Story Time Education

 The program chair for the week, Greg Bartz, introduced Aaron Hauger of the Story Time Education program. Aaron explained that Story Time  is a not for profit program current working in the African country of Malawi to improve access to education to young people. The mission of Story Time is to empower students in southwest Africa by removing barriers to education and inspiring community partnerships while creating a world where everyone’s story receives validation. He reported that Malawi is a rather undeveloped country with a population of about 17 million of which 84 percent live in rural areas. Almost 1 million of the residents are living with HIV/AIDS and nearly half of those infected are unaware of their condition. 56 percent of the population live on less than $1 per day and the mean population is 16.5 yoa. Very few of the youth are able to access basic education.
 
The Story Time  program is currently working with a rural community of Nsondole in the Zamba District.  The community’s secondary school serves nearly 500 potential students.  Story Time works with leaders of the community to assist them in removing barriers to school attendance; the greatest of which is the forced choice between school and basic substance needs of families.  Individual families must choose between the cost of growing crops to feed its members and paying the direct and indirect costs of education including the cost of tuition and supplies as well as the time away from school to attend to crops.  The program receives its funding from individuals as well as organizations including Rotary International. It is currently seeking funding for books, a library and teacher training. It also cooperates with Peace Corps for some of its in-country staffing needs.
 
Story Time has been part of assisting the Nsondole community school to recently double the number of female students attending the school and bring female attendance from around 40% to almost 100%. It is the only organization in the community to have 100% of the students it sponsors advance to the next grade level each year.  The presentation was aided with club members role playing family units forced to make absolute choices between basic needs and education.
 
Thanks for the interesting presentation Aaron and Greg.
 
Your reporter further sayeth naught.
 
Writer of the week:  Mark Sather