We believe that education is a basic human right.
Education can provide people the information and skills they’ll need to survive in emergency situations. It can also spark opportunity, opening doors and lifting families. At every point, we’re working to give people on the move the education they need to build a meaningful life.
Public Health and Vital Information
Health education and information about how to protect oneself can mean the difference between life and death. We provide health education in order to prevent the spread of disease in nearly every place that we work, which includes educating communities on how to prevent the spread of sexually-transmitted diseases or other infectious diseases like malaria.
In 2014-2015, We managed an Ebola Treatment Unit (ETU) in Liberia during the epidemic in West Africa. Our activities included educating the community and school children about how to avoid situations that might put them at-risk of infection.
Informal Education/Mentoring
Many of the children and young people Alight works with around the world have also seen an interruption in their education. In the case of girls, they may never have had much access at all.
In Pakistan and Jordan, we provide informal education to children who’ve found themselves outside the formal system. In Jordan, with partner Questscope, we’re working with Syrian refugees and Jordanian youth. Syrian kids have the opportunity to return to a learning environment after being out of school for years, and Jordanian youth who participate in the program have the chance to earn a high school equivalency diploma. It’s the only program like it in Jordan and makes a big difference to the future prospects of marginalized youth.
In Pakistan, our education programs are aimed at bringing in students who’ve traditionally been left out of the system – particularly girls but also all children who haven’t before attended school because their families need their help making ends meet. Flexible home schools remove barriers to education – they charge no school fee, have no uniforms, offer classes on flexible schedules, and provide free school supplies.
Livelihoods
People whose lives have been upended are often desperate to get back on track supporting themselves and their families. In the new reality they find themselves in, they often just need access to some new tools and resources to help them back on a path to self-reliance. Alight helps with vocational training, small-business training and providing some of the essential tools that will make them employable or make their new small business take off. Training varies from teaching new and improved farming techniques in Congo, to encouraging traditional weaving businesses among refugees from Myanmar, to training young fishermen with the goal of reviving the fishery industry in Kismayo, Somalia.
Program Locations
Alight currently provides education support in: