GENESIS Network (Kid) Launches New School

The Australian Embassy in Bangkok donated $15,000 for the new Kid Launch school.

Buoyed by a recent donation of $15,000 by the Direct Aid Program of the Australian Embassy in Bangkok as well as other funding, the GENESIS Network’s Kid Launch program has begun construction of its second school in Baan Phai Du, Chiang Mai province, Thailand.

Construction officially broke ground on January 31 for the facility, which will provide education to an additional 100 children alongside the about 200 already covered in Baan Phai Du. The total number covered by Kid Launch in its entirety will be nearly 400.

Along with the Australian Embassy’s donation, funding of $4,200 from last May’s Menot-Ö-Fest event with Menotomy Beer and Wine in Arlington, MA as well as contributions from individuals made the construction of the new building possible.

Construction of the new facility broke ground on January 31.

The Kid Launch project was started in 2008 with the goal of bringing educational facilities and support to the Baan Phai Du village, which did not have a school prior to GENESIS intervention. Because of widespread poverty in the area, children are at special risk for falling into human trafficking including sexual slavery and other forms of forced labor.

According to the United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute, the number of forced labor victims in the Thai sex industry is estimated to be 200,000 to 300,000, with many being children. The Institute also noted the largest internal trafficking route within the country is also from the country’s northern region, where Baan Phai Du is located.

International volunteers are assisting with the construction of the building, including a student-organized group from Beijing, China. Support for the ongoing effort, including donations, is still needed and appreciated, and information on how you can give is located here.

Also, please email contact@gnetwork.org for more information about volunteering as well as general inquiries about the GENESIS Network.

As always, GENESIS thanks its donors and supporters, without whom success would not be possible.

How education can make a difference in Ghana

By Robert Moreau

Research Assistant/Outreach

map of Ghana, UNGEI

Currently, GENESIS is undertaking an education support initiative in West Mamprusi, Northern District, Ghana. The Center for Youth and Women Empowerment’s goals are to make school supplies available for students to reduce drop-out rates, provide support for children and parents, and promote education for adolescent girls. Through these steps, GENESIS hopes to help create change in one of the country’s historically poorer areas.

Currently, Ghana is making great strides in its development, “[emerging] as a leading country in the Western and Central Africa region” as noted by IFAD’s Rural Poverty Portal. The most recent poverty figure in the country is 28.5 percent, almost half of its former figure in the beginning of the 1990s.

Education is a critical reason for this decline; since the government abolished school fees in 2005, enrollment has increased sharply, going from a 59.1 to 68.8 percent net primary enrollment from 2004-05 to 2005-06. However, a poverty gap persists in the rural north.

In rectifying this situation, education for women is crucial. Ama Achiaa Amankwah, in an August 2008 AllAfrica.com piece, notes “the impact of women in Ghana cannot be underestimated” as they “form over 52% of the country’s population.” Women are guaranteed legal equality, but social and economic pressures tied to a traditional social role as homemakers, as well as a lack of potable water and sanitation facilities have impaired education for girls. As of 2004, the adult literacy rate for females was 75% of the male rate, while for youth it was 86%. Gender parity rates for primary schools have improved since the abolition of school fees, though there is still work to be done.

Ghana has done much to improve educational access and emphasize girls’ schooling, though there is still work to be done. Through projects such as GENESIS’ Center initiative, NGOs and philanthropists can help make a positive impact.

Robert Moreau is Research Analyst/Outreach for the GENESIS Network. A 2008 Master’s graduate of the University of Massachusetts Lowell in Regional Economic and Social Development, Moreau has been working for GENESIS since July 2009. His work has included freelance newspaper pieces and a newsletter published for a Lowell-area social services agency in 2008

Building Bridges: How charities are linking American interests to education abroad.

Robert Moreau

Research and Outreach

Children helped by Kashmir Family Aid, a charity active in Pakistan and Azad Kashmir

As noted in our last piece, philanthropy abroad also impacts important national issues for Americans. GENESIS’ schools, as well as similar efforts from other organizations, form an important part of the puzzle for curbing human trafficking-a modern-day slave trade that extends into and across the country. Indeed, charity abroad with an emphasis on education can advance American interests in other ways as well.

One clear example is in the geopolitical hotspots of Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan, where NGOs and philanthropists have worked to curb terrorism by building schools and sponsoring students. As Sam Carpenter of Kashmir Family Aid, an Oregon-based nonprofit working in Pakistan and Azad Kashmir, noted in a September 19, 2008 American Prospect interview.

“there’s three types of schools [in the region]. There’s public schools provided by the government and private schools…but there’s another kind of school over there…called a Madrassa, and these are religious schools.”

“The estimates are between fifteen-and twenty thousand of them in Pakistan alone, and then there’s a lot of them in Afghanistan. The long story short is that the kids spend 10 to 12 years-they go in there at an early age, and they learn the Koran, and that’s great, but they don’t learn anything else.”

Bereft of skills, he stated, graduates do not have much opportunities. Carpenter estimated “about 15 to 20 percent are what we call militant schools” that actively prepare students for a career as a jihadist for pay “in our money $200 to $300 a month” considered very lucrative in the area. Though most families want to see their children attend public or secular private schools, he explained, many times the only available choice is a Madrassa education.

Greg Mortenson, co-founder of Central Asia Institute

Kashmir Family Aid, which as of 2008 has sponsored seven schools and 1,500 students, is one organization that has made an impact in the area. Possibly the largest known group active in the region is the Central Asia Institute (CAI), co-founded in 1996 by Greg Mortenson and Jean Hoerni. CAI describes its mission as “to promote and support community based education, especially for girls, in remote regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan,” with the emphasis on girls as a strong potential agent of change in society who make up most of the world’s uneducated youth.

CAI is actively involved with schools in nineteen regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan, concentrated in the central and northern areas of both countries. As of 2009, its total involvement was “131 schools…which provide education to over 58,000 children, including 44,000 girls.” Its work also includes the charity Pennies for Peace, actively involving students in American classrooms in fundraising.

Examples such as these as well as GENESIS’ own education projects show how working with underserved groups abroad ultimately creates a positive impact in addressing issues important to Americans. And it is because of these connections that GENESIS is increasing its scope with upcoming education and training projects in Africa (Ghana) and Latin America (Ecuador). GENESIS is also planning to expand its initiatives in the Middle East as well.

Through linking concerns in America to those abroad, charities such as GENESIS are building bridges in an interconnected world.

Slaves in our backyard. The illegal trafficking and trade of humans into the US and how GENESIS prevents it.

Recently, GENESIS completed a major fundraising drive for its second school in Mae Chaem, Northern Thailand. The new building, which will provide education for 200 children in one of that country’s poorest areas, is also an attempt to rescue potential victims of a modern-day slave trade.

Human trafficking, the smuggling of persons for sexual and other forced labor, is “a heinous crime and human rights abuse. The most vulnerable members of the global community, those who have limited access to social services and protections, are targeted…for exploitation.” It is “now the third most profitable criminal activity, following only drug and arms trafficking” with around $9.5 billion in annual profits, as noted by the U.S. Department of Justice.

The number of people trafficked worldwide annually is widely disputed, but the most commonly cited figure is the U.S. State Department estimate of 600,000-800,000. At least half of victims are children, and the most common destination for trafficked persons is into the sex trade.

Southeast Asia, where GENESIS’ work thus far has concentrated, is the most active region in the world for traffickers; as noted by the International Organization for Migration, “between 200,000 and 450,000” victims are estimated to be trafficked within and out of the region annually. Trafficking in the region is linked to high levels of border crossing fueled by “economic and social push factors…[including] poverty, disparities in economic development, lack of education and job opportunities” among its causes. Irregular or undocumented migration accounts for 30 to 40 percent of all movement of persons, compounding the problem.

But where does the United States figure into the equation? Currently, we are one of the top three destination countries for human trafficking victims, along with Australia and Japan. An estimated 14,500 to 17,500 persons are smuggled into the country annually. As the U.S. Department of Education notes, “cases of human trafficking have been reported in all 50 states, Washington D.C., and some U.S. territories.”

How, then, can building schools abroad make an impact? The causes of human trafficking and its growth are complex, but we note that providing opportunities for potential victims to lift themselves from poverty is a critical piece of the puzzle in fighting it. Indeed, the United Nations has emphasized education and development as ways to combat trafficking. For example, Article 9 (4) of the Trafficking in Persons Protocol calls on states parties to “take or strengthen measures…to alleviate the factors that make persons, especially women and children, vulnerable to trafficking, such as poverty, underdevelopment and lack of equal opportunity.”

GENESIS’ projects complement activities from such organizations as the Development and Education Programme for Daughters and Communities (DEPDC) in Thailand and GABRIELA in the Philippines in emphasizing education as a preventative tool.

By supporting organizations such as GENESIS that emphasize education and opportunity for children in poverty, philanthropists can make an impact on in fighting a modern slave trade and major human rights issue that impacts America as well as the world.

Philanthropy 2.0

Social Media: a new way of giving
Buy tickets at: philanthropy20.eventbrite.com

Social Empowerment Organization Hosts Children’s Rights Benefit at Prana Restaurant

Genesis Network, an international human rights development organization, to hold fundraiser to help build schools in Burma and Thailand.

08.23.2009 – Prana SF in the SOMA district will be hosting a benefit to help make Philanthropy 2.0 possible. The elegant evening will include live music, a silent auction and fusion dining with a dynamic and caring crowd. Genesis Network is a social media platform that increases the efficiency of philanthropy by connecting givers with the needy. The goal of this fundraiser is to raise funds for site development and pilot projects that provide Thai and Burmese children with schooling.

Imagine if when we donated to a cause a regularly updated profile was available along with online communication with the aid recipient instead of a simple thank-you card. Imagine we could see where our money went and interact with those we helped.

Genesis Network is essentially Facebook between philanthropists and NGOs. Non-profits will be given profile pages, as will philanthropists. The philanthropists will have a massive database of NGO’s at their finger tips and be able to choose from a buffet of causes and organizations (soon to be rated by peers on the site) to donate to. Once a donation is made, representatives and beneficiaries from the project will be in communication with the donors like pen pals. This is a way to see where your money goes first hand. Philanthropists will be able to form communities and initiatives together. The aim is to connect investors, donors, organizations, volunteers, and community leaders, in hopes of building a decentralized, open source network . We are a democratically determined 501C who embrace the open-source philosophy. We want to give everyone the tools to organize and make an impact. The Network is a 501(c)3 nonprofit and was incorporated in 2008 in Providence, RI by founder Adam Swartzbaugh. www.gnetwork.org

Entry is $175 dinner and first bids (table Price $100 discount). $75 Hor d’oeuvres. Donations are always welcome. RSVPs are requested by August 10th. For more information, call 415-533-7601 or visit www.genesisnetwork.org.

The Genesis Network’s Hopes and Dreams Harborside

Philanthropists, social entrepreneurs, business leaders and volunteers from New England are expected to attend a gala benefit on Saturday, August 1, 2009, 6:30PM on Portsmouth (NH) Harbor to support needy children in Burma and Thailand. The evening will include special guest Terie Norelli, New Hampshire’s Speaker of the House and a presentation by Adam Swartzbaugh, Genesis Network founder, on how the philanthropic organization’s efforts have helped children’s rights in developing countries.

“The New Hampshire Portsmouth Harbor is a picturesque setting for the event. The elegant evening will include live music, a silent auction and sunset dining with a dynamic and caring crowd.” – Adam Swartzbaugh, Genesis Network Founder.

All proceeds will go directly to build schools and support Genesis Network initiatives. Projects will help prevent child trafficking, prostitution and slave labor.

To attend the event, visit: www.HopesandDreams.eventbrite.co

Sponsors include: Green Pages Technology Solutions, The Chris Humphrey Big Band and Oceanos Marketing. For sponsorship opportunities contactinfo@gnetwork.org .

About The Genesis Network:

The Genesis Network is an international empowerment and sustainable social improvement organization. The Network is a 501(c)3 nonprofit and was incorporated in 2008 in Providence, RI by founder Adam Swartzbaugh. www.gnetwork.org

Entry is $50, and donations are always welcome RSVPs are requested by July 26^th. For more information, call 603-380-3284 or visithttp://hopesanddreams.eventbrite.com/.

Welcome to the Genesis Network Blog

The Genesis Network was incorporated in 2008 as a nonprofit international nongovernmental human rights protection networking organization. It connects the dots of philanthropy in a mission built upon heart and soul. Transparency and accountability form the rock upon which its legitimacy and credibility are built and sustained. We back projects that have the highest returns on human rights advancement to every dollar irrespective of the beneficiaries’ gender, culture, religion or nationality.