TOP OF THE POPS!

The Teach A Man To Fish song is now live online with its own pop video... well a slideshow of some of our partners and projects. Respect goes to the talented students of Eden Campus, South Africa -check it out now!

ORGANIC FARMING OPENS DOORS
Organic farming methods could double or triple food production in developing countries.Researchers from Michigan University have found that in developed countries yields were almost equal on organic and conventional farms. However, in developing countries organic farming can yield up to three times as much food on individual farms as low-intensive methods on the same land. In addition to greater yields, researchers discovered that those yields could be accomplished using existing quantities of organic fertilizers, without putting more farmland into production.

Although it seems counterintuitive, in developing countries many farmers still do not have access to expensive fertilizers and pesticides available in developed countries, to produce those high yields. Apart from the belief that organic farming produces low yields, the other main objection to organic farming was the lack of organically acceptable nitrogen sources. Researchers looked at nitrogen availability by multiplying the current farm land area by the average amount of nitrogen available for production crops if so-called 'green manures' were planted between growing seasons. Green manures are cover crops which are plowed into the soil to provide natural soil amendments. They discovered that planting green manures between growing seasons provided enough nitrogen to replace synthetic fertilizers, and confirmed that organic farming is less environmentally harmful that conventional farming methods yet can potentially produce more than enough food.

Organic farming is important because conventional agriculture (involving high-yielding plants, mechanized tillage, synthetic fertilizers and biocides) is detrimental to the environment. Conventional farming causes soil erosion, greenhouse gas emission, increased pest resistance, and loss of biodiversity. Fertilizer runoff from conventional agriculture is also the chief culprit in creating dead zones - low oxygen areas where marine life cannot survive.

If you have any opinions you'd like to share on this article or would like to share your organic farming experiences please click on the "comments" link below!

This article used and cited information from the following source. Visit this website for more information: http://www.ns.umich.edu/htdocs/releases/story.php?id=5936
(Article 'Organic Farming Can Feed The World'. University of Michigan website - School of Natural Resources and Environment )

Yachana, Ecuador: 8-10 December 2009

2009 Conference Theme: Income Generation for Education

“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world” Nelson Mandela

Imagine a school for children from the poorest of families – but where all graduates leave with the skills and experience needed to generate wealth for themselves and their communities.
Imagine a school in a developing country which is able to support itself without relying on subsidies – and yet is able to afford the best facilities and the best teachers.

These schools exist. The change is happening. This is your chance to be part of it!

Education That Pays For Itself 2009 will bring together some of the world’s leading practition ers in financially sustainable education, along with educators, policymakers, business people, philanthropists, social entrepreneurs and NGOs from around the world, in a unique forum for learning, networking, inspiration and action.
This Conference represents an opportunity to be part of community that is transforming education in developing countries by integrating entrepreneurship and financial sustainability into the fabric of schools.

Discover how new and innovative models are tackling key challenges in education across the developing world:
1. How to provide high quality education without high fees
2. How to finance improved facilities without outside support
3. How to teach young people to succeed as entrepreneurs
4. How to empower future generations to break out of the poverty trap

Share your work, establish new partnerships, get solutions to your toughest problems at our consultancy clinic sessions, and have a little fun - we promise you won’t forget the experience.
If you’re interested in how education really can change the world, it’s time to come light that fire!

Additional logistical and program details will be made available on the website shortly. Conference Registration will open in early July and places will be strictly limited. Don't risk missing out...
Subscribe For Conference Updates Now!

The Education That Pays For Itself international conferences are now in their 3rd year, and they just keep getting better! We focus on learning in small groups and sharing expertise within solution-oriented workshops. We also believe that much of the value in conferences such as ours comes from the working relationships formed, so we make sure there's plenty of time in the evenings for fun and getting to know one another!

Find Out What You've Been Missing!
To read a summary of Education That Pays For Itself 2008, South Africa - click here - or watch the Conference Video 2008.

Hooray for good food! Hooray for good friends! Hooray for fundraising! Hooray for all three!

We were looking for a way to raise some cash for Teach A Man To Fish !

Steve Wallis - winner of Masterchef 2007 generously donated his time and skills and cooked up an incredible dinner, organised by friend of Teach A Man To Fish Helen Jones, for 16 people at the home of trustees Emma Forrest and Ryan Boroff. After tapas we ate an enormous paella covered in beautiful langoustines.

At the end of the evening we had raised GBP 500! A very enjoyable night for all - thanks to everyone involved..

See you at the next one, Nicola xx

In January, Teach A Man To Fish launched its Loan Programme 2009, inviting our network members to tell us about new income-generating initiatives that they wish to set up or existing initiatives which they are looking to expand, for which they required financial assistance. All loan applications are now in and we have received a large number of entries from all around the world! Most of our entries were from different countries all over Africa, though we also received entries from South Asia and Latin America too. We have been very impressed with the generally high standard of entries and we only wish that we had the funds to provide loans to more applicants!

There were some great ideas for income-generating projects, from bee-keeping to sell honey and poultry-rearing to sell eggs and meat to cyber-cafes and battery-recycling initiatives, all of which aimed to increase the financial self-sufficiency of the educational programme by directing profits back into the project, to ensure its sustainability over time. Whilst unfortunately there can be only a few successful applicants, we were pleased to discover that there are many organisations, spread across many continents, that are already doing great things in the field of self-sufficient schools, and continue to strive to work towards the ‘Education that pays for itself’ model that Teach A Man To Fish promotes. We wish all of our network members’ success in their future project endeavours!

Rising to the Challenge: Your Votes See Teach A Man To Fish School Take 2nd Place

“Agriculture School – Paraguay” wins 2nd prize in the BBC World Challenge 2008 awards.
World Challenge is a global competition, now in its fourth year, that encourages, recognizes, and rewards enterprising initiatives making a real difference being made at the grass-roots level. There’s really no better example of this than the Escuela Agricola San Francisco in Paraguay, run by our Latin America partner the Fundación Paraguaya.

Paraguay is one of the poorest countries in Latin America, yet the educational system does not teach children how to earn a living. This unique school incorporates life skills qualifications, alongside traditional academic modules - producing graduates able to go directly into well-paid work, or into further education.

Martin Burt and Nik Kafka, from Fundación Paraguaya and TeachAManToFish attended the ceremony in Holland to receive the prize of USD $10.000 which will make a valuable contribution to enhancing the students’ overall learning experience.

With a tiny home audience for BBC World programs in Paraguay, it’s your votes internationally that catapulted us into second place – so thanks from all of us here at TeachAManToFish!

There always seems to be so much news to put into our quarterly newsletters that we never get a chance to really share some of the intereseting small scale projects we're supporting around the world

In Western Kenya for instance we've been helping 30 primary and secondary schools to start income generating educational projects.

Left you can see one of these projects, at Obwolo Secondary School near Kisumu, where supported by our friends at Africa Now, they've been focusing on bee-keeping.

Despite thte opportunities for making money from honey, local farmers are often scared to take up bee-keeping as an extra source of income. By teaching students how to look after the bees properly, it becomes a safer activity all round - and one with a tasty & valuable product.

The student groups vote how to spend the income from the project, ranging from buying extra school equipment to supporting school fees.

One thing you can say about Kenya - although true of most low-income countries - is that kids love going to school.

Ondati Primary School (left) is no exception. Having helped them establish a mango nursery and poultry project, we're now working on starting a Financially Self-Sufficient girls' secondary school with them.




This means that all the girls' who couldn't stay on in school because the nearest high school was too far away (and on paths which were too risky in the dark) will now get a chance to keep going with their studies.

The next shot is the new poultry shed at Ototo Secondary School which is running a Teach A Man To Fish project.

At this stage it was empty, but we're looking forward to our next visit and seeing it filled with cute fluffy chicks.

Maybe it's the reason why Kenya spawned the Green Belt Movement and Nobel Winner Wangarai Maathai, but they do like their trees.

At Luanda Dudi Secondary School they're planting one (left) to commemorate our visit, which is very sweet of them.



When you actually get all the teachers from all these different schools together, like we did here, the ideas fly around fast and furious.


Before you know it they're swapping a nucleus of bees for some mushroom farming secrets and taking their projects up to a whole new level!



Finally, it'd be wrong to stop without a vote of thanks to Elly our Teach A Man To Fish Kenya field officer - what the man doesn't know about F1 Ana Hybrid blight resistant tomatoes you could write on the back of the proverbial postage stamp (before they all became auto-adhesive).