Guarenteed Education. Empowering People to Empower Themselves.

I was following this guy previously, who was running a project in Harlem. Basically he guarenteed an education to a bunch of parents so long as they follow specific steps for their children.

Psychology research showed that poorer families have a lower rate of language comprehension at the same age as richer families. Why? It boiled down to a simple fact. Rich families spoke and read to their children more frequently, resulting in 2x as many words being heard by the children.

The project in Harlem basically said that if you read to your children once a night then they could meet the criteria for the next phase of the project. This basic change, reading, would increase language comprehension.

So how does this apply to Africa? Africa is rich with stories, whether they be full of joy or sorrow. Implementing the above concept would be easy if literacy rates were higher. They however are not. This doesn't pose a problem to a culture with rich story telling however. One doesn't have to read a book to tell a story. A short term reward for talking often to your newborn child could be simple food assistance. This food is often given for free by aid groups. Use this free resource to build a stronger mental foundation for these children. Even if they frequently tell the SAME story to the children, they will begin to understand vocal sounds more quickly and speak earlier. The ability to speak and understand is essential in early cognitive function.

Eventually this concept could be extended the same way it was in Harlem, to educating the children more formally so long as parents stick to guidelines.