformation.

In a world grappling with uncertainty, hope isn’t just a feeling—it’s a force. And on this International Day of Hope, Mona Foundation is shining a light on the extraordinary power of community-led education through our documentary, Light & Air: Breathing Life into Dreams .

This 30-minute film captures the transformative journey of young women at the Barli Development Institute for Rural Women in India. But it’s more than a story—it’s a call to action. Light & Air shows how education—when it’s rooted in dignity, equity, and community trust—can break cycles of poverty and lift entire villages. Watch the trailer here .

This isn’t just a powerful film about the transformative impact of education, it’s an opportunity to engage our own local communities in conversations on how even the smallest actions can make powerful change.

From Movie Night to Movement

We believe that change begins in community. That’s why we’ve created the Light & Air Screening Kit —a simple, powerful way for educators, donors, families, and changemakers to bring this story to their own circles.

By hosting a screening in your home, school, workplace, or place of worship, you’re not just showing a film. You’re sparking critical conversations about sustainable solutions to poverty, gender inequality, and educational access.

Each kit includes:

A direct link to the documentary
Digital invitations to customize and share
Discussion guides and talking points
Actionable resources for follow-up and engagement

You don’t need to be an expert. You just need to believe that every child deserves the chance to learn—and that your voice can help make that happen. Request your home screening kit today at monafoundation.org/screening

Why Now?

Because hope is contagious. And the more people see what’s possible through education, the more likely they are to join the movement.

Since its premiere, Light & Air has inspired screenings in living rooms and lecture halls across the U.S. From high school advocates to faith leaders and corporate teams, everyday people are stepping forward as hosts—catalysts for change in their communities.

And every screening brings us closer to our shared goal: providing quality education to 10 million students by 2030.

Illuminate conversations that matter: host a Light & Air screening!

Today, you can do more than watch a film. You can light a path.

�� Host a home screening and request your film kit at monafoundation.org/screening

Because when we gather to witness stories of resilience and transformation, we don’t just raise awareness—we shape the future.

A Fond Farewell to Full Circle Learning

john@monafoundation.org (Laura Baerwolf) — Sat, 12 Jul 2025 04:06:32 GMT

A Fond Farewell to Full-Circle Learning

July 2025 - Full-Circle Learning in southern California has been a Mona partner since 2007. Over the past eighteen years, we provided scholarships and operational support for two educational initiatives:

a Summer School program in Piru serving children of migrant workers, and
an After-School program in Tarzana where the diverse student body speaks 44 different languages.

Both initiatives used FCL's "Habits of the Heart" curriculum to help students achieve academic excellence while integrating arts, character education, conflict resolution skills, and community service. Together, they empowered generations of students to grow and thrive into adulthood, building upon what they learned to resist gang life, appreciate differences, reach for their dreams, and become ambassadors of goodwill and peace.

At the end of 2024, Full-Circle Learning concluded our longstanding partnership sharing that the Piru Summer School was closing due to shifting demographics and the Tarzana After-School program was transitioning to the local Parent-Teacher Association (PTA). Founding Board President Teresa Langness shared FCL's appreciation for Mona's support over the year: “We thank Mona Foundation for partnering with us to encourage the consistency and longevity of programs that have shaped generations of families new to America.”

Arturo's story is an inspiring example.

A Look Back at 18 Years of Partnership

Since 2007, Mona and Full Circle Learning helped more than 1,700 young students improve their academic standing while also embracing their role as humanitarians and change agents.

Team Mona joins Sunflower Mission's 2025 Work Camp in Vietnam

sophia@monafoundation.org (Sophia Moser) — Wed, 09 Jul 2025 21:25:49 GMT

Changing Lives, Building Community: Sunflower Mission’s Work in Vietnam

J une 2025 - It brings me great joy to share reflections from my recent two-week trip to Vietnam to participate in Sunflower Mission’s annual work camp. The workcamp consists of volunteers traveling to Vietnam to help finish school buildings and build relationships with local students and communities. These experiences foster compassion, leadership, and cultural connection among individuals from the Vietnamese diaspora.This year's work camp focused on the completion of a Mona-funded primary school located in the Hung Loi 2 Commune of Vietnam's Tuyên Quang province.

This experience was both deeply moving and energizing. Sunflower Mission has been a Mona Foundation partner since 2007, and this trip clearly demonstrated to me why. Their work is heartfelt, effective, and transformative. Our ongoing investment in this organization is changing lives in rural Vietnam and strengthening bonds in the Vietnamese-American community.

Sunflower Mission Overview

Founded in 2002, Sunflower Mission is a volunteer-driven nonprofit that builds schools, funds scholarships, and cultivates leadership among Vietnamese and Vietnamese American youth. Over the years, Sunflower Mission has built 63 schools comprising 194 classrooms, awarded over 27,000 scholarships to K-12 and college students, and supported the graduation of more than 800 college students in fields including medicine, engineering, education, and finance.

Sunflower Mission works to scout school building locations where they can build strong partnerships with the local communities . The typical community contribution to building the school includes land, utilities, classroom furniture, a paved school yard, school gate, and fence. Once the school has been constructed by Sunflower Mission, complete care and control is turned over to the local officials. The only caveat to the community ownership is that Sunflower Mission commits to funding any major future repairs that are needed such as destruction from a storm.

When scouting the locations for schools, Sunflower Mission considers several factors. In some years, Sunflower Mission will build a brand-new school where there has not been one before. These schools provide access to education for children who previously did not attend due to their distance from the current school. Furthermore, it allows those students who were previously walking great distances to attend another school to preserve their energy for their academics. In other years, Sunflower Mission will build a new building or classrooms at a location that already has a school with unsafe learning conditions. These new buildings can provide a proper, conducive, and safe learning environment with amenities such as electricity, fans, bathrooms, and more. These new buildings and classrooms also allow children to attend a full day of school. Due to a lack of space, often children will alternate morning and afternoon classes, with the construction of more spacious buildings, children can learn all day. These schools are always located in rural areas that Sunflower Mission believes have the potential for community development.

Beyond its work in Vietnam, Sunflower Mission also cultivates leadership among Vietnamese Americans, primarily youth through its SEEDS program. SEEDS stands for Students Expanding Education by Donating Services . Since 2008, the students and young professionals of SEEDS have played an integral role in Sunflower Mission’s operations by acting as a task force to carry out volunteer work and implement new initiatives. Through their experiences, SEEDS have the opportunity to develop not only teamwork and leadership, but also a greater appreciation for education, service, and the impact that they are able to make in the world.

Since the start of our partnership with Sunflower Mission, Mona Foundation has contributed over $1.1 million to help build and renovate 48 classrooms including 10 new schools , provide over 6,000 scholarships , and support other educational initiatives across rural Vietnam. Mona funded schools currently serve approximately 1,620 students annually .

Shared Purpose in Ethics and Service

Sunflower Mission’s work is grounded in a core value , a value that is inscribed on the front of every school they build: “Tiên học lễ – Hậu học văn.” This phrase can be translated as “First learn manners, then learn academics,” though it also carries the meaning of “First learn morality.” As described to me by Thanh Bui, Vice President of Sunflower Mission’s Board of Directors, this guiding principle emphasizes that character and ethical behavior are the foundation of true learning. It reflects a holistic vision of education, one that aims to nurture not only intelligent students but also kind, respectful, and morally grounded human beings. This value is clearly woven throughout all aspects of Sunflower Mission’s work and indicative of Sunflower Mission and Mona Foundation’s shared approach and values.

Days Spent at the School

We arrived on a misty, rainy morning in Hung Loi 2 Commune. After an hour and a half drive through bumpy mud roads, surrounded by lush mountains and green rice paddies, we turned the corner to view the bright blue and white school standing large and tall in contrast to the few surrounding wooden and stone structures. I was on the bus seated next to a third time work camper who turned to me with tears of joy, “seeing the school for the first time is always my favorite part, it never ceases to make me emotional.” Despite the weather, the atmosphere was bright with excitement. Children greeted us with big smiles and waves.

The rural mountain commune is home to about 6,000 people. Most of the families in Hung Loi 2 work in agriculture and live off the land, often supplementing with hunting or foraging. The school we were there to help complete will serve 300 children in grades K through 5. It was designed to replace the usage of unsafe, makeshift wooden classrooms. Many of the children this school will serve are malnourished, subsisting on diets that consist primarily of rice, and most have never received medical care. The Sunflower Mission scholarships received by the students who are most in need will be vital in ensuring these children remain healthy, nourished, and in school.

Our work camp team consisted of about 55 Vietnamese-American individuals as well as a group of current Sunflower Mission college scholarship recipients. Shortly after arrival, we did what we came to do, and we got to work. My group painted one of the rooms inside the school including a mural designed by one of our team members, a college student named Kendall. The days were filled with painting, scraping, washing brushes, and laying bricks. I was endlessly impressed with the hard work and dedication of every Sunflower Mission volunteer. There was palpable joy and days filled with manual labor paired with meaningful conversation on the unique opportunity to return to one’s home country to further a cause near and dear to the hearts of the work camp volunteers.

However, it was not just labor, each day a group of students from the school joined us, we had the opportunity to play games, share meals, and on several days witness both adorable and beautiful cultural dances by the kids. We also participated in English and STEAM workshops with the kids. The students in Hung Loi 2 are from the Hmong ethnic minority and speak Vietnamese as a second language, though this added a level of difficulty in speaking even for native Vietnamese speakers we did not let this stop us. I am now the Google Translate voice to text apps biggest fan as it allowed me to connect even in small ways with many of the students.

I spent several days with Chuyen, a thoughtful 10-year old girl. She shared her candy with me and held my hand as we spent the days together. Thien, another young boy, told me about his long journey to school, his love of soccer, and his dreams of becoming an English teacher. 11-year-old Yen insisted that hold her stuffed animal as she informed me it would bring me good luck. These interactions along with many games of war, slide, and ‘keep the balloon of the ground’ left me with love and lasting memories.

Among the Sunflower Mission team all of our days ended with moments of connection, playing games on the long bus drives, sharing meals, and exchanging stories.

At weeks end, the school was bright and colorful with the addition of classroom murals, a playground, an interactive library, and a computer room. The school was outfitted with boys’ and girls’ bathrooms complete with running water and soap as well as fans and air-conditioning units in each room. The building and its amenities stood in sharp contrast to the wooden remains of the shack-like structure where school was previously being held.

The Hope Project: A Cycle of Social Good

One inspiring example of Sunflower Mission’s impact is the Hope Project, a student-led initiative created by Vietnamese college students who are themselves recipients of Sunflower Mission scholarships. These young leaders not only attended the 2025 work camp as volunteers but also raised funds to purchase bicycles for younger students who live far from school. In conversation with students, I spoke to several such as Thien who was walking for over an hour each morning to reach school. The smiles on their faces when receiving the bikes were something I will never forget. The Hope Project perfectly illustrates the cycle of social good that we champion at Mona. Sunflower Mission is cultivating young people who receive support and go on to create opportunities for others.

Scholarships

Another story that powerfully reflects Sunflower Mission’s impact is the origin of their college scholarship programs and the naming of the Le So Memorial Scholarship. Years ago, Trong Le lost both of his parents at a young age and he was raised by his grandfather, who had no income. Determined to keep his grandson in school, the grandfather begged and slept on the streets to pay for his education. When Sunflower Mission learned of their situation and his grandfather’s dedication to education, they stepped in to provide a college scholarship. This act was the very start of Sunflower Mission’s college scholarship programs. Trong went on to attend college, graduate, and secure a high-paying job at a large company. With his success he was able to buy a house for his grandfather in his village. The young man became deeply involved in Sunflower Mission’s work. He served as the coordinator for their Sponsor A Student Scholarship program for 15 years. His grandfather recently passed away, and in his honor, Sunflower Mission named their most prestigious scholarship after him, the Le So Memorial Scholarship.

Sunflower Mission’s K-12 and College Scholarships alike are changing lives across Vietnam. The organization has three scholarship offerings:

DAO-LE Scholarship: Provides K–12 scholarships to students with significant financial need who attend Sunflower Mission–built schools with the aim to keep children in school. The scholarship covers both school fees and families’ needs such as food, clothes, and school supplies.

Through conversation with Sunflower Mission board members, I gained deeper insight into the K-12 Scholarship process. When a new school is built, the number of scholarships available is based on the previous year’s budget. The organization is intentional about ensuring long-term support, so once a student is awarded a scholarship in elementary school, they continue to receive it until graduating from high school as long as they remain in need and in school.

Eligibility is reassessed annually. For students in elementary school, the primary factor is continued financial hardship. As students transition into middle and high school, ongoing support also depends on their academic commitment. Students must demonstrate that they are engaged in school and performing academically.

Local school leaders, who know the students and families best, play a key role in identifying those most in need. Their recommendations are also informed by official government data, which ranks families based on financial status and overall well-being. Typically, scholarships are prioritized for the bottom ten percent of students in terms of financial need.

Sponsor A Student (SAS) Scholarship : Connects donors with individual college students from low-income backgrounds, many of whom are former K–12 scholarship recipients. Students must maintain satisfactory academic performance throughout their studies.

Le So Memorial Scholarship of Excellence (LSMSE): A highly selective college scholarship awarding $2,000 annually (full tuition) to students with academic excellence, financial need, and strong moral character, prioritizing STEM, business, education, and medical fields.

We had the honor of hearing several current and former SAS and LSMSE recipients share their stories. Each story was as heartfelt as the next, recounting hardships and desperation followed by the joy and relief of receiving a Sunflower Mission college scholarship. I can certainly say that I walked away from meeting these students deeply impacted.

One LSMSE recipient, Valerie, shared with us her life story of losing her mother at a young age and being abandoned by her father. She shared the desperation and helplessness she felt before receiving her scholarship, not sure how she would ever afford college. The manner in which she spoke about how her Sunflower Mission scholarship community was a family for her touched me deeply. She shared that “for the first time in my life I found people who love me and I love them too, for the first time in my life I feel I can say I am loveable, because of my childhood I used to feel that I am not worth loving, and I meet them and I feel I am loveable. They are a family for me.” Valerie went on to speak about how, beyond this, Sunflower Mission helped her grow and taught her how to be a leader. She stated that leader still feels like a big word to her but now she can say she is one. “I am now working in a Chinese firm as a sales manager, which I never believed I could become.” She went on to share her deep gratitude and close with a promise. “We promise you to become ambassadors of this program that carry on hope and resilience to society.” Valerie’s love, passion, and spirit were equally matched by every scholarship recipient I had the honor of speaking with. I am endlessly impressed with the loving and familial community Sunflower Mission has built for every single one their college scholarship recipients.

Powered by Volunteers

Sunflower Mission’s ability to do so much with not a single full-time paid employee is a truly unique and impressive feat, it is also a testament to the dedication of its volunteer leaders.

The scholarship delivery system is powered by a remarkable woman—a Catholic nun who travels across regions using public transportation, sleeping in churches, and hand-delivering scholarships to students.

Zenda, a hospital operations professional and self-development coach, volunteers her time to coordinate the Le So Memorial Scholarship. She organizes annual retreats for scholarship recipients where they stay up all night talking, engage in leadership and self-development workshops, and build strong bonds with each other. Her efforts help transform the scholarship experience from simply financial aid into a community of moral support and personal growth.

During one of our dinners in a heartfelt reflection, Noah, the 17-year-old son of board member and work camp coordinator Elena Thuy, teared up as he shared how proud he is to have her as a mother. He commented on the sheer volume of hard work and personal time she dedicates to making these trips happen and his gratitude as he sees the impact her work has on so many.

Final Thoughts

During one of our lunches, with the help of a Sunflower Mission Board Member translating, I had the chance to ask the children what they wanted to do when they grew up. I received answers such as English teacher, artist, and IT professional. That moment touched me deeply. It wasn’t just the joy on their faces; it was hearing their dreams paired with the knowledge that through the construction of this school, the provision of scholarships, and even the bicycles that help them get to class, Sunflower Mission is helping bring those dreams within reach.

This work means everything to me because I want to live in a world where every child has the chance to live a life of their own choosing. I feel privileged to have witnessed in person how Sunflower Mission is doing the work to bring that world closer to reality.

With Gratitude,

Sophia Moser, Global Program Officer

Fueling Her Future: Muffta’s Mission to Uplift Through Cookery

Hope@monafoundation.org (Hope Kalegi) — Mon, 07 Apr 2025 23:12:54 GMT

Fueling Her Future: Muffta’s Mission to Uplift Through Cookery

The Power of Education: How Beatriz’s Determination is Shaping Her Future

Hope@monafoundation.org (Hope Kalegi) — Wed, 02 Apr 2025 17:24:29 GMT

The Power of Education: How Beatriz’s Determination is Shaping Her Future

Dancing Toward His Dreams: Lucas’s Journey of Talent and Inspiration

Hope@monafoundation.org (Hope Kalegi) — Wed, 02 Apr 2025 17:19:17 GMT

Dancing Toward His Dreams: Lucas’s Journey of Talent and Inspiration

Anna's Story: Building Confidence and Opportunity through Skills Training

sophia@monafoundation.org (Sophia Moser) — Tue, 18 Mar 2025 20:46:28 GMT

Anna's Story: Building Confidence and Opportunity through Skills Training

Anna is a third-year tailoring and design student at the Starfish International Skills Center in The Gambia, a Mona partner since 2019. Her father struggled with ongoing mental health challenges and so the responsibility of supporting the family fell squarely on her mother’s shoulders. Growing up, Anna witnessed her mother’s extraordinary sacrifice and perseverance as she worked as cook, house help, and laundress to provide for Anna and her siblings. Her mother’s unwavering determination in the face of hardship became Anna’s greatest inspiration.

Anna’s journey at Starfish International began at a crucial point in her life. Unable to afford secondary education, she enrolled in the Skills Center training program on a Mona scholarship as a means to create opportunities for herself and her family. Over three years, Anna transformed from a novice seamstress to a confident tailor, capable of designing and sewing complete outfits on her own. With her newfound skills, Anna started a small tailoring business, taking on contracts that enable her to contribute financially to her family and ease the burden on her mother. "The Starfish Skills Center has given me more than just a trade," Anna shares. "It has given me the confidence to believe in myself, the tools to support my family, and the hope to dream bigger than I ever thought possible."

As she approaches graduation, Anna’s dream is clear: to establish her own tailoring workshop and create a hub for empowering other young women. Her vision includes training and employing aspiring designers, offering them the same opportunities that transformed her life.

Anna's journey is one of perseverance, faith, and hope in the face of adversity, and a commitment to building a brighter future for herself and her family. She credits her mother's sacrificial support, her teachers unwavering belief in her abilities, and Mona Foundation's generous support for making it possible to pursue her dreams.

Danna's Story: Promoting Respect, Joy, and Responsibility

sophia@monafoundation.org (Sophia Moser) — Tue, 18 Mar 2025 19:26:26 GMT

Danna's Story: Promoting Respect, Joy, and Responsibility

____________________________________________________________________________________

"My name is Danna Paola Díaz. I was born in 2003, in Padilla and I live in the rural area of Yarumales in Norte del Cauca. I am 21 years old and currently studying Business Administration at UNAD University in Santander de Quilichao.

My family, made up of six members, has been a fundamental pillar in my life. My mother is a homemaker, my father works as a self-taught welder, and my sisters are pursuing their academic dreams and facing personal challenges with courage.

My connection with the Preparation for Social Action (PSA) program began when I was selected as a tutor, recognizing my potential to lead. It has been a challenging but rewarding process. At first, gathering participants was difficult; I went from having a small group to consolidating a team of 12 committed young people. This experience has taught me perseverance, patience, and organizational skills, transforming me into a more responsible and punctual person.

I have learned that young people need support to face the challenges of their environment and make sound decisions. I now understand the importance of working with them to foster values, develop their potential and strengthen their role in the community. Seeing young people inspired by my work, like a girl who is now an active part of the PSA program, fills me with pride and responsibility.

My dreams include strengthening the PSA group , promoting respect, joy, and responsibility, and serving as an example for my community. Additionally, I aspire to foster a deeper connection with the countryside. Thanks to what I’ve learned through FUNDAEC and the PSA program, I have come to understand how valuable it is to live in harmony with nature, grow our own food, and share that experience with others."

Wuyatta's Story: Enabling Dreams

sophia@monafoundation.org (Sophia Moser) — Tue, 18 Mar 2025 17:44:38 GMT

Wuyatta's Story: Enabling Dreams

Wuyatta, a 16-year-old girl from Yambama Village, Sierra Leone, joined Programme for Children , a Mona partner since 2019, with a dream to excel in her education and become a nurse. Coming from a family of six with a limited income, her parents struggled to provide school supplies and basic necessities. As the eldest child, Wuyatta, often helped her mother with farming, leaving little time for her studies. Since joining the program in 2023, Wuyatta has received school supplies, participated in Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) lessons, and benefited from improved teaching materials and resources provided to her school. The menstrual hygiene kits she received enabled her to attend school regularly, breaking the cycle of absenteeism caused by a lack of proper supplies.

Wuyatta’s performance has drastically improved. Once struggling to pass, she now consistently ranks among the top five in her class. She credits her success to the program’s support and her teacher Ensa, whose engaging teaching methods have made learning enjoyable and accessible. Wuyatta’s transformation has inspired her siblings and peers. Her younger brother has expressed a newfound interest in education, and her classmates often seek her help with their studies. Beyond academics, she has started leading community discussions with her peers about hygiene and reproductive health, fostering awareness and breaking stigmas in her village

Her family is overjoyed with her progress. Her mother shared, “Wuyatta is not only helping herself but uplifting our family and others in the community. We are so proud of her achievements.’’ Wuyatta aspires to attend the Bo School of Nursing at Njala University after completing her secondary education. She dreams of returning to Yambama Village as a nurse, improving healthcare for her community.

Young Women Uplifting Their Community

sophia@monafoundation.org (Sophia Moser) — Tue, 18 Mar 2025 17:25:53 GMT

The Power of Opportunity: Women Uplifting Their Community

In November 2024, Shivani, Muskan, and Raveena graduated from the six-month training program at Barli Development Institute for Rural Women , a 20-year Mona partner. All three felt ready and excited to bring change to their community. Returning to their rural village, where education was scarce, the three young women took the initiative to visit the primary health care center, offering their assistance.

When the in-charge at the center inquired about their training at Barli, they shared the innovative literacy curriculum they had mastered, which teaches reading and writing in a unique and effective way. Impressed by their knowledge and passion, the in-charge approached the principal of the local government school and suggested they be allowed to teach. The school adjusted its schedule, opening earlier at 9:00 a.m. to accommodate their classes. Previously, the school had started at 10:30 a.m., as teachers from distant towns arrived late. With the dedication of Shivani, Muskan, and Raveena, children in the village began receiving consistent, quality education for the first time, thanks to their selfless efforts.

Shivani’s Mother expresses: "I never had an education, and with our poor financial condition, we couldn’t send Shivani to a good school. She studied in the local government school until the ninth standard, but the irregularity of teachers and the remoteness of our village deprived her of quality education. By attending the Barli Institute, Shivani has been given a second chance at life. I didn’t want her to live the life I lived, and now, seeing her help the children in our village, I feel proud and hopeful for her future."

Shivani, Muskan, and Raveena embody the potential of young women to drive meaningful change when given the opportunity.

Raveena’s Story: Taking a Stand Against Child Marriage

sophia@monafoundation.org (Sophia Moser) — Fri, 14 Mar 2025 17:38:06 GMT

Raveena’s Courage to Stand Against Child Marriage

Invest in a Child, Uplift a Community

Hope@monafoundation.org (Hope Kalegi) — Tue, 28 Jan 2025 23:33:43 GMT

Amelia's Journey: Resilience, Leadership, and the Pursuit of Education

The impact of investing in children’s education is undeniable, as we see young changemakers continue to uplift their communities. Educating one child creates a ripple effect that transforms their future and the lives of those around them. This inspiring example from the past year highlights the power of education to drive progress and opportunity:

Amelia , a young Maya Kaqchikel woman from a rural community in Sololá, Guatemala, embodies the transformative power of education. Growing up in a community where societal pressures often prevent young women from continuing their education, Amelia once faced the prospect of ending her studies after primary school. “I knew many girls hadn’t even studied because they were women,” she shares.

Everything changed when Amelia joined the MAIA Impact School . Overcoming shyness and cultural barriers, she became the first daughter in her family to graduate high school. The opportunities and tools provided by MAIA ignited a profound transformation. She developed critical-thinking skills, gained self-confidence, and discovered her voice. “My dreams haven’t changed, but they have evolved and grown as I’ve become more confident,” Amelia says.

Today, Amelia is pursuing her dream of becoming an architect at San Carlos University in Guatemala. She envisions herself contributing to her community through social projects and inspiring other young women to recognize their power and potential. “I am thrilled that more young women are studying at MAIA. They motivate me to continue pursuing my dreams as I see myself reflected in them. I wish to inspire many more young women to know the power of their words and voices and be what they dream and decide.”

Amelia’s story is a testament to how access to education and empowerment can break cycles of limitation , enabling girls to redefine their futures and drive progress within their communities. By lifting one child, an entire generation is inspired.

Filming "Light and Air": A Village Celebrates Education of Girls

john@monafoundation.org (Laura Baerwolf) — Tue, 27 Aug 2024 19:38:01 GMT

Filming "Light and Air": A Village celebrates Education of Girls

In March 2024, Mona CEO Mahnaz Javid and supporter Jana Carlson travelled to Kalibel with Tahera Jadhav of the Barli Development Institute for Rural Women and the film crew for Mona's 25th Anniversary documentary " Light and Air " , including award-winning director Marco Bollinger .

Kalibel is a remote village in Madhya Pradesh, India. A five-hour drive from Indore, it can only be reached by traveling along dirt roads and through a wooded area. It is completely cut off from the rest of the world during the winter months. Because it is so remote, the village naturally functions as one large family. Most villagers are subsistence farmers and live in huts with their animals.

On the day of Mona's visit, with Sumitra leading the way, the villagers, visitors, and film crew marched thru town to the home of another Barli alumni. After an official welcome, everyone moved outside to where a beautiful canopy was set up. A hired DJ truck nearby began playing music and soon the whole village was dancing. At one point, all the Barli graduates danced together in a line to a song with the lyrics “I am powerful and I am strong.”

Then the miracle happened. A row of boys joined the group of dancing women.    When asked who they were, Tahera said,  “They are the girls' brothers.”  

Then, a group of older men in traditional garb and carrying a large traditional drum came forward, drumming as they walked towards the dance circle.  “They are the girls' fathers.”

All the men in the families of the Barli graduates joined in the dance to celebrate the education of their daughters and the progress they had brought to the village.

And Sumitra was leading the way.  Nothing else needed to be said about Sumitra. She had transformed her entire community!

Exciting Opportunities for Mona Youth Ambassadors in 2024-2025!

Hope@monafoundation.org (Hope Kalegi) — Fri, 09 Aug 2024 18:35:36 GMT

Exciting Opportunities for Mona Youth Ambassadors in 2024-2025!

Aug 9, 2024 - Mona's Youth Ambassador program is raising a new generation of philanthropists committed to promoting the power of education, leading a life of service, and contributing to the ongoing development of their communities. Over the past several years, the program has steadily expanded to offer more and more opportunities to learn and serve. This month, in honor of International Youth Day, we're thrilled to announce the exciting opportunities in store for incoming Youth Ambassadors. All interested youth ages 14-25 are invited to apply .

Here’s what Youth Ambassadors can look forward to in the 2024-2025 program:

Global Connection : Join our Youth Ambassador Slack page to connect with peers worldwide, engage in interactive discussions, and access exclusive resources.
Mentorship : Receive guidance and support from a dedicated Mona team member.
Think Globally, Act Locally : Participate in our "learnshop" to learn about Mona's approach to development and apply it in leading a service project in your community.
Fundraising Leadership : Learn about and engage with Mona fundraising campaigns like Giving Tuesday and our Move4Mona 5K Walk/Run.
Certificate Courses : Gain free access to courses in Global Management, Entrepreneurship, and Innovation through Thunderbird School of Global Management at Arizona State University.
Mona Site Visit : A few of our most actively engaged ambassadors will be invited to join us on a site visit to one of our grassroots partners in Spring 2025 to witness social action firsthand.

Mona Youth Ambassador onboarding will begin in early September. Please be sure to sign up by September 13th to be included in our kick-off gathering!

Youth Ambassadors in Action: Change Starts One Person at a Time

MF: What are some of the ways you've been involved with Mona as a youth ambassador?

Samira: So, the main focus this year was to spread awareness about the prevalence of this issue [lack of access to education] and the fact that there are people our own age who don't have access to education. I think people either forget or don't realize how truly privileged we are, that education is the center of our lives right now and sometimes we take it for granted. This year my Service club was able to have a booth at our school’s club fair where we shared our mission and ongoing activities. We hosted a bracelet making event, with 10-15 people joining us, leveraging the opportunity to share what the Mona Foundation is and why the work is so significant. This event got people excited about the idea of service and encouraged them to follow the Mona on social media platforms to stay updated on their inspiring work. By sharing Mona’s stories of impact, others got so inspired it created almost like a yearning to contribute to the solution.

MF: You were one of a few Youth Ambassadors last year who helped pilot and co-create our new Think Globally, Act Locally learnshop. What was this experience like for you?

Samira: It was such an enjoyable experience, and I'm so honored to be part of the pilot group that was able to test this. For me, I live in Toronto and the community need that resonated with me most was developing a social interaction initiative to reduce isolation. I did consider other options and explored ideas that our mentors encouraged us to research, but ultimately decided to go with the isolation project as it is something I had already been thinking about and knew it would make a meaningful difference in my community.

The service project itself is an ongoing social interaction program held at our local library on a biweekly basis for young families. It consists of a reading hour where young families come together, interact with stories, and work on collaborative activities based on the books just read. The program is run by a group of students from our local high school, with the goal to create a sense of community amongst these kids outside of the school environment, while still promoting academic enrichment, bringing families closer together and giving them somewhere to go after school and work.

MF: Let's discuss your Move4Mona 5K Walk/Run campaign, where you rallied your network to raise funds for children worldwide to access education. What was it like putting this peer-to-peer initiative together?

Samira: If I were to summarize the whole experience in one word it would be ‘empowering’. This was my first time organizing such a walkathon and I really enjoyed the experience. I was lucky enough to have my friends and family join me and I encouraged them all to register and order a T-shirt. The initial goal that I had for fundraising was $1,000, and thanks to the generosity of my circle we surpassed the goal in just two days! I then increased the goal to $3,000 and by the time the event came around we had surpassed this goal too. I am so incredibly grateful for the generosity of those who gave and the support that I received throughout the entire process from both my mentor at the Mona Foundation and members of my community. There were definitely setbacks along the way, but once everyone started walking, there was such a sense of joy and pride that their contributions sent 25 kids to school for an entire year. It was also a very eye-opening experience for some of my friends’ younger siblings as they weren't aware that people their own ages, in different areas of the world, don't get to go to school. So overall, the experience was so full of love and joy, and I can't wait to do more events with these people in my area.

MF: What was your biggest takeaway this past year with all the exciting activities that you participated in as a Mona Youth Ambassador?

Samira: That one’s really hard for me because I really did learn a lot on my journey this past year. I think the one thing that stuck out for me most and I was reminded of time after time, is the notion that it really takes one person to truly be passionate enough about something to spark change . I think a barrier for some people is the mindset that, ‘well, I'm one person realistically, how am I going to create significant change?’ I think the keyword there is significant because you don't necessarily have to raise thousands of dollars to be considered an activist. Or host an awareness campaign with hundreds of participants. While those are amazing accomplishments, I've come to realize that through the process, if I inspire one person, I've already succeeded . And with that in mind, if we think back to the beginning of the year when I had that school club fair, I had two other people with me at the time and it was a little bit disheartening. Thinking, ‘well, I reached out to friends and only two were interested in helping me out’ but looking back those two people were already so inspired early on and wanted to be of service. So, I think the biggest takeaway for me was definitely the fact that you don't necessarily need a large group of people rallying behind you in the beginning. Change starts one person at a time .

MF: What does living a life of service mean to you?

Samira: To me, living a life of service isn't confined to hosting one big event per year, and I use myself as an example with the Move4Mona walkathon. Leading that one event doesn't necessarily mean living a life of service. To me, it's about what's in your heart and what you are striving to do on a daily basis. At this point, I'm trying to shape my life to become one dedicated to service, even with the small things. For example, I've tried to stop viewing work around the house as chores, but as service to my family. I also think it's about having a realistic grasp of who you are, what your capacity is and what you can be doing on a regular basis to contribute to your local community and your global community.

MF: What would you say to inspire others to join Mona's Youth Ambassador program?

Samira: I know starting something new takes a lot of courage at first, but the virtual network of youth ambassadors and representatives at the Mona Foundation are some of the most supportive and genuinely caring people I've met and made me feel so welcomed instantly. In our daily lives, we can often see the social ills all around us, which can potentially be disheartening, but the Mona Youth Ambassador program is a space where it's almost as if you could take a breath of fresh air and you can see the unity and hope for the future in people, even across the online screen. I would encourage everyone to join Mona’s Youth Ambassador program. You can make a real difference in the world.

If you are searching for more ways to get involved and make a difference, and are between the ages of 14-25, Mona's Youth Ambassador program could be a great fit for you! Sign up today .

Sunflower Mission graduate wins Intel's 2024 Hero of the Year Award

john@monafoundation.org (Laura Baerwolf) — Wed, 10 Jul 2024 01:18:53 GMT

Phung Tran's story: The gift of education raises a STEM leader

July 9, 2024 - Congratulations to Phung Tran , current Sunflower Mission leader and former recipient of its Sponsor a Student (SAS) Scholarship Program, for winning Intel’s 2024 Gordon Moore Hero of the Year Award! The award recognizes Intel employees who display extraordinary commitment to their communities.

As a child, Phung Tran lived in a poor, remote village in Vietnam with little opportunities, especially for girls. Fortunately, Sunflower Mission built its first elementary school in her village in 2002. Phung enrolled as a 4th grader, receiving a scholarship that supported her education all the way through college.

We were delighted to meet Phung at Sunflower Mission's 20th Anniversary Gala in Houston in October 2022. Mona has been a proud supporter of Sunflower Mission since 2007, and was honored to be presented with a beautiful needlepoint masterpiece of sunflowers handmade by Phung (see photo below) in appreciation of our partnership. This very special gift now hangs in Mona's office in Bellevue, WA.

Read more about Phung and Intel’s Gordon Moore Hero of the Year Award HERE !

Sunflower Mission Board members present Mona Board members Tammy Wood, Mahnaz Javid, and David Wood with a very special gift made by Phung at Sunflower's 20th Anniversary Gala.

Derlys's Story: A Dream Fulfilled

Thu, 30 May 2024 03:25:11 GMT

A Dream Fulfilled

Derlys, a young woman from Yarumales village, joined the Supporting Community Leaders (SCL) program in 2021. Her father and older sister died when she was a young girl, and she grew up with her mother, sister, and two nephews. Determined to support her family, Derlys dreamed of building an event decoration business that would be known for its quality services and generate employment in the North Cauca community.

The SCL program empowered Derlys to realize her dream, helping her gain essential skills in finance, administration, and event management. With support from her family, she equipped her business with the necessary tools and materials. Reflecting on her journey, Derlys remarked, “This program has helped

me a lot in terms of orientation, education, and management. It has had an impact on my life because it has taught me that I can make a living from a trade, help and contribute to the community, acquire discipline and commitment to myself.”

FUNDAEC & Community-Led Development

Thu, 30 May 2024 03:19:42 GMT

FUNDAEC & Community-Led Development

Mona Foundation has always recognized that for development to effectively reduce poverty and sustain positive change it must begin locally and be led by the members of the local community. This stems from our core belief that, as members of one human family, every person on the planet is created noble with capacity to develop their own unique gifts and abilities and to contribute to building a better world. People are not seen as helpless victims or as passive recipients of aid. This principle has also guided our approach which, from the outset, has been to seek out and partner with grassroots organizations aligned with our mission, and provide long-term support to develop and scale their programs. Our experience over the past 23 years, working with over 50 partner organizations in 23 countries has proven this approach to be unique, effective, efficient, and transformative.

Today this approach, termed "community-led development", is considered the leading edge in global development. As momentum builds, many program-based nonprofits, including many long-standing international organizations, are striving to change their approach and delivery models. From Mona's perspective, this involves more than hiring local people to implement a nonprofit's programs or inviting the local community's feedback. It requires adopting a fundamental set of three essential, inter-related principles:

Universal Participation : Each person, regardless of economic status, has the right, the capacity, and the responsibility to be the protagonist of the process of their own development and to contribute to the betterment of their communities.

Local Ownership and Solutions : Since every community has its own set of unique challenges and solutions, the local people are in the best position to identify, analyze, and address the needs of their communities in light of their reality, culture, aspirations, and initiatives. In partnering with local organizations, Mona seeks to support their efforts and growth as the protagonists of their own development.

Organic Growth and Capacity Building : Local organizations are learning to work towards goals in a disciplined way, to make decisions through consultation, to build relationships based on collaboration and service to others, to generate insights based on experience, and to apply lessons learned to future actions.  For individuals , capacity building implies developing a number of interrelated capabilities—scientific, artistic, technical, social, moral, and spiritual and the ability to understand not only concepts, but also master the methods, and have the skills, attitudes, and qualities required to lead a productive life. For communities , capacity building implies creating an environment in which individuals come together in collective action to serve the best interests of their communities and involve a growing number of people in more complex and sustained ways. For organizations , capacity building implies acting as channels through which the talents and energies of individuals and groups can be expressed in service to humanity.

Selfless service to others is at the center.

Service to others is the core value that drives our everyday actions as individuals and as community members. Service to others helps us be the best we can be and exponentially increases our impact in whatever step we take to better ourselves, our communities, and our nations. 

Foundation for the Application and Teaching of Science (FUNDAEC)

A Baha'i-inspired program, FUNDAEC was founded in Cali, Colombia in 1974. For more than 40 years, FUNDAEC has dedicated itself to creating capacity within a region so that its population may carry out action and research related to the various processes that make up its social, economic, and cultural life.

Mona Foundation has partnered with FUNDAEC since 2020 and currently supports two of its programs: Supporting Community Leaders Program and Strengthening Community Life and Local Economies . All FUNDAEC programs are based on several guiding principles: c onsider the people as potential resources, not as problems; develop human potential through a proper education that acknowledges and promotes human nobility; work for a development that is not conceived as “Modernization”; engage in the search for pertinent knowledge; avoid offering “pre-packaged” solutions; and recognize the need for endogenous structures in the region that would connect it to corresponding external structures.

FUNDAEC is a living example of what the Mona Foundation is trying to do: Serve the world of humanity without any agenda and focus on education and empowerment.

Two attributes distinguish FUNDAEC:

Total integration with the larger community in addressing the needs of the community. All individuals involved (young, adults, and elderly) have complete ownership of the initiative that they are engaged in. At FUNDAEC nothing happens unless it is a need expressed by the community. Then, with support from FUNDAEC, the community members take action for their own well-being – everyone is engaged and plays a role – the farmer, the elder, the mother, the father, the youth, (many of whom are girls between the ages of 16-21), the children, the teachers, the clergy – everyone. Engagement, intent and commitment to the betterment of their own communities characterizes how the participants introduce themselves, how they talked about their aspirations, and how they speak to what they were currently doing.
Full implementation of a unique pedagogy, “Education for Development”. This is a process that empowers youth and communities to engage in a scientific and action research learning process to advance the progress of their communities. Preparation for Social Action, for example, is an education for development program of this type that allows young people to develop the capabilities they need to participate in any profession they choose while developing certain qualities, attitudes and skills that will enable them to serve their communities more effectively and thus promote the well-being of their community.
The curriculum of Preparation of Social Action consists of 24 textbooks aimed at developing participants’ capabilities in the areas of language, mathematics, science, and processes of community life. The latter area encompasses community development, technology and service to the community. The principle motive for participating in the program is the desire to become effective agents of social change. Upon completion of the program, participants have developed a strong sense of purpose to take charge of their own intellectual and material growth and to contribute to the transformation of society. The 1,000 participants in “Strengthening Community Life and Local Economies” are the graduates of this program, intentional and skilled to implement this ambitious program successfully.

“Strengthening Community Life and Local Economies” is the outgrowth of many years of community engagement and action learning leading to this proposal and initiative. The impact of this initiative is like planting a seed which will flourish and benefit thousands of families for years go to come.

The pandemic brought to the forefront the need for access to food. The Colombian people, particularly in the rural areas, used to grow their own food and were agriculturally independent. In recent decades the sugar cane industry has completely devastated the soil, the natural habitat and micro biodiversity. In 2020 and 2021, FUNDAEC's programs began focusing their efforts on teaching participants and their families how to grow vegetables in their backyard and patios (as many do not own land or have access to gardens). This program is collaborating with local nurseries to plant native fruit trees or native trees which the wood can be used as lumbar.

There are currently just under 1,000 participants in the PSA program and each of these participants, together with their families, are going to plant 10 trees each. The communities have pledged to raise half of the trees with their own funds. This program has very strong relationships with local government officials and members of the community. There are about 8 hectares of land in Porte Tejada where they have begun planting native trees. FUNDAEC has also been collaborating with two biologists who have spent their lives in the reforestation of native species. They have helped identify which trees to plant and have also brought back some trees from near extinction. The grounds are seeing a high rate of native birds returning to the area - a contrast to the surrounding areas of massive fields of sugar cane. There are also native bugs and animals which are returning.

This program is extremely scientific and systematic in its approach making it very sustainable. Every individual in the program is aware of the need, is aware that this initiative is happening and all are eager to support.

Scaling Social Impact

john@monafoundation.org (Laura Baerwolf) — Thu, 23 May 2024 19:40:50 GMT

Scaling Social Impact

May 2024 - Currently, seven of Mona Foundation's twenty-three partner organizations have reached a tipping point where their impact is exponentially multiplied. They are rising in collaboration with their government, other nonprofits, and businesses to catalyze systems change, mobilizing to rewrite and reshape the narratives, policies, and social norms which to date have inhibited millions of students, especially girls, from fully participating in the life of society. Following are two examples.

Badi School, Panama

Badi School started in 1993 as a kindergarten in the carport of a trailer home and has since grown into one of the finest K-12 schools in Panama, serving over 400 students. Badi integrates high quality academics, arts, and technology programs with an inclusive moral leadership program and service. Most Badi School graduates receive full scholarships to the best universities in Panama and elsewhere.

Impressed over the years by the exceptional quality of Badi school’s graduates and their contributions to the betterment of their communities, the Ministry of Education in Panama adopted their moral education curriculum, the key lever of Badi’s outstanding results, as their standard course on religion, implementing it in 3,400 schools reaching about 950,000 K-12 students.

Study Hall Educational Foundation, India

The Aarohini girls’ empowerment program is designed to prevent child marriage and domestic violence in a country where girls are unsafe, unwanted, unequal and unfree.

The program trains girls to see themselves as equal persons deserving of respect, having the right to agency and to voice their protest. The initiative is primarily a teacher training program which equips teachers to enable change in schools and in their communities.

The program has been so successful that in 2022 SHEF signed a 5-year Memorandum of Understanding with the Uttar Pradesh (UP) Ministiry of Education to train over 2,000 teachers in 746 public residential schools for disadvantaged girls to educate and empower more than 100,000 girls.

This article is from "Celebrating 25 Years Together and Our Next Chapter" by Mona Foundation.

Empowered Women Empower All: The Impact of Female Founders

Thu, 07 Mar 2024 01:05:03 GMT

Empowered Women Empower All: The Impact of Female Founders

Top row (left to right): Aliea Kamara, Ferial Farzin, Ridvan Foxhall, Duy-Loan Le / Bottom row: Madeline Isatou Mendy, Rosa Beatriz Torres, Urvashi Sahni

Across the world, women are rising up to make history as forces of change within their communities. Whether it be through academic scholarship and support, financial and digital literacy education, vocational and entrepreneurial training, or the fostering of spaces for creative expression, organizations founded by women in every capacity serve as centers of both material and relational development.

This Women’s History Month, to shine a light on the vital importance of education and gender equality to global peace and prosperity, Mona Foundation honors seven female founders who stand at the helm of some of our most innovative partner organizations: Urvashi Sahni (Founder of Study Hall Educational Foundation ) in India, Ferial Farzin (Founder of ADCAM ) in Brazil, Rosa Beatriz Torres (Founder of Badi School ) in Panama, Madeline Isatou Mendy (Founder of Skills and Business Center at Starfish International ) in The Gambia, Duy-Loan Le (Founder of Sunflower Mission ) in Vietnam, Riḍván Foxhall (Founder of New Era Creative Space ) in the United States, and Aliea Kamara (Founder of Hope Academy ) in Sierra Leone.
At Mona Foundation, we deeply believe that broad social transformation begins at the grassroots level. For a woman to rise to the needs of her community to the degree that each of these women have, there is a history of endurance, passion, patience, and an unfathomable wealth of joyous perseverance displayed by countless women before them in the face of sexism, misogyny, and socio-economic adversity. This month, we honor and celebrate both this history and the future of women in leadership.

The Women

_______________________________________

The impact these seven women have had on the children, families, and communities they serve offers clear proof that educating and empowering girls not only guarantees basic human rights to half the world’s people, it improves the well-being of all, lifts households out of poverty, benefits generations, and transforms communities. During Women’s History month, we invite you to join Mona’s global community of change makers – individuals, businesses, and nonprofits – in supporting their efforts and all of Mona’s 24 partner organizations in 14 countries to build a just, prosperous world through education and gender equality.

Educate a girl. Transform an entire community.

Taija PerryCook is a student journalist attending the University of Washington, Seattle. Find her on Twitter @taijalynne .

Updated 2024 by Mona Foundation to add Hope Academy founder Aliea Kamara.

From Maya heritage to global inspiritation

Sat, 06 Jan 2024 00:14:42 GMT

Ana Miriam’s Journey of Empowerment

Ana Miriam walks by her five sisters as she travels to study in Canada on an AFS scholarship.

Meet Ana Miriam, a 17-year-old Maya Kaqchikel woman from Sololá and MAIA Girl Pioneer who is getting ready to fly to Canada after winning a scholarship with AFS Exchange Programs .

Ana Miriam, who has five sisters, was raised in a family of only women where she learned to be strong and self-confident. “The role of my family in my journey towards education and empowerment has been fundamental, as they have encouraged me to fight for my dreams. They have been my greatest motivation to give my best in my learning process.”

After first hearing about the AFS Exchange Program at the MAIA Impact School , Ana decided to apply for the scholarship “because I enjoy challenges and taking risks to seize the opportunities that come my way. Also, studying in another country has been one of my greatest dreams since I was a little girl."

Ana Miriam had to go through a competitive selection process that often tested her resilience. “I have experienced various emotions throughout this process, but I felt very confident in my abilities, and I trusted in them to continue achieving my goals,” she continues.

Building a Culture of Gender Justice in Uttar Pradesh (India)

Fri, 22 Dec 2023 01:29:16 GMT

Building an Empowered Culture of Gender Justice in Uttar Pradesh (India)

(Left to right) Aarohini’s program manager Priyanka, posing with the children and teachers at UPS Nayagaon, Newada after a field visit.

December 2023 - Central to Mona Foundation's approach is the belief that sustainable development must begin and be led by local communities. While all social action is directed towards visibly improving some aspect of life, we believe its primary goal is to develop people’s capacity to make decisions about their own development and then to implement them at increasingly higher levels of complexity as they learn through their own experience. This is a long-term process that involves learning to work towards goals in a systematic way, to build on strengths, to foster collaborative relationships in service to the common good, and to apply lessons learned through experience. Providing our grassroots partners with long-term support enables them to learn through experience over time, to continually build capacity at the individual, organizational, and community levels , to address needs with increasingly more complex solutions, and to ultimately scale their services and reach . Our partnership with Study Hall Educational Foundation is a great example of what is possible.

A Comprehensive Program to Systematically Eradicate Gender Discrimination

The Aarohini Girls Education and Empowerment initiative is fundamentally a program for training teachers, equipping them with both the mindset and tools necessary to critically analyze the social and political aspects of their lives, as well as understand the systemic roots of their oppression. The program aims to create a chain of positive influence with teachers as agents of change, who in turn build the capacity of their students to recognize and challenge gender discrimination and engage parents to ensure that the rights of their students are protected. The intensive workshops and discussions included in this training are designed to empower teachers by enhancing their awareness of gender dynamics in their lives and communities. It seeks to broaden their perspective on the purpose of education and their role as educators and provides them with the resources to integrate a gender lens into their teaching. Once trained, teacher are supported to conduct regular critical dialogues with the students in their schools.

Training is essential in instilling confidence in teachers to be catalysts—through mobilizing students, parents and the wider community to engage in a deeper dialogue about girls’ autonomy and protecting student rights. This space also encourages teachers to share their own lived experiences and incidents from their personal lives, showing how they have experienced gender inequities while emphasizing a shared connection. If a teacher needs more guidance, or runs into an issue, they can reach out to SHEF’s One Stop Center (Women’s helpline) which provides continuous support through phone calls and WhatsApp.

Ultimately, Aarohini goes beyond being an education and empowerment initiative for girls; it functions as a comprehensive system dedicated to systematically eradicating discrimination faced by adolescent girls. The program operates on the belief that, through self-awareness, a nurturing and empathetic environment, and a culture of open dialogue, girls and boy can attain positive life outcomes. While the initial iteration of the Aarohini program worked to educate and empower girls to recognize, resist and overcome the social forces repressing them, the second iteration now seeks to bring boys into the wider conversation and prepare teachers working in co-ed schools to address issues of gender injustices in the classroom and in the wider community.

Building capacity to educate and empower girls across Uttar Pradesh

When Mona's partnership with SHEF began in 2008, they were refining a girls-centered curriculum at their Prerna Girls school in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh (UP). By 2011, this had evolved into the Aarohini Girls Education and Empowerment Program, rooted firmly in the philosophy that girls must receive an education that teaches them to critically examine the role and construct of gender in their own lives and communities. The next year, in collaboration with the UP Ministry of Education, SHEF expanded the program into a dozen state residential schools for low-income girls (called Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya or KGBV) in Uttar Pradesh. As this collaboration grew, more schools were added over time until in late 2022, the Government of Uttar Pradesh adopted the Aarohini curriculum for use in ALL public schools in the state. This includes implementing the program in:

All 746 KGBV residential schools for low-income girls in grades 6 to 8 , training over 2,000 teachers , and reaching over 74,000 girls .
All 250,000+ public schools across the state.

Implementing Aarohini in 746 KGBV residential schools for low-income girls

SHEF is now in process of training the 2,000 KGBV teachers across Uttar Pradesh to use the Aarohini pedagogy in their classrooms. This will allow them to form supportive relationships with their students and create a safe space for them to discuss critical topics and share their experiences of gender discrimination, including physical and sexual abuse at home. They will also be trained to handle any cases of abuse that may arise and equipped with knowledge of legal rights and the constitution to fight against child marriage and violence against girls. The goal of training is to empower these teachers to become strong advocates for girls' rights and proactive members of the community , supported by a network of local organizations to combat gender-based violence against their students.

As of June 2023 , 783 KGBV teachers from 75 districts had completed a three-day residential training held in the cities of Lucknow and Prayagraj to:

Help teachers gain a social and political understanding of gender and the way it impacts their lives and communities;
Reframe and expand their understanding of the purpose of education and their role as teachers;
Understand the theory and practice of critical feminist pedagogy and critical dialogue; and
Provide them the tools to build a gender lens in their students, engage parents, and mobilize the community.

The teachers also received a set of videos and a curriculum to support them in the classroom. During this session teachers also share their 37 experiences and incidents from their own lives that show how they have experienced gender inequality in their lives.

The trained teachers are now conducting regular critical dialogues in their schools. During the training, 30 teachers reached out for assistance with personal issues, and they received support from Aarohini counselors and one-stop centers (Women’s helpline). The critical dialogue classes witnessed a significant participation of girls, resulting in the prevention of 3 child marriage cases by the Aarohini team.

Implementing Aarohini in all 250,000+ public schools across the state

SHEF is working closely with government officials to develop a comprehensive plan that addresses the logistical, financial and educational challenges of implementing a new curriculum in such a large number of schools. The plan will likely involve training for teachers, development of educational materials, and close coordination with government officials to ensure the curriculum is integrated seamlessly into existing educational systems. The focus will be on ensuring that the curriculum is adopted effectively and efficiently without diluting its quality, to ultimately improve the education of girls across the state.

Last year SHEF invited other non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to form a Feminist Coalition to mobilize and educate men and boys on becoming advocates for gender justice. Over 40 NGOs and government officials participated. This year, the Coalition aims to organize events that foster cross fertilization of ideas and resources among partner organizations.

Addressing gender issues in GyanSetu communities

The Aarohini team has also been actively engaged with the families and communities associated with SHEF's GyanSetu program which supports out-of school kids in urban slums and rural villages to get up to grade level and transition into public school. In the first half of 2023, the team organized 30 meetings, involving more than 480 community members, across 19 GyanSetu centers. In addition to these gatherings, Aarohini facilitators worked closely with GyanSetu teachers, supporting their development as gender activists and community leaders. GyanSetu teachers are regularly trained by the Aarohini team on gender issues.

For more information about Study Hall Educational Foundation, go to monafoundation.org/shef or studyhallfoundation.org .

Mona Dinner with Rainn Wilson highlights Collaborations for Social Good

john@monafoundation.org (Laura Baerwolf) — Sun, 17 Dec 2023 20:09:34 GMT

Mona Appreciation Dinner highlights Collaborations for Social Good

(L-R) Mahnaz and Shannon Javid, Marnie Koenig-Jones, Jana Carlson, Laura Baerwolf, and Brad Horwitz.

December 2023 - An appreciation dinner with Rainn Wilson, actor, author, philanthropist and Mona Champion, was held at Spinasse Restaurant in Seattle last month to give special thanks to about 30 local activists and philanthropists committed to being a force for social good and supporting several nonprofits including Mona Foundation. This dinner was a great example of what is possible with the collaboration of individuals, foundations, businesses, grassroots partners, and communities.

Spirits were high as Rainn and Mona CEO Mahnaz Javid recognized the service, generosity, and philanthropy of Trilogy CEO Brad Horwitz and J ana Carlson for hosting the dinner and being a pillar of support to Mona and many other nonprofits; Slalom Consulting CEO Brad and Jill Jackson , who built a high school in Sierra Leone this year; Patti Haven Fleischmann , co-Founder of Stolen Youth, a Seattle nonprofit working to end child sex trafficking in Washington state; and to all guests who so generously support Mona's mission.

Mona Gala 2023 Results and Videos: Alone, a drop. Together, a surging sea.

john@monafoundation.org (Laura Baerwolf) — Wed, 27 Sep 2023 03:59:30 GMT

2023 Gala Results & Videos: Alone, a drop. Together, a surging sea.

Sept 26, 2023 - Together with supporters registered from 27 countries, our host Parisa Fitz-Henle y and special guest Rainn Wilson , we laughed and cried and were completely inspired by the interviews and stories from our partners in India, Guatemala, Panama, and The Gambia .

If you weren't able to attend or wish to watch again, please enjoy the recorded segments below.

THANK YOU for your generous outpouring of support! We are still tallying the total as donations continue to come in but will let you know the final amount soon.

Our special gratitude to Parisa and Rainn, Rence , Cynthia Barnes-Slater, Laura Herrick, Urvashi Sahni, Tahera Jadhav, Lidia Oxi, the Torrez family, Mam Yassin Sarr, Mama Kujabi, our Corporate Sponsors, and all our hardworking and selfless partner organizations who made the Gala a truly inspirational gathering.

On behalf of Mona's Board of Directors and staff, THANK YOU for trusting Mona to help you change the world .

Missed the Gala? There is still time to DONATE or support a FUND-A-NEED .

ADCAM (Brazil): Unparalleled Community Engagement and a Vision for the Future

john@monafoundation.org (Laura Baerwolf) — Wed, 23 Aug 2023 23:28:35 GMT

ADCAM (Brazil): Unparalleled Community Engagement and a Vision for the Future

A group of Mona supporters travelled to Brazil in June 2023, joining Mona CEO Mahnaz Javid and COO Laura Baerwolf in visiting ADCAM (Association for the Cohesive Development of the Amazon), our long-time partner in Manaus, Amazonas and a very special organization. In our experience, its ability to engage the whole community is truly unprecedented and a great example of all that can be accomplished when we work together. Alone, a drop. Together, a surging sea.

ADCAM is nationally recognized for promoting the material, moral, and social well-being of its students, families, and community. It operates two initiatives, both of which aim to raise citizens who strive for excellence, demonstrate moral leadership, and see themselves as agents of transformation dedicated to serving their community:

Escola do Futuro (School of the Future) which provides holistic pre-K through high school education with incredible community engagement, serving 285 students, and
Young Apprentice Program which promotes the successful entry of youth ages 14-24 into the labor market through partnerships with public and private companies, currently serving 351 young people.

Mona Brazil Group (L to R): Farah Ghalili, Ladarrious Frisson, Jasmine Taylor, Mahnaz Javid, Nava Ghalili, Laura Baerwolf, Audrey Moy, Peter Moy, Lena Sisson (not pictured: Arman Khorram, Kelly Lacy)

Seeing ADCAM's programs in action is a glimpse into the future of education and the future of community – where teachers, administrators, students, families, community members, and businesses closely collaborate with love, dignity, respect, and a united vision for the upliftment and benefit of all. Their story is one of great love, great sacrifice, and great perseverance. For more than 30 years, they have served the most vulnerable through various programs designed to meet the community’s needs as they arose. While some programs have been discontinued due to loss of government funding, ADCAM’s dedication and commitment to learning has raised their institutional capacity , educated and empowered generations , and created an unparalleled level of community engagement .

Our 3-day visit was hosted by Executive Director Payman Agahnejad, Academic Director Ana Cristina Farzin, and ADCAM Board member Flavio Rassekh, who kindly served as translator. Our arrival coincided with the school’s annual Festival of Lights , a two-day celebration with a community gathering and special class presentations aimed at eliminating religious prejudice. Each grade had spent several months learning about a different world religion and preparing songs, dances, and presentations to share their learning with other students and parents.

We also had an opportunity to visit with the families of students at their homes and join a presentation by the students and volunteers in the After School programs which includes children’s virtue classes, junior youth empowerment programs, and a program for elders. Time was also set aside to videotape several testimonials from students and families . While these were given in Portuguese, it was clear from the reactions of people in the room that their words were very moving. We eagerly await the translated versions.

A few other points of interest from the visit:

Indigenous people are highly marginalized in Brazil to the point that people won’t admit to being from a tribal culture. To help promote a positive cultural identity for its students, the school painted beautiful wall-sized murals of indigenous people at the entrance and throughout the common areas. Along with the school’s loving, affirming environment, the prominent and ennobling murals are doing more than promoting positive identity. In the words of one of our team members, “I t is helping students heal from the intergenerational trauma of racism ”.

90% of teachers at School of the Future studied at Tahereh University, a previous ADCAM program that provided teacher training and certification.
Young Apprentice students are in high demand because they are known to be trustworthy, capable, reliable, and have an internal moral code. Many are offered jobs before they complete the program. The students take great pride in their work and earnings. One young man shared, “With the money I make as a Young Apprentice, I pay for half of my family’s expenses.” The youth are very proud to be help their mothers and families.
The afterschool programs are open to children and youth attending nearby public schools. The School is working to significantly expand participation in these programs in the coming three years.
The Elders program , honors the elders in the community and the service they provide: raising their grandchildren, volunteering in the classrooms and afterschool programs, and running a thrift shop of collected clothing for those in need. In addition to providing a venue for the elders to consult and serve together, the program also organizes classes for them offered by community volunteers.

With the pandemic behind them, ADCAM is now in process of completing its organizational assessment and developing a Three-Year Plan . They have identified 3 critical goals:

Raise the quality of their educational program to become one of the top 20 schools in Manaus. School of Nations has committed to help them do this and will be assisting with teacher training and curriculum review in the coming year.
Achieve financial sustainability by increasing total enrollment to 1,050: 600 students at School of the Future and 450 students in the Young Apprentice Program. By law, 1/3 of students at private schools must receive scholarships. The higher enrollment will ensure sufficient funds from tuition payments. Towards this goal, they have already streamlined what had been an array of programs down to two “pillars”: the preK-12 School of the Future and the Young Apprentice Program (described above).
Invest in infrastructure and ongoing maintenance to reflect the school’s standing, quality, and values. This is a relatively urgent need as the facility is fairly run down in places and unfinished in others. The Board has been hesitant to include maintenance $ in the budget but is realizing this is a necessity. Flavio also mentioned the need for a reception area to receive visitors before entering student areas.

Mona Youth Ambassadors: Shaping a Life of Service to Humanity

john@monafoundation.org (Laura Baerwolf) — Wed, 23 Aug 2023 06:10:29 GMT

Mona Youth Ambassadors: Shaping a Life of Service to Humanity

This summer marks the Second Anniversary of Mona's Youth Ambassador Program. To celebrate , Mona is holding a special virtual event for all Youth Ambassadors worldwide on Tuesday, September 12th . This will be an inspiring and action-oriented space where youth and young adults can share experience and learn more about the program's EXCITING PLANS for the coming year , including :

A series of youth gatherings to learn about social issues and inspire local action
Leadership roles in the 2024 Move4Mona 5K Walk and other campaigns
Summer Internship opportunities
And for those most actively championing Mona's mission (drum role please!) -- A MONA YOUTH AMBASSADOR TRIP TO INDIA OR THE GAMBIA to experience social action in the field first hand!

Launched on International Day of Youth in 2019, Mona's Youth Ambassador Program aims to engage a growing number of youth in philanthropy and unconditional service to humanity . According to Mona CEO Mahnaz Javid, the ultimate goal is “to help youth understand how critical their role is in transforming our world, and supporting them to see service as a way of life versus as an occasional activity, and getting them started on this journey. ...Our goal is about raising the next generation of generous people who are committed to making life better for those most in need.”

To date, over 58 youth from 15 countries have become Mona Youth Ambassadors, each taking creative steps to connect with their network of peers at school, in their communities, and through social media to promote the power of education, raise awareness of Mona's mission, and help support our grassroots partners to educate kids and empower girls around the world.

Youth Ambassadors in Action

MF: I'm so glad you reached out to Chloe. She actually started the very first Mona Global Citizens school club! What did you decide to do after talking with her?

Brenden : I talked with my friend Alec and we decided to become Mona Youth Ambassadors. We also decided to start a Global Citizens Club at our school. We also promoted the club at the Spring Club Fair. There was a great turnout. A lot of other clubs gave away candy or donuts to get people to sign up. But Alec and I didn't want to do that. We just gave people the facts and invited them to join us. We wanted them to decide for themselves if the Global Citizens Club was something they wanted to commit to. And a lot of people did commit, which was just great! Right now, our club has about 12 consistent members which is pretty amazing for our small school.

MF: Were you surprised by the response?

Brenden : Yes! I was especially surprised that so many of my male friends were genuinely interested in Mona's mission. It was heartwarming to see. But there were also some people who would say “Oh, so this is a woman’s thing, right?” Some people even joked with me, “Why are you doing this?” I tried to make it very clear that Mona’s work is about everyone, it's a "human thing", not just a "woman's thing".

MF: Well done! What activities has the group done this year?

Brenden : We initially decided to hold a bake sale fundraiser to support Mona’s work. Then I got an email about the Move4Mona 5K Walk for Education on May 13th. It seemed like the stars aligned at just the right time! I let our club know about the campaign and everyone was absolutely ecstatic. It was the perfect opportunity! We decided to combine the bake sale with the 5K Walk and donate all the monies to the Move4Mona campaign.

We did the Move4Mona 5K at the Santa Monica Pier. We knew it would be a great location because it has a famous bike path close by and right next to it is a great walking path. It’s such a scenic place. I also promised people we would get some lunch afterwards. That also helped a bit! The bake sale was on the following Monday. All our club members took responsibility for bringing something. Some brought doughnuts but many also baked something. It was exciting when people stopped at our table and asked “What is this about? What's this Mona thing?” People were really interested, and they loved the food too! Then they would ask, “OK, wait, do you guys have another thing I could be a part of after this? Like, are you doing something else?” Then I would tell them about our club at the school. It was such a really great experience. Between the two activities, our club raised about $850!

MF: Amazing, Brenden, congratulations! And thank you to everyone for taking action to support Mona's kids around the world! Did you know the funds you raised will send 6-7 kids to school for a whole year?

Brenden : Wow! That is incredible. Hearing a statistic like that, it's hard to think about -- that we are making a difference in the lives of 6-7 other children and their families. That's no small thing. Everyone at the club was just super, super blown away with our results, and everyone was super proud of us. It was extremely heartwarming to see. We'll try to continue and make that 10-15 kids, as many as we can. That's awesome. Really. Thank you and everyone at Mona for all these opportunities.

MF: What would you say to other young people who may be thinking about maybe becoming a Mona youth ambassador?

Brenden : I would say: Just do it! Really. Just take the initiative. I think a lot of people are afraid of volunteering. It can seem daunting at first. They may think, “Do I really have to do this? Should I do it for college or my parents or whatever? Is it a waste of time?” Also, we all have so much to do. We have school, we have extracurriculars, we have a lot, right? But try it out, try to make a difference, just do your best. Take the initiative. Your actions will make a difference and benefit others. And you’ll see that the benefits come back to you too. If you’re in a place you don't want to be, serving others can really help you too, it’s important to your mental and spiritual well-being.

MF: And finally, now that you've had this experience, what does it mean to you to live a life of service?

Brenden : I think it means doing what you can every day to help improve other people’s lives in some way so they can move on and benefit others themselves. Service is like a thread that connects us and will eventually benefit the whole world.

If you are passionate about Mona's mission and are between the ages of 11-30, our Youth Ambassador program is for you! Sign up here .

Mitigating COVID19 "Learning Loss" in India and South Africa: A Collaborative Effort

mahnaz@monafoundation.org (Mahnaz Javid) — Fri, 04 Aug 2023 02:47:58 GMT

Mitigating COVID19 Learning Loss through AI driven adaptive software, "Mindspark" in South Africa and India: A Collaborative Initiative.

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a significant loss of learning for students across the world . According to a report by the World Bank, this generation of students risks losing $17 trillion in lifetime earnings in present value, or about 14 percent of today’s global GDP, as a result of COVID-19 pandemic-related school closures .

Multiple research studies have shown that the children from impoverished and disadvantaged groups tend to have the lowest learning levels and the highest ratio of school dropout rates. Every child deserves a quality education, and a technology-driven education program like Ei-Mindspark can bring this equality, most urgently now when the COVID19 "Learning Loss" is impacting the performance of millions of students worldwide.

To address to root causes of inequities, whatever the solution offering may be to address the critical educational needs of the students globally, the efforts must be initiated and supported at the grassroots, albeit within a collaborative ecosystem, to effect and sustain system change.

The initiative to address the educational gap and the COVID19 learning loss in both South Africa and India is such an example: Grassroots mobilization led by Acorn Foundation in South Africa (SA) and Study Hall Education Foundation, India, in collaboration with Educational Initiatives of India, the innovator of the Mindspark solution, and philanthropic individuals and organizations including Paul Flowerman of PLT Health Solutions, and Mona Foundation, a 501(c)(3) organization in the US with focus on education and gender equality. The writing below provides details on this initiative and the next steps.

About Educational Initiatives (Ei), India

Established in 2000, Educational Initiatives (Ei) is a renowned organization dedicated to educational research, assessments, and personalized learning tools. Its primary objective is to enhance the quality of education in schools, benefiting students and government systems on a large scale. With a global focus, EI has undertaken numerous education-related projects across Asia, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and Africa.

With over two decades of experience in the edtech space, Ei has a vast pool of student-data that enables them to diagnose and remediate learning gaps and create a systematic shift in the way teachers teach and students learn . Ei’s initiatives have impacted the lives of over 12 million students across various grades. To support the endeavors, EI has established offices or teams in India, UAE, South Africa, Ghana, Oman, Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia.

About E i-Mindspark

Educational Initiatives (EI) introduced Ei-Mindspark in 2008, drawing upon a decade of research and studies in learning assessment. When implemented within a school setting, Ei-Mindspark seamlessly aligns with the curriculum. Teachers have the ability to control topic activation and utilize the data provided to gain insights into student progress and areas requiring further attention. Ei-Mindspark functions as a Personalized Adaptive Learning (PAL) system that amalgamates cutting-edge developments in pedagogy and technology, yielding substantial improvements in student learning outcomes.

PAL embodies a learner-centric pedagogical approach, optimizing the pace of learning and instructional methods to meet the unique needs of each student. The adaptive learning system responds dynamically by providing content and methodologies tailored to guide students toward mastery of specific learning objectives. PAL has demonstrated its efficacy in enhancing learning levels across students with diverse learning abilities and styles.

Ei-Mindspark has been recognized by World Bank, Harvard, Stanford, The Economist, WISE, and Brookings, further affirming its significance in the field of education.

Mona Foundation, PLT, and Educational Initiatives

We have always believed that alone, we are a drop. Together a surging sea. We aim to collaborate with likeminded organizations, institutions, corporations and foundations to collectively level the playing field, scale our reach and impact, and improve quality of teaching and learning for more students.

To this end, in 2021 we welcomed a collaborative partnership with the philanthropist, Paul Flowerman, the Chairman of PLT Health Solutions and Educational Initiatives to provide access to Mindspark to disadvantaged students in both India and South Africa. The 2022 results speak for themselves:

In India:
200,000 + students were provided access to Mindspark in 250+ schools and 5,000+ learning centers spread across 15 states in India.
1,000+ teachers and 28,000 + parents were trained or engaged in support of their children’s education.
In South Africa with support from implementation partner, JET Education Services in Steenberg and Mitchells Plain of Western Cape, South Africa the Mindspark program:
Was implemented in 6 primary public schools.
1,200+ children in Grades 4 and 5 trained
30+ teachers trained.

Mona Foundation is committed to leveraging every proven approach including the use of technologies such as Mindspark to enable capacity building at the grassroots to improve the quality of teaching and learning for students at scale. This includes the most recent collaborative initiative with PLT and Ei in India and Africa specifically in working with locally founded organizations to address the COVID19 "Learning Loss" for marginalized students in South Africa and India.

The diagram below shows how Ei is envisioning capacity building at the grassroots, leveraging the AI driven technology, and a robust monitoring and evaluation protocol to bridging the gap in children and improve "Learning with Understanding."

EI partnership with Acorn Foundation, South Africa, and Study Hall Educational Foundation, India, PLT and Mona Foundation

Education is the most powerful tool to improve and shape the lives of young people. Still, education systems face huge problems - from vastly unequal access to the growing costs of modernization or stalling social mobility. Technology - designed, used, and implemented effectively - provides an increasingly sophisticated set of tools to help us address them.

"South Africa has one of the unequal schooling systems in the world. Children in the top 200 schools

achieve more mathematics distinctions than those in the next 6,600 schools combined. The playing field must be levelled." Every child deserves a quality education, and a technology-driven education program like Ei-Mindspark can bring this equality.

To date, in South Africa, the Mindspark program is running in 6 primary public schools with support from implementation partner, JET Education Services in Steenberg and Mitchells Plain of Western Cape, South Africa catering to 1200+ children in Grades 4,5 for 2022 (5,6 for 2023). 30+ teachers are trained for the program.

About the Partners:

Acorn Foundation, Capetown, SA

Acorn Education's mission is "to deliver an exceptional and transformative education in collaboration with parents and the community. We strive to nurture independent, diligent individuals of integrity who are dedicated to serving others and realizing their potential in tertiary education, the workplace, and life in general." Acorn established Apex High School in January 2018 and currently has 1200 students, grade 8-12. Apex High operates as a non-fee-paying school, aiming to compete with the best and redefine what is achievable for all learners through hard work and a culture of high expectations.

Study Hall Education Foundation (SHEF) is a non-profit based in Lucknow, India, that has been working to provide quality education to underprivileged youth in urban and rural India using feminist-based pedagogy, gender sensitization techniques and adolescent empowerment discussions on social issues in the classrooms. Founded in 2003, Prerna Girls School pr ovides K-12 education to 1,082 underprivileged girls using its own unique pedagogy to help them see themselves as equal and autonomous individuals deserving of respect, to understand the oppression they face, and to develop the skills to overcome it. In 2022 , the school held its convocation ceremony after a two-year break due to the global pandemic. with support from Mona Foundation 43 graduating students were awarded scholarships to continue their higher education.

The project overview

Acorn Education will start implementing the initiative starting immediately after the South African mid-year school break for 2023. The project will provide access to device and Mindspark to 377 students . It will run for a period of 18 months, beginning in July 2023 and concluding in December 2024. Acorn students will have access to device on 1:1 ratio.

SHEF in collaboration with Ei will implement a 1-year pilot program to improve the learning outcomes of 140 students in Hindi, Math, and English in Prerna school in Lucknow. The school’s existing ICT infrastructure will be leveraged to embed Mindspark into the regular school instruction. This will be done with support from one field staff. For any additional hardware required, SHEF will raise the resources.

The aim is to enable children in Grades 3 and 4 to attain FLN skills and leverage the evidence of impact demonstrated, to advocate for large scale implementation of the program.

Budget Estimates and a Collaborative Funding Model

Collaborative partnerships enable scaling reach and impact because it also pulls the resources of the local, national and international corporations and agencies to fund projects beyond the limits of individual financial resources. The total below shows the contribution of the three partners to the total budget of $28,934:

Acorn: 50% of cost of implementation in SA, or $12,637
Philanthropist, Paul Flowerman: $8,148
Mona Foundation: $8,148.

We will be closely monitoring this initiative and will report back to our supporters the results as we receive them in the next several months.

They said she can’t. She said I CAN. Now she is saving lives in her village of Mama2, Cameroon.

mahnaz@monafoundation.org (Mahnaz Javid) — Thu, 22 Jun 2023 18:36:17 GMT

They said she can’t. She said I CAN. Now she is saving lives in her village of Mama2, Cameroon.

This is the story of Nyangon Bernadette, a 70-year-old determined and resilient woman who is illiterate and who has persevered to live her own dreams and lead her own life in a small village in Cameroon despite seeming unsurmountable obstacles.

I t is also the story of the power of education, in this case, Preparation for Social Action (PSA). PSA a six module program covering language, science and technology, mathematics, agricultural/ community health, and service to the community designed to raise capacity of youth to become effective agents of change in their communities.

And it is also a case study about the essentiality of the role of women as the primary agents of positive change and transformation of the individuals, families and communities. Without full participation of woman as equal partners in the field of development, Nyangon proves, lasting development cannot take roots in communities we intend to serve.

Seeds of Curiosity

Born in the vibrant village of Mama 2 in 1952, Bernadette Nyangon's early years were filled with the joys and challenges of rural life. She attended Koya 1 Catholic School, where she developed a deep love for learning. However, her educational journey came to a halt when she discontinued her studies at the first-grade level. Despite her lack of formal education, Bernadette's spirit remained unquenched, and her curiosity continued to burn brightly.

In 2008, a beam of hope illuminated the mundane routines of Mama 2. The arrival of the Preparation for Social Action (PSA) program promised to empower individuals and communities, sparking a renewed sense of possibility. The news of this transformative initiative reached Bernadette Green, igniting a flicker of curiosity within her soul. Eager to discover what this program had to offer; she approached the village gathering where the first PSA groups were being formed.

Despite her burning desire to participate, Bernadette faced a disheartening barrier. The selection criteria for the initial PSA groups stipulated the ability to read and write at the high school level, immediately excluding her (and almost all other women in her village) due to her illiteracy. However, Bernadette refused to be deterred. Determined to grasp the invaluable knowledge being generated, she quietly positioned herself in a corner of the room where the group would convene to try to learn. But the course was offered in French, and she could only speak her local dialogue and so she could not even understand what was said.

Undeterred by the walls erected by illiteracy, Bernadette’s spirit of resilience remained unwavering. She approached her son, who was selected to be part of the first PSA group. With love and conviction, she shared her yearning to access the program’s materials and insights. Touched by her unwavering determination, her son reluctantly agreed to translate the documents for her, becoming her bridge to the wealth of knowledge within.

Through sheer determination and the selflessness of her son, Bernadette embarked on her own journey of empowerment within the shadows of the PSA program. From her corner of the room, she absorbed the teachings, the discussions, and the collective wisdom that echoed through the walls. Although her illiteracy barred her from official participation, her presence became a testament to the indomitable spirit of a woman hungry for knowledge and transformation.

As Bernadette immersed herself in the program’s teachings, her world expanded. The barriers of illiteracy slowly dissolved as her mind grasped the concepts of community development, environmental sustainability, and personal growth. With every passing session, her thirst for knowledge deepened, and the seeds of change took root within her soul. In her own words, “I am old and cannot remember everything I heard, but I learned enough to imagine a better future.”

Blooming Knowledge and Empowerment

As the PSA program unfolded before her eyes, Bernadette discovered a world of knowledge she had never imagined. The concepts of environmental protection and community health captivated her heart and mind. Bernadette's newfound understanding revealed the direct connection between clean surroundings and the prevention of mosquito-borne illnesses. Driven by a sense of duty, she became a tireless advocate for hygiene and sanitation within her village, imparting vital knowledge to her neighbors and friends.

Cultivating Growth in Agriculture and Financial Stability

During her exploration of the PSA program, Bernadette encountered a revolutionary agricultural technology known as diversified high-efficiency plots (DHEP). Fascinated by the possibilities, she embraced this new approach to farming. With the guidance of the program and the implementation of DHEP, Bernadette witnessed her agricultural production soar. What was once a struggle to make ends meet transformed into an abundance of crops. This newfound success not only provided sustenance for her family but also opened doors to financial stability and independence.

As Bernadette's income increased, she realized the importance of financial planning, a crucial aspect taught by the PSA program. With the newfound knowledge of managing her finances, she began to save money systematically, something she had never thought possible before. Over time, Bernadette accumulated enough savings to fulfill a dream she had never dared to imagine—building her own house. This achievement symbolized not only the transformation of her living conditions but also her unwavering determination to overcome obstacles and create a better future for herself and her family.

Nurturing Life as a Midwife

As Bernadette's Passion for community health grew, her unwavering dedication caught the attention of the Institute for Research and Development (IRD). Recognizing her potential, they offered her an opportunity to receive training as a midwife. Bernadette eagerly accepted the offer, knowing that she could make a significant impact on the lives of mothers and children in her community. Equipped with her newfound knowledge, Bernadette became a beacon of hope, providing crucial healthcare services to those in need. Her compassion and expertise saved lives and nurtured a generation. She is now the president of the association of the IRD women’s group.

Healing with Nature's Remedies

Bernadette's journey didn't end with midwifery. Inspired by her newfound understanding of medicinal plants from the PSA program, she established a medicinal plot within the village. Leading a group of dedicated women, Bernadette trained them in the cultivation and administration of natural remedies for common ailments. Together, they became guardians of traditional healing practices, ensuring that the knowledge would be Passed down through generations. Bernadette's herbal remedies provided relief and comfort to countless individuals, strengthening the bond within her community.

Concluding comments

Bernadette's journey from illiteracy to empowerment encompassed remarkable transformations in various aspects of her life. Through her participation in the PSA program, she discovered her capacity to drive change and make a significant impact on her community. The knowledge and skills she gained in environmental protection, community health, agriculture, and financial planning enabled her to thrive and achieve newfound independence.

Moreover, Bernadette's journey exemplifies the power of education in transcending illiteracy. She defied societal expectations and proved that one's potential should never be limited by educational barriers. Her determination, resilience, and thirst for knowledge paved the way for personal growth and community development.

Bernadette's success also extends beyond her own achievements. As a respected member of her community, she has become an inspiration to other women, showing them that they too can overcome obstacles and transform their lives. Bernadette now accompanies and empowers other women, encouraging them to follow her example and pursue their dreams.

Bernadette's story emphasizes the importance of empowering women in community development. Regardless of their educational background, women possess untapped potential and can become powerful agents of change. Bernadette's journey serves as a testament to the transformative power of education, financial stability, and the determination to create a better future. Through her courage and resilience, Bernadette has not only improved her own life but has also created a ripple effect of positive change within her community. Her story stands as a shining example of the indomitable spirit and limitless possibilities that lie within every woman.

Starfish International's Skills Center: A Great Example of Development in the Making

john@monafoundation.org (Laura Baerwolf) — Thu, 22 Jun 2023 18:09:10 GMT

Starfish International's Skills Center:

A Great Example of Development in the Making

In April 2023, Mona Foundation's CEO and three of our supporters travelled to Banjul, The Gambia to visit Starfish International , a Mona partner since 2019. In its mission to empower Gambian girls and young women, Starfish offers two programs: an advanced after-school mentorship program and a Skills Center, which is the program Mona supports, that aims to empower out-of-school young women, ages 15-25, by helping them find their value and voice, explore their aspirations, and learn a trade a focus on serving humanity. This enables the young women to earn an income, lead a life of their own choosing, and contribute to the upliftment of their families and communities. Highlights from our visit are shared below with several inspiring videos about this dynamic and growing organization.

Mama Kujabi and the Starf ish Skills Center

The Director and driving force of the Starfish Skills Center is Mama Kujabi, a strong, independent, and passionate woman. Her story is an inspiring one and another incredible example of a woman who has overcome tremendous obstacles to uplift her self, her family, and her community.

When we first visited Starfish International later that year, the Skills Center had grown to five sewing machines and five students. Mona's initial grant in 2019 provided for scholarships, teacher training, and teacher salaries. Over the next two years, Mona supported the expansion of the Center's infrastructure to accommodate their exponential growth. Today, the Skills Center has nine rooms , including an income-generating hairdressing salon, restaurant, and a large hall that can be rented out.

With 13 teacher and 95 students, the Center now offers a 3-year certification program in four skills tracks:

Sewing & Shoemaking – This 3-year track has the highest enrollment. Students learn how to tie dye and make their own fabric, cut and tailor dresses, and make shoes.
Catering - There are currently 12 students (10 girls and 2 boys) in this track which includes training cooking and pastry. These “chefs” catered all the meals served throughout our visit.
Hairstyling and Make-up - Braiding is very common among Gambia girls and women and so the students in this track are often very busy.
Crafts - Students learn to embroider, crochet, and make tote bags, jewelry, tablecloths, and other crafts.

The program also offers business management classes, including Math and English, to enable the students to start and manage their own businesses. A fifth track on hotel management will be added soon.

The Center sells the dresses, shoes, and crafts made by the students and offers student services for hairstyling and make-up. Mama Kujabi divides the money received into three parts : 1/3 goes to the students to help cover their portion of their fees (about $5/month) and their transportation costs; 1/3 goes to the Center for purchasing supplies; and 1/3 goes into a savings account so that graduates can be given a sewing machine, oven, or other equipment needed to start their businesses.

The Skills Center graduated is first cohort of 5 students in December 2022. The photo below shows four of the graduates who helped welcome us on the first day of our visit.

In her commencement speech, Mama Kujabi paid tribute to the graduating students and all supporters, and specifically mentioned the importance of Mona's support during the pandemic. “If it weren’t for Mona Foundation's support of scholarships for 57 students, we would have had to close the Center during COVID19.”

Mama Kujabi's vision is for the Skills Center to become a one-stop events venue for weddings and other special occasions where customers can reserve the large hall with catered food, order their custom dresses and shoes, have their hair and make-up done, and even stay at an onsite hotel. With growing enrollment and development of these income-generating services, Mama Kujabi's goal is for the Skills Center to be financially self-sufficient in the next 10 years (by 2033).

"I cannot tell you how impressed we were to learn through our 5-day stay and through observations and consultations how Mama Kujabi, alone and unaided, as a force of nature, has transformed this Center to a viable social and economic development initiative which is now the focus of the collaboration between Starfish and the Ministry of Higher Education." - Mahnaz Javid, Mona Foundation CEO

Meeting with the Ministry of Education

During our visit, the Mona team went with Mam Yassin, Starfish International's Executive Director, to meet the the Minister of Higher Education and the Deputy Minister of K-12 Education. Mam Yassin has an ongoing relationship with both Ministers who are very complimentary of Starfish's efforts. The Minister of Higher Education mentioned the Gambia's dire need for skilled workers and was very interested when Mam-Yassin described their Skills Center. They committed to visiting Starfish to learn more about the program and how the government might collaborate to replicate the Center elsewhere. Later, the ministry posted the photo and article below to their Facebook page.

From left to right: Back row, Jana Carlson, Mara Khorram, David (Yassin’s husband), ministry staff. Front row: Dr. Flor Geola, student, Mahnaz Javid, Hon. Professor Pierre Gomez, Mam Yassin, Nyima (Yassin’s sister)

Starfish International, Mona Foundation, pay a courtesy call on the Honorable Minister of Higher Education.

Our Minister of Higher Education, Research, Science and Technology, Hon. Professor Pierre Gomez was pleased to receive representatives from Starfish International and Mona Foundation on Wednesday 19th, at the Ministry’s complex in Bijilo. Fruitful discussions were made on #girlsempowerment through Technical and Vocational Education and Training #TVET in the #gambia . Hon. Gomez commended Starfish International for their valuable work towards youth empowerment by providing them with technical skills to succeed in today’s world. He also gave a run-down of the various activities the Ministry is involved in which includes the decentralization of TVET to every region of the country, and transformations of tertiary and higher education institutions in The Gambia into world-class standards. Furthermore, the Minister encouraged Starfish International to expand their activities in order to impact a wider populace in the country. Finally, Prof Gomez affirmed that his Ministry looks forward to more collaborations with Starfish International and Mona Foundation for the development of #TVET in The Gambia.”

The videos below give a glimpse into the first two days of our visit to the Starfish Skills Center and our visit to the Ministry of Education.

Team Mona visits India, March 2023

john@monafoundation.org (Laura Baerwolf) — Thu, 27 Apr 2023 19:10:54 GMT

Mona Foundation Visit with Grassroots Partners in India, March 2023

I n March 2023, a group of Mona Foundation supporters and Board members travelled to India to visit three of our most impactful partner organizations: Study Hall Educational Foundation (Lucknow), Barli Development Institute for Rural Women (Indore), and Educational Initiatives (New Delhi). Each of these organizations has decades of experience working tirelessly to educate and empower students in need to improve their own lives and help lift their families and communities out of poverty.

Highlights of each segment of Mona's visit are provided below with inspiring videos showing the faces of the students and grassroots partners that Mona supports.

STUDY HALL EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION (Days 1 and 2)

A Mona partner since 2008, SHEF supports an impressive portfolio of initiatives aimed at educating and empowering underprivileged girls in urban and rural India through direct and indirect initiatives in the states of Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. Mona currently supports: 149 GyanSetu one-room schools in urban slums and rural villages; the Aarohini Girls Empowerment Program, now offered in 742 public schools and reaching 102,500 girls from disadvantaged households; India's Daughter's Campaign; and Digital Study Hall, which creates videos of the best teachers in actual classroom sessions and provides them free of charge to all teachers and students in poor public schools. We also provide 50 scholarships to Prerna Girls School (a full K-12 program for low-income girls) and 25 scholarships to SHEF College. Learn more .

Day 1 video: SHEF Founder and CEO Dr. Urvashi Sahni briefing our team on the scope of their activities, and visits to a government school where Digital Study Hall online content is being used to improve the quality of teaching and learning, and to two GyanSetu centers for community transformation - one was on a top of a roof!

Day 2 video : Attending the GyanSetu 10th Anniversary Sports Extravaganza where representatives from 149 Gyan Setu schools competed in several different sporting events, visiting the Prerna School and observed three sessions of "Critical Dialogues", a structured pedagogy through which both girls and boys are trained to see themselves as equal persons deserving of respect, having the right to agency and to voice their views in constructive conversations with their families and communities on the importance of education of girls and their right to lead a life of their choosing.

EDUCATIONAL INITIATIVES (Day 3)

A Mona partner since 2021, Educational Initiatives works to ensure every child learns with understanding. Leveraging cutting-edge educational research and assessments and implementing technology-based solutions such as Mindspark, personalized adaptive learning software, Ei collaborates with local communities and public schools to improve quality of teaching and learning in low-income areas. Learn more .

Day 3 video : Visits to two government schools in rural villages around Lucknow where Mindspark is being used to improve the quality of learning for the most disadvantaged students in rural villages. On this visit, our bus could not cross a little bridge and we walked two miles through the fields and a village to reach one of the schools.

BARLI DEVELOPMENT INSTITUTE FOR RURAL WOMEN (Days 4 and 5)

A Mona partner since 2005, the Barli Development Institute in Indore, India has been educating and empowering rural and tribal young women since 1985. Offering a six-month residential training program with curricula on literacy, vocational skills, and community development, Barli aims to provide young women with the skills to start their own business and the confidence to become leaders in the transformation of their communities. With its focus on service and community development, educating one woman at Barli improves the lives of 10-20 others immediately and 100 more over time. Learn more .

Day 4 video: Visit to Barli Institute focused on training and uplifting the lives of the girls from rural villages around Indore. Offering a six-month residential training program with curricula on literacy, vocational skills, solar cooking, organic agricultural practices and community development, Barli aims to provide young women with the skills to start their own business and the confidence to become leaders in the transformation of their own communities.

Day 5 video: Visit to Alirajpur where many Barli graduates have established their businesses. After visiting several of their shops, we went to Kali's new home where she and other Barli graduates welcomed us to an unimaginable degree -- a beautiful tent, live music, refreshments and dancing all so generously set up in honor of our visit. Several young women spoke about how Kali has helped and inspired them.

Kali's story: Educate a girl. Transform an entire community.

Wed, 05 Apr 2023 07:08:57 GMT

Kali's Story: Educate a girl. Transform an entire community.

This is a true story that illustrates what happens when all members of a population, especially women, are enabled to participate as equals in the socio-economic activities of their community and contribute to its development. In Mona Foundation’s experience, education is central to such individual and social transformation but only if it includes lessons of gender equality, ethics, and service.

Kali was born in a tribal household in the remote village of Alirajpur in Madhya Pradesh, India . She contracted polio as a child which left her disabled and needing a staff to walk. Born a girl, poor, and disabled, she had three strikes against her before she was twelve.

In general, India's daughters are unwanted, unsafe, unequal, and unfree. They make up one third of the world's child brides and half of married women report domestic violence. Every year, one million girls are killed in the womb through selective termination. In rural areas, such as Alirajpur, girls traditionally don’t go to school and are considered only suitable for marriage, having children, cleaning house, and caring for their families. In such an environment, there seemed little hope for Kali's future.

In 2013 , Kali's life changed dramatically when, as a young woman, she was given a $350 Mona scholarship to enroll in the six-month residential training program at the Barli Institute in Indore, about a 4-hour drive from her village. At first, she was so shy that she could not even say her own name. But within Barli's nurturing walls, Kali found her voice, learned to read and write, and gained the knowledge, skills, and confidence to thrive . She learned about organic farming and solar cooking, and about personal and community development, including the importance of gender equality. She also learned how to make patterns and sew clothing, and how to run her own business. She became certified as a tailor.

Upon graduating, Kali returned to her village and opened her own sewing shop. She earned enough money to not only support herself but to also pay for the education of 8 children in her extended family. She also formed a micro-financing group with 12 other women to help them start their own businesses too.

In 2016 , a team from Mona Foundation, including Founder and CEO Mahnaz Javid, travelled to Alirajpur to visit Kali and other Barli graduates.

"Thank you for supporting the education of my daughter. She is now a source of inspiration for all the girls in our village, and all the fathers and mothers want their daughters to be like Kali.” - Kali's father

At this point, Kali's business was growing and she had hired two other women to help in her shop. She had also saved enough money to buy a red scooter and fitted it so that she could get around more easily. Every father in that rural village now wanted his daughter to be like Kali, signaling a significant cultural shift towards recognizing the value of educating and empowering girls.

Several young women from Alirajpur and surrounding villages spoke about how Kali has helped and inspired them:

Pushpa : " Since Kali was supporting the education of eight children and changing lives, this inspired me too, to sponsor the education of my sister's daughter. This is like a chain reaction. One candle helps light the other." This act of Pushpa motivated her sister to also go to Barli to learn cutting and tailoring, to give up consuming tobacco, and to focus on daughter's education.

Ranjhu : "I wanted to establish a cutting and tailoring shop like Kali but was hesitant to leave my village (nearly twenty kilometres from Alirajpur). But Kali offered that I could stay with her in Alirajpur. With Kali as a mentor, I have improved my cutting and tailoring skills and am now earning sufficiently well to support my family."

Sumitra : "The solar cooker at Kali's home inspired me to also switch to using solar energy as much as possible. And now I too has a solar cooker in my village."

Antar : "What touches me most is that Kali has broken the traditional mindset of the villagers and not only set a model for them but also made it easier for us. In my community, if you are handicapped, then you stay at home and are dependent on your brothers and parents completely for everything. In Kali's case, it is other way round. Here is Kali who, walking with her stick, has learned to peddle the manual stitching machine and started supporting her brother's family. Then again, we couldn't picture that a tribal woman, unmarried, and even more, specially-abled, could buy property in her name. But she did exactly that and has built a beautiful home which she uses freely to help others. She has inspired us all to spread out our wings and fly high."

Today, Kali is a respected community leader and female role model who is improving the lives of hundreds, changing hearts and minds, and bringing positive change to her entire village -- a decade-long journey that begun with a $350 Mona scholarship .

After our 2023 visit, several members of Mona’s group shared their reflections, two of which are included here. The following is by David Wood , a member of Mona’s Board of Directors and CEO of Human Touch.

"We all know about Kali, but I had no idea how much of a “rock star” she really is in her community and the admiration from the entire village she engenders. And Kali is not alone. Walking through the busy streets in this remote society, the evidence and impact of Barli and the production of leaders was visible on most every street corner. So many shops driven by Barli graduates employing others in their business and expanding this bounty to others."

"These girls are the real champions. But what really struck me was how many men – husbands, fathers and friends of these girls were present. While life opportunities are broadly scarce, Barli students are given a path to a life’s journey that so many others, including many men are not. I wondered whether there would be resentment and envy or love, support and admiration. I was so touched to see it was broadly the latter and all were so appreciative and delighted by Mona’s support."

And from long-time Mona supporter Ray Rudolph :

“I walked the market on a non-market day and met the Barli women, more than 10 of them, who had been taught to read and write and sew at Barli, that had their own shops and were making income for them and their families. I was told if you come on market day, there are 80 of them with their shops open!! Can you even imagine 80 women in one tribal village having their own business? I couldn’t.

“When we were invited to the welcoming ceremony, I noticed that a bunch of motor bikes were arriving. I came to find out they were the men in these women’s lives who had come to support them... One man told me proudly that when his wife returned from Barli she taught him how to read and later how to sew. They opened a shop and after a while they bought a motorcycle and then a home. As I talked to him and saw his children there as he spoke with pride of the accomplishments of his wife, I thought " Yes, these are the people that will change this culture forever".

" If you could see the gleam of pride in Kali’s father’s eyes as he greeted each of us and heard us celebrate her accomplishments, you know that the history of India will change and Mona Foundation is a part of that change."

-----------------------

Barli Development Institute for Rural Women (Indore, India)

Jhamku's story : What education means to me

john@monafoundation.org (Laura Baerwolf) — Wed, 05 Apr 2023 00:08:37 GMT

Jhamku's story: What education means to me

Jhamku, age 17, lives with her parents in a rural village in Alirajpur, outside of Indore, India. Her parents are illiterate and work as laborers. Jhamku also labored with them but dreamed of restarting her education and setting up her own tailoring shop.

In 2021, to pursue her dream, Jhamku entered the six-month residential training program at the Barli Development Institute for Rural Women in Indore. Her parents were initially reluctant to send Jhamku to Barli because they didn't want to lose her earnings as a laborer. They were also concerned about having fewer hands to help with the family chores. But with counseling from the Barli staff and encouragement from other parents whose daughters had gone to Barli, they eventually decide in favor of their daughter and agreed to send her.

Inside Barli's nurturing walls, Jhamku was safe to explore new walks of life. She found her voice as a woman and developed self-confidence and a thirst for learning. In just six months, she learned not only to read and write but also to generate her own income as a seamstress.

A couple months after the program began, Jhamku's parents visited Barli to participate in a parents gathering. They were happy to see the changes in their daughter and pledged to support her in setting up a tailoring shop when she graduated.

In June 2022, Jhamku bought a sewing machine and set up a small shop. She sews the traditional tribal dress and is able to earn average Rs.300 per day. She has also enrolled in 9th standard in the Madhya Pradesh Senior Secondary Board of Education to further pursue her education.

Reflecting on what education has meant to her, Jhamku wrote:

" To be without education and skills is like being like a bird without wings. You can see the sky and the endless opportunities but you are not able to reach them. It makes you feel helpless.

But education gives the power and the strength to transform our life and that of others. It makes us confident and self reliant. It is like opening windows in a closed room and flooding it with light and fresh air. Our attitude changes and we become open to receiving confirmations and changing the course of our lives. Moreover, it feels like we receive in our hands a magic wand, whereby we can share this light with others and help in their transformation too.

I am immensely grateful to the funding agencies who made my stay and learning in Barli Institute possible. I feel so happy, like a child who has finally learnt to walk and now I will move on the path of life more assured and more aware."

Mona Foundation hailed as a "Trailblazer" at 2022 Goalmakers Conference

Tue, 20 Dec 2022 22:07:41 GMT

Mona Foundation hailed as a "Trailblazer" at 2022 Goalmakers Conference

Opening plenary of the 2022 Goalmakers Conference in Seattle, WA - All photos: Global WA

Mona Foundation was honored and widely applauded at the Global WA 2022 Goalmakers Conference and Women of the World breakfast, an annual two-day gathering of over 250 philanthropists from around the world all working to meet the UN Sustainable Development Goals. This year's conference was held as a webinar on December 7th and in-person in Seattle, Washington on December 8th, the first time it had convened in-person since the pandemic. The theme for both days was "Co-Creation & Partnership".

Mona Foundation was highlighted by multiple presenters throughout the conference and hailed as a “Trailblazer” by keynote speaker Degan Ali , Executive Director of Adeso Africa , an internationally renowned humanitarian leader, champion for reforming the global aid and development ecosystem, and recent recipient of a $5M grant from MacKenzie Scott. ( Learn more about Degan's work .) Watch the video below to hear Degan's comments about Mona.

We were thrilled to receive such amazing accolades from our peers! By the end of the conference it was clear that Mona Foundation's unique, efficient, and transformative approach to philanthropy, which we have been learning about and practicing for the past 23 years, is now being recognized and sought after as the leading edge in global development .

Mona 2022 Virtual Gala: Scaling Hope - Together

Fri, 23 Sep 2022 22:50:44 GMT

2022 Gala Results: Scaling Hope - Together.

Sept 23, 2022 - What a wonderful Gala! Together with supporters registered from 25 countries, we were inspired by the stories and incredible work of our newest partners in Guatemala, Colombia, India, and Sierra Leone, and celebrated how Mona's global community of changemakers is spreading the HOPE of education to more and more children.

If you weren't able to attend or wish to watch again, please enjoy the recorded segments below .

THANK YOU! We are thrilled to share that the Gala raised $370,280 and counting towards our $425K goal. Our heartfelt appreciation goes out to each one of our supporters who gave with their hearts to support our work. Our special gratitude also to Rainn Wilson , Parisa Fitz-Henley , Laura Herrick , Paul Flowerman , and to our hardworking and selfless partner organizations who made the Gala a truly inspirational gathering.

Your outpouring of support for our partner's Fund-A-Needs was especially heartwarming. In addition to specifically designated donations to different projects, your Gala donations will provide:

138 K-3 scholarships to GyanSetu One-room schools, India
9 K-12 scholarships to Ruhi Arbab and Simmons Schools, Colombia
1 K-12 scholarship to Mona supported schools in Haiti, Panama, or Brazil
7 Youth Leader scholarships to FUNDAEC's Supporting Community Leaders program, Colombia
2 College Scholarships for young women, Study Hall Educational Program, India
11 scholarships to educate and empower rural young woman at Barli Institute, India
Training for 3 educators at MAIA Impact School, Guatemala
Arts program for 200 students at Badi School, Panama
1 month internet access , MAIA Impact School, Guatemala
2 GyanSetu One-Room Schools for students in urban slums or rural villages, India
Training for 1,200 students, tutors, and teachers in FUNDAECs program on "Strengthening Community Life & Local Economies."

On behalf of Mona's Board of Directors and staff, thank you for the bottoms of our hearts!

Mona Youth Ambassadors: Youth Can Change the World!

Fri, 26 Aug 2022 19:31:46 GMT

Mona Youth Ambassadors: Youth Can Change the World!

At Mona Foundation, we believe youth can change the world. This isn't just a platitude. It is the very reason that our mission to create justice and alleviate poverty focuses on educating and empowering young people around the world. It is also the reason we launched the Mona Youth Ambassador Program in August 2021. Open to all tweens, teens, and young adults who are passionate about building a better world, Mona Youth Ambassadors engage with their peers at school, in their communities, and through social media to :

Help spread awareness about Mona's mission,
Promote the power of education, and
Support Mona's grassroots partners to educate kids and empower girls around the world.

In the program's first year, nearly 40 young people , ages 11 to 30, have signed up as Youth Ambassadors from around the world, including Argentina, Canada, France, Germany, Great Britain, India, Nigeria, the Philippines, Somalia, Tanzania, and the United States.

To celebrate the program's One Year Anniversary , we talked with one of our first Youth Ambassadors, Nessa Samimi (15), about her involvement with Mona Foundation and what living a life of service means to her. Nessa and her family live in Southern California where she is entering her freshman year of high school. Excerpts from our conversation are shared below. Perhaps her story and comments will inspire you to become a Mona Youth Ambassador too!

MF: Why did you decide to become a Mona Youth Ambassador ?

Nessa: I realized that this was a position where I could further my leadership abilities and also have more opportunities to draw others into the work Mona is doing. I think that this is so important because youth are the future. I love showing other youth what Mona is about and inviting them to join in.

MF: Earlier this year, you started a very successful fundraiser for the first annual Move4Mona 5K Walk/Run in support of education and gender equality. How did you invite others to join in?

Nessa : To start with, I wrote an email about my experience with Mona, for example, visiting the Badi School in Panama, how I became really invested with Mona Foundation, and how I realized the beauty of this foundation in supporting women and children all over the world. I talked about how important that was for me and how with this title of "Youth Ambassador" I could really bring out my full potential and be able to advocate for Mona and raise money. So my whole email was based around those points. I sent it to family and to friends that I knew would be interested in this walk and would want to be a part of it. Twenty-five (25) people donated to my walk and five of my friends signed up to do the 5K with me.

MF: Were you surprised by the response?

Nessa : Honestly, I was! My original goal was $1,000 and I went over that, so Mahnaz [Mona founder and CEO Mahnaz Javid] said that she would raise it to $2,000. Honestly, I didn't think I was going to get to $2,000 but I went over that too! It was a proud and happy moment for me.

MF: How did your Move4Mona walk go?

Nessa : It was good! We set up a table along Mission Bay with Mona pamphlets and with envelopes for $7 monthly donations. Most of us walked the 5K but some girls also wanted to run. So we really made the most out of it. We had a lot of fun, we talked, we got our exercise in, we did the 5K, and we hung out afterwards. It was a really enjoyable experience! After the walk, I encouraged my friends to become a monthly donor as a great way to stay involved with the foundation. As a monthly donor, you are educating a kid somewhere in India for example. It's intimate. It's such a good feeling.

MF: Are you involved in other service activities in your community?

Nessa : My mom and I are part of this organization called National Charity League that provides opportunities for moms and daughters to do community service for nonprofits. For example, I have volunteered with Meals on Wheels . Doing community service is such a good way to get to know the community more. Now that I have been a part of this group for three years I'm thinking of how to introduce Mona into this organization to raise more money for Mona as well.

MF: What does living a life of service mean to you and why do think it is it important?

Nessa : I think serving others is so important in order for this world to progress and for there to be unity. We all have to come together. We all have to help each other. Doing community service and being part of organizations that help others is a step to reaching that vision. I can't speak for anyone else but when I am being of service I feel so good about myself. Like the Move4Mona walk, for example. I was like, "Wow, I'm 15 years old and I just raised $2,600!" I can make a difference not just in my community but also in the world! I feel so good knowing that an effort I've made has changed someone’s day or even changed someone else’s life. Even small efforts make a difference. From raising money to delivering meals to people, you're making a change -- today and into the future.

MF: What would you say to encourage other youth who are thinking about signing up to be a Mona Youth Ambassador?

Nessa : I would say 100% do it! Not only are you creating opportunities for young kids and inspiring other youth to be role models, you will also meet other people who joined Mona for possibly the same reason as you and you can create really good friendships. Also, if you are someone like me who enjoys making people's days, who enjoys bringing joy to people's lives, and making a difference in the world, then this program is for you! I mean, it's really changed my life and made me a better person. So I would say 100% do it, just do it!

If you are passionate about Mona's mission and are between the ages of 11-30, our Youth Ambassador program is for you! Sign up here .

Elvira's Story: A Life of 'Firsts'

Fri, 12 Aug 2022 17:49:54 GMT

Elvira's Story: A life full of "firsts"

“Since I was a child, I have had to work in order to pay for my studies. This is why I am such a strong supporter of women's education. I know that educated women can create a more prosperous and equal Guatemala.” – Elvira

Since she was young, her goal has been to study political science and work in community development,

women’s education, and peace and conflict management. However, her ambitions do not end there. Elvira aspired to be a global learner. With university access coaching and support provided through MAIA’s University Access and Scholarship Coach, Elvira applied to become a SHE CAN scholar , a highly competitive 4-year, full-tuition scholarship program to study at a US university for a select group of young women leaders from around the world who demonstrate academic excellence and community engagement.

As part of her rigorous application process, Elvira passed her TOEFL and SAT exams and designed and led her own community project "Green Mind, Green Life". Her project trained 14 community youth and adults in sustainable practices, worked with the local government to open a new garbage collection route through her community, and organized a community cleanup.

In May 2022, Elvira was thrilled to learn that she was selected as a 2022 SHE CAN scholarship recipient. Another first! You can watch her final presentation here.

Laxmi's Story: Teaching Her Husband about Gender Equality... & Tailoring

Fri, 29 Jul 2022 20:49:59 GMT

Laxmi's Story: Teaching Her Husband about Gender Equality... & Tailoring

As a young girl, Laxmi dreamed of starting her own business and becoming financially independent. But being a tribal girl from a poor and uneducated family working as farm hands in a remote village in Madhya Pradesh, India, there seemed little chance her dream could come true. Still, she remained hopeful.

In 2019, at the age of 21, Laxmi learned about the Barli Development Institute for Rural Women and, with Mona Foundation’s support, enrolled in their six-month residential training program. Within Barli's nurturing walls, she learned to read and write, gained skills in organic farming, solar cooking, and community development, and became certified as a tailor. Most importantly, she developed self-confidence, learned about gender equality, and found her voice as a woman . One lesson that especially inspired her described men and women as two wings of a bird:

“The world of humanity is possessed of two wings: the male and the female. So long as these two wings are not equivalent in strength, the bird will not fly. Until womankind reaches the same degree as man, until she enjoys the same arena of activity, extraordinary attainment for humanity will not be realized; humanity cannot wing its way to heights of real attainment....Therefore, woman must receive the same education as man and all inequality be adjusted. ”

Laxmi excelled in her courses and she returned home eager to open her tailoring shop. Instead, her parents arranged for her to marry shortly after she arrived. As a new wife, social custom dictated that Laxmi stay at home to care for the house and cooking. But she didn't give up on her dream. Drawing on the self-confidence she gained at Barli, Laxmi succeeded in convincing her husband and in-laws that she should open a tailoring shop. She even taught her husband to sew! Now there are two sewing machines in her shop, one for herself and one for her husband. They both the manage the shop together. She has even expanded their shop to sell other items such as cosmetics and jewelry. The business has brought financial stability to Laxmi's family. She recently became a mother and is happy that she will be able to provide a proper education and a healthy life for her son, something she missed during her own childhood.

Laxmi's husband and family are proud of her and supportive of her efforts. Initially her husband’s friends and relatives made fun of him because he was learning to tailor from his wife. However, Laxmi constantly encouraged him and talked to him about working together for the progress of their family and community. Her husband says that Laxmi always gave importance to consultation and unity and this has strengthened and nurtured their family life.

Today, the two are looked upon as an ideal couple in the village , consulting and working together and inspiring others to give up superstitions and rigid customs that hamper the empowerment of women. Laxmi tells the women in her neighborhood that this is the age of equality and that education and training will bring about this change .

Programme for Children & the Power of Community-Led Development

john@monafoundation.org (Laura Baerwolf) — Thu, 23 Jun 2022 17:11:48 GMT

Programme for Children & the Power of Community-Led Development

Mona Foundation has always recognized that development must be community-led to effectively reduce poverty and sustain positive change. This approach flows from our belief that all people are created equal and that each person, regardless of economic status, has the right, the capacity, and the responsibility to be the protagonists of their own development. Far from being helpless victims or passive recipients of aid, local people are in the best position to identify, analyze, and address the needs of their communities. With this understanding, Mona strives to tap into the vast capabilities of local people and organizations and, in partnership, to support them in building capacity to pursue their own development. Our partnership with Progamme for Children in Sierra Leona is an example of what is possible.

Mona Foundation has partnered with Programme for Children since 2019. To date, we have funded the building of four-classroom schools in the villages of Njomborhun and Masosingbi, a four classroom addition to the Muloma Vocational Technical Training Complex, and a new three-room library (under construction) that will serve over a dozen schools and colleges. Mona also provides for furnishings, books, materials, and supplies, and supports teacher training and certification.

A small team from Mona visited Programme for Children in May 2022. The power of community-led development was readily apparent in every place we visited. To appreciate the great strides that PFC has made, it is essential to know something of the country's history.

Today, Sierra Leone is a secular nation with a constitution providing for the separation of religion and state and freedom of conscience. As one of the few countries where diverse religious communities worship together, the country is becoming a beacon of hope in West Africa and a testimony to the power of the human spirit. The population is about three-quarters Muslim with an influential Christian minority. It is one of the only countries in Africa where religious tolerance is a part of their cultural norms and identity. Without exception, every meeting we attended in any village or place during our visit was proceeded by a prayer offered by a sheik, followed by the Lord’s prayer by a minister, followed by their village chief honoring their ancestors.

Community-Led Development at its best

Programme For Children is an outstanding example of community development at its best. Before any school is built, or any initiative is undertaken, the villages hold several town meetings with Joseph. Usually held in open spaces, town meetings involve everyone : the women, the men, the village chief, the sheik, the government councilmen, the representative of the Ministry of Education, and anyone else who has a stake. Everyone is asked for input, everyone talks and gives his or her opinion, and then the people collectively decide on what they need. Each one makes their commitments of support. Villagers usually donate the land and offer their labor. The Ministry of Education promises teachers and books. The chief and the sheik promise to encourage parents to send their kids to school, and the community promises to maintain the facilities and feed and house the teachers.

Development unfolds in unexpected ways

The Muloma Vocational Training Center in Koribondo was founded after the civil war by a woman from the village with the hope of providing the men and women a means of earning a meager living during the “hungry months” when the harvest is over. It is now run by her two daughters, Madam Lucia and Madam Hawa. Mona funded an expansion project in 2020 to construct a new building with 5 classrooms and one staff room. Today the Center trains 150 students in carpentry, tailoring, weaving, hair styling, catering, needle work, and textile printing. It also offers certification training for teachers from surrounding villages so that they can receive their salary from the government. Attached to the entry to the Center are two humble structures that serve as a preschool and primary school.

The most exciting and newest development is that the Center has begun offering distance education for college students from surrounding villages! Teachers from two universities, Njala University and Milton Margai College of Education and Technolog y, now teach at the Muloma Center campus so students can access university education without having to travel long distances. We were so excited to hear of this development and met with 10 students currently receiving university education. To the villages, this is a major development in support of the “quality of education.”

A New and Growing Library in Koribondo

For 2022, Mona funded the raising of a new library to serve the 13,000 people in the villages around Koribondo, including 6 primary schools, 5 secondary schools, and the vocational training center. Our $59K investment provided for construction, materials, furniture, books, and teacher training. When the Muloma Vocational Training Center began providing college-level distance learning, Joseph decided to add another room to the library using his own funds to provide library services for these students as well. The Koribondo Library is now being built with three very large rooms: one for college students studying at the Muloma Center, one for secondary school students, and one for primary school students. Land was donated by the Paramount Chief and hence is owned and cared for by the community. Construction should be completed by September 2022, just in time for the first day of school. The library will be operated and supervised by trained librarians.

Visit to the Jaiama Junior Secondary School in Njomborhun

Mona Foundation funded and built Jaiama school in Njomborhun in 2019. It currently serves 150 students although there were fewer students present when we visited due to timing. During our visit, Joseph delivered supplies to the school and we met with all the teachers and visited the classrooms. A huge success for this school is that 100% of their students passed the national exam ! This is a source of pride for the school as at the beginning the community was skeptical about the quality of education they received.

In talking with the school's Vice Principal, it became clear that teacher housing is a huge need . Teachers cannot receive a government salary until they complete their certification, which takes about 3 years, and so must initially teach without pay. For this reason, many cannot afford the cost of transportation back and forth to school for their certification training. Providing basic housing for teachers would assure their ongoing presence in the classroom and serve as an incentive to attract and maintain good teachers to the school. The villages will consider including this in PFC's 3-year development plan following their next full consultation on community priorities.

We departed from Sierra Leone feeling honored to be in partnership with Programme for Children, and tremendously inspired and hopeful by the high spirits, unwaivering commitment, and unified action of the country's people, communities, and institutions. Their exciting, unfolding story offers clear proof of the effectiveness and sustainability of community-led development. Mona Foundation has gained experience with this approach over two decades of collaboration with 51 local partner organizations across 23 countries. What we have witnessed time and again is this: Supporting communities in their own self-advocacy promotes empowerment rather than dependency, and enables them to build capacity to effectively address local needs and scale their proven programs.

Move4Mona 2022: Making Strides for Global Education

Fri, 20 May 2022 01:52:21 GMT

MOVE4MONA: Making Strides for Global Education

MOVE4MONA 2022

Thanks to the Leadership Team's vision and efforts, the first annual Move4Mona 5K Walk/Run Challenge , held on May 7, 2022 , brought together people in 44 communities and three countries to support Mona's educational partners in India , Haiti , and Panama . Some 160 toddlers, children, youth, and adults got out and moved for Mona on May 7th, with an equal number donating to sponsor their walks. Together, they exceeded the goal -- raising $29,489 to educate 349 kids in India , OR 49 kids in Haiti or Panama!

Edmonds, WA event

Over 70 people braved stormy weather to come out to our main event in Edmonds, organized by the Move4Mona Leadership Team. Just as the walk began, the clouds parted and the sun came out. There was even a rainbow! Read all about it in My Edmonds News.

T hank you to our local business sponsors : Edmonds Center for the Arts, Cascadia Art Museu m, Aw Pottery , Yoga Sanctuary, Ombu Salon + Spa, and Hunni Water.

Toddler Walk in San Diego, CA

This Move4Mona event was organized as part of a Toddler Virtues Class that is held and organized bi-weekly by Nava, Blake and their son Solace Ghalili-Wuorenma in San Diego, with the love and support of incredible families nearby. This month's virtue was "Service", so the toddlers decided to do an act of service by learning about the Mona Foundation and helping to raise over $1,000 for the Move4Mona walk. At the end of their walk, the Cheyer family brought in a Train Conductor so the children could pretend to take the funds they raised to the Mona Schools aboard a train at their home. The children sang songs and thanked the conductor and all the families.

Rancho Palos Verdes: the joy of education

A Reflection by Chloe Rastegar

Education has proven to be a catalyst for social change, a stimulant of economic growth, and an instrument through which gender equality may be realized. Simultaneously, education is also simply a source of happiness for so many ; a key to discovering our passions, widening our perspectives and connecting with others. I saw this for myself at the Move4Mona walk I hosted on May 7th in Rancho Palos Verdes. Participants of all ages (7 -87 years old) and backgrounds came together to support Mona Foundation in its goal of increasing access to education and empowering women and girls. My guests ranged from a retired history professor, and undergraduate students studying psychology and sociology, to pharmacy and law school candidates, medical doctors, a virologist and our very own Diane Samandi, a member of Mona’s board of directors, and talented fashion designer.

Despite their diverse careers and disciplines studied, my guests shared in that education truly enriched their lives. With each step we took on our walk, participants bonded over their love for the sciences, arts, and humanities. Education shaped their interests and lives at large. As participants exchanged stories from school and work, their eyes sparkled like the Pacific Ocean before us. It was evident that education touched the lives of every guest present in one way or another, being a source of joy for all. Move4Mona was a special opportunity to bring that joy of education to the students Mona supports all around the world. I want to thank all of the enthusiastic participants who attended my Move4Mona event and all the generous donors who supported my campaign and Mona Foundation’s invaluable efforts.

More Move4Mona supporters from across the U.S.

Transforming Education to Build a Prosperous, Gender-just Society

Wed, 11 May 2022 19:58:53 GMT

Transforming Education to Build a Prosperous, Gender-just Society

For the past 23 years, Mona Foundation has worked to alleviate global poverty through education, gender equality, and community transformation. We currently partner with 26 grassroots initiatives in 15 countries to educate and empower over 800,000 students in need, particularly women and girls. While it is widely accepted that investing $1 in education adds $10 in economic growth, in Mona’s experience, educating a girl multiplies this impact by 100. Educated women tend to marry at a later age, have fewer and healthier children, earn higher incomes, spend 90% on their families, and directly impact the development of their communities. All these factors help lift households out of poverty, benefit generations, and transform communities.

But to achieve a gender-just society, education needs to be transformed to teach the lessons of equality, ethics, and service alongside language, math, and science . Mona’s grassroots partners are leading this transformation. Across cultures and countries, their growing experience involves expanding the scope of their educational programs in surprisingly similar ways:

A school environment that is safe and nurturing in which girls are encouraged to explore their talents and aspirations.
Employing women teachers, mentors, and staff that serve as role models and daily reminders that becoming an educated, empowered woman is possible.
Integrating girls’ empowerment programs into the school curriculum.
Employing the arts to explore concepts of equality, its implications, and practical applications – engaging the heart as well as the mind.
Assisting boys to reframe their role as champions of equality and justice.
Engaging fathers and mothers to grow and develop alongside their daughters.

Empowerment programs are essential to helping girls see themselves as equal, autonomous persons worthy of respect, to discover their voice and aspirations, to gain confidence and actively participate in society. But to shift ingrained cultural patterns of inequality, their families must also be supported to recognize the importance of girls’ education and begin to integrate the principle of equality in their daily interactions. Girls don’t have to choose between their families and a life of their choosing. They can have both.

What does transformational education look like?

A Holistic Educational Model

Joining one of the mentors in visiting a Girl Pioneer’s family was one of the memorable experiences of our visit. We were welcomed by the student and her family – mother, father, grandmother, and four younger siblings -- into a small house with dirt floors, clay brick walls, few furnishings, and a tin roof. With all family members present, the mentor led us in a socioemotional activity to foster connectedness and a safe environment. She then facilitated a family activity to promote teamwork and engage in conversation about how the family members could support one another at home. The mentor and family had clearly developed a relationship of deep trust. Afterwards, one of our team members shared:

“ The mother spoke of hardships, the baby’s illnesses this past year, jobs lost during Covid for both her and her husband. She spoke of plans to postpone improvements to their home. But at the end of it, hope still shone brightly in her eyes and with a smile she spoke of her family’s commitment to the education of all their children. …The father reiterated the same sentiment.”

The parents’ sacrifice and commitment to educating their daughters was humbling and inspiring.

Environment - All of the above are carried out in a school environment that is welcoming, safe, supportive, empowering, joyful, unifying, and serious . The school itself is beautiful. The building, set within gardens and green space, is simple, elegant, and well suited to its surroundings and purpose. Inspiration is always in view. Along the main walkway, a chain link fence is decorated with the names of empowered women – Rosa Parks, Anne Frank, Sara Curuchich, and so on – that each class had taken as their own. Beneath each name are padlocks the girls had painted with their own names and placed on the fence in a ceremony with their parents as a sign of their commitment to completing their education. A mural painted by students along one wall reads (in Spanish): “Empowered woman… Infinite Impact”.

Outcomes

While the Impact School will celebrate its first high school graduating class this year, MAIA’s legacy mentorship program has already yielded impressive results along four organizational goals:

ECONOMIC AUTONOMY: Graduates will be independent and upwardly mobile when they earn the average income in Guatemala of $5,000 per year [this figure is being reassessed]. 50% of Girl Pioneer graduates from MAIA’s legacy program (who average 21 years of age) have already escaped poverty.
LIFELONG LEARNING: Graduates will complete an average of 15 years of schooling. Girl Pioneer graduates from the legacy program are 60 times more likely to enroll in university compared to their non-MAIA counterparts.
HER FAMILY ON HER TERMS: Graduates will delay marriage and pregnancy until they are at least 25 years old and in a stable position to support a family. 92% of Girl Pioneer graduates from the legacy program are delaying motherhood to complete their studies and further their professional development.
UNLOCKING LEADERSHIP POTENTIAL: Girl Pioneers are empowered to empower. 58% of Girl Pioneer graduates from the legacy program hold a formal leadership position within an organization.

With the Impact School now integrating quality education, girls’ empowerment, and family engagement into a coherent, transformative program, the trajectory for Girl Pioneers is swiftly rising. Mona Foundation looks forward to a long partnership with MAIA and has no doubt the girls it graduates, together with their families and communities, will do much to create a more just, equitable, and prosperous society.

Mona Foundation CEO recognized as Woman of the Year by UW's Undergraduate Women in Business

Mon, 25 Apr 2022 22:42:28 GMT

Mona Foundation CEO recognized as Woman of the Year by UW's Undergraduate Women in Business

(Left to right) Crystal Le, President, UWiB; Ella Pierson, Paving the Way Scholarship Recipient; Audrey Hebert, Vice President of UWiB; Mahnaz Javid, UWiB Woman of the Year; Andy Marzano, UWiB Faculty Award winner; and Lisa Hu, Director of Fundraising.

The Undergraduate Women in Business Associati o n (UWiB) at the University of Washington has named Mahnaz Javid, Founder and CEO of Mona Foundation as its 2022 " Woman of the Yea r ". Mahnaz was honored at UWiB's 15th Annual Paving the Way Fundrai ser at Seattle's Fremont Abbey Arts Center on April 21, 2022. This was especially meaningful as the day was also Mona Foundation's 23rd anniversary.

UWiB was established in 2005 to connect female undergraduate students with professional women business leaders. Each year, they select one local female business leader who has made significant gains and contributions to the progression of women and society as a whole to receive its "Woman of the Year" award.

In presenting the award, Katauna Loeuy, UWiB's director of external relations, said, " The Mona Foundation is a global non-profit focused on providing education to young women around the world. We have chosen to award Mahnaz Javid as our Woman of the Year as we admire her devotion to changing the lives of young women all over the world. She has paved the way to ensure the rights of females to attain equal educational opportunities, and her accomplishments, generosity, and passion are inspiring. We hope Mahnaz can continue to share her incredible story and encourage others to follow their pursuits in making a difference for a better world."

The Mona Foundation believes the key to eliminating poverty and achieving positive and sustained community transformation lies in universal education and gender equality. Javid was selected by UWiB's Executive team, based on her contributions to grassroots educational programs in economically disadvantaged communities worldwide, since 1999.

Mahnaz delivered the keynote speech at the recent "Paving the Way" event to an audience of local business professionals, UW faculty, students, and families, sharing her story about being a woman in business and the mission behind the Mona Foundation. " I am in awe of the dedication and devotion of these bright female students," she said. "I feel I have come full circle as I earned my Master's degree at the University of Washington, and how I wish I had this organization to join back in my university days. The recognition is especially meaningful to me as it was awarded to me on Mona Foundation's 23rd anniversary~ April 21st."

UWiB raised more than $45,000 for its endowed scholarship fund at the evening’s event, which is more than the organization has ever raised at its annual fundraiser, according to UWiB executives.

Asian Premier Magazine interviews Mona chair Duy-Loan Le

Sat, 26 Feb 2022 00:44:33 GMT

Asian Premier Magazine interviews Mona Board chair Duy-Loan Le

The following article was published in the February 2022 Spring issue Vol. 1 of Asian Premier Magazine.

MONA FOUNDATION

Mona Foundation believes a more just world can be achieved by supporting grassroots initiatives, which educates children, empowers women and girls and emphasizes service. Since 1999, Mona Foundation has granted $15 million to 45 partner projects in 23 countries. Duy-Loan Le serves as the chairwoman of the board of directors for the 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, based in Bellevue, Wash.

Digital Literacy Program helps young mothers find employment

Wed, 23 Feb 2022 21:43:16 GMT

GyanSetu Digital Literacy Program Enables Women to Find Employment

GyanSetu centers are one-room schools operated by Study Hall Educational Foundation in Lucknow, India to provide primary and early childhood education to marginalized children in city slums and poor rural villages and prepare them to transition to the public schools. The schools also provide critical training for mothers on health and hygiene, domestic violence, child marriage, and alcoholism and connects them to available community services.

In the past year, the schools have expanded their services to include digital literacy and computer skills to provide employment opportunities to young girls and their mothers. The students pictured above completed the GyanSetu Digital Literacy program at the Sahilamau center and four are now working at schools at Malihabad: 3 as teachers and 1 as office staff. Digital Literacy is an added advantage for GyanSetu students as well as community members like these young women, equipping them with knowledge and skills required to find good jobs .

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With Mona's support and leveraging accessible technologies, SHEF has scaled the GyanSetu program from 14 schools in 2017 to 100 schools in 2021, now serving 2,698 students .

Ethel's story: Educating a parent benefits children too

Tue, 22 Feb 2022 22:20:33 GMT

Ethel's story: The Generational Impact of Educating Parents

Ethel didn’t have a stable family or parents as a child. She entered foster care as an infant and grew up in the system experiencing trauma through abuse and neglect until she was adopted by extended family at 16. Later, as a working single mother in Savannah, Georgia, she realized there were many things about herself, parenting, and life skills that she didn’t learn growing up. She wanted her three young children to have what she did not, and she worked hard for it.

Ethel began attending Parent University in 2010 after being invited by a friend. At the time, her children ranged in age from 2 to 8 years old. Ethel took advantage of everything Parent University had to offer. She attended classes on relationships, handling conflict and anger, improving communication skills, stress management, and classes for aspiring homebuyers on how to build credit and get a mortgage. She gained parenting skills from classes at Early Learning College on early childhood development, community resources (diapers, childcare, etc.), literacy and STEM activities, and health education. In addition to offering classes, Parent University helped to remove obstacles (transportation, childcare, and meals) and offered an encouraging environment where she could meet and learn with others in the community.

Mona Foundation NFT Story

Tue, 07 Dec 2021 19:49:23 GMT

Mona Foundation's NFT Story

Mona Foundation has always valued the important connection between art and social progress. In fact, most of the initiatives we support integrate art and music as essential elements of a child's education. When non-fungible tokens (NFTs) began to trend in 2020, we were already avid supporters of the crypto community and interested to see how this new community of digital artists would make their mark.

Mona Foundation actually has a lot in common with the philanthropy-oriented NFT community. We both:

Promote the arts as an essential element of personal and social transformation – We know that education is key to change. But to be transformative, education needs to include art & music, and teach lessons of equality, ethics, and service alongside math, science, and humanities. The experience of Mona's partner organizations in 26 countries over more than two decades amply demonstrates the effectiveness of this approach.

Make creative use of technology for social good – Leveraging the use of accessible technologies and the growing capacity of local communities developed through our long-term partnerships, Mona's reach has grown from 430,000 to 801,000 students since 2020, even as our partner organizations battled COVID-19 and transitioned to online learning.

Are passionate about bringing people together to build a better world - We bring together a global community of changemakers : donors, nonprofits, and businesses; and work with proven local partners to address the root causes of poverty through education and girls empowerment.

This may explain why, in December 2020, Mona became one of the first nonprofits globally to benefit from an NFT sale when @_Dkleine donated the proceeds from the sale of his Star Wars/Zombie-inspired piece "I find your lack of flesh disturbing...” (shown below). In the months following, several more NFT artists arose to support Mona's mission to educate children and empower girls, including @TheGlitches , @WorldofUmans , and @PPPandas .

In Summer 2022 , we were again honored and super grateful to dynamic American artist David Choe for donating a portion of proceeds from the incredible, interactive NFT project based on his iconic Munko whale character. Over the course of the project, David minted and sold over 7,500 unique Munko NFTs .

His $65,000 donation will enable 100 young women in rural India or 350 indigenous Maya girls in Guatemala to thrive, lift their households out of poverty, and transform their communities - impacting 100 people for every girl educated . Wow! It also gave an amazing boost to our new $1M Crypto Fund for Gender Equality .

We are so grateful for this wonderful community of generous and fascinating supporters!

Are you an NFT creator? Here’s how you can give to Mona Foundation:

Create and mint your NFT.
Auction your NFT on your preferred platform like you normally would.
Set the payout address as our cryptocurrency wallet .
Contact us at info@monafoundation.org so we can collaborate to make the most of your generosity.

Visit Mona’s Crypto page to learn more about our most innovative way to donate.

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Mona Foundation is on a mission to alleviate global poverty through support of grassroots initiatives that focus on education and gender equality, directly impacting three of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (1, 4, and 5) and indirectly supporting many others.

"No matter what it is that you want to combat: racism, the environment, economics, or healthcare – lack of education is at the root of that, and so Mona Foundation supports education all around the world."

– Rainn Wilson

According to a recent article in CoinTelegraph , “Blockchain technology and nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, have been instrumental in funding these [SDG] goals during 2021 — declared by the UN General Assembly as the “International Year of Creative Economy for Sustainable Development” .

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To learn more about NFTs: see The Giving Block post on Nonprofits & NFTs Explained: A New Vision for Charitable Fundraising

Mona's Crypto Story

Tue, 30 Nov 2021 06:48:48 GMT

Mona's Crypto Story

GIVE CRYPTO TO EDUCATE. EMPOWER. TRANSFORM.

When cryptocurrency was becoming more mainstream several years ago, our team at Mona Foundation, like many non-profits, had lots of questions : How does crypto work? Can it be used for charitable giving? How would we receive a crypto donation? Do we need a special account? What is a “digital wallet”? Should it be converted to cash on receipt or held as an investment? While curious, we were also content to watch from the sidelines and see what developed. But everything changed four years ago when our dear friend and champion Rainn Wilson (Dwight Schrute on the NBC sitcom The Office ) introduced an unexpected opportunity.

On December 14, 2017, Rainn told us about the Pineapple Fund , an anonymous donor who had just posted on Reddit offering generous crypto grants to proven nonprofits. With his encouragement, we quickly wrote a request and submitted our application. We received a response only 3 days later: Mona Foundation was granted $1M towards the education and empowerment of women! WOW! We were honored – and in a state of disbelief – to be among the first 10 nonprofits selected by the Pineapple Fund for this very generous grant. Ultimately only 60 nonprofits received grants from among 10,000 applicants . All of a sudden, the questions we had been idly curious about now needed immediate answers. Our forward-thinking Board of Directors quickly consulted and agreed on a strategy to manage and allocate the grant, and our very capable Treasurer set up an institutional account with Bitcoin Pro to receive it legally and securely.

This whirlwind introduction was just the beginning of Mona’s journey of learning about digital currencies. Over the past few years, our engagement with the multi-faceted crypto donor community has deepened and expanded. Here’s how:

Partnering with The Giving Block – When The Giving Block launched in 2018, Mona Foundation was among its very first customers. We realized we did not know enough to process future crypto donations or manage the ever-growing number of digital currencies. We needed help and The Giving Block was our lifeboat. With their deep understanding of all things crypto, their industry connections (including collaboration with Gemini as the Exchange serving nonprofits), their Gen Y outlook on the future of a global digital community, and their no-nonsense marketing support, The Giving Block helped answer all our questions and has made navigating the world of crypto easy and doable.

Rainn Wilson’s ongoing vocal support – Whether posting about Mona Foundation on social media or promoting the Crypto Giving Pledge (and taking it himself), Rainn’s dedication to using his celebrity voice to encourage crypto donors to consider Mona for their charitable giving has been invaluable.

Enabling crypto giving online – We embedded TGB’s Crypto Donation Widget on a new “ Give Crypto” page on our website and linked the widget to a crypto option on the site’s primary Donate button. This simple step has expanded Mona’s ability to accept a growing list of crypto currencies.

Staying open to new opportunities – The crypto community is “generous by default” and seems to regularly come up with new approaches to charitable giving and fundraising -- like philanthropy-minded NFT projects. Last December, Mona became one of the first nonprofits in the world to benefit from the crypto sale of an NFT when artist @_Dkleine ( https://twitter.com/_DKleine ) donated the proceeds from the sale of his Star Wars/Zombie-inspired piece "I find your lack of flesh disturbing...". More on this in our next blog on Mona’s NFT story.

Keeping donors informed of their impact – Sharing concrete examples of impact lets donors know their support is making a difference in the world. For example, in 2017 , Mona and local partner Study Hall Educational Foundati o n (India) began the GyanSetu program to start informal one-room schools for kids living in abject poverty to bring them up to grade level and transition to public school. In the first year, at the low cost of $7/month per student (about $3,000/year per school), we opened 14 GyanSetu schools serving 490 students . By 2020 , in response to community need and despite the devastating impact of COVID19, we had scaled to 63 schools serving 2,089 students by learning to leverage the power of accessible technology. In 2021 , we are thrilled to now support 100 schools serving 2,698 students. An additional 684 students have transitioned to public schools. GyanSetu schools have become true centers of community transformation with classes on digital literacy, trained counselors to help women tackle gender issues in their communities, and piloting employment skills classes.

The ability to show and scale impact is one reason Rainn Wilson and many other industry leaders support us and encourage the Crypto community to give to Mona. They have seen firsthand that every dollar goes a very long way when it is invested with Mona Foundation.

– Rainn Wilson

“As a philanthropist I am always looking for worthy nonprofits and to me Mona is a no-brainer. Here are the things I love about Mona: You are very conservative with money, you are spiritually oriented, you are working with the communities and empowering communities, and everything you do is really well done. [I]t is very, very hard in this world…to find an organization that is so pure and worthy as the Mona Foundation. I consider it an honor to give to you and a privilege.”

- Steve Sarowitz, Founder and Chairman of Paylocity, CEO of Blue Marble, and philanthropist

“Anyone can sign a check, but successfully fighting poverty requires careful stewarding of the Cotopaxi Foundation’s philanthropic funds towards partners with proven and traceable programs. After an intensive review process, Mona Foundation quickly demonstrated qualities that convinced our leadership of the organization’s ability to close the gender gap and eliminate poverty. We’re honored to partner with Mahnaz and her team.”

- Annie Agle, Director of Impact and Brand, Cotopaxi

If you're a crypto owner, please remember Mona Foundation on #CryptoGivingTuesday and help us grow and further scale our critical mission and work. GIVE CRYPTO TO EDUCATE. EMPOWER. TRANSFORM.

Mona 2021 Virtual Gala Results & Recordings

Thu, 23 Sep 2021 22:15:04 GMT

2021 Gala Results - Many drops make an ocean

Sept 23, 2021 - WE ARE THRILLED to share that we exceeded our 2021 Gala fundraising goal, and raised more than $400K (net) and counting! Our heartfelt appreciation goes out to each one of our supporters who gave with their hearts to support our work. It takes all of us working together -- individuals, nonprofits, and businesses, in partnership with grassroots organizations -- to alleviate global poverty through education and gender equality.

Our gratitude also goes to our hardworking and selfless partners , and to Rainn Wilson , Andy Grammer , Splinter Dance Company , and Anthony Fedorov & friends who made the Gala a truly inspirational gathering.

If you weren't able to attend, please enjoy the recorded segments below .

They say drops make an ocean and this was truly the picture of the support we received. One of our very favorite supporters is Joe. He is retired and has limited means but every few months he sends several $1 bills to Mona, carefully wrapped in a piece of paper, and placed in an envelope secured with tape to make sure it reaches us safely. We celebrate each time we receive his contributions as we know it is the purity of hearts of those like Joe that sustains Mona's work. We are deeply grateful to Joe and many others like him because for us every dollar counts and every dollar goes a long way.

We support 23 projects in 14 countries and 95% of students we support come from families earning less than $2/day. Here is a listing of the cost to educate one child in different countries:

$5 /month educates a child in Vietnam
$7 /month educates a child in India (one room schools)
$11 /month educates a child in Colombia
$29 /month educates and empowers a village girl in India to become a certified tailor and open her own business.
$50 /month educates a child in Haiti, Brazil, and Panama

Mona's work has always been about empowering individuals through education so that each can become a source of social good and help build a more equitable world for all. Each of us can be a catalyst in this work. Every donation has impact .

Nanudi's Story: Discovering a "joyful and meaningful life"

Wed, 15 Sep 2021 21:00:22 GMT

Nanudi's Story: Discovering a "joyful and meaningful life"

Nanudi is 20 years old and has been handicapped since childhood. As a young child, she would sit and drag herself until she learned to walk. Like her parents, who work as construction laborers, she and most of her siblings never went to school and were illiterate.

“I was ridiculed in my village for my dwarfism and handicap. That is why I used to stay mostly indoors. I was very afraid to meet people..."

One day, a friend told Nanudi's parents about the Barli Institute and they decided to enroll her. Nanudi is currently in Barli's six month training and is blossoming into her potential. She is determined to learn reading and writing and is excelling at stitching and tailoring.

"...The nurturing, loving environment at Barli Institute has instilled new confidence in me. I have come out of my shell and now live a joyful and meaningful life. Learning new skills and a positive attitude has changed my outlook on life.” - Nanudi

After graduation, Nanudi wants to set up a stitching shop in her village and motivate other girls to find their path in life. Her parents are eager to support her. Her father says, "I was very worried about my daughter, but... now I am very assured after seeing the new confidence in her."

COVID-19 Impact on Education: Reaping the harvest of capacity building at the grassroots

Wed, 25 Aug 2021 21:26:30 GMT

COVID-19 Impact on Education: Reaping the harvest of capacity building at the grassroots

The year 2020 will forever be associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. It brought the world to a halt in a matter of months, changed the way we live, work and play, and made clear that what impacts one impacts all. As of this writing, more than 4.4 million people have lost their lives to COVID-19, millions more have been pushed into extreme poverty, and millions of students are without access to continuing education.

"What started as a public health catastrophe became an economic crisis, a food crisis, a housing crisis, and an educational crisis ... any of the gains made in the past 25 years across development indicators poverty, health, equality, and education -- have been lost.”

- Melinda Gates, Co-chair, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

For Mona Foundation , a nonprofit that supports grassroots educational programs in economically disadvantaged communities around the world, 2020 began with great uncertainty and concern for the staff, students, and families of our partner organizations, many of which are based in areas where social distancing is impossible and access to healthcare is non-existent. But as we began to witness their resilience in mobilizing to face a devastating pandemic and their indomitable resolve to contribute to the social good, we were also uplifted, moved, and inspired. Our long-term partnerships, focused on building the capacity of local communities through the twin engines of education and gender equality, had prepared them to create all that was needed to sustain their trajectory towards a better future.

At the onset of the pandemic , Mona immediately consulted with each of our 19 partners organizations in 12 countries to learn what they needed to navigate the crisis. Their responses ranged from having the means to transition to online learning to providing basic life needs for their staff and school communities. We quickly conveyed these needs to our supporters and ran special campaigns to raise the emergency funds, providing updates every few months.

The progress that unfolded as a result was truly remarkable. By the end of 2020, our collective student reach had grown by more than 400% (from 430,000 to nearly 2.3 million) across 3,200 communities in 12 countries. Of the 19 schools and programs run by our partner organizations, 17 of them transitioned to online learning. The one-rooms schools we support in India’s urban slums and rural villages scaled from 33 to 63 centers through the introduction and use of basic technologies. And many of our partners quickly developed local outreach programs, engaging their students, staff, teachers, and local businesses to provide over 163,000 people with necessities like soap, masks, or daily meals, and information on public health measures and access to relief agencies.

We attribute the achievement of these unexpected results to Mona’s approach to development which, from our experience over the past 22 years, has proven to be unique, effective, efficient, and transformative:

1. We focus on education and gender equality to address the root causes of extreme poverty. The World Bank and UNICEF clearly confirm: “Education is a powerful driver of development and one of the strongest instruments for reducing poverty and improving health, gender equality, peace, and stability.” Girls’ empowerment not only helps guarantee basic rights for half the world’s people, it’s also one of the most effective ways to build vibrant communities. Educated women tend to be more informed about nutrition and healthcare, marry at a later age, have fewer and healthier children, are more likely to earn higher incomes, and put that money back into their families and communities.

2. We are community-led. We partner with grassroots organizations in the belief that progress is sustainable only when it begins locally and is led by members of the community. Every culture on the planet holds positive and negative opinions about education and the equality of women, and every community has its own set of unique challenges and solutions. Local people are in the best position to identify, analyze, and address the needs of their communities in light of local realities, aspirations, and initiatives.

3. We focus on capacity building to support our partner organizations and the students, families, and communities they serve in learning to assess and respond to their own critical needs. Capacity building is a long-term process that involves learning to work towards goals in a systematic way, to build on strengths, to foster collaborative relationships in service of the common good, and to apply lessons learned through experience. It taps into the vast capabilities of the local people and empowers them with the knowledge, qualities, and skills needed to improve their own lives and the lives of others in their community.

4. We provide long-term support to enable, sustain, and scale positive change. Long-term support enables our partner organizations to learn through experience over time, to continually build capacity at the individual, organizational, and community levels, to address needs with increasingly more complex solutions, and to ultimately scale their services and reach.

5. We build trust & collaborate. Mona’s relationship with its partner organizations is one of trust, mutual respect, and reciprocity embedded in a humble culture of learning. This fundamental shift from the traditional top-down approach supports collaboration and openness in decision-making and fosters an environment in which innovative programs can be envisioned and implemented.

6. We incorporate ethics and selfless service. We believe the purpose of education is to develop global citizens who are empowered to improve their own lives while also contributing to the social good. Such positive change is only possible when education supports students to develop their moral capabilities (such as integrity, trustworthiness, justice, and equality) and integrate service to others as a way of life.

7. We catalyze and accelerate change. We bring together a global community of change makers: donors, nonprofits, and businesses; and work with proven local partners to address the root causes of poverty and sustain individual and social transformation.

The collective experience of our partner organizations over the past 18 months offers much insight into how Mona’s long-term partnership model, with its focus on education and gender equality as the twin engines of sustained change, have led to an exceptional set of achievements in seemingly unsurmountable circumstances. The following are but two of these stories.

Study Hall Educational Foundation (India)

In 2020, Study Hall Educational Foundation (SHEF) vastly scaled its reach from 406,000 to 2.2 million students. The capacity to accomplish such a feat in the middle of a global pandemic began with SHEF’s vision in 2005 to improve the quality of education in India’s slum and rural schools by using simple video technology to share private school resources with less fortunate schools.

In collaboration with Microsoft Research India and Princeton University professor Randy Wang, SHEF started a new initiative, Digital Study Hall (DSH), to create videos of live classroom sessions taught by the best, most qualified teachers and provide them free of charge to the teachers and students in poor rural schools. The videos, reinforced with ongoing teacher trainings, passed on best practices and assisted the local teachers to provide quality instruction to their students.

When Mona began supporting the program in 2008 , Digital Study Hall was serving a small group of 23 government schools in Uttar Pradesh. By 2015 , it had grown to serve nearly 800 schools with 1,100 high-quality video lessons uploaded to YouTube for greater access. By 2019 , their DSHOnline channel had 89,700 subscribers and about 2,000 video lessons covering the state curriculum, special education, digital stories, and teacher training workshops.

In May 2020 , India went into lockdown and quickly closed all schools to prevent the spread of COVID-19. With no other way to continue learning, teachers and students from four Indian states, Nepal, and Bhutan flocked to the DSH platform for online education, resulting in a 26% increase in subscribers and more than 2 million unique users over the course of the year.

With ongoing support from Mona for more than a decade, Digital Study Hall now operates in 2,320 schools . The capacity they have built over the years is representative of all SHEF programs that Mona supports. In addition to transitioning nearly all their students to online learning, SHEF’s COVID response also included distributing 29,000 masks, 1,150 bags of food, and 5,000 soap packs in the most destitute of the slum and rural communities they serve, as well as educating them on health measures and providing access to health and food relief agencies and legal resources to prevent violence against women. This year, Mona is working with SHEF to provide relief funds for food and shelter for 50+ families who have lost their sole breadwinner to COVID-19.

"The COVID-19 lockdown launched us into an unknown space – children weren’t accessible and the teachers who had lived their lives teaching in classrooms were locked at home. Perhaps the greatest learning from this crisis has been the realization that technology is a great tool which we have not leveraged enough…. We must empower our teachers to reinvent their roles from that of transferring information to enabling learning through diverse high-tech and low-tech sources.”

- Urvashi Sahni, Founder and CEO, Study Hall Educational Foundation

Badi School's Virtual Art Gallery, 7th Grade

Badi School (Panama)

The Badi School was one of only 120 schools in Panama (out of 6,000 total) to be certified for online educational instruction by the government following the country’s 2020 lockdown. Despite very difficult circumstances, the school quickly built an online platform, trained its teachers on its use, and transitioned all 450 students to online learning.

The school’s ability to take this step began in 1993 when it first started out as an afterschool tutoring program in the carport of the Torres family’s small, rented trailer in a poor, rural neighborhood with no schools nearby. Mrs. Torres started out by simply teaching her own two young sons. When they begin to thrive, other families in the neighborhood noticed and asked if they could bring their children. Soon the carport was filled with Kindergarteners. The following year, the Torres’ added a 1st grade class in their living room and welcomed new Kindergarteners from the neighborhood into the carport. Seeing how important the school was to her community, Mrs. Torres decide to continue her own education and began teaching formally. The community was inspired and gave its full support. More grades were added to the school and the Torres home became an epicenter of activity.

Mona’s partnership with Badi School began in 2004 when it had grown to a K-3 school. With this added and consistent support, the school continued to build its capacity to undertake more complex initiatives and built additional classrooms, a school library, and a computer lab in 2008 . During this period Mona heavily supported Badi’s infrastructure expansion and provided all the resources it needed to grow into a K-12 school.

One year, Mr. and Mrs. Torres noted the community had a high rate of teen pregnancies (70%) and decided to implement a girls’ empowerment/virtues program, entirely supported by Mona Foundation, to help girls see themselves as equal contributing members of society. It also encouraged them to join its Arts program to express themselves and discover their hidden talents. Within 4-5 years, the school reported zero incidents of teen pregnancy among its students. The impact was so significant that the Ministry of Education printed Badi’s entire program in the Daily Newspaper so others could implement it.

Today Badi School is financially self-sufficient (our support is limited to providing extracurricular enrichment programs), is a highly regarded K-12 institution serving 450 students (57% girls). It is well known throughout Panama and internationally for its excellent academic education as well as its outstanding programs in arts, music, technology, and community service. The school has a 100% graduation rate and its graduates regularly receive full scholarships to top universities in Panama and the United States.

COVID-19 closed all schools in Panama just a few days after the 2020 school year began. With Mona’s support of Badi School’s urgent needs for access to computers, cell phones, and online network, the school created and launched an online platform over the first weekend, enabling a fairly seamless transition to online learning. Two slogans spread quickly among the teachers and students: “Stay at home” and “Education does not stop”.

“At the end of the year, we all understand that the "Badí Online System" is not software, nor is it a program, a computer, or a set of discs and cables…. Rather, it is an extraordinary effort by everyone, starting with all the little children who recorded videos requesting our society to "stay home", to the teachers who transformed their vocation through a screen, to the parents and students who patiently discovered that learning is everyone's task. This is a system... we all work together as one.”

- Alex Torres, Badi School, Panama

Global Citizens Club

Wed, 28 Jul 2021 08:49:19 GMT

Global Citizens Clubs

Mona Global Citizen Clubs are formed to bring together youth who want to make an impact on the world through supporting the education for the children in need and through service to the community. The goals of each club are to raise the awareness of students about international development and global citizenship and how they may have an impact on the betterment of the world even while in school and beyond into their adult lives.

Global Citizen Clubs in schools is the brainchild of Chloe Rastegar. She attended a Mona event where the founder and the principal of Badi School presented on their school in Panama. She was so inspired by their stories that she decided that she wanted to go and visit the school in Panama, and she did. When she returned, she decided that she really wanted to do something concrete with her friends so that they organize activities in support of the students in one of Mona’s projects and also in service to their community. Activities? Krispy Kreme donut fundraiser, Carnival fundraisers selling frozen lemonade, Halloween face painting for Toberman Neighborhood Center, Valentine’s Day treats for local school, Diaper Drive for San Pedro Rainbow Shelter,, and most recently launching an online store to sell branded Mona clothing, “MonaInBloom.” Want to join? Email Chloe.

Palos Verdes Peninsula, LA

Palos Verdes Club has been incredibly active since its formation led by Chloe Rastegar. One of the most creative ideas they had was the Bag fundraiser at National Charity League meeting. First they started a “Education is…” .exercise, wrote down what education means to them, and spoke about the ways in which education can positively impact societies, created a series of key words, printed them on bags, and sold the bags and raised almost $900 for Mona! Members of this club are: Elizabeth Steubs, Cynthia Lockwood, Lauren Stapel, Braydon Evans, Chloe Dawes, Sarah Dawes, Minami Kato, Sophie Semenjuk, Shayan Saadat, Gina Johnson, Ava Jensen, Sara Hansen, Michael Scuderi, Cesar Mazariegos, Faculty Sponsor Cristina Quesada. Interested? Contact chloe@monafoundation.org .

Bishop's School, La Jolla, CA

Lila Chityat, the founder of Bishop’s Mona Global Citizen Club was inspired to do something to help others who do not have access to education after she returned from a trip that she took to see ADCAM, a school in the Amazon area of Brazil. Since then, she has formed the club, has enlisted the help of several others, and together they have given speeches in the Chapel about Mona and ADCAM to grades 6,7,8,9, and 10, and have had a donut fundraiser during lunch to raise funds for students at ADCAM! Members are Grace Knickrehm, Bela Kellogg, Kiki Kellogg, Isabel Reynoso, Naomi Deokule, Dylan Cardinal, Avery Zolfaghari, and Whitney Hejmanowski. Bishop club sponsor is Karri Woods, on the far right. Interested to join? Contact lila.chitayat.21@bishops.com.

Francis Parker, San Diego

Francis Parker Mona Global Citizen Club has been incredibly active. On International Women’s Day, the team made a presentation to the entire school to talk about Mona Foundation and why the club has decided to support other children who do not have access to education. After this presentation, they had 20 students step forward to become members. The team has recently held several fundraising activities to provide scholarships to Mona’s children, and is working with their sponsors to arrange for a field trip to one of the projects that Mona supports! Interested in joining? Please contact Samimi.nessa@gmail.com .

Mona Chapters - Los Angeles

Wed, 28 Jul 2021 08:18:52 GMT

Meet Mona Foundation's Los Angeles Chapter

Champions of Mona's mission and our ambassadors within the larger philanthropic and humanitarian community.

Mona Foundation Chapters are Mona’s advocates and champion our goals in their local regions. Every chapter represents Mona to organizations and businesses in their area, engages the youth in philanthropy at the local level, and helps build our leadership and financial resources by hosting events or other activities in Portland, Los Angeles and San Diego.

The LA Chapter is dedicated to bringing together the greater LA community to support the Mona’s mission to bring quality education to those that need it most, promote gender equality and inspire community service. The chapter holds several events during the year. For information please email Keith .

Katrina Shrago

Katrina Shrago is a junior in high school in the Los Angeles area with aspirations to attend university to study either business alone or in combination with architecture. She excels at painting and photography as well as math. Because her father is from London, she has spent a great deal of her life in England and Europe.

Katrina has the opportunity to see the world and learn about different cultures which has led to her desire to help out with different charitable organization especially those involving young children.

"I love supporting the education of children."

Lauren Schnell Davison

Lauren is an associate marriage and family therapist, life coach, writer and speaker. She has been in the public eye appearing as herself in reality TV shows, multiple news channels and lectures around the world -empowering people to live their best lives.

Since Lauren discovered the Mona Foundation it has been a dream come true to help children and especially girls have the freedom and opportunity to realize their true potential!

"Mona Foundation is a dream come true to help children and especially girls have the freedom and opportunity to realize their true potential!"

Paul Davison

Paul Davison is a fierce advocate of socially-responsible business practices. Currently, Paul serves as Chief Revenue Officer and Executive Vice President of a leading natural digestive health and wellness company. Previously, Paul served as Vice President at Proctor & Gamble’s New Chapter Vitamins division, in addition to leadership roles at other natural products, healthy beverage, and plant-based nutrition companies.

Paul is also a fifth-generation West Pointer, former Army master paratrooper, award-winning screenwriter, “recovered” reality television producer, novelist, and the father of two young girls.

Paul learned from an early age that a life lived in service to others was a life worth living, which made getting involved in the Mona Foundation a natural next step. Moved by the fact that investing in the education and empowerment of young girls can lift entire communities out of poverty and hopelessness, Paul is excited about working together to further Mona’s inspiring and vital mission.

"Life lived in service to others is a life worth living."

Stella Havkin

Stella Havkin is an attorney in the Los Angeles area. She has received her B.A. from York University in Toronto, Canada with a focus on Psychology and Political Science in 1984. Ms. Havkin received her J.D. from the University of California, Hastings College of Law in May 1987. Ms. Havkin has been a member of the California State Bar since 1988.

Ms. Havkin’s practice has focused on commercial litigation and bankruptcy. She has been named as 2013 – 2018 Super Lawyer in the Super Lawyer Magazine in the field of Consumer Bankruptcy Law. She is also the Chair with the State Bar of California Bankruptcy Legal Specialization Board.

"I believe education is key to eliminating global poverty."

Maya Beesley

Maya Beesley is the captain of her Isreali dance company, a varsity tennis player, and proud International bachelorette junior at Agoura High School. She has a deep passion for equality and a love for education so getting involved with MONA resonated with her from the start. The opportunity to make a difference for others around the world who do not have access to education fills her heart.

Maya loves the way Mona LA chapter builds community and inclusion for teens to be involved and makes it fun in the process. “I cannot imagine what my life would be like if I did not have access to learning. It is a human right and should be available to all boys and girls.”

" Education is a human right and should be available to all boys and girls."

Olivia Villaluz

Oliva Villaluz is an interior designer who loves to create environments that invite and inspire with a truly unique elegant style. A few of her notable projects include the Fess Parker Wine Tasting Experience at the Santa Barbara Hilton, Epiphany Cellars in Los Olivos, Brick Barn Wine Estate in Buellton, and the Fess Parker’s award winning restaurant “The Bear and Star” as well as the renown boutique hotel the Sunset Marquis in West Hollywood.

Oliva does not take hard work for granted but knows that all young girls need access to education to support them to find their gifts and blossom in the world.

"All young girls need access to education to find their gifts and blossom in the world."

Jade Wolf

Jade is an artist and author who just released The Creature Connection, a children’s book filled with imaginative creatures and stories about connecting to nature, each other, and ourselves. She also makes original designs for unique clothing and home goods as co-creator of the art collective Cool Beep Beep. Jade practices meditation and YiXue regularly and loves dancing and being in nature. Being ever curious about connections and how to better serve our children and environment.

Jade is deeply inspired to support the Mona Foundation’s mission to create a more kind world by enriching and supporting the growth and education of children, girls, and women everywhere.

"II am deeply inspired to support the Mona Foundation’s mission to create a more kind world."

Jason Joel Lautenschleger

Jason first became acquainted with Mona in 2007 when he was introduced to the foundation’s efforts through his wife, Katie. His clinical side was immediately drawn to the efficiency and clarity of Mona’s mission. His emotional side was blown away by the over-sized heart and passion of Mona’s family. Jason primarily works in television as Director of Development for 222 Productions.

When he’s not doing that, he’s creating games for the company he co-founded, Game Night in a Can or hosting his podcast, Creative Confidants. The common threads running through all of his endeavors are creativity and story-telling. He feels honored and blessed to have found a group like Mona that shares and celebrates those attributes.

"Mona uses the creativity of amazing people all over the world to address immediate needs of those who deserve a chance to share their story."

Barrett McLaughlin

Barrett McLaughlin is a game creator, entrepreneur, Advertising Creative, and has been a contestant on over 8 game shows. He hosts live game events, manages the Silverlake soccer club The Eagledogs, and is a student of Permaculture.

Barrett was drawn to Mona because the impact of the scholarships is so great, and every dollar goes so far.

In his own words, “The best way for all of us to grow peacefully on this Earth is to educate as many people as possible. And the Mona Foundation does it so beautifully. I’m excited to be a part of it!”

"Education is the key to a peaceful world, and I’m excited to be supporting it through Mona Foundation."

Katie Delahanty

Katie became involved with the Mona Foundation in 2007 when she was hired as an assistant fashion designer for Mona Board member Diane Samandi’s sleepwear company, Jonquil. Over the years Katie’s position evolved from design work to ecommerce and social media management. In 2011 she launched www.inbloomintimates.com and began writing a blog to help drive traffic to the website. Feeling limited in writing solely about lingerie, she turned the blog into a fictional serial, posting two chapters a week about a girl named Olivia Bloom who worked at a lingerie company. It had never occurred to Katie that she was a writer, but she soon discovered a passion for storytelling. After nine months of posting–and live-tweeting as nine of the characters–Katie realized she’d written her first novel. Shortly thereafter, in a crazy turn of events, she landed a literary agent and ultimately a three-book deal.

Katie holds a BA in Communication Studies from UCLA and a Professional Designation in Fashion Design from FIDM. She credits this education, combined with a family who supported the pursuit of her dreams, as essential to unlocking the hidden potential that has brought serious joy into her life. It is her wish that all children be given the opportunity to realize their gifts and share them with the world.

"I imagine a world where everyone has the opportunity to realize their innate gifts and fulfill their highest potential. It starts with education. I love that Mona supports schools’ needs–instead of dictating how funds are used–to help them grow."

Duane Clark

Duane Clark is an international director, screenwriter, and producer. He has directed over 100 hours of television all over the US, Canada, Great Britain, Europe, and South Africa. Mona Foundation’s mission spoke to Duane because he saw immediately that Mona’s approach to creating impact and movement towards alleviating poverty through gender equality makes sense. “Mona runs efficiently and intelligently. They make every dollar count and are impacting positive change in communities throughout the world.” The philosophy of creating a community of “friends of Mona” makes all efforts exciting and fun instead of an overwhelming task. It is through the engagement and participation of members working together to make a difference that so much gets accomplished.

Duane also likes how Mona includes the efforts of the youth to become involved because he knows the issues we face with poverty around the world are not going to change overnight. The next generation needs to be aware, and active and to carry the torch of Mona Foundation’s mission.

"Mona runs efficiently and intelligently. They make every dollar count and are impacting positive change in communities throughout the world."

Eva LaRue

Long known and well respected as an actor on popular shows like CSI Miami and All My Children, Eva LaRue has earned Emmy and NAACP nominations for her portrayal of strong women, and currently has found continued success as a motivational speaker, luxury travel writer/Ambassador for Travel.Luxury and a parenting influencer with her YouTube, Eva La Rue Channel Series, “ParenTeen”.

Eva is a board member, media director and brand ambassador for the company Circle4Parents.com – A virtual village for parents providing affordable, expert coaching on all parenting issues for topic specific support and solutions. As a passionate philanthropist and activist, Eva is the Spokesperson and Ambassador for the Tahirih Justice Center, a non profit, legal network helping women and girls fleeing gender based violence, sex trafficking and abuse. Being a member of the Baha’i Faith has solidified her belief that it is an obligation and a privilege to use whatever influence you have to leverage positive social impact in your community and the world. Having been invited to join in Richard Branson’s Philanthropic Leadership Forum on Necker Island, she is continuing to merge passion with purpose by joining the Los Angeles Board of the Mona Foundation. Eva’s most beloved job is proud mom to her teen daughter Kaya, who is also a writer and activist, having had her op-ed on “Child Marriage in the U.S” published this summer in Teen Vogue. Eva is also mom to 2 spoiled dogs.

"Mona is a project close to her heart, because it focuses on grassroots initiatives of universal education and gender equality as a means of eliminating poverty and achieving positive community transformation in the US and abroad."

Matt Earl Beesley

Matt Earl Beesley is a cinematic director who has worked all over the world for the past 30 years. His many credits include CSI Miami, Bosch, Chicago Fire, and Revenge. He was also the second unit director on the Academy Award-winning film Braveheart and Wayne’s World II and is currently Co-Executive Producer/Director on Dynasty.

His passion for justice and equality is matched only by the love he has for his family. The mission of Mona speaks directly to what is most important for him. He is thrilled to put forth his efforts to such a worthy cause.

"When I heard the statistic that one girl educated impacts 100 lives, I just said, “Where do I sign up?”"

Tamar Hermes

Tamar Hermes is a monetizing mentor, entrepreneur, and Mona enthusiast. The mission of the Mona Foundation, empowering young girls through education, speaks directly to her vision of raising women up to their highest earning potential. As a money coach, she is impressed with how Mona makes their dollars go so far by keeping expenses low and carefully planning and communicating with schools to refine its needs. This way the money goes directly towards education, not a large staff payroll. “The impact of Mona Foundation continues to grow, and its dream to alleviate poverty is gaining traction as so many lives are positively affected by each girl that is educated.”

It is an honor to serve as co-director of the newly formed Los Angeles Chapter. Sharing this noble cause and building our circle of “friends of Mona ” creates an energized and positive network that is unstoppable. It is in the spirit of love and conviction that we need to one day live in a world where all children have more than enough to eat and have the gift of a good education.

"I’m thrilled my efforts go directly to helping girls all over the world. Mona stretches her dollars in such effective ways."

Tammy Randall Wood

Tammy Randall Wood, ASID is the founder and principal of Interior Archaeology, a comprehensive interior design firm specializing in interior architectural design and curated furnishings. Tammy has designed award winning projects all over the US and has been featured in numerous magazines.

Tammy’s goal in designing homes is to create what she calls Noble Spaces; spaces with the power to support you in the life you creating and the person you are striving to be.

Tammy studied Television and Film in Los Angeles and went on to study Interior Design at Parsons in NY, eventually earning her NCIDQ Certificate (one of the highest accreditations in the field) as well as Professional Membership in the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID).

"Understanding is in itself the greatest of all motivators. There is a longing in every human heart for meaning; there is a natural craving for knowledge of the outer and inner realities of creation."

David Wood

David Wood is the CEO of Human Touch, originally hired to develop a turnaround and growth strategy for this 35-year old health and Wellness Company. An innovative and driven business professional, he managed a restructuring which led to debt retirement and strong annual growth and profitability. David’s expertise led to successful market and product strategies that drove product innovation in such companies as GN Netcom/Jabra and Bose Corporation. While at Bose, David pioneered and developed an extensive leadership development program for high performing colleagues and has been a frequent presenter for both internal and external learning programs. David engaged his undergraduate education in Economics at the University of California, Los Angeles, has general management certificates from Harvard Business School and an MBA from Boston University.

"It is my core and conscious mission and privilege to engage my own strengths and virtues for the benefit of others."

Mona Chapters - Portland

Wed, 28 Jul 2021 07:26:41 GMT

Meet Mona Foundation's Portland Chapter

Champions of Mona's mission and our ambassadors within the larger philanthropic and humanitarian community.

Mona Foundation starts a chapter where there is a core of Mona supporters who would like to become more intimately involved with the work of the Foundation and learn about sustainable social and economic development. Portland Chapter uses the events they host to share the principles that guide Mona and encourage youth and children to become more involved in service to the community. Members include Nikki Meshkin, Neda Soofi, Janet Zabeti, and Tanya Zabeti. Interested to join the Portland Chapter? Email Janet Zabeti .

Tanya Zabeti

Tanya has a Juris Doctor from McGeorge School of Law and has joined in the initiatives of Mona with the desire to be a part of meaningful change towards universal education and gender equality.

Her love of traveling has allowed her to experience many cultures that have provided perspective and focus in her volunteering efforts.

“I’m excited about the social and economic change this organization will undoubtedly continue to ignite globally in making education a more easily attainable right.

Education provides opportunities. It lays the foundation upon which we build our lives and, in essence, learn to interact with one another. By focusing initiatives on educating women and children in countries where education is scarce, we are helping to provide opportunities that will be a catalyst in alleviating poverty and injustice. I believe in Mona.”

"By focusing initiatives on educating women and children in countries where education is scarce, we are….alleviating poverty and injustice. I believe in Mona."

Neda Soofi

Neda Soofi, attorney is a former shareholder of Schwabe, Williamson & Wyatt, where her practice was focused in the areas of business, tax & estate planning, and she specialized in employee benefits and ERISA. She also specialized in providing advice regarding the design, evaluation and management of retirement, compensation and benefit plans, and other HR-related programs. In addition, Neda has expertise in mergers and acquisitions with regard to integrating employee and benefit plans and resolving employee-related issues. During her time as an attorney, she has developed and evaluated qualified and non-qualified deferred compensation plans, incentive pay and stock option agreements. Neda is also certified in global benefit management.

Neda has a master’s degree in international law. In addition, she has five years of legal experience overseas in banking laws, commercial contracts, real estate and commercial transactions, as well as legal and financial advising. She is a native reader, speaker and writer of Farsi, and has satisfactory comprehension of Arabic.

"Education is core to the advancement of women, and I am very happy to support a non-profit that advocates for both education and gender equality."

Janet Zabeti

Janet has extensive experience in banking and investment. She started her banking career in retail banking at Bank of America in Southern California in 1981 and worked in variety of different capacities including as Business Development Officer involved with marketing plans to achieve revenue goals. In 1993, she moved to Portland, Oregon with her family and continued her career in Wells Fargo bank. She worked in Wells Fargo Private Client Services and Wealth Management as a VP Senior Financial Consultant / Relationship Manager. There, she held a Securities License as well as an Insurance License and worked with high net worth clients helping them with their investment planning, setting their financial goals and managing their investments. Janet retired in 2011 and since then has focused on her philanthropic activities . In her own words, “it is an absolute pleasure and honor to be part of this organization and to be working towards making a difference in children’s lives.”

"It is an absolute pleasure and honor to be working with Mona towards making a difference in the lives of children."

Nikki Meshkin

Nikki Meshkin i has been a Technical Advisor and Business Operations Manager at Intel Corporation Technology & Manufacturing Group for 25 years with responsibilities in strategic planning, marketing and business operations. She previously held senior positions at Merrill Lynch and other financial institutions. Nikki currently serves on the Andisheh Center Board of Directors, celebrating and promoting Iranian culture, heritage, and the arts. She is also engaged in a global process of learning with the aim of enhancing the capacity of individuals and communities to serve humanity. Nikki holds an M.B.A. and B.A. in Finance & Management and lives in Portland, Oregon with her family.

In Nikki’s own words, “…to educate girls is to reduce poverty”…What is close to my heart is Mona’s focus on the projects that provide girls a real chance at a better life for themselves, their families and their communities.

"What is close to my heart is Mona’s focus on the projects that provide girls a real chance at a better life…"

Mona Chapters - San Diego

Wed, 28 Jul 2021 02:44:58 GMT

Meet Mona Foundation's San Diego Chapter

Champions of Mona's mission and our ambassadors within the larger philanthropic and humanitarian community.

San Diego chapter is dynamic, fun and ever active. They love and involve their children and youth in all their philanthropic activities. The result? The youth have already formed two Mona Global Citizen Clubs at their school! The chapter hold several events a year in support of Mona’s projects. The members include Nika Samimi, Director, Nava Ghalili, Director, Nadia Mahalingam, Director; Nicole DeBerg, Nour-Dean Anakar, Farah Ghalili; Nikoo Mahboubian, Jaleh Brunst, Yolanda Walther-Meade, Lori McKinney, Stacie Devitt, Heather Hays Eady. Interested in joining this chapter? Email Nava Ghalili.

Heather Hays

Heather has been working in Education for the past 19 years as a teacher and school counselor. She is currently working as a high school level counselor in San Diego helping students achieve their high school diploma and develop their post-secondary plans. Earlier in her career she taught high school and middle school students in Bolivia as a social science teacher, and travel teacher for the Baha’i Faith.

Heather holds a M.S. in Counseling from San Diego State, is a Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor, holds a Single Subject Teaching degree and has a B.A in History from UC Santa Barbara.

"I believe that education has the power to unlock potential and empower individuals to transform themselves, their communities, and eventually the world."

Albert Knowles

Albert Knowles began his career as an elementary and high school teacher and wrestling and football coach working with underserved children. He saw firsthand the transformation that education and a supportive environment can create in an individual’s life. After more than a decade of teaching, he had the opportunity to pursue a new passion. A desire to understand the nature and quality of our food supply led him and his wife to purchase a homestead farm in Washington State and develop an organic farm business where service, education and community building were the overarching goals. In addition to providing organic produce, meat, and eggs, their farm hosted monthly concerts in their barn to promote the arts and create community. He also supported other local farmers in the area and provided education to the local community about organic farming and local food. In addition to working as a teacher and a farmer, Albert supported his wife through medical school and residency. For several years, he stayed home to care for his two young daughters. As an educator and stay at home father he has first-hand experience of the power and difference that a quality education has on children and girls in particular as women continue to close the inequality gap with men. Albert holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from Claremont McKenna College and a Masters in Education from the Claremont Graduate University. He is excited to be a part of the Mona Foundation team to aid in their mission to educate and create opportunities for girls and disadvantaged children across the world.

Stacie Devitt

Stacie Devitt is an accomplished professional and philanthropist. She is committed to the promotion of human rights and the advancement of peaceful societies. She is a champion for underprivileged families and actively supports and is engaged in many social causes, including the advancement of fairness in the United States’ immigration process.

Stacie is currently the Board Chairman of the American Bar Association Immigration Justice Project, an organization that promotes due process and access to justice for immigrants and asylum seekers through the provision of high-quality legal services.

After a successful career in commercial real estate, Stacie is now actively involved in local political analysis and development, while working on her political science degree at the University of San Diego. Stacie believes that access to a quality education is one of the greatest gifts a child can receive

"I am deeply honored to be a part of an organization that works tirelessly to empower girls through learning."

Lori McKinney

Lori McKinney is the Chief Financial Officer at McKinney Capital and Advisory with over 30 years of experience in understanding and maximizing finances in investments of real estate and portfolio management. Lori takes pride in providing clients with confidence in their real estate decisions by bringing best practices and a fiduciary approach.

Lori has assisted investors and owner-users in managing expenses, budgeting, and forecasts, as well as strategic remodel for maximum value add in real estate investments. She is thorough and careful with each asset working from the perspective of maximizing asset value for future disposition. Lori brings her financial expertise to the asset management team. Her role includes financial forecasting & re-positioning of assets. Lori carefully prepares tax documents for all investors and keeps important dates for clients.

Lori has responsibility for everything that approaches a balance sheet or profit and loss statement. Her understanding of finance and accounting provides a ready resource to all with informative reporting for the team.

"I focus not on the bottom line, but on the relationships that create the bottom line."

Jaleh Brunst

Jaleh has been the resident of San Diego County for the past 37 years and is married and the mother of one son. She is a nurse by profession, and together with her husband established their private Medical Corporation where she has been the manager and the administrator for the past 37 years.

Her community involvement and volunteer services include establishing in 1982 the Scripps Memorial Hospital of Encinitas the Doctors’ Wives Auxiliary Board where she served as a liaison to Scripps Auxiliary Board. Established and chaired annual Medical Staff events, and hosted and chaired the first ever Gala Fund raiser. Since then, she has chaired or co-chaired the annual fund raising Galas for 22 years. She also served as a member of Scripps Hospital Community Advisory Board for two terms.

She is one of the eight founding members of Circle of Life 100 established to assist Scripps Hospital with their special needs. Jaleh was the honoree at the 10th year Gala fund raiser for Scripps Memorial Hospital and the first recipient of its Inaugural Achievement Award.

Jaleh has also served on the Hospice of the North Coast Board for several years and has similarly hosted and chaired Gala fund raisers for Hospice and volunteer’s appreciation events. In recognition of her immense services she was inducted to the Hospice of the North Coast Hall of Fame in 2005.

Jaleh is an active member of the Baha’i community and honored by the local Spiritual Assembly of San Diego for services rendered to its cause. She enjoys playing tennis and Equestrian activities, gardening and of course spending time with her grandchildren.

I am impressed and inspired by Mona’s efforts and accomplishments in educating and advancing the underserved children, particularly girls.

Nikoo Mahboubian

Ms. Nikoo Mahboubian worked for the Baha’i International Community, a non-governmental organization (NGO) at the UN from 1994 to 2002. As an Alternate Representative to the United Nations for this organization, she worked with UN officials, UN diplomats and other NGOs to advance human rights agendas, especially in the area of freedom of religion or belief. She also participated in many sessions of the United Nations General Assembly Social, Humanitarian and Cultural Affairs Committee, the Commission on Sustainable Development, and the sessions of the United Nations Economic and Social Council Commission on the Status of Women.

She was the President of the NGO Committee on Freedom of Religion or Belief for two terms leading the committee to coordinate the NGO activities in support of protecting the rights of freedom of thought, conscience, religion or belief; communicating with the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, other relevant UN Offices, and UN member states. Ms. Mahboubian was also a member of the NGO Committee on the Family assisting to advocate for the inclusion of the family in decisions and policies at the United Nations.

As part of the Baha’i International Community’s campaign on human rights education, Ms. Mahboubian organized, coordinated and facilitated meetings with the High Commissioner for Human Rights, and Permanent Representatives of the United Nations Missions to promote human rights education.

Ms. Mahboubian holds a Bachelors and Masters degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in International Business from the University of San Diego. She also has a certificate of French language from the Sorbonne University in Paris.

"The experience of seeing ADCAM in Brazil was transforming and has added to my resolve all I can in support of Mona."

Farah Ghalili

Farah Ghalili’s professional background ranges from healthcare in nursing to Real Estate, interior design and building/property development management across two continents. Farah’s primary time is dedicated however to helping to build moral capacity in communities in innovative ways. Her extensive work with moral education curricula in Australian school systems and her direct work with children in the schools on moral empowerment has crossed over into the United States where she has developed similar curricula for children in local communities and carried it out here in the San Diego community.

Farah hosts dozens of community members from a variety of backgrounds in her home weekly in a creative way that engages three separate capacity building which serves as a model of its kind in the area. She is consistently involved with a range of social action initiatives aimed to stimulate and develop unity in neighborhoods while she serves on related institutions.

"I am dedicated to the education and empowerment of children, especially girls."

Nadia Mahalingam

Nadia s a teacher, mother and French Baker. She has dedicated her life to serving humanity. This is the one thing that brings her true happiness. Nadia and family owned and managed a very well-recognized French bakery in Santa Barbara area called Le Chateau Bakery. In a short time, it became renowned for unique pastries and cakes using fresh and natural ingredients. This experience working under my parents has allowed her to use her talents for doing something she truly enjoyed which is catering special occasions using highest quality of fresh and natural ingredients. Her new business, The Lunch Box Cafe Deli in La Mesa, CA is a popular meeting place with those looking for best quality and home made cuisine, while enjoying a warm and welcoming environment. She has a very popular YouTube Channel, “ Baking with Nadia ’. with more than 63,000 subscribers and surpassing 1 million viewership, All proceeds from her online income is contributed to Mona Foundation.

"Service to Humanity is the one thing that brings me true happiness."

Nour-Dean Anakar

Nour–Dean is the Managing Partner and the Director of International Business Development at Mckinney Capital Group and has 28 years of experience and a successful track record in leading the development and executive management of top ranked gaming and hospitality Corporations in the United States, Europe, Latin America, and North Africa.

Nour-Dean contributes a high level of international collaboration to business developments and his expertise and global connections allows McKinney Capital and its partners to reach additional opportunities on an international platform. Nour-Dean specializes in identifying not only the right country to host a Corporation’s enterprise, but discovering the unique opportunity the country has to offer.

Nour-Dean has developed market studies, feasibility studies, and financial structures, in addition to having the diplomatic expertise with foreign governments to ensure projects commences and grow and expand successfully.

Nour-Dean is fluent in Spanish, Arabic, French, and English.

"I am very happy to be part of such a great cause and support the Foundation any way I can."

Nava G halili

Nava Ghalili was one of the youngest news anchors in the history of American television and is an active youth empowerment activist. She had also created, produced and hosted an Emmy-nominated series as a 24 year-old journalist. She is a film producer, actress, voiceover artist as well as a media consultant to multi-media agencies that serve as a voice to underrepresented population, political consultant for films and general consultant for non-profit organizations worldwide as an activist for education and women’s rights. Nava has been an international motivational speaker on topics related to social transformation and youth empowerment since 13 years of age.

Sought out for employment for senior-level advisory positions in counterterrorism by the government, Nava gives talks around the world on groundbreaking ways to prevent youth radicalization and violent extremism of various kinds from the perspective of her research, experience and as a millennial. Of Iranian heritage, Nava was born in America and also raised in Australia. She has advocated for issues ranging from moral education to gender equality and is currently developing educational curricula aimed at empowering youth called “Purify My Heart”. In addition to acting, dance and vocal training, Nava’s education includes Commerce (Curtin University) in Australia and Journalism (Harvard University). She also holds a Master of Science in Comparative Politics (Middle East Conflict) from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Some of her recognitions and awards include West Australian Youth of the Year, Oprah Winfrey OWN Finalist to create a show for the network and a finalist to serve as a United Nations Ambassador for Youth Affairs. Nava’s work has also been published by various media outlets including the Huffington Post.

"The prosperity of our future will depend on the moral empowerment and education of children, as they are the future champions of justice."

Nicole DeBerg

Nicole DeBerg currently serves as the Chief Operating Officer of the J. Craig Venter Institute (JCVI), a not-for-profit genomic research organization in La Jolla California, founded by biotech icon Craig Venter.

A seasoned financial leader with nearly 25 years of experience, DeBerg comes to JCVI most recently from the San Diego Housing Commission where she was Chief Financial Officer and Vice President of Financial Services. Prior to this role she held senior financial leadership positions at several emerging biotechnology companies including Altair Therapeutics, Kalypsys and Depotech, as well as the position of Chief Financial Officer at the Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Research Institute.

DeBerg is a Certified Public Accountant and began her career as an auditor with Deloitte & Touche. She has held Board positions at other non-profit organizations and is actively involved in the San Diego community.

"I am looking forward to working with all of you on accomplishing this wonderful and important mission."

Nika Samimi

Nika Samimi has been involved in the non profit world since 1998 beginning in Toronto, Canada. Her educational background is mainly in the business and legal world which includes mainly banking industry with her last career being a Vice-President of Canada’s largest Bank.

She is currently serving on the Board of Angels Foster Family Network and previously served on Committees of Miracle Babies, RBC Trust Board and York University in Toronto, Canada. She is a philanthropist in San Diego and gives her time or support to an array of San Diego nonprofits which have included Just Like My Child, Scripps Health, Francis Parker School, San Diego Salvation Army, Tahirih Justice & San Diego Museum of Art among others. Having 2 children herself, her goal is to empower children specially girls all over the world to be educated and in turn empower their own children and other girls.

"Empower and educate children, particularly girls, and they empower their children and communities."

Luis's Story: Succeeding Regardless of the Season

Sat, 17 Jul 2021 00:19:33 GMT

Luis's Story: Succeeding Regardless of the Season

Luis has been a participant of the Supporting Community Leaders Program since 2018. He is from the community of Molinero, Atlántico, Colombia. He is 30 years old, married and has two daughters whom he adores. The name of his project uses the initials of his daughters' names. They currently live in his parents’ home, where they raise pigs and laying hens. Luis serves as a tutor of the Preparation for Social Action Program –PSA, and in a short time his first class will graduate. He has participated in the seminars of the program held in Cartagena and recently, due to the pandemic, has had to do so online.

In October 2020, he began his project to market shoes and sportswear with the help of his wife Dairomis, who is also a PSA tutor. Luis made contacts with a shoe and clothing wholesale company and his idea was to offer the products in his community and some neighboring communities by catalog. When the order arrived, he would be in charge of distributing what was sold and Dairomis would be in charge of collections. Luis says that “with this project, my wife and I have been able to improve various aspects of our lives, such as knowing how to manage a business and handle the money. The experience acquired in the project has provided us with a lot of learning for the family and community. At first, we did very well because it was the end of the year season and many orders could be placed; we even sold Zenú handicrafts – sombrero vueltiao. However, at the beginning of the year sales of shoes and clothes began to decline and the orders decreased.” The unit coordination consulted with Luis and decided that it would be good to diversify until the season returns. This was how they chose a new idea that Luis could develop, which was marketing fish. The profit margin was not the same as that of selling shoes and clothing, but at least the money and investments would keep moving. This is how it was decided to buy fish to sell in Molinero and once a week take it to Barranquilla, the capital of the province.

Luis has not lost his initial idea. He thinks that sometimes you have to adapt to the circumstances. He and his wife and daughters dream of one day having a small store where they can sell shoes, sportswear and other products to be able to have sales throughout the year, regardless of the season. He knows very well that the project requires perseverance and the support of his wife. He trusts that with God’s help everything is possible, and that with the support that he receives from the Program he can achieve it.

Marleni's Story: Operating at a Fair Profit

Sat, 17 Jul 2021 00:00:17 GMT

Marleni's Story: Operating at a Fair Profit

Marleni is a young woman from the village of Lomitas Arriba, Cauca, Colombia. She is 20 years old and is a 6th semester student of Business Administration at Universidad del Valle. She and her mother, Mrs. Olga, live on a small piece of land in the upper part of the community. The family consists of just the two of them and they earn their livelihood from their work on the farm. They love living in the village of Lomitas because it is a very beautiful, quiet and a pleasant place to live. On their land they have chickens and a cow, and with Olga’s brother, they have planted 10,000 pineapples, and have 40 pigs, including brood sows, a boar and small pigs. They look after the crop and care for the animals.

With the support of the Community Leader's Program, they also began a project of 100 broilers in July 2020. They began with 100 chickens, but during the first production cycle they realized that it was not easy to sell them quickly in the community. Although people consume this type of meat a lot, there are other similar projects, so they decided to raise chickens in a staggered manner, that is, with groups of 30 and 40 chicks every 15 days; in this way they have been able to adapt more easily to the demand of the community. The chickens they produce are very high quality. They have a good weight, yellow color and are low in fat. These characteristics make them very popular with the people of the community who constantly ask them how to raise chickens and express their satisfaction at consuming an excellent quality product from their own community. Due to the pandemic and the national strike, the cost of producing chickens and selling prices have risen considerably. Many people have taken advantage of the situation to raise prices and obtain large profits in a short time, but Marleni and Olga follow the principle of obtaining a fair profit when they calculate the sale price of the chickens they produce, since one of the objectives of the project is to offer an excellent quality product at a fair price. The community greatly appreciates this gesture and is increasingly committed to supporting the project.

One of the things Marleni likes the most is that she can apply what she is learning to improve her chicken project and the activity on her land. Together with her mother, they want to continue optimizing production and they want to add a nursery where people from the community can find a variety of plants, especially those that are in danger of disappearing. They also think that they can promote the establishment of a farmers’ market in their community, where all the producers can sell their products without having to take them to town. They say that these types of initiatives are already being carried out in nearby communities and that they provide very good results.

“Marleni's participation in the program has been very positive,” says her mother. “I have seen very positive changes in my daughter's behavior, in her commitment to her university studies, her responsibilities on the farm and to herself.” She is grateful to the program for the opportunity her daughter has to be educated with other values, the financial support to start her project and her university studies, and she hopes that other young people in the community can also have and take advantage of this valuable opportunity.

Misheel's Story: A child teaches his mother

Fri, 16 Jul 2021 07:15:51 GMT

Misheel’s Story: A child teaches others

Last September, Hidden Gems trained 61 new teachers in Baigalmaa. Each lesson includes activities that emphasize teamwork.

One little girl participating in Hidden Gems came from an orphanage. One day, her caregiver met with her teachers and shared this story: “Every day, when she comes from kindergarten, she calls together every child and shares quotes, stories, songs, and poems about good behaviors. This sharing became a routine. Now everyone eagerly waits for her to return and share whatever she learned from school.”

Hidden Gems is a project at Mongolia Development Center that teaches children, parents, and teachers. Focused on character development, the curriculum includes children’s workbooks, a teacher’s manual, a parent’s manual, and a CD of songs and stories.

The teachers find this program very helpful:

“I learned many skills and methods, such as how to help children become active members of society, how to correctly work with each child, and new ways of encouraging and conversing with them.” -Kindergarten teacher at Egshiglen

“It used to be very difficult to work with the children. They would often fight for toys, and it was even harder communicating with their parents. But gradually the children changed as I taught the Hidden Gems curriculum. They started sharing toys and even apologizing to each other. When I organized a parents’ training, we started getting to know each other. Now we share the many good qualities we see in our children. The atmosphere became warm and positive. I’m really inspired to work as a teacher and help children this way.” – Oktober

Khushboo’s Story: I want to study! I want to study!

Fri, 16 Jul 2021 06:33:58 GMT

Khushboo’s Story: I want to study! I want to study!

Khushboo was born into a poor family in Lucknow, India. Her mother died when she was two. Her father remarried but her stepmother also died a few years later and as the eldest daughter Khushboo had to drop out of school in second grade to clean the house, cook, and look after her younger siblings.

In 2013 she had the opportunity to attend the Prerna girl school, a program of Study Hall Educational Foundation and supported by Mona in Lucknow, India. She was very talented and blossomed at school and even received a scholarship to attend a drama workshop in London but her father refused to allow her to continue her education despite the intervention by the school. Instead he contracted her to be married the following year.

When Khushboo refused and kept crying, “I want to study, I want to study,” he threatened to burn her alive and severely beat her with an iron rod. When Khushboo did not yield, he threw her out of their home. “My whole body was black and blue,” Khushboo recalls. “I sometimes feel that if I hadn’t gained consciousness the next day, he might have burned me alive because he was convinced nobody could touch him.”

Khushboo’s grandmother took her in and so she was able to continue her education, graduated from high school with honors, completed her Master’s degree in Women Studies and is currently pursuing a Ph.D. program. This past year and as COVID19 crisis crippled India and closed all the school, Khushboo transformed herself to a digital activist. Children in urban slums of Lucknow, India do not have access to smartphones and the internet. Using her computer, Khushboo gathered 11 children from her neighborhood and started teaching them by leveraging the assignments, instructions and mentoring she received from the Prerna teachers through WhatsApp. She is now managing a multi grade classroom in her courtyard. The children love their 2 hour morning session with Khushboo and come to her home with pencil, copy and a small handkerchief to cover their mouth.

“This lockdown has kept the children away from their schools. They miss their classes and their friends. Unlike children from rich families they do not have access to smartphones, laptops and the internet. They cannot do online classes. Seeing them doing nothing during lockdown I decided to share my smartphone with them and help them study…. it’s been a joy for me to fulfill my long unfulfilled dream of being a teacher.” Khushboo

Preeti’s story: From a child bride to a community activist

Fri, 16 Jul 2021 06:24:46 GMT

Preeti’s story: From a child bride to a community activist

Preeti, a 24-year-old mother of four, came to Study Hall Education Foundation (SHEF) almost three years ago to enroll her daughters at Prerna School. Preeti had a troubled childhood and at the age of eight, started working with her mother as domestic help and looking after siblings and house chores. She was forced into a child marriage to a 30-year-old man when she was only 11 and had her first child at age 13.

By the time Preeti was 19, both her parents and her in-laws had passed away. The same year, she became a widow as her husband died from liver failure due to alcohol abuse. Determined to give her daughters a good future, Preeti worked in five houses to barely make ends and to send her daughters to school. When she came to Prerna to enroll her 11 year old daughter, Rakhee Panjwani, principal of Prerna, asked Preeti to also enroll herself and her two other daughters. Her 4 year old son will be enrolled later when he is 6 years old.

Preeti is now studying in class 9 in the bridge course (an accelerated learning program) and has left the informal working sector to work part time in SHEF’s outreach office. The SHEF staff helps with her younger son when Preeti attends classes.

Meena's Story: Her dreams of becoming a lawyer come true

Fri, 16 Jul 2021 05:46:06 GMT

Meena's Story: Her dream to be a lawyer comes true

Meena graduated from Prerna Girls School in 2014. She recently completed her Bachelor of Law degree from the University of Lucknow and is now pursuing her Master’s in Law at the University of Lucknow. Meena’s father could not study or go to school because he is a dalit (a member of the lowest caste in India). He was often beaten up by other children in the school. Because of this, Meena says that her father is vicariously living his dream through her and is very proud of her achievements. In his youth, her father was falsely convicted and imprisoned because he did not have access to a lawyer to argue his case. This story is part of Meena’s inspiration to become a lawyer.

At the convocation in August, she shared her experience with the audience. “Looking back at my life, where I came from, how my life has been, and how it has now changed, I am deeply grateful to my teachers, who motivate me and every girl at Prerna to do better. The teachers welcome every girl at Prerna along with the problems that girls face in their life. They help each girl to solve these problems. My teachers encouraged me and helped me with the challenges I had to face. The education that Prerna gave me empowered me to fight my battles on my own and become the person I am today.”

Felix's Story: A Promoter of Community Well-Being

Fri, 16 Jul 2021 05:30:27 GMT

Felix's Story: A Promoter of Community Well-Being

Felix recently participated in the 3-day seminar in Cameroon and found it enriching. Plans were made with his team on the next steps in the implementation of the DHEP technology. The teams also consulted on how they would involve their entire family and make sure that they all participate. Following the seminar, Felix gathered his family, wife and two children and helped them understand how this technology will improve their method of farming, allow them to spend more time together and he gave them a breakdown of the schedule ahead. His family was incredibly happy as they got to spend more time with their father, especially his children who worked closely with him clearing and making seedbeds. They were able to follow the schedule as planned during the seminar.

They planted bean, corn, and cassava. He observed that the crops are growing well and healthy. And are now preparing for the second planting season. He also shared that few weeks ago termites infested his farm, and he was able to discourse with the other promoters and they made decisions on what actions to take, he bought the required products and was able to exterminate the termites.

“I am incredibly happy when I look at my plot, it is exceptionally beautiful to watch, and I look forward to the harvest.”

Monica and Madelaine's Story

Thu, 15 Jul 2021 20:12:21 GMT

Monica and Madelaine's Story

Monica Espinosa and Madelaine Rodríguezes are indigenous Panamanians who would have probably been lost to poverty if the Badi School had not provided them access to education and empowered and enabled them to, together, to achieve the highest scholastic honors to-date.

Specifically, Monica’s family are indigenous Panamanians who left their tribal land, where subsistence farming was the only way to survive, to the outskirts of Panama City in search of a better life for their children. They did not have the opportunity to go to school but were determined that their five daughters receive the best education possible. Her father held two jobs and worked every day of the week for several years, as did her mother. They did all they could including knocking on the doors of many schools to seek scholarships in support of the education of their daughters. Now after many years, three daughters have graduated from college, a fourth is getting a medical degree, and Monica is in her second year at Technological University of Panama studying electronics and telecommunications engineering.

Monica’s education was supported by Badi School scholarships provided by Mona Foundation. When her parents’ came to Badi School to see if they would admit Monica on scholarship, Badi embraced this shy, quiet and unassuming girl, and through their very innovative approaches including exposure to arts, science and technology unlocked her hidden potential. The result? In 2016 Monica, in collaboration with Madeline, won three national and international science awards for their patented discovery: a refrigerant that does not pollute the environment.

1st place in Engineering and Technology Research category at a national contest hosted by the Ministry of Education of Panama
2nd place in Global Fair, USA , INTEL ISEF 2016 (Intel Company, International Science and Engineering Fair) among 1,750 high school students from 75 countries
Top Five Recognition, USA, Organization of American States for “Evolution in the efficiency of the organic refrigerants based on Zeolita-Salmuera in the Refrigeration Systems”

Monica also received one of the highest entrance examination scores ever recorded in the history of the Technological University of Panama, and was awarded a full 4-year college scholarship! In her own words,

“The town where I’m from, San Miguelito, has the highest violence in the province. My town showed me the consequences of not studying and taking wrong decisions. All my life, I had to stay home because of the violence, so books became my friends. I am really grateful to all the people involved in my academic, moral, and social education like my family, Badi School. I also appreciate the institutions that introduced me to research and science, as I think through scientific research I can positively impact my society.”

Jessica's Story: Youth Artist of the Year

Thu, 15 Jul 2021 19:59:30 GMT

Jessica's Story: Youth Artist of the Year

Jessica was a restless, withdrawn child when she came to Badi School, Panama. She was taken in, loved, and cared for. To help her channel her energy, “learn patience,” and express herself, she was taught to paint as an after-school activity. Her talent flourished, and she began participating in different exhibits in her school district and later across Panama.

Today, she has successfully graduated from the College of Architecture on a full scholarship, is recognized as the “Panama Youth Artist of the Year ” and owns her own gallery! She is also giving back to society by teaching other girls at Badi School how to paint.

Beatriz & Brenda's Story: The Road to University

Wed, 14 Jul 2021 23:32:19 GMT

Beatriz & Brenda's Story: The Road to University

Beartriz and Brenda are sisters. Despite the severe financial difficulties that their family faces, with scholarships from Mona, Beatrice has attended the Masrour School at ADCAM, Brazil since age four. A studious student, she goes to great lengths to excel in all her studies as her sister, Brenda, did before her. Brenda also attended Masrour School starting in kindergarten and now attends the Federal University of Amazonas where she majors in biology.

Mona scholarships enabled both Beatriz and Brenda to complete their studies. With little education, their single mother works as cleaning assistant; she does not earn enough to support her family. Though she works a lot, she always makes time to take her daughters to school, relying on the hope of a better future for them.

"I am a mother with great gratitude for ADCAM, because my daughters have access to quality education. After ADCAM, Brenda went to the Federal University, and I wish the same for my daughter Beatriz and for Isabela who is 6. I want my daughters to have a life different from mine and I can say that they will, because of the education they are getting. Thanks to all the friends of this institution, my heart will be eternally grateful.” – Beatrice and Brenda’s mother

The Association for Cohesive Development of the Amazon (ADCAM) started in 1985 as a small orphanage with 30 kids. Today, it is a nationally-recognized institution which offers K-12, a technical college, vocational training, a family development center and rural education programs serving over 320 students, and 2,500 youth, families and elderly a day.

Through the partnership established over the years between ADCAM and the Mona Foundation, ADCAM has continued its socio-educational activities that benefit children, young people, youth, families and the community. By supporting quality education, access to education, qualifying adolescents and young people for the job market, empowering pre-youth and with the skills needed to ensure sustained income, ADCAM continues to see material improvement in its community despite the tremendous economic challenges facing the country.

Kerolyne's Story: I am building my future

Wed, 14 Jul 2021 22:46:13 GMT

Kerolyne's Story: I am building my future

“ The Family Development Center in ADCAM, Brazil helped me in many situations, especially at school, because before, I didn’t have the skills I have now. I feel very grateful for all the help I received. I have also changed my way of relating to my friends. I now feel more open to new friendships, I have friends, and I share my joys with them. Thank you to all the teachers who helped me, and are still helping me, to build my future, making me a good person. Thank you very much! ”

Jocivaldo, another student, began studying at FDC at age 11 when relating to his peers was an overwhelming challenge for him. After four years at the center and with Mona support, Jocivaldo is now a strong, confident young man who credits ADCAM for his growth. His family often joins him at the center for group activities.

“The experience changed my life. It was one of the best things that ever happened to me. Before I didn’t have the skills I have now. I feel more open to friendships and share my joys with friends.”

ADCAM is located in one of the poorest sections of Manaus, the capital city of the State of Amazonas. Since 2006, Mona Foundation has supported this project with scholarships and funds for capital improvement.

The Family Development Center at ADCAM provides a safe community space for 150 at-risk youth ages 11-15 to learn and grow. The center empowers students and their families to serve humanity. It encourages students to develop personal talents and to explore and expand their natural abilities. It also teaches specific life skills to enable them to make a decent living upon graduation.

Menstrual Hygiene during lockdown -Brothers help their sisters make reusable sanitary pads

Tue, 06 Jul 2021 05:17:07 GMT

Menstrual Hygiene during lockdown: Brothers help their sisters make reusable sanitary pads

COVID19 impact on girls - brothers come to help

Lucknow: While much of the world continues to hide menstruation and menstrual products out of shame and embarrassment, in rural Malihabad, Lucknow, Aneesha and Deeksha are enlisting their brothers’ help to sew their own sanitary pads.

Across the globe, menstruation is highly stigmatized and tabooed. In India, this results in many girls and women getting infections for lack of proper hygiene. BBC Magazine estimates that 70% of all reproductive ailments in India stem from poor menstrual hygiene. Yet, rather than addressing the stigma and resulting shame that cause women and girls to hide their periods, most efforts until now have largely focused simply on providing disposable sanitary pads. While a necessary stopgap to prevent infections, disposable pads bring their own set of problems, including a high financial cost to women and their families, as well as a high environmental cost to our planet.

At Study Hall Educational Foundation (SHEF), teachers engage their students, both male and female, in discussions to explain the process of menstruation, address myths and taboos, and emphasize the fact that menstruation is natural. Our students are then supported as they take the discussion home to their families in order to eliminate stigma and spread the message that periods are natural and nothing to be ashamed of. This May, in honor of Menstrual Hygiene Day, our students are learning to sew their own cloth sanitary napkins at home, and daring to break age-old taboos by drying them outside in the sun.

Even amidst the lock down, the campaign has given students the opportunity to spread awareness and promote positive change. “I was happy to see that my brother did not feel ashamed to be making pads with me,” says Aneesha who is a student of Vidyasthali – Study Hall Educational Foundation’s rural school for under-served children.

“Everyone thinks that menstruation is a curse, but it’s a natural, healthy process”, she adds. Her brother Anmol also a student of Vidyasthali enjoyed the new experience, saying, “At first I didn’t know what she was making, but then she explained it to me and told me about menstrual hygiene. I think many people feel ashamed discussing this topic because they don’t know how important it is.” Deeksha also a Vidyasthali student, saw this as an opportunity to do something for other girls who lack access to menstrual products. “There are so many girls who don’t have money to buy pads,” she says,

“I want to make more pads and distribute them to girls who need them.”

Like Anmol, Deeksha’s brother Himanshu says he also learned a lot from his sister about menstruation and menstrual hygiene.

Since the campaign began two weeks ago, more than 20 girls have proudly shared pictures of their homemade pads, and more are shared each day. “It’s exciting to see our students take up the issue with such dedication and commitment to creating change,” says Zarine García, Director of Youth Leadership at SHEF, who is coordinating the campaign. “The stigma around menstruation has a severe negative impact on the physical, mental, and emotional well-being of girls and women everywhere. As a society, and a world, we need to change the way we look at menstruation, stop hiding it, and let it come into the light.”

Manju’s Story - Helping her entire family succeed

Tue, 06 Jul 2021 05:02:35 GMT

Manju’s Story - Helping her entire family succeed

"If you set your heart to achieve something, no one can stop you."

Manju’s parents didn’t consider educating girls to be important and kept her home for many years to help work in the fields. But when relatives recommended the Barli Institute in 2016, they decided to send Manju there for a six-month course.

Manju was a fast learner. While at Barli, she learned cutting, tailoring and to read, write, and do basic math. After completing her training, Manju returned to her village with the dream of establishing her own tailoring shop.

Though her parents insisted she get married right away, Manju did not give up her dreams. She convinced her new in-laws and husband to buy her a sewing machine, began earning money as a tailor, and became well known for her honesty and punctual work. With savings from her profits, she even enabled her husband to open a small general store!

“If you set your heart to achieve something, no one can stop you. The work of a woman is not limited to the house or fields only. It is important for us to stand on our feet and be financially independent. Learning skills is essential for this and helps builds confidence.” – Manju

Her strong determination to pursue her dreams has inspired several other girls to attend Barli. When Manju learns about a girl who has left school, she considers it her duty to visit that girl’s home and explain the importance of education to her parents.

Manju’s husband is supportive of his wife’s efforts and admires her achievements. He says,

“If a family is to be happy, it is of utmost importance that the women in the family be given respect and equal treatment.”

Pooja’s Story - The gift of education keeps on giving

Tue, 06 Jul 2021 04:58:15 GMT

Pooja’s Story: The gift of education keeps on giving

Pooja's father now believes that there is no difference between a girl child and a boy child.

Education gives confidence. Education gives wings. Education makes dreams possible.” – Pooja

Pooja is from a tribal village in Dhar district. Fortunately, her father always believed that daughters also have a right to good education. He decided to send Pooja to the Barli Institute so that she would be empowered and motivated to pursue higher education and be an example to other girls in her village.

She excelled in her academic performance, not only sharpened her skills and knowledge but was always ready to help her classmates as well. Upon graduation from Barli in 2016, Pooja returned to her village all fired up to continue her studies. She passed her twelfth standard exams and is currently in college pursuing a degree in agriculture.

Pooja travels considerable distances to neighboring villages to encourage as many girls as she can to continue their education. She also teaches the children of her neighborhood. She does stitching too and teaches this skill to the women in her village.

Pooja is thankful to the Mona Foundation for its support and for funding her training at the Barli Institute. This training has given a new meaning to her life. She is empowered to take charge of not only her life but she is a shining light for all the girls in her village.

Pooja’s father is very proud of her. He says that the training at Barli funded by the Mona Foundation has motivated his daughter to pursue higher education. He believes that there is no difference between a girl child and a boy child. Both should have equal opportunities of education. He cannot stop smiling when the villagers praise his daughter for teaching the children and women of the village. He is happy that she contributes in the development of the village.

One-room schools in urban slums and rural villages of Lucknow

Tue, 06 Jul 2021 04:33:21 GMT

139 Gyan Setus (one-room schools) in urban slums and remote villages of Lucknow, serving 3,858 students.

One room schools educate children with no access to schools, bring them to grade level, and then transition them to public schools to give them a fighting chance for a better life.

Many kids in the very poor areas around cities or rural villages never attend school. Study Hall Educational Foundation (SHEF), a Mona partner, has responded to this need by operating GyanSetus, or non-formal education centers (in practice, one-room schools).

These schools provide a way to educate kids living in abject poverty in urban slums or rural village where there is no access to clean water, sanitation, or schools, bring them to grade level and transition them to the public school system to give them a fighting chance for a better life for themselves and for their families. Overtime, Gyan setus have proven to be an effective solution to the chronic problem of education systems that have isolated and alienated the children on the margin.

Mona Foundation began the support of the Gyan Setus (one-room schools) in 2017 with a commitment to fund 14 schools at the cost of $3,000 per school per year serving 30-40 students. The cost covers the salary and travel expense of a qualified teacher, school uniforms, supplies, and an occasional meal when possible.

With loyal support of our donors, Mona Foundation in 2022 supported 139 such schools, serving 3,858 students at the cost of $7/month/student. While the growth has been significant, the needs are greater. Currently SHEF has 450 applications to establish such schools in other areas pending funding. The video below shows 63 of such schools, serving 2,089 students.

GyanSetu centers also act as hubs of community transformation.

GyanSetu has come a long way in the last 10 years. They began with being community based one room schools. Now, they are offering other services to the community including early childhood education, adult literacy programs, digital literacy classes and skill development (such as tailoring). Gyan Setus are also committed to educating mothers. Each one holds 6 to 7 meetings per month for mothers. During these meetings a certified teacher, accompanied by counselors train the mothers on the basics of health and hygiene, domestic violence, child marriage, alcoholism, etc. and connect them with community services that can save their lives, and keep them going. New Paragraph

Key educational achievements in 2022 include:

139 GyanSetus are now educating over 3,858 students 75 locations.
167 women enrolled in adult literacy program.
204 children transitioned to public schools.
65 girl students completed digital literacy courses.
120 students completed their skill development course to enable employment.
32 anti-dowry and family counseling sessions were held. 12 of the 30 cases of reported violence against women and girls were resolved and the rest are in process.

The video below features Gyan Setus' 10 Year Anniversary Sports Extravaganza where 700 select students from 139 Centers competed for medals across many sporting skills.

Soni’s Story: Bridging the Digital Divide

Tue, 06 Jul 2021 04:00:09 GMT

Soni’s Story: Bridging the Digital Divide

Using cell phone to enable the continuing education of her class.

Soni is an 11th grade student at Prerna Girls School in Lucknow. Her father is a daily-wage earner. Even before COVID-19 struck, her family was under considerable financial strain. “The pandemic added to all the problems we were facing,” she said. “Suddenly, our source of income was gone and we were left with nothing. We were only able to feed ourselves with help from our school and the government community kitchen.”

“ I was afraid that neither my siblings or I would be able to continue our education. We had no books, no phone to access study materials, and financial pressure to sustain ourselves.” - Soni

With so many students like Soni, SHEF launched “Digital Saathi” (partner) to facilitate greater access to online learning during the pandemic. In this program, the school loans smartphones to selected students so they can access online classes and also facilitate learning for other students in their neighborhoods.

When Soni learned that SHEF had chosen her to be a Digital Saathi, she felt a huge sense of relief. “Once the strict lockdown ended, the school provided us with smartphones, which helped me and the girls living nearby.” Now she studies at home with other girls using uses her phone to get daily lessons and information from their teacher. She also reports back to the teacher about their progress.

Priyanshi's story - Enabling digital learning for 45 children

Tue, 06 Jul 2021 03:51:53 GMT

Priyanshi’s Story: Enabling digital learning for 45 children

Every girl on this planet should have equal opportunities to make her dreams a reality and shape her own destiny.” – Priyanshi

Priyanshi Prajapati is dedicated to educating the children in her village of Nabipanah on the outskirts of Lucknow, India. A graduate of the Prerna School for Girls, run by Mona partner Study Hall Educational Foundation, she began teaching at her village GyanSetu center (one-room school) after high school to earn money for college. The GyanSetu program, also run by SHEF, provides quality education to out-of-school children in urban slums and rural villages in and around Lucknow, India with the goal of transitioning them into a formal school program.

Now a college graduate, Priyanshi runs the center and continues to educate the children of her village, especially the girls who have had no access to formal learning. Despite the challenges of their daily lives, the children are curious and keen to learn. In June 2020, she was selected for SHEF’s Digital Saathi (partner) program and received a laptop to provide her eager students with access to online learning. She now teaches 45 children, including digital literacy classes for the young women & mothers in her village.

Meet Board of Advisory

Mon, 05 Jul 2021 09:07:47 GMT

Meet Mona Foundation's Advisory Board

Champions of Mona's mission and our ambassadors within the larger philanthropic and humanitarian community.

Rainn Wilson, Actor, Author and Philanthropist

Rainn Wilson is a writer, comedian, podcaster, producer, actor and a committed philanthropist. He is best known for his role as Dwight Schrute on the NBC sitcom The Office , for which he earned three consecutive Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series . Outside of acting, Wilson published an autobiography, The Bassoon King , in 2015, and co-founded the digital media company SoulPancake in 2008.

Rainn became involved with Mona Foundation in 2007 and joined the board of directors in 2014. Rainn and his wife Holiday have visited the schools Mona Foundation supports in Haiti and India. They continue to have a deep connection to Haiti and in 2013 formed a nonprofit called LIDE which focuses on educating girls and healing through the arts.

Dr. Urvashi Sahni, Founder & CEO of Study Hall Educational Foundation, India.

Urvashi Sahni is a social entrepreneur and educationist of 29 years standing, founder of the Study Hall Educational Foundation which runs educational programs in India. Urvashi leveraged digital technology to create flexible teaching methods to address challenges in under-resourced schools and was awarded the Ashoka Fellowship in 2010 for her work with Digital Study Hall (DHS). DSH is now capitalizing on the widespread mobile and internet network, using mobile phones and tablets as a medium to distribute their content. Urvashi is using DSH technology as the framework for her new initiative of girl empowerment, currently reaching around 10,000 adolescent girls from underserved areas. Dr. Sahni is a non-resident fellow with the Brookings Institution and a member of Hillary Clinton’s CHARGE commitment to ensure that more girls complete secondary education around the world.

In her own words, “Mona provides continuous communication, trust, and involvement. They don’t tell us what to do. The say, ‘Tell us your problems and how we can help.’ Then they work alongside us. Because of their long-term commitment and thoughtful funding, our work has reached more than 40,000 students and teachers. This has happened only because of Mona’s support.

In her own words, “an empowering education can help girls recognize themselves as important persons worthy of respect. I want to educate as many girls as I can so that we have a generation of empowered girls.

Nikki Meshkin, Advisor & Business Operations Manager, Intel

Nikki Meshkin has been a Technical Advisor and Business Operations Manager at Intel Corporation Technology & Manufacturing Group for 25 years with responsibilities in strategic planning, marketing and business operations. She previously held senior positions at Merrill Lynch and other financial institutions. Nikki currently serves on the Andisheh Center Board of Directors, celebrating and promoting Iranian culture, heritage, and the arts. She is also engaged in a global process of learning with the aim of enhancing the capacity of individuals and communities to serve humanity. Nikki holds an M.B.A. and B.A. in Finance & Management and lives in Portland, Oregon with her family.

In Nikki’s own words, "T o educate girls is to reduce poverty...What is close to my heart is Mona’s focus on the projects that provide girls a real chance at a better life for themselves, their families and their communities."

Parisa Fitz-Henley, Actress, Producer and Writer

Parisa FItz-Henley is an actor, writer and producer with a passion for public health and education. She is best known for her roles in series such as USA's The Sinner, and the Marvel/Netflix collaborations Luke Cage and Jessica Jones, as well the films My Spy and Fantasy Island. She rounds out her creative endeavors occasionally jumping into the world of music.

Having spent much of her life working with children and youth in artistic and community development projects in the US and abroad, Parisa was naturally attracted to Mona Foundation's efforts. She saw in Mona the power of education that honors culture and empowers young people to become agents of change in their lives, as well as the lives of those around them. She began supporting their events before happily committing to being part of the Mona team. In her own words,

" The more I learn about Mona, the more inspired and encouraged I feel. In a world where so much is crumbling, Mona's dedication to building strong foundations for young people provides not just hope, but assurance, that the future will be in capable hands. It means so much to me that Mona sees the priceless gifts inherent within each soul and community. The educators who've seen (and still see) me in this light have helped me remove obstacles to fulfilling my true potential --- a process that will last a lifetime. I'm honored to be part of something that makes that possible for so many young people the world over."

Ridvan Foxhall, Founder and Executive Director at New Era Creative Space

Guided by the belief in the oneness of humanity, Ridvan Idara Foxhall is committed to promoting in young people the conviction that they can be the voice of positive change in the world. To this end, for over two decades, she has committed her time, energy, and resources to develop creative and educational programs for children with an emphasis on developing their moral capabilities alongside their intellectual and artistic talent.

In 2006, inspired by the Children’s Theatre Company (CTC) a non-profit organization based in NYC dedicated to “building character on stage,” she founded a Peekskill chapter of CTC. In 2013, New Era Creative Space came into being, in response to the growing need for educational programs that were both creative and provided children the opportunity to develop leadership skills. Ridvan’s vision for NECS to become a hub for creative initiatives, community engagement and to inspire the next generation of mindful and innovative thinkers.

Ridvan holds a Master’s degree in occupational therapy and is a certified parenting educator. Originally from Nigeria, she currently resides in Peekskill with her husband and two children. She enjoys reading, dancing, playing tennis, and hiking.

Dr. David Khorram, Director, Global Ophthalmology University of Virginia

We all want to have impact.

The Mona Foundation makes it easy for each of us to have an incredible life-changing impact on the life of a child.

David Khorram is a physician, writer, and educator with extensive experience in grassroots development and capacity building. He has served on and chaired boards of both nonprofit and for-profit organizations.

After completing his training in eye surgery in the United States, he spent 22 years in the South Pacific developing eye care in the Mariana Islands. In addition to co-founding Marianas Eye Institute, he helped establish programs to build capacity in health care and administration among island residents. Dr. Khorram has participated in and led eye-care projects across the continents with a recent focus in Ethiopia, Tajikistan, and Honduras. He currently serves as the Director of Global Ophthalmology for the University of Virginia from his home in the Czech Republic. He has been listed in Guide to America’s Top Ophthalmologists. David and his wife, Mara, are the co-founders of Brilliant Star School, a non-profit school on the island of Saipan.

He is the author of the books, “World Peace, a Blind Wife, and Gecko Tails,” and “Diabetic Eye Disease.”

Leila Milani, Program Director for Global Policy and Advocacy for Futures Without Violence .

As the Program Director for Global Policy and Advocacy for Futures Without Violence, Leila leads their work on global violence prevention, with a focus on women and children. In this capacity, she is instrumental in developing innovative policy solutions, driving advocacy efforts, securing resources, and influencing the agendas of national coalitions such as Girls Not Brides, Coalition for Adolescent Girls, the US Civil Society Working Group on Women, Peace, and Security, End Violence Against Children Task Force, and the Coalition to End Violence Against Women and Girls Globally, for which she serves on the executive committee.

Milani serves on the Board of Directors of Soccer Without Borders which aims to use soccer as a vehicle for positive change, and Too Young To Wed which works to empower girls and end child marriage globally, and Women’s Refugee Commission , which catalyzes transformative change to protect and empower women, children, and youth displaced by conflict and crisis. Milani has traveled extensively to Eastern Africa where she has led innovative programming around engagement of men and boys in advancing gender equality.

Milani is a lawyer and human rights advocate with special expertise on women’s rights, children’s rights, and human rights. She earned her JD from Wake Forest University, an MA from University of Virginia Graduate School of Arts & Sciences, and a BS from Auburn University.

Roy Steiner, Ph.D., SVP for the Food Initiative, The Rockefeller Foundation

Roy Steiner, PhD, is the Senior Vice President for the Food Initiative at The Rockefeller Foundation, where he leads a team focused on creating access to nourishing food for millions of people in the U.S. and around the world, supporting scientific advances in human nutrition and sustainable food production, and carrying forward the Foundation’s enduring commitment to a sustainable Green Revolution in Africa.

Prior to the Rockefeller Foundation Roy worked at Omidyar Network, where he served as Director of the Intellectual Capital team since 2015, focused on helping Omidyar achieve its strategic objectives at all levels including in the agriculture space. He dedicated nearly a decade of his career to leadership positions at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, where he was a founding member of the Agricultural Development initiative and was instrumental in working with The Rockefeller Foundation to develop the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, or AGRA . His work for Gates was central to the creation of Ethiopia’s Agricultural Transformation Agency, or ATA, which helps accelerate the growth and transformation of Ethiopia’s agriculture sector, and dozens of other partnerships that are critical to the fight against food insecurity around the world.

Before the Gates Foundation, Roy spent eight years in Africa where he was founder and CEO of Cyberplex Africa, one of the largest web development and knowledge management companies in southern Africa. Early in his career, he was an original founder and managing director of Africa Online, which pioneered the delivery of Internet service in Zimbabwe. Additionally, he was a founding member of CH2MHill’s Strategies Group and has consulted for McKinsey & Company in the areas of technology innovation, growth strategies and international development.

Roy holds a PhD and a Master of Science in agricultural and biological engineering with minors in economics and international development from Cornell University, as well as two bachelor degrees in mechanical engineering and biology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Education is at the core of every positive social change.

Nikoo Mahboubian

"The experience of seeing ADCAM in Brazil was transforming and has added to my resolve all I can in support of Mona."

Shiva Riddell

Shiva believes in lifelong learning and education. The fact that Mona Foundation’s mission revolves around education is what motivates her to action. She began her own education with a Bachelors of Science in Nursing and subsequently completed her Masters in Education. Throughout her nursing career, she worked in cardiac care units, surgical units, and public health departments. After taking time to raise her two sons, she redirected her focus to personal well being and preventative health. Over a 17 year period she trained clients in fitness, yoga and a healthy lifestyle. Rumi’s “Let the beauty of what you love, be what you do” became the cornerstone of her approach to life and growth.

Shiva has travelled extensively throughout the world and during her travels, she became inspired to represent the beautiful art created by local women artisans. She was the founder and CEO of Lotus by Shiva – Accessories from around the globe, specifically jewelry and scarves. She provided an avenue for women artisans to sell their art here in the US. She worked with women in India, Turkey, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Vietnam, Tibet, China, Japan, Belgium, Indonesia, Mexico and the US. When we help elevate women, we see its fruits in creating a better world.

Shiva has always been active in her local community. She served on the Sister City Commission for many years, serving as its Chairperson for 5 years. She represented the US traveling three times with the Mayor of Edmonds and his delegation to Hekinan, Japan, to promote friendship and cross cultural exchange. She and her family hosted 10 students over the years from Japan.

Shiva’s passions include her family, traveling, vegetarian cooking, gardening, poetry, dance, and painting. She is currently focused on her art and has been painting commissioned artwork.

When we widen our vision to include all of humanity, it is easy to see that we are more similar than different. Every child has so much unrealized potential! What better purpose in life than to help advance that potential. Mona Foundation has the perfect approach to helping children and girls in particular in that quest.

Maleka Darvish

Maleka Darvish is an undergraduate business student at the University of Washington Foster School of Business. Her goals include becoming a human rights attorney one day to work towards creating a more equal world. Maleka’s extracurricular activities include leading the UW American Marketing Association and competiting in case competitions for the University of Washington Global Case Competiton Club. Through these activities, she has built a community of diverse and intelligent students.

She has interned for many large and small businesses including, Scener, Wallace Properties, and Holistique Health Institute. During high school, she spent four years teaching and coordinating a Baha’i-inspired childrens class to her community. When not in class, Maleka enjoys going for runs around Green Lake and exploring new restaurants around Seattle. Spending time with friends and family are her most treasured moments. She is excited and humbled to serve on the advisory board.

Education changes lives and I want to do my part to provide this precious opportunity to those who do not have it.

Don Dao

Don is a management consultant at the Boston Consulting Group and a recent graduate from the University of Texas at Austin. From a young age, Don has been involved in both fundraising and execution of projects to provide education for women and children around the world, most notably with Sunflower Mission in Vietnam. In 2015, Don and the Texas Wranglers, a service and spirit organization on UT’s campus, founded Texas Two Step Throwdown – an annual philanthropy concert benefiting the Mona Foundation.

Don is an avid traveler who aims to visit as many countries as possible, which has allowed him to understand and appreciate the importance of Mona Foundation’s work. He believes through experience that education is the most sustainable path to raising communities out of poverty and improving the lives of o thers.

To those whom much is given, much is expected.

Desiree Ak havan

Désirée is an attorney and entrepreneur in New York. She is a Co-Founder at Lazeez, a paleo baking company with a mission to empower women and build healthy communities through food. Previously, she was Deputy General Counsel and Head of Legal and Compliance for North America at Third Bridge, a primary research provider to the global investment community. Désirée holds a B.C.L and L.L.B. from McGill University Faculty of Law and graduated summa cum laude with a B.A. in International Relations from Boston University.

Désirée has held international speaking engagements with Ethical Business Building the Future on themes of Corporate Social Responsibility and Capacity Building, and worked on projects for the International Labor Organization and Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. She creates spaces for women to engage in meaningful conversations and works to raise awareness about menstrual inequity through her professional and personal endeavors.

Désirée seeks to empower women and girls and create opportunities for their economic and spiritual advancement.

Women and girls across the globe face systemic inequities that prevent them from becoming full and active participants in all spheres of society, and in order to advance civilization as a whole, we must address these inequities and build capacity through education.

Dr. Marjan Davoudi

Dr. Marjan Davoudi is the Clinical Director of the Behavioral Mental Health P.C. in two locations, San Diego and La Jolla California. She is a clinical psychologist, Board certified in three states, California, Illinois and Arizona. Her research concertation is Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and the areas of her clinical expertise are mood disorders (Anxiety and Depression) personality disorders, adjustment to medical conditions and transitional stages of life, loss and grief, family therapy with wide range of relationship problems.

Dr. Davoudi has been also a faculty member of the Baha’i institute of Higher Education (BIHE) for the past 13 years teaching psychopathology and serving at several committees for the development of master level programs at BIHE. The BIHE was created 38 years ago after the Iranian government systematically withheld the right to education and official employment to Baha’is in Iran. The volunteer services that the Global faculty proudly provide for this unique institution is the only avenue of higher education available to members of the Baha’i faith in Iran, (its largest religious minority) and the only means with which the students can pursue and ultimately hope to achieve their educational goals.

Dr. Davoudi has also been a part time Faculty at the Chicago School of Professional Psychology, has lectured internationally, and participated in significant number of television programs focused on different psychological topics.

Education is one of the most powerful tools to transform this world. This is why I have fallen in love with what the Mona foundation has been doing around the world and its incredible mission. Working with the foundation has brought immense joy and meaning to my life.

Nava Ghalili

Nava’s work has also been published by various media outlets including the Huffington Post.

The prosperity of our future will depend on the moral empowerment and education of children, as they are the future champions of justice.

Elham Rouhani

Elham Rouhani was born and educated in Dubai, U.A.E. After completing her primary studies, she attended college in the U.K, then later transferred to West Virginia University in the U.S.A. She graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Resource Management SUMMA CUM LAUDE and a Master of Science degree in Economics in 1988.

Rouhani has worked with a Fortune 500 company in Dubai in the field of Human Resource Management. Her professional work enabled her to gain experience with managing people in different countries and support job placements of students from Higher Colleges of Technology at Citibank N.A. branches in U.A.E. In addition, Rouhani has served as an international Business Consultant working with both small and medium sized businesses, and an entrepreneur. Today, as an educator Rouhani teaches Economics at Gwinnett Technical College in Georgia and also serves as the discipline program director.

In her own words, “I give to Mona Foundation because I believe in what they do and the lives they change. What we do for others remains and is immortal. This journey helps me find myself as I serve others.”

I give to Mona Foundation because I believe in what they do and the lives they change.

Chloe Rastegar

Chloe Rastegar graduated summa cum laude in 2021 from the University of Southern California, where she earned her B.A. in Non-Governmental Organizations and Social Change and minor in Psychology. At age 15, Chloe was elected as Mona Foundation's youngest Advisory Board Member. She supports Mona Foundation through fundraising efforts via social media and social commerce platforms as well as organizing in-person events. Chloe founded the Mona Global Citizens Club, a platform for students to participate in local service projects, support international efforts of Mona Foundation, and engage in dialogue regarding education. The Mona Global Citizens Club has since grown to include several chapters spanning across the U.S. Chloe aspires to advance gender equality and expand access to education internationally. She traveled to Panama in 2017 to visit the Badi School, where she interviewed students and faculty about the institution’s progress. Chloe utilizes her formal education and experiences to ensure that women and girls have access to education.

I support Mona Foundation because it strategically and effectively implements the bottom-up

grassroots model. Mona Foundation empowers local community members to be at the forefront of

defining and solving the obstacles they face, while serving as their long-term support system along

the way.

Janet Zabeti

Janet retired in 2011 and since then has focused on her philanthropic activities . In her own words, “it is an absolute pleasure and honor to be part of this organization and to be working towards making a difference in children’s lives.”

It is an absolute pleasure and honor to be working with Mona towards making a difference in the lives of children.

Nessa Samimi

Nessa Samimi is a high school senior who has actively supported Mona Foundation since 5th grade. As a 6th grader, she traveled with Mona Board members on a site visit to Panama, and formed a Global Citizens service club at her school. In 2021, she joined the first cohort of Mona Youth Ambassadors. Over the years, Nessa has held numerous fundraisers, including annual Move4Mona 5K Walks that successfully engaged her peers and community in supporting education and gender equality.

In 2024, Nessa travelled to Colombia to visit the Ruhi Arbab and Simmons schools, which have partnered with Mona since 2020. She is currently raising funds to help the Simmons School build a library and classroom.

Nessa's strong record of community service and leadership includes interning with Mona for the last three years and a prestigious internship at the United Nations, where she attended high-level meetings alongside dignitaries. She has also served her local community as a volunteer with Meals on Wheels and National Charity League.

Passionate about Mona’s mission, Nessa is dedicated to ensuring that education is accessible to all and currently serves as a member of Mona's Youth Advisory Board.

Opening Ceremony, Sierra Leone!

john@monafoundation.org (Laura Baerwolf) — Fri, 02 Jul 2021 23:53:29 GMT

Opening ceremony of a middle school in Sierra Leone

Njomborhun Middle School

The Mona Foundation team returned in late September 2019 from the opening celebrations of the middle school Mona funded in Njomborhun village in Sierra Leone, West Africa.

The trip was a profound experience. We have never been more inspired by a determined people. As a result of the dedicated efforts of the community and government, 150 children from six villages will now receive a quality middle school education in a safe environment.

Building the school was a dream come true for the villages, and their delight and gratitude were obvious throughout the ceremony.

Among the greeters were chiefs from six villages, officials from the ministry of education, other officials, and all the women leaders who had pleaded for the past three years with Programme for Children to build the school.

At the ceremony, one leader after another stood up to say building the school was a collaboration between local and global nonprofits and the government, but now “ their work ends and your work begins. ” They stressed the school’s success depends on the chiefs, elders, parents, and students. “Your backs are made to carry backpacks and not babies” was heard again and again.

Path to sustained change

Fri, 02 Jul 2021 10:01:54 GMT

Path to Sustained Change

Grassroots Initiatives: Local Communities Addressing Their Own Needs

Paving a Road to Prosperity

Nineteen years in the nonprofit field, working directly with grassroots initiatives, has taught us many valuable and eye-opening lessons. The most important and consistent finding is that development at the grassroots level does work to fight global poverty.

What is Grassroots?

Like a single blade of grass growing steadfast from the ground, a grassroots organization enables people at the foundation of an issue or movement to develop solutions based on their first-hand experience. Grassroots initiatives put the power into local hands, grounded by the daily interactions and challenges they aim to overcome.

Grassroots means starting in the neighborhood – understanding the culture, the people and the needs from the inside out. Grassroots initiatives don’t start from the outside because the most capable person is someone on the inside. When the community supports an individual or initiative, they take ownership which builds the pride necessary to overcome the obstacles and challenges that come with enacting change.

Badi School in Panama: A wonderful example of a grassroots initiative

After many visits to Panama over several years, I have formed a close bond with Mrs. Torres, co-founder of Badi School. She did not intend to start a school that now graduates the top students in the entire country. She just wanted her own children to have the opportunity to learn.

The Torres family lived in a poor, rural neighborhood with no schools nearby. In 1990, the Torrez family rented a small dismantled house from the Panama Social Security Agency, remodeled the house and closed the garage to use it as a classroom. Mrs. Torres began a Kindergarten class and started teaching her two boys in the carport at their house. Her lessons always included a focus on virtue training, and she saw her sons begin to thrive. Other families in the neighborhood noticed and asked if they could bring their children. Soon the Torres family filled their carport with Kindergarteners. When it was time for the children to advance, the Torres’ added a 1st grade class in their living room and welcomed new Kindergarteners from the neighborhood into the carport. Class was in session again!

Mrs. Torres saw how important the service was the school provided to her community. She knew she needed to continue her own education and begin teaching formally. The community was inspired and gave its full support. More grades were added to the school, and the Torres home became an epicenter of activity. Eventually, classrooms were built so that the school could move out of the Torres’ house. To this day, the house sits in the middle of the school yard as the beating heart of this thriving environment, surrounded by the hustle and bustle of children excited to learn. That’s grassroots. It starts with a need in the community and a local community member arising to serve.

Shift the culture and end global poverty

It is easy to see how even a little support can make a tremendous difference for the students at the projects we support. We believe that together – through grassroots education, giving 50 percent of the world population voice and skills to lead equally – we can make this difference.

We believe working towards universal education and gender equality is the most effective way to solve global poverty issues. However, the work needs to begin locally, and it needs to be managed by members of the community. Every culture on the planet holds positive and negative opinions about education and the equality of women. Therefore, an outsider coming in and pointing out the negatives in another culture is intrusive and offensive. The grassroots approach is not only the kinder approach, it’s the approach with the most potential impact for shifting a culture and creating lasting change. It needs to come from people who understand their own cultural values. Outsiders just can’t understand the subtleties without a lifetime living in and under the same conditions. A friend, a neighbor or a family member is much more likely to be able to inspire someone to take action than, for instance, someone from another country.

We trust that those living in the communities who suffer from a lack of education and from social and moral issues such as prostitution or child marriage best understand their own problems, and hence are in better position to address them.

At Badi school – after 25 years of thoughtful education – including teaching values such as love, honor, respect, service towards others, and gender equality, the facilitators are seeing positive shifts in the culture. In a place where prostitution is a side effect of extreme poverty and unwed mothers are the norm, the Badi school is arming their students with the thinking power that spurs this change. With education, they’re able to identify more easily what uplifts their culture and what degrades it.

Mr. Torres and his son Alexis stayed with me in Los Angeles a couple of years ago. We hosted fundraising events for Badi School in various locations over the week. He created a slideshow for the programs and shared his choices with me. He wanted to include a photo of a young woman in a wedding dress. It was a sweet photo, but I didn’t understand the significance of this picture. Mr. Torres explained that in communities in Panama most women do not ever marry.

Becoming an unwed mother with multiple father-partners is the norm. It’s easy to understand the stress and poverty-induced situations that perpetuate living this life, but I still didn’t fully understand. Mr. Torres explained that the girl getting married in the photo was a former student at the school. She made the decision to marry and then to have children. SHE made this choice. Mr. Torres believes this is proof that the culture is shifting.

Mr. Torres is a brilliant man. Over the past 25 years, he has also furthered his own education and became an engineer for NASA. He did not miss the subtlety in the shift this photo demonstrated. He put the photo in his presentations because he understood how significant this change is. I could never have understood this. This kind of culture-shifting change might not only go unnoticed by an outsider, but might not be a goal at all and would continue to go on, unchanged.

Badi School has transformed from a tiny learning group in a carport to winning national awards in education and helping to shape policy for education at the governmental level in Panama. We are honored to serve them and are humbled by their selfless dedication to their community.

Dareleen’s Story

Dareleen Cano was a beautiful 12 years old girl when she was admitted to Badi School on a Mona Scholarship, including books and clothes. Her parents had abandoned her and her sole source of support was her grandmother who washed and ironed clothes to survive. Within two years, Dareleen was on the honor roll. Upon graduation, she attended the Panama Technologic University (UTP) on a full scholarship to continue her studies in Industrial Engineering. She has now completed her degree, is currently working as a statistical manager for COPA/Continental airline, taking care of her grandmother and also volunteers at Badi School as a way to give back.

Community building at the grassroots – essentials for lasting change

Beyond the education of the individual student, teaching the value of service to others is a key factor in bringing about positive changes and disrupting poverty. This makes the student learning and doing these things incredibly powerful, especially when that student is a girl. We say it all the time, 1 = 100. Educating one girl impacts 100 other lives. The beautiful thing is that through their service to others, they can have this incredible impact.

Mona believes development is sustainable when service to others is the core value that drives everyday actions as individuals and as community members. Service to others helps us be the best we can be and exponentially increases our impact in whatever steps we take for the betterment of ourselves, our communities and our nations.

We also see development as a process of growing one’s capacity to make decisions about their own advancement and goals. This process should be led by and belong to the people themselves because every community has their own set of unique challenges and solutions.

Moral leadership education and community service are woven throughout Badi School’s curriculum?and students are recognized for their good character as well as their academic achievement. Students?apply what they learn to help the development of their neighborhoods by teaching children’s classes?and providing other needed services. In 2015, a group of students from the 9th, 10th and 11th grades received second place in?a national short film festival for their film on how to change someone who bullies into an agent of?positive change. The film was shown nationally and impacted many students around the country and?inspired other schools to promote good values.

Click here to read more about Badi School

Partners in progress – building bridges

When we partner with grassroots projects we commit to a long-term collaborative partnership. However, we don’t manage the project because we believe that every people, regardless of their economic status, has the capacity, the right, and the responsibility to own and lead their own development. Building capacity at the grassroots level is the pre-requisite of sustained change. Our relationship with the projects we support is one of mutual reciprocity. We are their voice and their representative to the larger public, we learn from them, we share our knowledge and experiences as needed, and we support their growth plan so that they can serve their own communities.

Our supporters are also our partners. Mona connects these projects with people who really care, but may not have the time to do the research or site visits to make sure their money is going to worthy causes. Mona does the footwork and research to find projects to partner with that we know are grassroots initiatives, owned by the people that we serve. Our supporters trust us to partner with programs like the Badi school that are making a difference and enacting positive change within their communities.

Diane Samandi

Board member

Developing philanthropy

Fri, 02 Jul 2021 09:46:34 GMT

Developing our Own Human Capacity to Give and Help Others

Developing institutional capacity is key to sustaining change.

Working with Mona Foundation over the past three plus years has afforded an appreciation for the importance in developing institutional capacity for the projects we serve. And of course, this capacity is primarily built by the dedicated efforts of administrators, teachers and supporting individuals to construct an engine for sustainable development.

make a difference? Philanthropic pursuits may certainly involve financial capacity, but more importantly, those who make a difference bring a particular energy and output to the causes they hold dear. In considering the expansion of individual human capacity, I note key catalysts of development in these four dimensions:

1. Building a connection to the cause

Last month, I had the opportunity to visit two of our projects in Haiti – New Horizon and the Zunuzi School. Key from the visit was an enhanced understanding of the difficult environmental context that these wonderful schools operate within and sustain. Seemingly simple objectives are not always simple and good intentions must navigate a minefield of obstacles to reach their ends. While spending time with the youngest students at these schools brought great joy, I was so impressed and taken by the interaction, thoughtful questions and enlightened points-of-view of the secondary grade students. There was a breadth of understanding that I found surprising – while the school curriculum clearly drives foundational academic skills, moral education and class engagement is providing these kids a world view. They exhibited a sense of how families and societies operate and deep introspection about their own obligations, leadership imperatives and opportunity to contribute to society. A deep and inspired appreciation for the difference these young men and women can make in the world was through direct engagement with the students, teachers and local leaders. Through direct experience and discovery, individual capacity and energy is generated.

2. Contributing to real results
Net of our vocations, we all have finite capacities of free time and resources and so must contemplate how this value is best applied in our lives. Between friend and family obligations, recreational pursuits, community activities and leisure lies a small amount of discretionary capacity to apply well. Individual energy and commitment arises when that remainder is applied to activity that generates a clear return on investment. We all want to make a difference, but often our service efforts may lead to uncertain or difficult to determine outcomes. The impact of Mona Foundation’s efforts is so clear and so impressive. In 2017 alone, Mona’s contribution included:

The education of more than 258,000 students, teachers and parents across 18 schools in 10 countries
675 worldwide service projects with more than 1 million people directly impacted overall
Well over $2 Million in grants to wonderful and productive schools striving to develop new leaders

With Mona’s focus on developing educational opportunities for girls, the impact and return on investment increases further since we know that one educated girl directly impacts the lives of 100 more in their communities. Such great realized value on personal capital spurns further capacity.

Connecting to your passion

For many years, I had the pleasure of building and developing a retail store platform for Bose (audio and home entertainment products). We began with one store location and a focus on providing a great experience, exciting customers and serving them in ways that were unexpected and wonderful. Initially, this objective was easy – but as we expanded to 110 locations over eight years, replicating this experience became a challenge of a different order.

My own passion for education was really borne out of a need to not only align more than a thousand colleagues directionally, but inspire an organization to serve. We developed an extensive leadership development program which ultimately touched hundreds of our employees. While there was great reward in seeing our team grow and learn to perform their jobs more effectively, the real and less expected bounty was how the program changed their lives. A focus on giving back, living aligned to core values and aspiring to make a difference in the world ultimately created better contributors but more importantly, better people.

My own commitment to Mona is fueled by this appreciation and respect for how education can transform individuals, businesses and communities. And what further spurns my own energy in this regard is that Mona’s supported programs are truly grassroots in nature. Program and institutional ownership is vested in the local communities, and how students are developed is catered to the distinctly unique economies, cultures and capabilities of their respective environments. Building one’s personal capacity involves a certain “relatability” to the cause at hand through deep interest and discovery or similar life experiences that touch deeply

4. Filling your own cup while filling the cup for others

“The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.” – Mahatma Gandhi

Fulfillment in our own lives is the sum of the material and intangible bounties realized during our all too brief human journeys. And through age, experience and discovery, over time we realize that these intangible bounties like love, relationships and engagement are of increasingly greater value relative to other hard assets.

I admire those in the Millennial generation whom have more rapidly discovered at a young age that experiences through social connection, travel and adventure are more prized than the next great iPhone. And these experiences certainly do much to fill the personal “cup” of fulfillment. Yet, the realized value is still generally limited to what is received by the individual alone.

When experiences are targeted toward serving others, we are in effect pouring our fulfillment value into another’s cup. And in of itself, this is wonderful. Yet, there is something else magical that happens when we choose to give of ourselves to others. Building our own individual capacity through service does not deprive our own cup, but rather there is a reciprocal double bonus of bounty whereby our own cups become further filled. In other words, the more you serve, the more you get back. This expands self-discovery and personal capacity.

The opportunities with Mona Foundation are boundless – and, through the expansion of projects served, the emergence of local chapters and so many new means to connect with the cause of alleviating poverty through universal education, there is a fulfillment spigot for your cup never far away.

Four out of every five in this world live on $10 a day or less, in fact about half the world is living on just $2.50 per day. The need for education to change global poverty has never been greater but so too is the return on investment. For each dollar invested in education, ten dollars in economic value is created. It is Mona’s mission to impact this multiplier to the greatest extent possible and it is fueled by the human capacity of its friends, supporters, contributors and the incredible “full cup” leaders who serve the foundation and affiliated projects.

I look forward to your thoughts and perspectives!

Thank you,

David Wood, Mona Board Member

Change the World? Empower Girls and Women!

Fri, 02 Jul 2021 09:35:25 GMT

Change the World? Empower Girls and Women!

Girls’ education may well be the highest return investment available in the developing world. – Lawrence Summers, Former World Bank Chief Economist

It is one thing to read about the impact that educating girls and women can have on whole communities. It is quite another to see it with your own eyes. I have been fortunate to have that experience when visiting several of our partner projects. The most memorable experience that I have had in the field with Mona was in the summer of 2016, when my (then) fifteen-year-old daughter and I visited the Barli Institute for the Development of Rural Women in Indore, India. The Barli Institute serves women and girls (ages 13-21) from the lowest castes in some of the most remote villages in the region. The program at Barli is a six-month residential program that teaches literacy skills, organic farming, solar cooking, health and hygiene, and entrepreneurial skills like sewing. At the completion of the program, 100 percent of graduates pass the state literacy exam as well as the state sewing exam.

When I first read about Barli, and even when I visited the program and its facilities, I have to admit that I mostly focused on its academic outcomes. I could also see the value of teaching farming and hygiene, but why teach sewing? It was not until we visited one of the young women’s villages that it became clear why teaching these entrepreneurial skills is not just important — it really is the key to the success of the program.

It took us about five hours to get to the remote village, with nothing along the way but tiny clusters of makeshift shelters or shacks, the occasional small farm, animals of all kinds, and a few people here and there walking along the road or riding in carts pulled by donkeys. We met up with the young women from the school at the main market — a thriving metropolis in comparison to the area around it. Makeshift shops (one room structures with three walls and a roof) lined the streets, but more common were vendors right out on the street selling fruit, nuts, spices and whatever else they had that someone might want to buy. Cattle and other livestock also roamed the streets, as did a variety of other stray animals.

I had read that the literacy rate in the area was only 37%, and that the percentage was far lower for girls and women. Driving into the village, we saw nothing but extreme poverty everywhere we looked. Between that and the fact that we were probably the first Westerners that many of the people in the village had ever seen, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect when we stepped out of the comfort of our air-conditioned vehicle. Little did I know that what we experienced next would change my life forever.

The young women met us in the middle of the street with a huge banner bearing the name of their school. This made me even more nervous as I knew that educating girls and women was controversial, particularly in rural villages. To my surprise, though, from the moment we stepped out on to the street until the moment we returned to our vehicle hours later, the whole community welcomed us with open arms.

The young women proceeded to march down the street, banner in hand, showing us the store fronts in which each of them had started their own sewing businesses. The Executive Director of the Barli Institute explained to us that in the past, the property owners would never have leased the space to these young women to open their stores, but because their businesses were so profitable, the store owners could not turn them away. As a result, the whole community had begun to understand the value of educating girls. It was because of what the school had done for the community economically, and the longstanding trust that the school had built, that the students were able to parade down the street celebrating their education, and the village was so welcoming of our group.

At the end of the day, we sat down with the graduates of the program to talk about what they were doing with their earnings. Some were putting their husbands and/or younger siblings to school; a few had purchased mopeds for their husbands to enable them to go to work or school; and a group of young women had started their own micro-finance fund. Most significantly, every single one of these young women was giving back to the community in some way. It was amazing to witness. In fact, it still gives me goosebumps to think about the difference this one small program is making for this whole community simply by educating and empowering girls and women.

It is even more inspiring to imagine how a thousand or ten thousand or a hundred thousand Barli Institutes could truly change the world.

We can do it together!

Thank you,
Kim Clark, Mona Board Member

Visiting ADCAM, Brazil

Fri, 02 Jul 2021 09:27:26 GMT

Visiting ADCAM changed my life.

ADCAM has educated thousands of underserved children, youth and adults in Manaus, Brazil for the past 30 years

Two summers ago, I was provided with the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to visit Mona’s project, ADCAM, located in Manaus, Brazil, and to say I was nervous as we drove through the gates leading to the school was an understatement. I was terrified that I wouldn’t be able to form personal connections with the students considering I was limited to only two words of Portuguese; Obrigado, meaning thank you, and brigadeiro, the name of Brazilian chocolate fudge balls that I managed to develop a dangerous obsession with during my two-week trip.

Its turns out I was worried over nothing. The students at ADCAM were not only some of the most welcoming and warm people I have ever met, but they also opened my eyes to the impact of education on a community. After filling my camera roll with pictures of the students, futilely attempting to use Google translate to ask questions, and being led around the beautiful campus, we visited the library. I’ve always been an avid reader, so walking into the library provided me with a true sense of comfort and familiarity.

That was where I met these two amazing, young girls, Isabel and Yasmine, who had actually rehearsed a few sentences in English telling us their names and age. I fawned over their Portuguese copies of Diary of a Wimpy Kid, one of my childhood favorites, and together we took many selfies using the new portrait mode feature on my phone. When I returned back to San Diego, the thought of helping students like Yasmine and Isabel stayed on my mind, and eventually prompted me to start a club affiliated with Mona Foundation at my school with the help of Mrs. Javid and Chloe Ragestar. Last school year, our club held a Krispy Kreme Donut Fundraiser during lunch and successfully raised $480 for the students at ADCAM.

ADCAM has educated thousands of underserved children, youth and adults in Manaus, Brazil for the past 30 years and helped transform entire communities. Of the 876 students in the K-12 and youth programs, 46% are girls.

Aarti Singh’s Story

mahnaz@monafoundation.org (Mahnaz Javid) — Fri, 02 Jul 2021 09:23:04 GMT

Aarti Singh's Story

“I could never open my mouth at home. I was a frightened weak girl. Now I speak up. Now I am not afraid.

Aarti is a student at Digital Study, Lucknow. She participated and successfully completed the Digital Study Hall Aarohini Girls Empowerment Program focused on prevention of child marriage and gender equality.

“I could never open my mouth at home. I was a frightened weak girl. Now I speak up. Now I am not afraid. My father has stopped beating us because we speak up. I know my rights and am not afraid to demand them.

Now I dream and I want to be a teacher!

I wasn’t sure I would even finish high school. But now I have a BA and I want to do a B.Ed. I want to learn dancing and computers and everything, anything. There are many challenges, but I know that we can find solutions, I am not afraid now. At home my mother asks my advice and I am confident now that I can give her good advice.”

When Mona began the support of Digital Study Hall in 2008, they worked with 21 schools, supporting the education of 21,000 girls. Today, with your support, and aided by technology, policy push and partnership with the government, Digital Study Hall, has scaled its model of education across 993 government schools of Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, trained 24,000 teachers in Girls Empowerment Program, impacting the lives of 501,000 girls like Aarti.

Youth Empowerment Program Zunuzi School, Haiti

Fri, 02 Jul 2021 09:18:04 GMT

Youth Empowerment Program, Zunuzi, Haiti

Youth Empowerment Program is designed to build capacity at the grassroots and develop youth to become leaders and change agents of their own communities.

Haiti is in desperate need of capable and moral leaders who will put the interests of Haiti and its people ahead of their own personal gain. Only moral leaders can help Haiti break through the cycle of dependency on aid that has paralyzed its development over several decades.

The numbers speak for themselves – 8 out of 10 people in Haiti still worry about being hungry after billions were poured into the country following the 2010 earthquake.

To this end, Zunuzi School has adopted the Youth Empowerment Program designed to build capacity at the grassroots and develop youth to become leaders and change agents of their own community development and transformation.

The aim of this program is to help people help themselves with dignity and respect. Currently, there are 10 groups of several youths engaged in this process, carrying out numerous social action and service programs to meet critical needs of their own communities.

Anis Zunuzi Baha’i School is like an island of hope in the middle of chaos outside its walls. Offering excellent academics, arts and music and Youth Empowerment Programs to connect the students to, and restore their pride in their cultural identity, the school educates 355 K-12 students, of whom 55% are girls.

Canyon Crest Academy Club

Fri, 02 Jul 2021 09:02:14 GMT

Canyon Crest Academy Club

Canyon Crest Academy Club, CA, USA supporting education of girls

A club at Canyon Crest Academy (CCA), a public high school in San Diego, has raised $1,480 to provide Mona scholarships for three girls to attend Badi School in Panama next year. “People are very willing to support students,” said Samiya, 16, who cofounded the club, Sustaining Humanity through Education (SHE), with her friend Ella when they were both 14.

Sustaining Humanity through Education seeks to improve the world and decrease poverty by advancing the rights and education of women and girls. “This improves the community as a whole,” said Samiya.
To raise money for Mona scholarships, the club held six bake sales at the local post office. The first sale raised $300. People proved thirsty for an organization like Mona.

“You just have to give people the right cause,” explained Ella. “One elderly man came to two of our bake sales, and each time gave us a $100 bill because he was so touched. People were excited that their money goes directly to educate children in need.”

The club of 14 girls and one boy is having impact both locally and globally. SHE members tutor girls and boys from disadvantaged backgrounds in grades K-12 at Casa de Armistad. Each week, club members spend 90 minutes tutoring students one on one or in small groups. After helping with homework, they tackle other needs, such as improving reading skills.

“Building someone’s academic confidence makes them feel more valued and inspired to empower them to make a change,” said Ella. “Tutoring also helps us step out of our shoes for a second and help others.”

“Club members are passionate about making a difference in the world through selfless service,” said Samiya’s mom, Deborah. “I saw Samiya, Ella, John, Frances, and others inspired at their bake sales, handing out pamphlets about Mona projects with a sense of being part of something greater than their efforts at Canyon Crest Academy. They are energized by working toward a world that promotes education for all, and values girls as much as boys.”

Ella’s mom, Ramesh, agreed: “SHE has done a wonderful job feeding the passions of such a caring group of kids. Their two-prong approach of fundraising for Mona and serving the local community is a perfect way to practice ‘think globally, act locally.’”

The club is also supported by Canyon Crest Academy’s culture of giving. Founded in 2004 on the principle of inclusivity and dedication to the arts, the high school uses the arts to serve the community. The following are a few excerpts from a delightful hour that Mona spent interviewing Samiya and Ella.

What inspired you to support the Mona Foundation?
Samiya: “Mona’s grassroots philosophy drew the club. Its approach is unusual, in that it isn’t top-down. With Mona, I saw for the first time how I can use my values as a Bahá’í to make the world a better place.
Ella: “Ever since 6th grade I’ve been inspired about education. It’s hard to say no to an organization with such a pristine cause like Mona. It restores your faith in humanity.”

How did you choose Badi School?
Ella: “Panama City is San Diego’s sister city. One of our teachers heads up our sister city project for our school. Samiya and I visited several schools in Panama in March this year, and since learned about Badi, and that $500 pays for a full year of education at the school for one student.”

What did you learn from your fundraising effort, and what advice would you give other students who want to raise money for a great cause?
Ella: “I’ve learned perseverance. Move forward, one step at a time. Have an open mind. Start with one thing, like a bake sale. At the end of the day, three girls in Panama have a scholarship now. It’s touched our hearts.”
Samiya: “I learned how supportive people in our community are. Also, having a small group of dedicated members helps us get results because we’re all fully engaged.”

What’s next for your club?
Samiya: “We’ll continue fundraising for Mona. We’ll also keep tutoring, but we now want to incorporate art into our program, leveraging art students at CCA.

Ella: “One idea is to create a mural that shows the power of educating young girls.”

Samiya and Ella plan to return to Panama in two years to visit Badi to see how their efforts have paid off. We’re excited about what SHE is doing to increase Mona’s impact. For every child Mona supports, there are 10 more waiting. You can find SHE on Instagram at @shecanyoncrest.

Mona Foundation Accepts Crypto Donations

Fri, 02 Jul 2021 08:54:19 GMT

Mona Foundation Accepts Crypto Donations

Mona Foundation has been in the forefront of accepting cryptocurrency because we know everything digital is the way of the future

Mona Foundation has been in the forefront of accepting cryptocurrency because we know everything digital is the way of the future – not to the exclusion of everything else, but an important part of the way we will do business, work and play. We are grateful to Pineapple Fund for their $1M donation in Bitcoin to Mona Foundation which enabled us to scale programs from serving 230,000 students in 2016 to 429,000 in 2019 (even though we lost 10 bitcoins when our account was hacked).

Now, with The Giving Block and Gemini and generous Crypto donors, we are helping our projects in the field combat COVID19 by providing facemasks and sanitizing soaps to keep students safe, and by supporting Digital Enablers (alumni with a cell phone and WhatsApp) to continue delivering education to the most vulnerable without access. Read more below about our needs, and help us make up the lost 10 Bitcoins by donating your cryptocurrency: https://www.monafoundation.org/give-bitcoin/ .

At Badi School in Panama , a school with 450 students, the staff mobilized and within 2 weeks by leveraging Google Education Suite available to them free of charge. Needs now include 8 computers for 8 staff members @about $400 each= $3,200 so they can record their lessons.

In Lucknow, India, Mona supports 49 one-room schools in urban slums or remote villages where there is no running water, sanitation or schools, and often a family of 8-10 members live in one make-shift hut shared with their animals. Currently, there is a severe lack of awareness and means to fight this pandemic in these communities. Needs now include :
COVID Kits: Masks : Provide 2,600 children with 8 masks, $0.25 each = $5,200 , and 2 bars of sanitizing soap, $1.00 each = $5,200 .
Food : Provide 1,600 families of 4 each dry ration kit for a month = $8,944 .
Cell phone and access to Internet : Equip the Alumni students with either a cell phone or a computer and access to the internet so they can leverage our online digital library, DSHOnline, and teach 5 to 10 children in their neighborhood. 40 Digital Enablers at $100/each = $4,000.

Your crypto donation will be valued at the time of donation at its tax deductible FMV. 100% of your donation will educate and empower students in need. (Private donors cover our 15% administrative cost.)

Here is why Rainn Wilson supports donating Bitcoin to Mona Foundation, on #BitcoinTuesday and beyond.

COVID19 and Study Hall Educational Foundation (SHEF), Lucknow, India

Fri, 02 Jul 2021 08:45:58 GMT

This is a subtitle for your new post

Study Hall Educational Foundation (SHEF), established in 1994, has been pursuing its mission to provide quality education to underprivileged girls and youth in urban and rural India since then. Using feminist-based pedagogy, gender sensitization techniques and adolescent empowerment discussions on social issues in the classrooms, SHEF works in the areas of education with a focus on girls’ education and empowerment, teacher training programs, gender-based sensitization workshops and training, formal and non-formal educational centers, and vocational training.

COVID-19 impact on India in general, and the thousands of students SHEF and Mona support has been significant. Students come from impoverished backgrounds where a family of 7 lives in a room and earns less than $2/day as domestic workers or daily laborers. With almost all daily laborers now unemployed SHEF is implementing plans to help those most affected. As of July 18, 2020, 127,296 meals were provided to 660 families ; 4,100 families were connected to meals programs; 23,000 masks were made and distributed by the teachers. Most significantly, 4,000 students receive online education daily (currently 300,000 learners are using DSHOnline which Mona has funded for the past 10 years) , and they have established domestic and sexual violence helplines as well as providing support to children with disabilities and their parents.

More specifically:

COVID-19 and one-room schools: In Lucknow, India, SHEF/Mona support 49 GyanSetus, one-room schools , in urban slums or remote villages where there is no running water, sanitation or schools, and often a family of 8-10 members live in one make-shift hut shared with their animals. Currently, there is a severe lack of awareness and means to fight this pandemic in these communities. To meet their needs, Mona is now raising funds to meet the following need to ensure the safety and the continuing education of these children:

COVID-19 Prevention Kits – providing masks and bars of soap. SHEF has partnered with a local organization to produce a very cost effective three layered mask for $0.25/mask. They are also trying to procure hand washing sanitizing soap to distribute in these communities.
NEEDS:
2,600 children x 8 masks @ $0.25 each = $5,200
2,600 children x 2 soaps @ $1 each = $5,200

Providing food to 1,600 families. The team is in constant touch with the communities to understand the need for food and supplies in the community. So far, they have been able to leverage the network of other nonprofits and government agencies to deliver food to these areas, but now these streams of help are drying up. They have subsequently started grain distribution at a cost of $5.59 per family of four per month . Based on their assessment, 1,600 families will need help in the coming months.
NEEDS: 1,600 families x dry ration kit with cooking oil @ $5.59 = $8,944

Electronic device and access to internet : Equip the alumni students with either a cell phone or a computer and access to the internet so they can leverage SHEF’s online digital library, DSHOnline, and teach 5 to 10 children in their neighborhood. 80 Digital Enablers = $28,600
30 Laptops @ $420/each = $12,600
50 Smart Phones @ $150/each = $7,500
80 Internet Connections @ $100/yr = 8,000
Training & Overhead @ $500/one-time = $500

COVID-19 and continuing education: Digital Study Hall Online (DSH) , an initiative of SHEF was created 10 years ago with Mona Foundation’s support as a forward looking approach to overcoming the shortage of qualified teachers in poor and remote rural schools in India. DSH creates videos of the best teachers in actual classroom sessions teaching standard textbook materials, and then provides them free of charge to all teachers and students in poor public schools. Ongoing teacher training is offered to reinforce quality of teaching and learning.

With the country in lockdown to prevent the spread of COVID-19, and all schools closed , thousands of teachers and students are now flocking to the DSHOnline platform, allowing children to feel part of a social learning environment from the safety of their home. And it is working! When Mona started supporting this initiative 10 years ago, DSH was offered in 23 schools. Today, with 1,643 relevant instructional modules for grades 1-8, they are in 2,320 schools with 94,000 subscribers and 14.5M views.

COVID-19 and Aarohini Girls Empowerment program: Preventing violence against women. A program of SHEF and supported by Mona Foundation, empowers girls to see themselves as equal persons deserving of respect and is designed to promote education for girls and prevent violence and child marriage. It’s central theme is that “education can be truly transformative if it addresses the everyday reality of girls’ lives and responds to their special needs and challenges with respect and care.” This program was first implemented at Prerna School, which was founded in 2003 with 30 students.

Stay at home orders due to COVID-19 has increased the rate of domestic violence. SHEF has started an advocacy campaign with over 5,000 students, alumni and teachers to ensure that women are safe, giving them tips on how they may protect themselves and who they can reach out to in case of sexual or domestic violence. Two helpline numbers have been established.

The goal is to expand the Aarohini Initiative to:

43 mainstream co-ed schools to help girls and boys critically understand the causes the gender injustice and resist them
Train 125 teachers in gender justice
Will focus on making parents advocates of gender justice and girls’ rights.

The same groups of teachers will participate in a two-day workshop that will focus on re-framing the relationship between parents and teachers to be one of mutual respect and collaboration.

The teachers will then leverage this relationship during the India’s Daughters Campaign (IDC) to create a rigorous campaign in their respective communities. IDC anticipated to reach 923 schools and 1.2 million people. This annual campaign raises awareness against gender violence, child marriage, and inequality, promote girls education, and enlists the support of the politician, community, and civil leaders

COVID19 and Badi School, Panama

Fri, 02 Jul 2021 08:32:35 GMT

COVID19 and Badi School, Panama

Badi School is one of about 120 that have been able to successfully transition to online teaching

Badi School started in 1993 as a kindergarten in the carport of a trailer home in Panama. The school is now a K-12 school serving 450 students, of whom 57% are girls. Badi is recognized for excellence in academics, arts, music and technology programs impacting the lives of thousands in the neighboring communities.

COVID-19 has brought with it unparalleled challenges to schools striving to provide access to safe, high quality education. Out of 2,000 private schools in Panama, Badi School is one of about 120 that have been able to successfully transition to online teaching. They have faced several technological and economic challenges, which they are solving step by step.

Some upcoming challenges:

Suspension of tuition payments due to parents with financial deficiencies
New requirements from the Ministry of Education
Lack of funds to cover teacher salaries
Lack of human resources to take on new challenges
Reopening logistics for 2021

Unexpected needs:

Zoom is the platform best known by the students, the payment for this service is around $400 USD a month
Need to provide additional Partial Scholarships (increase from 15 currently to 50 in total)
Digitizing several books that the school has published in order to offer them for free ($2,400)
Create a new database system for grades ($3,000)

COVID19 and StarFish, The Gambia

Fri, 02 Jul 2021 08:21:29 GMT

COVID19 and StarFish, The Gambia

Despite the challenges brought by COVID-19, Starfish International has been able to advance their plans to expand the Skills and Business Center.

Starfish International , a nonprofit community-based organization that is focused on providing Gambian girls scholarships to achieve the highest level of education, teaching them entrepreneurship skills that will enhance their financial independence.

Despite the challenges brought by COVID-19, Starfish International has been able to advance their plans to expand the Skills and Business Center on time and within budget. As the situation unfortunately worsens and their teachers are struggling more financially, the fulfillment of promised payments, with the support of Mona, has been invaluable. By October 2020 it is projected that the renovations will be complete and the new Skills Center facility will be ready for 100 students.

In the meantime, t hey have been very busy making soap and masks!

Mama Kujabi, the Founder of the Skills Center] has been making soap for sale at affordable prices for people to use as disinfectants. The cost of disinfectants has also been on the rise since the demand increased. So, having soap made for people to access and afford has contributed to assisting people who might otherwise not be able to get any disinfectants.”

Since the lockdown, Mama Kujabi and the facilitator of the sewing class have taken up the responsibility of making cloth masks made from local fabrics…These masks have been distributed to their supporters, staff, and other organizations in the Gambia such as SolHealth in The Gambia who are doing outreach programs in different communities.

COVID19 and Programme for Children, Sierra Leone

Fri, 02 Jul 2021 08:08:50 GMT

Construction continues dispite COVID19, Sierra Leone

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, construction of the Muloma Vocational Training Center Continues

Past and present events have created overwhelming obstacles for access to education in Sierra Leone. In the past several years, Programme for Children, with support from their US based non-profit, Schools for Salone, has built over 65 schools, countless latrines and water wells for children to access education.

In 2019, Mona Foundation committed to helping Programme for Children, in collaboration with Schools for Salone, build a four-classroom middle school, providing 150 children safe access to education. The objective was to improve access to education for middle school students in Njomborhun and several other neighboring villages who had to walk 8 miles each way to the nearest middle school, by building four-classroom school with a rainwater collection handwashing station and a latrine with three private stalls. The new middle school would start with approximately 150 students (85 girls and 65 boys) coming from the five surrounding primary schools.

In 2020, Mona Foundation committed to helping Programme for Children, in collaboration with Schools for Salone, expand the Muloma Vocational Technical Training Complex. This structure will be used to provide teacher certification training as well as vocational training. Vocational training for 300 men, women and youth from several neighboring villages will include:

Weaving
Gara tie Dying
Needle Work/Embroidery
Catering
Hair Dressing
Food Production/Agriculture

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, construction on this building began on 12 April 2020 and has continued on schedule. Below are pictures of the progress made so far.

ADCAM's Founding Story

Wed, 30 Jun 2021 19:45:20 GMT

ADCAM's Founding Story

A tale of love and sacrifice in service to thousands

It all started when Ferial and her family moved to Manaus in the heart of the Amazon in 1985. Ferial saw the abject poverty around her and decided to do something about it. Her first step was to pick up 5 abandoned toddlers off the street and bring them home with her. This is how the orphanage started. By the time she was done, 300 abandoned children had been adopted into good families. Then she decided that education was the only way to address the root cause of poverty and started an elementary school. She added a classroom every year until the school offered a full K-12 curriculum.

Then she looked around and saw hundreds of street children, often with no clothes on and hungry, begging in the streets, so she decided to do something about that and started ADCAM’s Family Development Center. This program offers free education to the street children, while providing parental support and training to the parents.

And then she saw the desperate plight of the elderly in the community. Often illiterate and unable to understand the complicated rules governing the meager stipend allotted to the elderly poor they were often homeless and without support, and so Ferial decided to help them. She worked with numerous government agencies and community members and together they held a “Day of the Elderly” on ADCAM campus. They advertised and brought in hundreds of the elderly in the community and signed them up for their government benefit of $10/month. In addition they provided other nutritional and medical care services. This is how the “Program for the Elderly” at ADCAM was born. The Day of the Elderly is now an annual event, and the program now serves hundreds of elderly women and men every day.

After all this, Ferial decided that K-12 education was not sufficient and the graduating youth needed skills and training to find employment that paid a living wage. She again sprung into action and wrote a grant to the government of Brazil, asking for a $1M grant to start a four year technical college. This college is now in place, offering 17 different tracks of skills training including carpentry, refrigeration maintenance, computer technology and alike to the community. The Youth Apprenticeship program was later put in place to ensure placement of graduates in local companies.

In recognition of this significant accomplishment, the government of Brazil awarded Ferial with Brazil’s equivalent of the Medal of Honor for her outstanding services to the people of Brazil.

COVID19 & ADCAM

Wed, 30 Jun 2021 19:19:09 GMT

COVID19 & ADCAM

When the government in Amazonas suspended in-person classes in mid-March 2020, ADCAM immediately got to work and transitioned its students to online classes in just one week.

Steps that ADCAM has taken to meet the challenges of operating in a pandemic include:

Increased partial scholarships to 50 families from 46.
Transitioned extracurricular activities for Spiritual Empowerment of 100 students to an online platform.
Held virtual Family Festival in June for children to present what they were learning to their parents.
Held a “Solidarity Action Campaign” in lieu of the annual Citizen Health Fair.
Continued workshops for families on WhatsApp to help families deal with social isolation, assisting them in both the educational and emotional process.
Striving for the well-being of families, ADCAM provided a series of thematic lectures and conversation circles with various professionals in the field of health, psychologists and advisors, were invited to guide families through the challenges are facing in times of social distancing.
Transitioned the Young Apprenticeship Program online, serving 136 youth
Arts, music, capoeira and sports activities have continued online through recorded videos.
Teacher training is continuing and has increased in intensity. ADCAM is providing courses and lectures with professionals on themes that assist the teachers in the implementation and use of new digital tools to teach online.

Digital Study Hall Online (DSHOnline)

Wed, 30 Jun 2021 10:09:50 GMT

Digital Study Hall Online

COVID19 shut down the schools everywhere. In Indore, India, Digital Study Hall enabled the online education of more than 2,000,000 unique users.

Digital Study Hall Online (DSHOnline) , an initiative of Study Hall Educational Foundation (SHEF), was created 10 years ago with Mona Foundation’s support as a forward looking approach to overcoming the shortage of qualified teachers in poor and remote rural schools in India. DSHOnline creates videos of the best teachers in actual classroom sessions teaching standard textbook materials, and then provides them free of charge to all teachers and students in poor public schools. Ongoing teacher training is offered to reinforce quality of teaching and learning.

Digital Study Hall’s approach to education has been described as “ YouTube meets Netflix in a schoolhouse with a dirt floor .”

With the country in lockdown to prevent the spread of COVID-19, and all schools closed, thousands of teachers and students are now flocking to the DSHOnline platform, allowing children to feel part of a social learning environment from the safety of their home. And it is working! When Mona started supporting this initiative 10 years ago, DSH was offered in 23 schools. Today, with 1,643 relevant instructional modules for grades 1-8 , they are in 2,320 schools with 94,000 subscribers, 2,000,000 unique users and 14.5M views .

“I am a social studies teacher and I have a Bachelor’s in Education as well. I always watch your video lessons to learn how to teach mathematics and next day I teach children in my class. I feel indebted.” – Ranju Chaudhary commented on Class 6 – Algebra.

DSHOnline Video Lessons Onboarded to the National Teachers Platform

In a move that has brought national recognition from the Indian government for DSHOnline video lessons, the Ministry of Human Resource and Development, in collaboration with the National Council for Teacher Education and other stakeholders, has developed the National Teacher Platform – Diksha – which has on board close to 300 DSHOnline video lessons . These video lessons will be accessible to the teachers of government and private schools across India.

The process of publishing these video lessons is methodical and makes use of a comprehensive metadata framework that maps the video lessons to each state curriculum. Enabling the video lessons to reach a wider audience of children studying in various state boards. Diksha was launched on Teacher’s Day, September 5, 2017.

Teachers at the government schools face a huge challenge with the change in instruction language, now English. DSHOnline video lessons have proved to be of great help in partner schools during this transition. Rajasthan Government Schools adopted DSHOnline videos. In 2017, DSHOnline started creating Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) prescribed curriculum video lessons in the English language. This curriculum has recently been adopted by the government schools in Rajasthan on their Shaladarpan platform.

COVID-19 and Barli

Wed, 30 Jun 2021 10:09:48 GMT

COVID-19 and Barli

Battleing the pandemic by educating, training, and use of medicinal herbs

Recognized by UNESCO as one of the top 100 education projects in developing countries, Barli Development Institute for Rural Women (Barli) educates and empowers young, rural and tribal women and girls to become leaders and agents of social change in their communities. Though most girls are illiterate when they arrive, 100% pass the national literacy exam within six months and can read and write in Hindi (not their native language). Graduating class of 2019 pictured above, taken prior to the coronavirus pandemic.

Barli’s courses run for six months each. In the midst of the first course, on March 24, 2020, India’s Prime Minister ordered a nationwide lockdown. Some of the students had already returned home and Barli was able to safely continue their training of 51 students. The facilities of Barli are isolated so when the coronavirus pandemic initially broke out in India, the students and faculty were safe from the threat.

All students and faculty are still healthy, have sufficient food/vegetables and are in the process of procuring more. The teachers and Director were in constant communication with the parents of the resident students.

Additional activities were added to Barli’s 6-month course in response to the pandemic.

COVID-19 and training :

Information sharing: The trainees were given information about COVID-19 and its impacts, especially the precautions and the symptoms. Social distancing, use of masks and hand washing was practiced. Study material and manual was also prepared on this issue. They were also given details as to whom to contact in their villages in case of emergencies.
Teaching the trainees to make masks and gloves : The trainees were taught how to make gloves and masks
Women-trainees were taught how to make soaps and effective sanitizers at home, and the importance of monitoring body temperature for early detection and prevention of COVID-19.
The trainees learnt to make (tested) Ayurvedic herbal teas (made from locally available medicinal plants and herbs (including: Holy basil, Ginger, Turmeric, Giloy (Tinospora cordifolia), black pepper corns, Moringa leaves) for boosting immunity towards COVID-19 and other seasonal flu and fevers.

Barli & Organic Agriculture Training

Wed, 30 Jun 2021 10:09:47 GMT

Barli & Organic Agriculture Training

Barli Development Institute for Rural Women (Barli) educates and empowers young, rural and tribal girls to become the agents of social change in their communities.

Organic Agriculture Training:

Throughout the six months course, students are taught about organic agriculture. Workshops are frequently organized to train them in grafting, composting, making organic insect repellents and organic fertilizers.

Training on Solar Drying of Vegetables :

Throughout the six month training, students also learn how to dry various fruits and vegetables. They are taught the procedures involved in preserving and drying of agriculture products in solar tunnel dryers. They learn how these vegetables can be saved over long periods without using chemical preservatives. This is especially useful for them as large quantities of vegetables from their fields sometimes go to waste because of their inability to sell them.

Advancing Collaboration with the Mona Foundation

Wed, 30 Jun 2021 10:09:46 GMT

Advancing Collaboration with the Mona Foundation

Mona Foundation believes in the importance of learning, which is why we support education for all around the world.

BBB Wise Giving Alliance (BBB’s Give.org ) is a standards-based charity evaluator that seeks to verify the trustworthiness of publicly-soliciting charities by completing rigorous evaluations based on 20 BBB Standards for Charity Accountability.

BBB Standards for Charity Accountability address four areas of charity accountability: governance, results reporting, finances, and truthful transparent communications.

Give.Org selected Mona as one of the top 10 organizations for a personal interview with their President and CEO and was featured on their blog . This interview has resulted in an article titled “ Advancing Collaboration with the Mona Foundation ” published by Give.org.

COVID-19 and SHEF part II

Wed, 30 Jun 2021 10:09:44 GMT

COVID-19 and SHEF part II

The relief and prevention efforts of Study Hall Educational Foundation (SHEF) for the ongoing pandemic are in full swing.

They have been providing face masks, hand wash, reusable sanitary pads and dry ration kits along with prevention methods and precautions to take to fight the viral disease. These have been sent to the Gyansetu (one-room school) communities in the most destitute locations. The SHEF team has also talked extensively to the community members about using the provided kits in the most efficient manner to stay safe during the pandemic. In the beginning some of the communities were completely agnostic to the COVID-19 disease and were not taking any precautions. After the interventions the communities are now informed and equipped to join the fight against COVID-19.

Mask Distribution

Once the lockdown was relieved, our team placed a plan in action and contacted Didi’s Foods and Creations to start the production of best quality face mask, reusable sanitary pads and prepare ration kits for distribution. As the production started, our team members began the distribution in communities (pictured below).

Giving Tuesday 2020

Wed, 30 Jun 2021 10:09:41 GMT

Giving Tuesday 2020

Every donation creates a ripple of change. LET’S START A TIDAL WAVE.

EDUCATION CHANGES EVERYTHING. On this Global Day of Giving, give a child living in abject poverty the chance for a better life. Sponsor the education of one child for just $7/month.

The Mona Foundation supports local organizations in some of the world’s poorest areas including slums and rural villages around Lucknow, India where kids have no access to clean water, sanitation, or schools. We partner with those who have a proven record of effecting positive change within these communities.

For example, every GyanSetu (one-room school) educates 30-40 students, with 86% transitioning to public schools. This year, we are committed to supporting 62 of these one-room schools to educate 1,600 kids.

Thank you for contributing to the wave of change our world so desperately needs. Give as you like, or keep a child in school all year long for just $7/month.

Or, educate one girl for $50/month and change the lives of 100 . We know that when children, girls in particular, gain the knowledge and skills to help themselves, they in turn help others rise from the depths of hunger, inequality, violence, and disease. With a pandemic raging, these children and their families need our support now more than ever.

Give with confidence!

Wed, 30 Jun 2021 10:09:18 GMT

Give with confidence!

Charity Navigator gives Mona Foundation its highest rating, 100/100.

COVID19 & Badi School

Tue, 29 Jun 2021 19:56:33 GMT

COVID19 & Badi School

Overcoming unforeseen challenges

Out of a population of 4 million, around 42,000 residents have been infected with COVID-19. Movement is still restricted and the country’s economy has been severely affected. A reopening plan classified in 5 Steps is being implemented, currently at Step 2 and schools are to reopen at Step 4.

The school year in Panama runs from March – December. March 2nd was the first day of school and on March 11th all classes were suspended “for a few days” as there was much uncertainty. To date, around 4,000 public schools and around 2,000 private schools are closed and have not been able to transition their education online. Badi School is one of about 120 that have been able to successfully transition to online teaching.

COVID-19 has brought with it unparalleled challenges to schools striving to provide access to safe, high quality education. Badi School has faced several technological and economic challenges, which they are solving step by step.

Some upcoming challenges:

Suspension of tuition payments due to parents with financial deficiencies
New requirements from the Ministry of Education
Lack of funds to cover teacher salaries
Lack of human resources to take on new challenges
Reopening logistics for 2021

Unexpected needs:

Zoom is the platform best known by the students, the payment for this service is around $400 USD a month
Need to provide additional Partial Scholarships (increase from 15 currently to 50 in total)
Digitizing several books that the school has published in order to offer them for free ($2,400)
Create a new database system for grades ($3,000)

Mona Foundation 2020 Service Awards

Mon, 28 Jun 2021 19:54:02 GMT

CELEBRATING YOU: Mona Foundation 2020 Service Awards

Celebrating the outstanding contributions of our supporters.

On December 19th we celebrated and honored the exceptional and select group of Mona’s 2020 Service Award recipients whose vital, dedicated and long-term efforts on behalf of Mona’s children make our work possible. It was an inspiring and uplifting event highlighting selfless acts of service to humanity that are transforming lives and communities.

2020 Mona Foundation Award Recipients

Rainn Wilson & Holiday Reinhorn - 2020 Humanitarian Award in recognition of their long-term advocacy and exceptional philanthropic commitment to social justice and in support of Mona’s mission.

“Bringing us into the fold of Mona foundation… has really changed our lives and showed us how a life of philanthropy and service was possible.” – Rainn Wilson

“I truly feel like my life started when I made that first trip to Haiti with the Mona Foundation and watched how you can give on the individual level, on the community level, and on the global level…. It’s been truly an honor and a gift to be part of this organization.” – Holiday Reinhorn

Judy Rector - 2020 Outstading Service Award in appreciation of her selfless acts of service and support of Mona’s mission over the past 19 years.

“Mona has changed my life and I’ve been so grateful to go [to Haiti] and help in any way I can… On behalf of the children of Haiti and elsewhere, I thank Mona Foundation for doing such an amazing job around the the world.” – Judy Rector

Ella Sobhani - 2020 Young Philanthropist Award in recognition of her inspiring acts of community service and support of Mona’s children.

“I’ve been a part of Mona since 5th grade. Their emphasis on grassroots education and focus on girls had impacted every philanthropic deed I’ve ever done and probably all the philanthropic deeds I hope to do in the future.” – Ella Sobhani

Previous award recipients include:

Distinguished Partner
Mike and Debra Anderson, Anderson Foundation, Zinpro Corporation
S ervice Award:
Gaellen Quinn
Nadia Mahalingam
Youth Service Award
Megan Miller
Christopher Tucker
Nessa Samimi
Lila Chitayat
Humanitarian Award
Farhang Javid
Al Munjazeb

Groundbreaking Ceremony, Sierra Leone!

john@monafoundation.org (Laura Baerwolf) — Mon, 28 Jun 2021 07:47:54 GMT

Groundbreaking ceremony of a primary school in Sierra Leone

A joyous groundbreaking ceremony was held in the very remote community of Masosingbi, Sierra Leone, to build a primary school serving 150 students.

A joyous groundbreaking ceremony was held in the very remote community of Masosingbi. This primary school will serve a very remote community left behind by other educational development efforts in Sierra Leone.

Currently, the nearest school is 6 miles away. Students have to walk to and from school, and on top of hunger, the distance is too great and many children drop out. Additionally, students miss at least several weeks of every school year because the journey is made impassable by heavy rains, flooding, and broken bridges.

250 students, 120 girls and 130 boys, will benefit from this school. These students who do make the long walk to the nearest school also have no access to a water supply or toilets at that school. Building a school in Masosingbi will not only make education more accessible for these students, but will also improve their health and wellbeing.

The construction is expected to be completed by the end of summarer and prior to the rainy season.

Mona Announced as Finalist in Catalyst 2030 Awards

john@monafoundation.org (Laura Baerwolf) — Mon, 28 Jun 2021 07:35:21 GMT

Catalyst 2030 Award for Supporting Systems Change - Mona Foundation as a Finalist.

We are thrilled to announce that we are a finalist for an extraordinary new award: the Catalyst 2030 Awards Supporting Systems Change. Launched a year ago at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Catalyst 2030 is recognizing Mona Foundation for our innovative work in supporting community-based solutions.

Mona Foundation, known for its innovative work in advancing universal education, gender equality and community building, is being recognized as a global leader in sustainable development. All the award finalists are being recognized by Catalyst 2030 not only for their past successes, but because they model innovative approaches to lasting, systemic change.

Mona Foundation is one of only two Washington state finalists: Mona Foundation is in the “Donor Organisation and Philanthropic Intermediary” category, and MacKenzie Scott is in the category of Individual Philanthropist.

Although not possible in normal years, everyone is invited to attend the virtual awards ceremony. This is a special opportunity to support Mona and to learn about the many wonderful people and organizations who are working on systemic change.

WHAT: Catalyst 2030 Awards
WHEN: Thursday, March 25, 2021, 8-9 a.m. Pacific Time (4-5 p.m. CET)
WHERE: Register for the virtual event here: http://bit.ly/C2030celebrate
WHO: Catalyst 2030: https://catalyst2030.net/catalyst-2030-awards/

In the words of Catalyst 2030: “Celebration is one of life’s most important, and enjoyable, traditions. It is how we come together to mark significant accomplishments. And, as we believe in the Catalyst 2030 community, celebration is a great way to encourage, inspire and re-energise each other along the way to doing great things.

“We have found some remarkable people and organisations who really get it – in philanthropy, in government, in multilaterals and in business.”

About Catalyst 2030

Catalyst 2030 is a global movement of social entrepreneurs and social innovators from all sectors who share the common goal of creating innovative, people-centric approaches to attain the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. Joining forces with communities, governments, businesses and others, Catalyst 2030 members are changing systems at all levels through collective action and bold, new strategies. Launched at the World Economic Forum in January 2020, Catalyst 2030 comprises more than 500 proven social entrepreneurs who are active in over 180 countries and who directly reach an estimated two billion people. We believe in collective action and that bold new strategies are needed to achieve the SDGs by 2030.

Digital Study Hall, SHEF

john@monafoundation.org (Laura Baerwolf) — Mon, 28 Jun 2021 07:30:54 GMT

Study Hall Educational Foundation (SHEF) supports an impressive portfolio of initiatives, including Digital Study Hall, aimed at educating and empowering underprivileged girls in urban and rural India.

Study Hall Educational Foundation (SHEF) supports an impressive portfolio of initiatives aimed at educating and empowering underprivileged girls in urban and rural India. Digital Study Hall (DSH) Online creates videos of the best teachers in actual classroom sessions and provides them free of charge to all teachers and students in poor public schools. Ongoing teacher training is offered to reinforce the quality of teaching and learning.

Impact Numbers:

113, 4091 subscribers on DSHOnline YouTube channel

4,013,322 views on DSHOnline YouTube channel

298 new videos produced in 2020

Introduction of open schooling video curriculum

SHEF began experiments with educational technology, with an aim of providing a simple, cost-effective, easily accessible solution to the problem of providing high quality education to all children, especially those in remote underserved and under resourced areas.

After several small but useful experiments in partnership with NIIT and the Government of Uttar Pradesh, DSH began formally in 2005 partnered by a professor from Princeton University, Randy Wang. Over the years, DSH has accomplished its goal to use simple video technology to share pedagogical resources and expertise from schools that have good teachers to schools that are not so fortunate.

The classroom practices developed by DSHOnline were used by organizations like Hippocampus, Goonj, Ashoka Network, Bodh, Government of Uttar Pradesh, Government of Jharkhand, HCL Foundation, Government of Rajasthan, Government of Madhya Pradesh, Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), Nepal and Bhutan.

The DSHOnline team produced 298 new videos in 2020. They introduced a video curriculum for National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS 2) board. Once the lockdown was relieved in June, the team produced 260 videos of NIOS curriculum till December 2020. The rest 39 videos include GyanSetu training, workshops and other events.

Digital Study Hall Online

john@monafoundation.org (Laura Baerwolf) — Mon, 28 Jun 2021 07:21:30 GMT

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Digital Study Hall’s (DSH) approach to education has been described as “YouTube meets Netflix in a schoolhouse with a dirt floor.”

The Digital Study Hall Online (DSHONLINE) , an initiative of Study Hall Educational Foundation (SHEF) was created 10 years ago with Mona Foundation’s support as a forward looking approach to overcoming the shortage of qualified teachers in poor and remote rural schools in India. DSH creates videos of the best teachers in actual classroom sessions teaching standard textbook materials, and then provides them free of charge to all teachers and students in poor public schools. Ongoing teacher training is offered to reinforce quality of teaching and learning.

DSH and COVID19

“The COVID-19 lockdown launched us into an unknown space – children weren’t accessible and the teachers who had lived their lives teaching in classrooms were locked at home. Perhaps the greatest learning from this crisis has been the realization that technology is a great tool which we have not leveraged enough.” – SHEF Team

With the country in lockdown to prevent the spread of COVID19, and all schools closed , thousands of teachers and students are now flocking to the DSHONLINE platform, allowing children to feel part of a social learning environment from the safety of their home. And it is working! When Mona started supporting this initiative 10 years ago, DSH was offered in 23 schools. Today, with 1,643 relevant instructional modules for grades 1-8, they are in 2,320 schools with 94,000 subscribers and 14.5M views. Other platforms like Shaladarpan and Diksha collectively reach out to over 20,000 government and private school teachers across India.

Studies have shown dramatic improvement of student performance and local teachers demonstrated significant improvement in their grasp of subject matter.Digital Study Hall also works at the forefront of women and girls empowerment programs by including gender education into the core of their academic curricula and community education campaigns. One teacher shared, “I am a social studies teacher and I have a Bachelor’s in Education as well. I always watch your video lessons to learn how to teach mathematics and next day I teach children in my class. I feel indebted.” – Ranju Chaudhary commented on Class 6 – Algebra.

An impressive indication of progress which has brought national recognition from the Indian government for DSH video lessons, the Ministry of Human Resource and Development, in collaboration with the National Council for Teacher Education and other stakeholders, has developed the National Teacher Platform – Diksha – which has on board close to 300 Digital Study Hall (DSH) video lessons . These video lessons will be accessible to the teachers of government and private schools across India.

Teachers at the government schools face a huge challenge with the change in instruction language, now English. DSH video lessons have proved to be of great help in partner schools during this transition. Rajasthan Government Schools adopted DSH videos. In 2017, DSH started creating Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) prescribed curriculum video lessons in the English language. This curriculum has recently been adopted by the government schools in Rajasthan on their Shaladarpan platform.

COVID19 Resurgence

john@monafoundation.org (Laura Baerwolf) — Mon, 28 Jun 2021 06:08:37 GMT

COVID19 resurgence in India taking thousands of lives.

Over the past two months, the COVID-19 outbreak in India has exploded with reports of oxygen shortages and ambulances lined up outside of hospitals because there are no ventilators for new patients. The prolonged lockdown is decimating incomes and threatens the food security of India’s rural population.

We have been in constant contact with our partner organizations in India and around the world to assess their current situation and will be providing support to meet all urgent needs.

Below are the latest updates , received over the weekend, from several of our partner organizations (identifiers are removed as requested).

India

‘I am writing to you to let you know that things here in India and especially in our city has gone from bad to worse very quickly with no letup in sight. The second wave of coronavirus has hit us brutally and we found ourselves grossly unprepared for what has unfolded. If you look at the current news you will see the kind of carnage that this second wave is causing in our country.

No tests, no beds, no meds, no oxygen and along lines at crematoriums is the situation in our town. No matter how well connected or how rich one is, getting a hospital bed right now is virtually impossible and people are dying gasping for air. There is a severe shortage of oxygen and medicines…Our town right now has over 52,000 active cases(grossly under-reported) with over 5,000 cases new cases being added every day – We have close to 3000 hospital beds out of which only 600 can cater to very serious patients that require assistive breathing. Add to this the acute shortage of oxygen not just in our town but across the country.

Talking specifically about our organization, more than half of our outreach office is currently down with or COVID like symptoms. Each day we hear about more members of our team getting infected. Thankfully many now seem to be recovering – our main task right now has become to help each other out with medicines and any other support our team members or their families.

We have been forced to either stop or curtail our operations depending on which and how many team members are out of action. All schools have closed down and so have we. The teachers (many of whom are infected and out of action) are trying to stay in touch and help the children get through these dark times.

The one-room schools are also officially closed but children just walk up to their teacher’s house at times to seek help with their studies. There also many are infected.

So all in all the situation is very bad – nothing like we ever imagined but we are hanging in there, supporting each other, helping our family members and community members as much as we can…Please keep us in your prayers…”

Photographs taken by Atul Loke for The New York Times

Barli Institute, India

One staff member at Barli has tested postive, and the rest of his family have mild symptoms. Fortunately, the trainees went home to their villages for a fifteen-day break earlier on and so all are in good health and have reached home safely. Barli will restart their training program when government rules permit.

Badi School, Panama

Badi School has suffered the loss of one of their esteemed teachers, Mr. Abdiel Gonzalez, to COVID19 with people in another 20 school families testing positive. As of today, all teachers and school personnel have received the first dose of the vaccine and are getting ready to open the school pending the approval of the parents.

Since the country is opening Badi school is stabilizing financially and has been able to make its commitments in addition to building several wash basins located throughout the campus. The school is continuing its push to enable online learning to ensure the continuing education of its students.

New Horizon, Haiti

While COVID19 has spared Haiti, according to a report by Reuters , the country is roiled by an epidemic of kidnappings , deepening political unrest, and economic misery.

Haiti has one of the highest levels of food insecurity in the world with 4.4 million Haitians – nearly half the population – in need of immediate food assistance. Among these, 1.2 million suffer from severe hunger. Two children out of ten do not attend primary school and the literacy level of the population over 10 years of age is 61 percent.

In the midst of this dark picture, New Horizon is a beacon of hope . While most schools are closed, New Horizon continues to operate and keep its door open despite all difficulties.

To address the immediate nutritional needs of the students, the school has started a community garden where the students and their families are taught to grow their own food and share what they are learning with other community members. 80% of the students at the school are unable to cover the meager tuition of $30/month, all of whom are now are supported by Mona.

ADCAM, Brazil

The news is surprisingly positive and an example of yet another Mona partner organization shining through the darkness of our time. While Manaus has been devastated by COVID19, the ADCAM staff, students, and families have remained safe thanks to the administrator’s foresight, preparations within the school, and their connection with the surrounding community. They have accessed every government support available to them and maintained operations with assistance from many friends.

ADCAM is currently fighting misinformation about the vaccine in the community and working with every family in their neighborhood to get vaccinated. 95% of their staff are already vaccinated. They have also instituted all the precautionary protocols in classrooms and have opened the school by alternating in-person attendance with online learning while many others are still closed.

As a result of their exemplary school management throughout the crisis, and their strong emphasis on technology and distant learning, ADCAM has not only retained all their students but also increased registration , particularly in grades

How can you help? We have established a COVID19 Emergency Fund to help meet all urgent requests coming our way. Please keep our partner organizations and all in the communities they serve in your thoughts and prayers. We will keep you updated as we receive further news.

About our Board of Directors

Fri, 25 Jun 2021 06:41:14 GMT

Get to know Mona's Board: An experienced team committed to education of every child, gender equality and social justice.

Duy-Loan Le, Chairperson, Board of Directors

My purpose of doing well in life is to do good …

and giving a child the gift of education enables goodness in perpetuity.

Duy-Loan started her career at Texas Instruments (TI) at 19 and two decades later became the first Asian American and the only female to get elected to the highest title Senior Fellow in TI’s history. During her 35 year career at TI, she led the development to grow TI’s Memory product line across 5 countries and 3 continents to generate multi-billion dollar revenue, oversaw the development of the world’s fastest Digital Signal Processor per 2004 Guinness World Records, and pioneered products enabling TI’s entry into base station & VOIP markets.

Duy-Loan holds 24 patents and currently serves on the board of directors at National Instruments, Cree, Ballard Power Systems, Atomera and other private & start-up companies. She obtained her BSEE from The Cockrell College of Engineering at The University of Texas in Austin and MBA from The Bauer College of Business at the University of Houston and currently serves on the board of advisors at both institutions.

Duy-Loan’s service to the global community in the last 25 years is extensive, but her deepest love is with Sunflower Mission and Mona Foundation, two non-profit organizations supporting education and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) worldwide. She is married with 2 sons and lives in Texas.

Mahnaz Aflatooni Javid, President and CEO

Philanthropy speaks to the core of our humanity. It defines who we are and shapes us to be the best we can be.

Mahnaz has a doctorate in Educational Leadership. She has taught as an adjunct faculty at the University of Washington Computer and software systems, worked at Microsoft for several years, and more recently at Avanade, a high-tech consultancy in Seattle, as the Sr. Vice President of Talent Acquisition. In September of 2017 and after 20 years of professional career Mahnaz left Avanade to commit herself full time to the critical mission of Mona Foundation as its CEO and President.

Mahnaz is one of the founding members of Mona Foundation, passionate about social justice and access to education for all, particularly for women and girls, and has been involved in learning about social and economic development projects around the world since 1990s.

Sima Mobini, Secretary

Education, both academic and character, is the best remedy for the current ills of the world.

Sima has a Master’s Degree in Structural Engineering from UCLA. She has worked in both private industry and public organizations for fifteen years and in 1997 stepped out to spend more time with her three children, with the ultimate hope of getting involved with meaningful projects that serve humanity.

She learned about Mona Foundation in 2003 and has been volunteering ever since. Since her involvement with Mona Foundation she has traveled to some of the projects and these experiences have taught her the value of social and economic development and have enhanced her life. The site visits have proven to her that there are truly gems inside every individual regardless of their race, gender, or nationality and that what is needed is to recognize and discover these gems.

David Wood, Treasurer

It is my core and conscious mission and privilege to engage my own

strengths and virtues for the benefit of others.

While at Bose, David pioneered and developed an extensive leadership development program for high performing colleagues and has been a frequent presenter for both internal and external learning programs. David engaged his undergraduate education in Economics at the University of California, Los Angeles, has general management certificates from Harvard Business School and an MBA from Boston University.

Mark Sisson

Over the past several decades, Mark Sisson has been engaged, at the grassroots, national and international levels, in various aspects of community development, communications, education, and advocacy. Mark's extensive international development experience includes living in Papua New Guinea for 11 years where he worked as the director of Educational Television in Papa New Guinea Ministry of Education and traveling extensively over the years to Pacific Islands and Oceania, include American Samoa, the Cook and Solomon Islands, and Fiji, French Polynesia, Tonga, Guam, Niue, the Northern Mariana Islands among others. He has also worked with a number of UN agencies including UNDP, UNICEF, and the WHO, and the European Union.

His experience extends from Information and communications and social mobilization to advocacy for the empowerment of women, youth and indigenous peoples. He has written, produced, and directed media content for film, television and radio programs centered principally around advocacy, and secondary and tertiary education and training. He has experience in instructional media development and design, and is currently a professor of the Film, Television, and Media Arts program in the School of Arts, Communications and Social Sciences at Southwestern College.

Neda Moeini

I slept and I dreamed that life is all joy. I woke and I saw that life is all service.

I served and I saw that service is joy.”- Kahlil Gibran.

I relate so much to this quote. I love Mona because it is a total act of selflessness benefiting little helpless gems.

Neda Moeini received her degree in Software Engineering from York University’s Computer Science Department and went on to build a successful technology company with her husband and life partner, Ata Moeini. Together they built GL | Group of Gold Line, a group of companies specializing in using technology to erase borders and connect the diaspora back home. Most notable among their products is their first product, the prepaid long distance calling card that revolutionized the long distance calling market in Canada, and their IPTV streaming product GLWiZ, which is today known as the largest streamer of multicultural television and entertainment content in the world – colloquially known as the global, multicultural Netflix!

Mrs. Moeini’s true passion is philanthropy, and she has over the years contributed to great organizations in Medicine, and the Arts and Education. Her support of medical research includes the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, the Breast Cancer Society of Canada and Sick Kids Hospital. She is also a longtime patron of the Toronto International Film Festival.

Her contribution to Education includes her own charity, Borani Global Education; a not-for-profit association dedicated to the principle of education for all, which matches deserving students to fully online university degree programs, allowing them to be empowered through education despite the social, political, religious and monetary boundaries they face. Mrs. Moeini also initiated a bursary at the University of Toronto’s Law School and the establishment the GL | Group of Gold Line International Human Rights Internships, which allows law students to work on human rights issues in foreign countries.

Mrs. Neda Moeini was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal on September 8th, 2012 by the Governor General of Canada for her distinguished contributions to the field of education being characterized as an effective community leader whose work has enriched the lives of many throughout the world.

Dr. Nooshin Darvish

Thank you for inviting me to be part of this amazing global endeavor. I am humbled and honored to be part of the Board of Directors of Mona.

Dr. Nooshin K. Darvish is the Medical Director and founder of Holistique Medical Center. A Washington State board licensed naturopathic physician and a Fellow in Integrative Cancer Therapies, Dr. Darvish is a physician, writer, lecturer and educator in the field of naturopathic, integrative and anti-aging medicine. She is a candidate for a fellowship in anti-aging medicine. Dr. Darvish is Washington State’s only certified IPT (Insulin potentiation therapy) physician. Furthermore, she is a lyme-literate physician providing effective non-antibiotic based therapies for those suffering from chronic infections.

As a holistic clinician, she integrates western, eastern medicine, naturopathic and bio-energy medical systems, combining the care of the mind, body, and spirit to address chronic illness, cancer, women’s and men’s health, allergies and physical pain. She practices medicine like a dance, delicately integrating the qualities of the human being with the attributes of the universe to diagnose, find the root cause of illness and treat to reverse the disease and aging processes.

A 1995 graduate and former chief resident and faculty member of Bastyr University, she has trained with medical doctors, osteopathic physicians, chiropractors and holistic practitioners across North America and Europe. Dr. Darvish is an approved CNME (Council for Naturopathic Medical Education) medical director involved in the training of naturopathic resident physicians across North America.

Tammy Randall Wood

Understanding is in itself the greatest of all motivators. There is a longing in every human heart for meaning; there is a natural craving for knowledge of the outer and inner realities of creatio n.

Tammy’s goal in designing homes is to create what she calls Noble Spaces; spaces with the power to support you in the life you are creating and the person you are striving to be.

Peter Neumann

There is a saying in China, ‘women hold up half the sky’;

this is only possible if girls can achieve their full potential through universal education.

Peter Neumann is an International Partner with the PRC law firm of Broad & Bright in their Los Angeles office. Previously, Peter’s 20+ years in China and Shanghai included corporate counsel and managing roles with the Celanese Corporation, Greenberg Traurig LLP, Faegre & Benson LLP, and Deacons Graham & James. His law practice has focused on foreign direct investment, M&A, general commercial, and IP/technology matters, as well as strategic counseling on market entry and expansion.

His civic contributions include membership on the Pacific Counsel on International Policy, and as former member of the Shanghai American Chamber of Commerce Board of Governors. Peter is fluent in spoken and written Chinese.

In his own words, “There is a saying in China, ‘women hold up half the sky’; this is only possible if girls can achieve their full potential through universal education.”

Diane Samandi

Education ensures the equal rights of all children to be a part of building a better future.

In 1980 Diane founded Jonquil, a romantic sleepwear collection evoking the glamour of old Hollywood. A favorite with brides, in 2007 Diane created a new collection with more whimsy and named it In Bloom by Jonquil. It soon became the most sought-after bridal sleepwear around the world. Designing for nearly 40 years, her dedication to making a woman feel beautiful is still her inspiration.

Diane has served on the board of directors of the Mona Foundation as a volunteer for fourteen years. In Diane’s words ”supporting initiatives that begin with a few working together to create schools in their own village or region changes lives and transform communities. Education ensures the equal rights of all children to be part of building a better future. This is the emerging model of development philanthropy that I am very excited to be part of.”

mona-foundation-playground

Meet Irerero School (Rwanda): Mona's new grassroots partner

Meet Irerero School (Rwanda) and the empowered Indigenous community it serves

Transform Movie Night into a Catalyst for Global Change

Transform Movie Night into a Catalyst for Global Change

A Fond Farewell to Full Circle Learning

A Fond Farewell to Full-Circle Learning

Team Mona joins Sunflower Mission's 2025 Work Camp in Vietnam

Changing Lives, Building Community: Sunflower Mission’s Work in Vietnam

Fueling Her Future: Muffta’s Mission to Uplift Through Cookery

Fueling Her Future: Muffta’s Mission to Uplift Through Cookery

The Power of Education: How Beatriz’s Determination is Shaping Her Future

The Power of Education: How Beatriz’s Determination is Shaping Her Future

Dancing Toward His Dreams: Lucas’s Journey of Talent and Inspiration

Dancing Toward His Dreams: Lucas’s Journey of Talent and Inspiration

Anna's Story: Building Confidence and Opportunity through Skills Training

Anna's Story: Building Confidence and Opportunity through Skills Training

Danna's Story: Promoting Respect, Joy, and Responsibility

Danna's Story: Promoting Respect, Joy, and Responsibility

Wuyatta's Story: Enabling Dreams

Wuyatta's Story: Enabling Dreams

Young Women Uplifting Their Community

The Power of Opportunity: Women Uplifting Their Community

Raveena’s Story: Taking a Stand Against Child Marriage

Raveena’s Courage to Stand Against Child Marriage

Invest in a Child, Uplift a Community

Amelia's Journey: Resilience, Leadership, and the Pursuit of Education

Filming "Light and Air": A Village Celebrates Education of Girls

Filming "Light and Air": A Village celebrates Education of Girls ﻿

Exciting Opportunities for Mona Youth Ambassadors in 2024-2025!

Exciting Opportunities for Mona Youth Ambassadors in 2024-2025!

Youth Ambassadors in Action: Change Starts One Person at a Time

Sunflower Mission graduate wins Intel's 2024 Hero of the Year Award

Phung Tran's story: The gift of education raises a STEM leader

Derlys's Story: A Dream Fulfilled

A Dream Fulfilled

FUNDAEC & Community-Led Development

FUNDAEC & Community-Led Development

Scaling Social Impact

Scaling Social Impact

Badi School, Panama

Study Hall Educational Foundation, India

Empowered Women Empower All: The Impact of Female Founders

Empowered Women Empower All: The Impact of Female Founders

The Women

From Maya heritage to global inspiritation

Ana Miriam’s Journey of Empowerment

Building a Culture of Gender Justice in Uttar Pradesh (India)

Building an Empowered Culture of Gender Justice in Uttar Pradesh (India)

Mona Dinner with Rainn Wilson highlights Collaborations for Social Good

Mona Appreciation Dinner highlights Collaborations for Social Good

Mona Gala 2023 Results and Videos: Alone, a drop. Together, a surging sea.

2023 Gala Results & Videos: Alone, a drop. Together, a surging sea.

ADCAM (Brazil): Unparalleled Community Engagement and a Vision for the Future

ADCAM (Brazil): Unparalleled Community Engagement and a Vision for the Future

Mona Youth Ambassadors: Shaping a Life of Service to Humanity

Mona Youth Ambassadors: Shaping a Life of Service to Humanity

Mitigating COVID19 "Learning Loss" in India and South Africa: A Collaborative Effort

Mitigating COVID19 Learning Loss through AI driven adaptive software, "Mindspark" in South Africa and India: A Collaborative Initiative.

About the Partners:

They said she can’t. She said I CAN. Now she is saving lives in her village of Mama2, Cameroon.

They said she can’t. She said I CAN. Now she is saving lives in her village of Mama2, Cameroon.

Starfish International's Skills Center: A Great Example of Development in the Making

Starfish International's Skills Center:

A Great Example of Development in the Making

Team Mona visits India, March 2023

Mona Foundation Visit with Grassroots Partners in India, March 2023

Kali's story: Educate a girl. Transform an entire community.

Kali's Story: Educate a girl. Transform an entire community.

Barli Development Institute for Rural Women (Indore, India)

Jhamku's story : What education means to me

Jhamku's story: What education means to me

Mona Foundation hailed as a "Trailblazer" at 2022 Goalmakers Conference

Mona Foundation hailed as a "Trailblazer" at 2022 Goalmakers Conference

Mona 2022 Virtual Gala: Scaling Hope - Together

2022 Gala Results: Scaling Hope - Together.

Mona Youth Ambassadors: Youth Can Change the World!

Mona Youth Ambassadors: Youth Can Change the World!

Elvira's Story: A Life of 'Firsts'

Elvira's Story: A life full of "firsts"

Filming "Light and Air": A Village celebrates Education of Girls