The Open Education Consortium has awarded the Commonwealth of Learning (COL) President and CEO, Professor Asha Kanwar with the Open Education Excellence Award for the open MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) “Mobiles for Development”. 

The Open Education Awards for Excellence provide annual recognition to outstanding contributions in the Open Education Consortium community. These awards recognise distinctive open education sites, technological innovations, notable open courses, and exemplary leaders in Open Education worldwide. The awards are announced each year at the Open Education Global Conference.

“Mobiles for Development” was launched on 2 October 2013 and finished on 25 November 2013. Indian Institute of Technology in Kanpur (IITK) partnered with COL in designing and operating this MOOC. In COL, a team comprising staff of Knowledge Management (V Balaji, Ricky Cheng, Michelle Gruda and Helen Askounis) organised the course.

The MOOC taught learners about important concepts and practices in mobile technologies that are relevant to learning and education, agricultural extension and rural credit and finance. The course saw 2,282 registrants from 116 countries. All course materials have been published as Open Educational Resources.

Gender equality activist Gulalai Ismail has been named the 2015 Asia Region Commonwealth Youth Award winner in recognition of her efforts to further women’s empowerment in Pakistan.

When aged 16, Gulalai Ismail established Aware Girls to provide young women with a platform for learning and advocacy. She led a team of 100 young female monitors of the 2013 Pakistan general elections, which examined the challenges to women’s electoral participation. Gulalai was named one of Foreign Policy Magazine’s Global Thinkers in 2013, and was the recipient of the 2014 International Humanist Award.

Ms Ismail said: “Winning this award today is not just about my recognition, it is about giving recognition to all girls who are living in extremely difficult conditions and taking risks to make the world a better place. When I started out 12 years ago I never imagined that I would be able to achieve that much. We were young and inexperienced and had little support. This recognition shows that girls have the power to change the world. Girls aren’t just victims of abuse or violence, they are actually powerful actors. They represent not the future, but the present.”

With a grant from the Commonwealth Foundation, Aware Girls is helping to promote the participation of women in electoral processes in Pakistan by training, educating and encouraging women to voice their opinion.

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The Commonwealth Foundation and Commonwealth of Learning (COL) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding, signalling their renewed commitment to project collaboration and organisational learning. 

As two of the three intergovernmental bodies of the Commonwealth, the Foundation and COL will consider common areas of work so as to develop mutually relevant projects and learn from each other. 

Given the joint commitment to knowledge sharing and promotion, the partnership will focus on sharing resources, research and case studies on relevant aspects of education, public policy and development outcomes.

The two organisations are ambitious in their respective fields. COL has pioneered Open and Distance Learning across the Commonwealth, while the Foundation continues to promote the engagement of people in democratic processes. Both recognise that partnership and collaboration are essential to realise those ambitions, and something their Member States and stakeholders rightfully expect. 

Director of the Commonwealth Foundation, Vijay Krishnarayan said of the agreement:

“Such partnerships don’t just happen, but start with a shared outlook and stem from a realisation of mutual interest and respect between colleagues. They require a degree of institutionalisation – a formality that makes the connection real. We’re building on tangible examples of joint work between our organisations over the past two years. 

“This document therefore represents a statement of intent – a framework for collaboration rooted in our respective strategic plans, and made real through joint work planning to develop projects together and enable organisational learning.” 

President of COL, Professor Asha Kanwar declared, “We have to move from idea to action; from intent to real concrete results.

“With the Commonwealth Foundation we have a good solid basis of trust. We are both small organisations, and this kind of joint programme helps us leverage our resources and work to each other’s strengths.” 

The Foundation and COL look forward to two more years of productive collaboration in support of Commonwealth principles and values.

The Faces of Life project launched on 26 Nov 2014, giving a voice to the women of Rwanda whose lives were affected by the 1994 genocide.

The Children’s Radio Foundation have reported some exciting project developments that have occurred in 2014, including their work on World Aids Day. 

The most successful of this years interventions have been the live monthly radio broadcasts at Nolungile Youth Clinic (Cape Town, South Africa). The youth-led events host candid talks from visiting speakers, and entertain with local artists who perform on the open mic. The event is held together by an open debate allowing the youth reporters to meaningfully engage visiting and clinic-using youth around the chosen topic. Some of the topics selected over the course of the project have included ‘Freedom in Health’, ‘Imagining Our Future: an HIV-free Africa’, and ‘Loving yourself: self-love as a way to prevent infection’. Due to an ongoing LGBTI focus within the radio broadcasts, the events also have created a sense of community for members of the local LGBTI community. The clinic has become a place where they meet, socialise, learn from others, and participate in debates.

According to 20 year-old Future Positive youth reporter Zuko Mkutyukelwa, “I think the monthly shows do a lot of work for people outside.  Because some guys think that they can’t go to the clinic…they think it’s only for ladies, females only. But when we host a show there are males and females present, so if they come they get knowledge to understand that the males also come to the clinic. And I think we are trying to invite more people into the clinic to change their point of views, to change how they see the clinic.”

The monthly events have also become a place where other civil society organisations (CSOs) are invited to participate in making the event relevant to a wider community and to create awareness of their respective services. The events have not only allowed the youth to hone their skills as leaders and educators, but have also allowed them to speak freely and share their views about health issues. It has allowed them to feel comfortable in this youth-friendly clinic space, to direct their own course of learning, and to communicate with the nurses and staff in a way not usually available to them on a typical clinic day. CSO partner Nicholas Mabulu from Ubuntu Africa reflected on the benefits of being part of the Future Positive network. “A partnership with Future Positive has helped in building our kids’ self-esteem through participation in the process of being young reporters. We have also been able to network with influential people that have assisted us in our curriculum module on motivational speaking on HIV. The involvement of Future Positive in our programs has increased dialogue within our youth groups on topics related to challenges of youth in Khayelitsha.”

On Monday the 1st of December, the OR Tambo Hall in Khayelitsha, Cape Town exploded with an estimated three thousand young people in support of the annual World Aids Day event. In and around the hall were activities geared to engage youth attending the event. Various organizations supplied condoms and pamphlets at their stands, while others offered HIV testing stations. The Future Positive pop-up radio booth had a stream of youth surprised to find themselves in the thick of youth-led debates and conversations. The first hour of the broadcast was led by Future Positive reporters Masinga Luzipho and Zibele Nomangola, who asked the attentive onlookers to participate in unpacking the topic of ‘what can parents learn from their children?’ According to Future Positive Director Lesedi Mogoatlhe, “Youth and parents alike took to the roaming microphone to share their personal stories and to debate their contrasting views, while others listened, nodded in approval, or protested loudly to what they disagreed with. The pop-up radio booth allowed young people to share their own experiences, and to learn from those of others. While the event was chanting the slogan ‘Phantsi nge stigma’ (Down with stigma), the reporters were unpacking the myriad ways stigma unfolds in their lives and in their community.” See attached photos of the event.

The Siyaziwa Radio Club includes youth between the ages of 19-30 years from Future Positive’s network partners Health4Men and Free Gender. The group of 10 LGBTI youth were trained by the Future Positive task team as facilitators who produce audio content that focuses on the issues of LGBTI and HIV and AIDS. After a comprehensive training of trainers in March 2014, the group has met regularly to share best practices on how to use radio techniques to facilitate difficult conversations within the youth groups in their respective organisations. The Siyaziwa participants are made up of youth living in Khayelitsha, a township with high rates of homophobic acts of violence and injustice. The group has focused on recording community dialogues about the sensitive topics of LGBTI and HIV discrimination and stigma. The recorded dialogues are now being used to create a solid foundation for an audio drama that the group is working on as a way to capture the nuances of the experiences of LGBTI youth in churches, schools, clinics, and within the greater community of Khayelitsha. 2015 will mark the launch of both the Siyaziwa audio drama series, as well as a monthly LGBTI show on Radio Zibonele.

In 2014 Future Positive extended its network to include youth from the Pediatric and Adolescent Care Clinic (PACC) based at Ubuntu Clinic in Site B, Khayelitsha. The group of youth aged between 11 and 17 years old are in a program initiated by MSF to tackle the ongoing challenge of keeping young patients adherent to their HIV treatment. While the doctors, nurses and clinic personnel work together in innovative ways to ensure adherence to medication, psychosocial care is equally important. In operation since August, Future Positive’s radio club forms a major part of their psychosocial intervention. The youth have chosen the name ‘Teenager’s Radio Club,’ and in weekly production workshops they share intimate experiences with one another and record audio stories that allow them to speak candidly about the different stages of their treatment process. The young reporters have taken full ownership of their learning, suggesting possible themes and topics, as well as looking forward to producing their first 30-minute radio programs in 2015.