2006_07_01_archive

University, not brooms

Some weeks ago I mentioned that Blue Dragon was participating in the

World Bank Innovation Day, competing for funds to run programs for

disadvantaged youth.

Since then, a few people have written to ask me the result - we lost!

Our two proposals failed to gain support.

This was kinda surprising for us, because we (obviously) believed that

the proposals were very good. One was to help disadvantaged girls

improve their chances of navigating through the education system; the

other was to train people who work with disabled kids and youth.

So what were the winning proposals, if ours didn't make the grade?

They were much simpler proposals than ours - whereas we tried to be

comprehensive (resource booklets for families, workshops with role

models, training packages, a photography course and exhibition), the

winning proposals were much 'neater' packages. One was simply to rent

a room that children could visit; another was to teach poor children

to make a video documentary about themselves.

In light of missing out on up to $20,000 in funding, my staff and I

have to ask if we should have done things differently. Should we have

made our proposals simpler, too?

And the answer to that is: no.

Many of the winning proposals will result in fun activities for poor

children, but they'll do nothing to get anybody out of poverty.

Some proposals, in fact, were clearly aimed at keeping people IN

poverty!

Activities such as teaching orphans to make straw brooms or to create

paper flowers are the antithesis of anti-poverty programs. But these

are the proposals that won.

Or maybe I am just naive! Maybe teaching children low-value skills,

such as how to make a broom, really is a good idea. Forget computers

and school, kids - the future is in straw brooms!

At the same time that we were competing for the Innovation Day

funding, one of our kids - a boy named hoang - was heading to Sai Gon

to sit an entrance exam to university. (Hoang is pictured below,

standing with the bike).

When I met Hoang, he was a shoe shine boy. His parents had died a few

years earlier in a flood, so Hoang had quit school to earn money for

his elderly grandparents, and also for his younger sisters - so that

they could go to school.

Blue Dragon got Hoang off the streets and into a motorbike repair

course. He did really well in his studies, and then returned to the

countryside where for the next two years he worked part time in a

repair shop, while going to school during the evenings.

Now he's applying for uni, so that he can be a sports teacher.

Hoang is an inspiration to me, and everybody who knows him is amazed