A Fairer Education in Africa

Education is not a finite resource like drugs or energy, it’s self-perpetuating. It’s also empowering; enabling people to take control of their lives and have more say in how things are run. Education programmes are popular with charities and governments, but as with a lot of development, there’s devil in the detail.

Particular devils that are widely overlooked are the obstacles that girls face in getting to and staying in school. Money is increasingly there for building schools and improving teaching, but not enough attention is being paid to how gender remains a major factor in determining who actually gets access to it.

One organisation dedicated to rebalancing these injustices is Pathways Togo (www.pathwaystogo.org). Since its founding in 2010, Pathways Togo has been building more and more support for girls and young women to get a high school and university education through scholarships, mentoring and workshops.

The young women who have earned scholarships with Pathways Togo have overcome many of the obstacles typical of girls struggling to get an education in rural Africa. High on the list is pressure to marry young through arranged and often polygamous marriages. Furthermore early pregnancies, lack of access to sanitary products, and personal safety and health issues make attending school and studying at home impossible for many girls. Domestic duties also limit girls’ time to attend schools; many are expected to do childcare and work in family farms and businesses.

Paying for school is also a serious challenge for many students. Where boys remain priorities in families, girls will often have to depend on brewing and selling alcohol, moving away from home, and selling street food in order to support themselves and continue their education.

Others have had more support from within their communities, with many families investing a great deal in their children’s education. One young woman had narrowly escaped an arranged marriage at age 11, and with support from her sister had been able to earn enough money to continue through school, earn a scholarship from Pathways Togo and eventually progress to university.

Many of the young women Pathways Togo has worked with have felt that the presence of strong female role models has made a great difference to their lives and those around them. While these are undoubtedly signs of progress, the work still to be done is vast.

The support of volunteers who can raise funds for scholarships, and help provide training and workshops for girls and young women is what keep organisations like Pathways Togo doing what they do. Governments and international organistions are investing heavily in education, but without this crucial work to address the gender gap in education, more education investment risks exacerbating the gender gap in wider society.

As well as a new remote volunteer of the People & Planet team, I am also a PhD student about to venture out into the wilderness of Antarctica.

My research will focus on areas of the Antarctic ice sheets, looking at specific glaciers/ice streams in the Transantarctic Mountains (which divide the West and East ice sheets). The West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) has been in the media a lot in the past (http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/mar/18/west-antarctic-ice-sheet-melt; http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8387137.stm). This is because most of the underlying land is below sea level which makes it very susceptible to warming and rapid melting, and therefore it has a possible threshold point leading to ice sheet collapse. The East Antarctic Ice Sheet (EAIS) is bigger and considered more stable as it rests on a larger proportion of land. The Transantarctic Mountains provide an interesting partial barrier to the EAIS, through which ice streams flow into the Ross Ice Shelf.

“What are you trying to find out, and why?”

The project aims to find out how big the glaciers were in this region of Antarctica at the peak of the last ice age, and to see how they thinned and retreated to their current form. By understanding this past behaviour of glaciers it provides an insight into their relationship with past climate systems and can therefore help towards predicting the future response of ice sheets to climate changes. The data collected will be used to help test and validate ice sheet computer models which look to predict future change.

“How are you going to study this?”

By surveying the material and land features found in the area, one can see the where ice used to flow and what processes occurred. Some rocks can show obvious signs that they have been moved there by a glacier because they are a different rock type to that found locally in the landscape. These rocks are called erratics and are typically collected from the peaks of mountains which poke through the ice (known as nunataks). A technique called cosmogenic nuclide dating allows us to measure how long ago glacially-deposited boulders were left behind by the ice sheet, and from this we can establish the height and length of the ice sheet at different points in time. The results can then be compared to other data from the region such as further ice sheet information, ice cores, sea ice records, etc. But first things first, I need to go out to Antarctica to make some notes and collect some rocks!

This post first appeared on Selwyn’s own blog (http://theterratranscriber.wordpress.com/), where you will be able to find updates of his Antarctic experiences.

Philippa de Boissiere was one of 8 students who took part in People & Planet’s tar sands solidarity exchange this summer:

“Our trip to Alberta, Canada marked the start for us of an ongoing commitment to take on the most destructive oil project on Earth. Our visit was in response to an invitation from the former Beaver Lake Cree Nation (BLCN) Chief, Al Lameman, whose community is being directly threatened by the expansion of tar sands.
There was a lot to take in from our experience of this dirty oil extraction industry. We were treated to a full PR assault from Suncor representatives, harassed by industry workers whilst surveying the destruction of the boreal forest and left choking by the fumes emitted from toxic waste ponds.
More importantly however, we developed links of solidarity with indigenous people from Beaver Lake. Over campfires, meals and some dancing at their annual Pow-Wow we learnt of a wise and loving culture. We were able to send a powerful message on behalf of the People & Planet network that the Beaver Lake Cree Nation do not stand alone in taking on the most powerful oil companies on the planet.

“The Life of a Student Activist”

The first year of university went very slowly for me. Despite making some great friends and settling in to my course, I was never sure whether I should really be there. Second year, however, was a turning point where my social and political views came together and I started to feel a need to make a difference in the world.

Autumn 2010

Over the summer, after spending time as part of my local Fairtrade group and discussing political issues with friends, I realised that to be happy I needed to make the most of my university experience. I needed to get involved in a charity or organisation with people who shared my interests. After seeing a People & Planet society stall at the Freshers Fayre, and realising how dedicated the network was to defending human rights, ending world poverty and protecting the planet, I got involved immediately. At the first meeting I felt really enthusiastic about ethical and environmental issues and was so delighted to realise that I was surrounded by others who shared my passion. I also became more involved in the Green Party and met activists who had campaigned for more to be done around climate change, and felt keen to make an impact myself. At the start of the term I went to a talk from a speaker for the Global Poverty Project and it really inspired me to try and help others. The words I heard and the images I saw that evening triggered something in me and life started to change.

My first encounter with my activism having an effect on people directly was at a Barclays Graduate training scheme talk. Along with some friends I interrogated the Barclays ambassadors on their ethical and environmental policies – or lack of – which resulted in a lot of resentment from the workers, and some very interesting discussions with other students.

As news spread of Nick Clegg’s betrayal of his policies, the student movement began and I was eager to join the campaigning against the rise in tuition fees. The student demo in London inspired me to stand up for what I believed. The anger at the MPs who had gone back on their word was prominent that day and there was a worry that Thatcher Tory days were returning. Despite the small amount of violence that day, there was a sense of unity amongst the campaigners and I felt like a student from the 70s – determined to start a movement and give a voice to the unheard. My family were reluctant about my involvement in such controversial issues, and in some respects my Dad has continued to disapprove of my outspoken, direct action ever since, but my Mum was proud that I was standing up for what I believed in. My lecturer was also very supportive and allowed me to miss a lecture to take part, meaning I felt even more empowered to stand up for future students. The beginning of the student movement was quite special. Many students felt passionate about the cause, there was hope that we could win this and prevent tuition fees rising. As the months drew on, the public’s spirit seemed to dwell and societies’ reaction to who I had become as a person was changing.

Winter 2010

The initial passion of protest had worn off for the majority of those at the original tuition fees demo as snow appeared on the doorstep of Cardiff students, but there were still some dedicated souls ready to keep me fighting for a cause I believed in. As part of “Action Against the Cuts Cardiff” I took part in the occupation of a lecture theatre and organised demonstrations throughout the city centre which gained lots of Welsh coverage and achieved great things. However, the London protest on the day of the national vote, was different. The violence I saw that day from police and students frightened me, but I was defiant that we were campaigning for a serious and important cause and that my activism would not stop. My involvement in such edgy issues and contact with the police after being traditionally a well behaved, suburban A grade student came as a shock to some friends back home as my fiery nature shone through.

UKUncut action in Cardiff

The student protests built momentum for the rest of society to stand up against the cuts and movements like UK Uncut began. Occupying stores like Vodafone and Topshop was becoming a more prominent part of my day to day life as the tax avoiders were targeted. I knew that when I came back after Christmas, I could not go back to my old self and that I had developed a passion for activism, for devoting myself to worthwhile causes.

Spring 2011

The beginning of the Arab Revolution last spring gave hope to so many individuals across the world. I can remember my Dad saying “When did protest ever achieve anything?” just before Egypt‘s old president Mubarak stood down. It was a turning point in how my father saw my actions and to students and academics across the globe. Being involved in the larger community in Cardiff by now, I felt keen to stand up against the cuts affecting all individuals, and protested against pension cuts and the NHS. In times of need, it was comforting to see society come together and shout for each other’s livelihoods.

Striving for equality is also a continuing theme in my Sociology degree and has meant that my feminist belief has grown significantly since first year. After reading about “Slutwalk”, I took part in a Cardiff demonstration which was empowering but at the same time controversial for the wrong reasons. It made me feel that as a fiery young woman, life was still very different to how it is for a man. Women are treated differently even in issues of activism where we are campaigning for equality. At the student protests, the police were definitely more lenient to frightened young women than to the frightened men. This has only fuelled my desire to fight for equality even more.

In 2011 my participation with the Green Party increased significantly as I volunteered to undertake a media internship. As I learnt more about how we need to change our reliance on fossil fuels and take more drastic action to prevent runaway climate change, my every day life was altered a little. Already being vegetarian, I strived to do more simple things to look after my planet, such as recycling and cycling instead of driving. However, the way I perceive TV shows, individuals and the actions of companies changed significantly as I realised how little others think about their impact on society and our future planet. Being so concerned changes the way I see others, which made me question whether people have changed the way they see me? But my political involvement has become an active part of my lifestyle and I hope it continues that way for the rest of my life.

Year Three

This year I hope to become part of the Student Council and fight for our university to become more ethical and environmentally friendly. I will be campaigning against the Tar Sands in Alberta, attending a demo in London to ban public sector clothes being made in sweatshops and perhaps occupying an oil or gas head-quarters to try and stop the UK’s dependency on unsustainable fuels. I will also be supporting Oxfam and the Global Poverty Project on issues such as Fairtrade and food shortages. This of course will be done alongside campaigning against the cuts to our society.

Being an activist means leading a busy lifestyle and campaigning becomes a priority, but not behind trying to have fun with friends, family and my boyfriend. I have learnt not to preach my views but just to let people know that I will live my life focused on trying to make a small difference to the lives of some individuals somewhere in the world. Life seems very merry when you know you are being the best you can be while living life to the full as a university student in one of the best cities for fun and education in the UK.

by Marie, who is currently investigating garment factories in Bangladesh.

After my first three weeks as a project manager of a project to improve the social labour conditions for female line-operators in the garment industry in Bangladesh by providing them with free training and skills-upgrading to become supervisors and move up the hierarchical gendered ladder of highly exploitative factory work, I have been faced with both ups and downs.

So far we have 50 factories officially on board and in agreement to let us provide training to and interview their female workers, however sweet-talk words exchanged through diplomatic performance and acting in shiny factory director offices as well as warm receptions pampering us with cake, chai, factory-gifts, restaurant visits and hummer rides, do not always amount to concrete action, and still 30 out of the 50 factories haven’t signed and returned the memorandums of understanding we have handed them.  The sad reality I have come to realize is that there is a never-ending amount of layers to go through to really get a chance at revealing and changing what goes on behind the scenes in the garment factories.

One of the by far most 'decent' looking of Bangladeshi garment factories I've seen so far. Yet, these workers had no air conditioning.

The overwhelming princess treatment I have received as a ‘white woman’ has been the hardest challenge and has been a real distraction in my attempt to have a formal meeting about a serious issue at social compliance and workers’ rights.

In the middle of conversations, factory directors interrupt me to ask if I am single, where I live, or ask me what if I’m free to meet for a drink later. After meetings they often invite me for lunch/dinner at their fancy restaurants, or offered to give me a ride home in their Hummer cars. One factory director even insisted on giving me a pair of factory produced jeans as a gift – and before I had the change to refuse he snatched his fingers to get one of the female workers to come and take my measurements and within 15min she returned with a shiny new pair of quality jeans. I’ve never felt so embarrassed and awkward in my life. By having to negotiate with these directors I’m trapped in their terms having to accept their fake hospitality for me and therefore implicitly their maltreatment and disrespect of their workers.  One of the things that has hit me the worst on a personal level is that because I hand them over my business card with my mobile number on it, many of them give me sleazy prank calls and text messages with compliments and sexual innuendos. Under these circumstances, keeping up the ‘business etiquette’ mask is tough, and the directors behaviour feels like such a smooth side-track maneuvre when my research team’s sole intention is asking them to commit to training and promoting their female line-operators.

One of the most unexpected experiences I had was probably a meeting I had with a rich french guy, who at the age of 24 is now the director of one of the big garment factories over here due to his noble family connections. The most memorable comment he made during our meeting what when he boasted that “It’s a tough job trying to control my workers here sometimes, they are all connected to the mafia and talk like ‘des petits nègres’ (little negros), without me in charge they would be lost”. After that statement, I simply had no words.

On the other hand, I’ve also had a lot of golden moments of visiting factories highly committed to ensuring the social welfare of their workers. I’ve had meetings with Directors who introduced me to their FEMALE Social Compliance Managers, who were strongly committed to workers’ rights and told me stories about their different workers backgrounds and some of the social difficulties they face in Dhaka and what social benefits they provide them to cope with these.

One of the most inspiring meetings I have had was with a garment factory who had received an award for the best Corporate Social Responsibility practicing firm in Bangladesh in 2008 after receiving the very same training program which my team is now trying to introduce to 96 other factories. This factory had each floor of the factory named after a Bangladeshi freedom fighter to teach his workers about history while they work. They also provide their workers with English lessons, disease-prevention courses on anything from Tuberculosis to AIDs/HIV, free health care and dental care vouchers, maternity leave benefits and ‘newborn’ baby prices. They arrange monthly workers’ sports tournament and cultural festivals where workers’ perform. The director has founded a free school for his workers kids next to the factory. They even had a ‘ladies club’ and a hair and beauty salon for their female workers.  Most remarkably, the factory had implemented rigorous sexual harassment measurements and awareness courses – introducing male/female separated exits, staircases and canteens. At first when I was given a tour of that factory and shown their portfolio of all the seemingly impressive things they do for their workers I was in awe. However, a head of social compliance at a large supermarket firm, he informed me that a lot of these ‘big achievements and social commitments’ are mostly for show for when foreigners come to visit and that there is still a lot of labour exploitation going on behind closed doors, which only local staff working in this field will realise. Alas, my Scandinavian naïveté fooling me again.

Another contradiction I was exposed to was when visiting another factory that had received training two years ago and now demonstrated me that they had 50 % female supervisors and even some female line production chiefs – they even gave me the whole tour of the floor and allowed me to take photos of them (see pictures below). Yet, all my respect for them and their commitments to women’s empowerment was lost when the director slapped and shouted at a female worker who ran up to him crying because she had injured her foot on one of the machines on one of the floor I was shown around on. Horrific.

More generally, there is a lot of mismatching and deceiving information going around both regarding social welfare standards at factories and the CSR of the major international retailers. Some factory directors supplying for a major brand big them up saying how committed a brand they are to training their workers and ensuring high environmental and social standards. However, one of my friends here who is engaged to a man who has  senior position at a garment producing  office in Dhaka told me that it is common knowledge within the garment business in Bangladesh and amongst retailers that the brand are by far the worst at exploiting their factory workers and not living up to social compliance standards – often not even respecting the ban on child labour.

The garment industry over here simply is a jungle and impossible to get your head around – still I’ll keep trying!

Below is a letter signed by 40 key sabbatical officers from across the country protesting against People & Planet activist Edd Bauer’s arrest and suspension from his role as VP for Education at Birmingham Guild of Students.

Edd Bauer has been unilaterally suspended from his post by staff members at his students’ union.

For more information, see this article on Counterfire.

Edd Bauer, vice-president for education at The University of Birmingham Guild of Students, was arrested on 16th September after unfurling a banner that protested against university fees and education cuts, at the start of the Liberal Democrat party conference.

Edd Bauer was held in Aston Police station over the weekend and from Monday the 19th of September until Monday the 26th of September in Winson Green Prison. The arrest and detention for a minor act of civil disobedience was widely criticized as repressive crimalisation of peaceful protest, especially as Edd Bauer pleaded “not guilty”.

Bauer received solidarity from many quarters including local Liberal Democrat MP John Hemming who spoke in support of his bail application in court. John Hemming said: “Whilst I do not believe he should have put the banner there in the first place, the protest was peaceful and placid and I think it is dis-proportionate to keep him in prison any longer.”

The Birmingham University and College Union passed a motion in support of Edward Bauer. The National Union of Students intervened to help push for his release from jail. A letter signed by a number of high profile figures was published in the Guardian on Sunday 25th September, opposing the criminalisation of his peaceful protest.

Despite the wide ranging public support, the ongoing trial and his pledge of not guilty, the University of Birmingham Guild of Students - without any consultation with the Guild’s democratic bodies- has suspended Edward Bauer from his role as Vice President Education “indefinitely” and with “immediate effect”.

We call on the Guild of Students’ mangers to respect democracy in the students’ union and allow Edd Bauer to continue in work until the matter has been investigated and discussed at either a union general meeting or a student union council with all the information at hand. We do not consider any disciplinary valid unless it is done democratically by students at either a UGM or Student Union Council.

Signed:

Manoj Kerai, Welfare and Diversity Officer Goldsmiths Students’ Union

Vice President Education and Welfare York St John Students’ Union

Stanley Ellerby-English Activities and Development Officer, LSE Students’ Union

Ben Jackson, Education Officer, Leeds University Union

Alex Peters-Day, General Secretary, LSE Students’ Union

James Haywood, President, Goldsmiths Students’ Union

Bob Sutton, Liverpool Guild of Students

Maev McDaid, Liverpool Guild of Students

Ruth Brewer, Liverpool Guild of Students

Zahid Raja, NUS Wales NEC

Andrew Tindall, Aberystwyth Students Against Cuts

Clare Solomon, Counterfire

Mike Williamson, Edinburgh University Students’ Association

Vicki Baars, NUS LGBT Officer (Women’s Place)

Kanja I Sesay, NUS Black Students Officer

Matt Bond, NUS Disabled Students NEC

Sean Rillo Razcka, Vice President, University of London Union

Kelley Temple, NUS Scotland Women’s Officer

Mark Bergfeld, National Union of Students NEC

Arianna Tassinari, Co-President Welfare and Education, SOAS SU

Jade Baker, NUS Women’s Committee

Emma Kerry, NUS LGBT Committee

Alusine Alpha, Union Secretary Treasurer, University of Bradford Student Union

Izzy John, Welfare Officer, Warwick SU

Leo Boe, President, Warwick SU

Chris Luck, Democracy Officer, Warwick SU

Matthew Rogers, Societies Officer, Warwick SU

Sean Ruston, Education Officer, Warwick SU

Hannah Dee, Defend the Right to Protest

Joshi Sachdeo, Vice-Chair Birkbeck SU Executive Committee

Kai Weston, NUS LGBT Committee

James McAsh. NCAFC, Edinburgh

Michael Chessum, NUS NEC and NCAFC

Daniel Lemberger Cooper, President Royal Holloway Students’ Union

Fionnuala McGoldrick, NUS LGBT Committee

Sarah Kerton, Postgraduate and Mature Students’ Officer, UMSU

Sam O’Connor, University of Manchester Students’ Union

Joe Kelly NUS LGBT Committee

Liam McNulty, Cambridge Defend Education

Morgan Wild, Cambridge University Students Union (CUSU) Education Officer

Ruth Graham, CUSU Women’s Officer

Taz Rasul, CUSU Access and Funding Officer

Hannah Paterson, Welfare Officer, UMSU

Oeiisha Williams, Education Officer, Birmingham City University Students’ Union

Sign the petition calling for a democratic vote.
E-mail Birmingham Guild of Students to tell them your thoughts: president@guild.bham.ac.uk

The Egyptian Twitter Revolution?

Much has been written about social media’s role in the Arab spring. Few but the most hardline technodeterminists genuinely believe the existence of Twitter, Facebook and the like are solely responsible for the mass uprisings.

However,  a view persists that these tools played a fundamental role. Several news sources, the BBC and Committee for the Protection of Journalists (CPJ) among them, proclaimed social media’s impact in Tunisia’s so-called Jasmine revolution.

Let’s look at a couple of facts:

- Twitter activity abou the Jasmine uprising peaked on 15th January 2011 - the day after Ben Ali was deposed and a full three weeks after the protests began. The peak broadly correlates with Western Media’s interest in the Tunisian uprising. Stats here.

- The Sidibouzid hashtag that CPJ flags up as being critical in the revolution was only created on 27th December 2010, ten days after Mohammed Bouazizi set fire to himself and the day the protests reached the capital, Tunis.

Both these facts suggest there was no Twitter revolution in Tunisia. It was utilised primarily as a broadcast medium for westerners to follow events.

But what about Facebook?

This is rather more difficult to assess as Facebook does not make its data public. Tangential evidence suggests Facebook did play a significant part.

In 2008 there was another uprising in Tunisia in the mining town of Gafsa. Causes were similar - lack of employment and frustration at the corrupt regime. With an election pending Ben Ali took no chances, shutting down Facebook and sending in his forces. And the strategy worked. Ben Ali crushed the uprising and went on to win the election.

So what was the key difference?

In 2008 there were 28,000 Facebook users in Tunisia; in 2010 the were 2 million. By shutting down Facebook in 2010 Ben Ali risked politicising a fifth of his population, many of whom may have been apolitical to that point. However, by allowing users to post emotive videos, share links and formulate strategy online he allowed what he sought to avoid; apolitical citizens being politicised.

The sheer volume of Facebook users put Ben Ali in an impossible position. And this may indeed be social media’s strength - its latent potentiality. The vast majority of content being passed around on social media is in no way political but the dense interconnectivity of social media facilitates means messages can and do spread quickly if the offline environment creates the appetite for protest.

David Cameron’s call to ban social media during riots fell into the same trap. Such a move would irritate people who previously had no reason to protest, likely swelling the numbers involved in any uprising. In this sense, social media’s stength may well be in its numbers.

Hi, I’m Megan, a new media activist volunteer for People  & Planet - I will be sharing my thoughts,  ideas and experiences with you for the next year! At the moment I am president of Cardiff Uni’s People and Planet society and hoping to create some fun and magic for the newbies in September, as well as keeping the rest of the UK up to date on the Buy Right campaign.

Buy Right for Workers Rights

I am quite a passionate person and therefore will be exposing my anger or delight at the way the world is evolving. I would call myself a feminist, green human rights activist who is also very focused on having fun, therefore I hope to fit in well in the happiness of national People & Planet. Today, upon my first day of training, I learnt about the successes of People & Planet since 1968 and felt so proud to become part of such a productive and worthwhile organisation, where hopefully I can make a small impact myself

Since singing at a Fairtrade event at 14 I have felt determined to make human rights a priority, especially when thinking about the tiny things I can do to help. Therefore I will be spreading the word and mobilising students to put pressure on their university to join the Workers Rights Consortium, just as Sheffield are about to, and making sure that all the People & Planet’s across the country are making the most of Fairtrade Fortnight in February.

However I will probably be letting out some anger, perhaps just against statements made on Question Time by ignorant right wing individuals or expressing my constant disbelief at people who are so apathetic about climate change and human rights issues - in a hope that one individual, one day, might read my blog and start thinking differently and make a small change of their own.

Here’s to a year full of hope and ambition with my fellow media activists at People & Planet

Cheers!

Hey guys,

This is Katie Luxton putting my sustainably sourced and ethically made stamp on my first blog post. My Monday this week started out as usual - dodging bombs and using human shields.

Yes, I am a female James Bond and I plan to shake up and stir the cocktail of environmentalists who are as eager as I am to help make life a few ‘Degrees Cooler’.

In case you were wondering, I am of course referring to the current environmental campaign for Transition Universities at People & Planet. The bomb dodging was apart of the People & Planet Volunteer Media Activist training I have just undertaken. My use of a human shield was a warm up exercise to get the blood flowing to the brain; cue excellent media ideas.

For me, the training was a refreshing way to initiate putting my passions into practice. I hope to raise awareness on environmental issues, but most importantly instigate ACTION.

I learnt more about ethical investment and tar sands on the training which was something I was eager to clue up on. I also found an excellent introduction to ethical investment in the Guardian. I am definitely going to pursue this avenue of environmental conservation further. I will keep you updated if I find anything new; if readers have any fruitful suggestions on the topic, they would be more than welcome.

I also wanted to say thanks a lot to the staff members at People & Planet for making the experience so enjoyable. It was a great opportunity to meet the dedicated faces behind the organisation, but also my fellow Media Activists; like minded people trying to make the world a better place.

Be safe, be green.

Katie