“Education lies on the front line of conflict today; it must be at the forefront of building peace. We are not there yet. Governments, aid donors and the international community must all take concrete steps now to protect children and schools, to provide education in emergencies, to reconstruct education swiftly after conflict, and to tap education’s power to foster peace. The promise of education must be real for all children, no matter their circumstances. This is essential for open societies, for sustainable development and for lasting peace.”

 Irina Bokova

Director-General of UNESCO

A Simple Idea…

Too many children live without access to education. This is an all-too-well-documented reality. Much time, money and thought have been spent trying to address this issue,  yet the size and scope of the problem  remain overwhelming.  The most monumental challenge is that of providing education to the 20 million children that are currently refugees or have been internally displaced in their own country.

I am working with a group that has a simple idea that could make a big difference.  A simple idea that has already proven itself as a practical program that supports teachers and instructors faced with large groups of children at different stages of learning, different grade levels, different levels of maturity.   

The RiVER MGML Model is a quality, award winning education program that has been developed, delivered and proven in India and has been adapted and implemented in other parts of the world. 

What makes RiVER so powerful:

• This program has been designed with marginalized, transient children in mind and is the result of real circumstances.   

• It responds to the reality of ‘not enough teachers’ and ‘large groups of children at different grade and ability levels’.   

• After two decades of intense work, RiVER has developed into an activity rich multi-grade, multi-level approach.  The program engages in a process of ‘trans-creation’ whereby the key concepts of language, mathematics, health and environmental awareness are recast in a set of relevant, meaningful activities and experiences.  

The goal is to integrate children into existing, formal education systems.  The reality faced is one of too many children for any existing education system.  An enormous void currently exists between the reality of no real, substantive learning and established, formal learning.  We would like to help change that reality.