SKI Charities

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March 3, 2020 by SKIC | No Comments

The Health Crises in Chile and Zimbabwe, and How We’re Helping

SKI Charities’ mission—to bring entrepreneurship, education, and empowerment to women in Lebu, Chile, and Mutare, Zimbabwe—extends beyond providing loans to SKIC participants so that their businesses can begin to take shape.

We also work with women to build the confidence they need to network, achieve their goals, stand up to oppressive figures in their lives, and adopt healthy lifestyles. In doing so, we help combat both physical and psychological health issues that many women in Lebu and Mutare face. By equipping them with concrete skills and self-esteem, they gain the courage to create supportive infrastructures of their own, independent of the political ones that oppress them. With strong support systems and positive attitudes, many of these women are able to avoid mental health issues and even to deflect physical ones.

We talked to our founder, Shyam K. Iyer, about the complications that many women face in Chile and Zimbabwe—and how the confidence they develop in SKIC programs helps them surpass these health-related obstacles.

Tell me about some of the health complications people face in Lebu.

I think some of the issues in Chile start with the fact that it’s a very conservative country. The laws have been very patriarchal for many many years. I was stunned to hear that the right to divorce for a woman was only granted in 2004.

Then when you go to a place like Lebu, domestic violence is a big problem there. HIV/AIDS, while not a big problem, is definitely rising. They have very strict reproductive rights. 

And what about the complications that women face in Mutare.

Well in Zimbabwe, the story there is pretty similar to what you get in all of sub-Saharan Africa. HIV/AIDS is a major issue. The education behind having safe relations and being responsible when it comes to sexual health, that is still trickling down, not too many people receive that information.

And in a place like Zimbabwe that has been struggling so much with infrastructure, with investment, they have problems that have been otherwise eradicated from a health perspective. Things like cholera, the water isn’t clean. And that leads to other things like the mortality of mother and child during childbirth. People are at the mercy of the economic system and they don’t have a voice. They are going to struggle to change that and people are going to struggle to change it for them.

Can you talk about some of the psychological health issues in these areas?

That’s a big thing about what we do at SKI Charities because bottom line is, we’re dealing with women who are disenfranchised, economically excluded, and most likely have very little formal education. I wonder how hard it must be living day to day there. These are also patriarchal cultures where women are expected to take a step behind men and defer to men who themselves don’t exactly have their act together.

We always preach confidence, and all of our efforts are designed towards psychological health. That’s really where our team has done a great job. Our project managers know they are a source of support and confidence for these women. That we hope will bring them independence and mental strength. In the end, it’s up to the women to take control of their lives, but we’re going to do our best to help.

Are there any preventative measures you can help these women take, whether steering them towards vaccinations or providing mental support?

I think the whole idea of what we’re trying to do with SKI Charities is to put women in a position to be able to make those decisions and have the wealth to act upon what’s good for their health. Of course, earning money gives them access to medical care, hospitals, and even more abstract than that, they’re doing business, they’re trading in the community. It makes them more engaged, it makes them more knowledgable about what’s going on, they can hear about what hospital is good, where they can get their meds, where the resources are available.

Of course, it’s impossible to eliminate health risks, that’s something that we all deal with day-to-day. But we just want our beneficiaries to know that health is the most important thing, you cannot make money without good health. But then of course, without the money you can’t have the good health, so it’s a complicated situation. We’re not a health organization. When we choose women we don’t care about preexisting conditions or if they’re in a tough spot in terms of health. We just want them to work hard and understand that their health is really important.

And if they do encounter health issues, how do you help them through it?

We hope that they’ve built up enough of a system around them so that they can get people to support them. To be honest, whenever I visit them, beyond talking about their business, I always encourage them to plan for the worst and hope for the best, and part of that is their health.

You can also listen to this interview on SoundCloud.

Categories : SKICharities, SKImfi
February 7, 2020 by SKIC | No Comments

6 Indigenous Women Artists We’re Obsessed With

If you know SKI Charities, you know we’re passionate about empowering women artists—especially our beneficiaries in Chile who keep their indigenous Mapuche heritage alive in their work. We’re proud to be part of keeping these vulnerable but essential traditions alive.

In many indigenous communities and cultures, art is an enormous part of life. But many indigenous artists—especially women—are under-recognized and underrepresented. Indigenous art is also often appropriated at the expense of the real thing. So we decided to shine a light on some of the indigenous women artists who we’re loving right now:

Maria Hupfield, Canadian/Anishinaabek, performance artist

Toronto-based performance artist Maria Hupfield’s work is hard to describe. That’s partially because her works can look so drastically different from one another, from wearable objects to large-scale sculptures to videos. The through-line in her work is disruption; whether that’s featuring functional objects but rendering them useless or by engaging with colonialism and harmful stereotypes about indigenous people. Her solo exhibition, Nine Years Towards the Sun, can currently be seen at the Heard Museum in Phoenix, Arizona, and her work has also been shown at the Canadian Cultural Centre and the Mount Saint Vincent University Art Gallery. She is currently in residence at the Native Art Department International at Bard Graduate Center.

Jamie Okuma, Shoshone-Bannock and Luiseño, fashion designer

Jamie Okuma’s designs stand at the border of fashion and fine art; of the mainstream and the indigenous. Often taking many months to create a piece, Okuma is known for her careful, intricate beadwork, whether on shoes or on dresses. Whatever she’s working on, she’s constantly drawing on her heritage (she lives on the La Jolla Indian Reservation, after all), often adding an indigenous flair to luxury fashion items like Louboutins. Her work has been shown at institutions like the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Heard Museum, and the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.

Sonya Kelliher-Combs, Iñupiaq and Athabascan, mixed-media artist

Alaska-based Sonya Kelliher-Combs creates paintings, drawings, sculptures and more, all engaging with deeply personal themes, including her identity as a native Alaskan. Using a wide range of materials, Kelliher-Combs’ work often features striking colors and complex textures, and regularly invokes natural themes. Kelliher-Combs is a recipient of a United States Arts Fellowship among other accolades, and her work can be seen at the AIA Museum of Contemporary Native Art, the Anchorage Museum, Alaska State Museum, University of Alaska Museum of the North, Eiteljorg Museum, and The National Museum of the American Indian.

Nathalie Bertin, Métis, French, Anishinaabe and Omàmiwininiwak, multi-disciplinary artist

Nathalie Bertin creates paintings, beadwork and installations that feature big, bold colors and that seek to reclaim images of indigenous people, especially women. Bertin takes this mission beyond her art, too, working in schools as a visiting artist and teaching children about the real history of indigenous people in Canada. Her work can be found in the collections of the Government of Manitoba and Government of Alberta, and has been shown at numerous galleries and museums throughout Canada and beyond.

Christi Belcourt, Michif (Métis),visual artist

Christi Belcourt may be known for her beadwork, which she expertly uses to create intricate paintings and textiles. But her work spans so much wider; including fascinating map-like paintings and portraits. The through-line connecting it all is Belcourt’s deep love and respect for the Earth, and her activism around issues like missing and murdered indigenous women and water protection. Her work has been shown everywhere from the Minneapolis Institute of Art to the National Gallery of Canada to the Batoche National Historic Site.

Krista Leddy, Michif (Métis), visual artist

Krista Leddy’s beadwork is a reflection of the Métis beading traditions she learned from her grandmothers. It’s also a way for her to stay connected to her heritage—and to bring increased visibility to it. Clearly, her efforts and talent aren’t going unrecognized: Last year, Canadian Geographic commissioned Leddy to created a beaded portrait of Métis icon Louis Riel. (You can read more about that, and see Leddy’s fascinating process, here.) Leddy also teacher moccasin making classes, traditional Métis jigging, and finger weaving.

Categories : SKICharities, SKILLS
January 4, 2020 by SKIC | No Comments

Celebrating Indigenous Culture At Our Chile Site

Whenever our founder, Shyam K. Iyer, visits our site in Lebu, Chile, he returns inspired by the crafts, textiles, and food being created by SKImfi microfinance beneficiaries of indigenous Mapuche heritage. SKI Charities aims to give women a path to start and grow sustainable businesses that encourage them to utilize their culturally-embedded skillset.

We talked to Shyam about the progress we are making in Lebu to preserve the traditional Mapuche culture.

Tell us about the indigenous Mapuche people in Chile.

They’re indigenous to the Southern part of South America, mainly Chile and Argentina. It’s a similar culture to the Native Americans here in North America, in the sense that there’s a strong focus on local resources and sustainability. In fact, all the work our beneficiaries do in Lebu is all handmade and natural. The world Mapu means Earth. So the name means “people of the Earth.” And that is a part of their daily lives and it’s a part of everything our beneficiaries do.

What sort of work are the beneficiaries doing?

They do work in food, crafts, clothing, textiles. All of the work benefits the communities and supports their culture. It’s all handmade. Most of the knowledge in these areas comes from women to women. So focusing on women makes a lot of sense here. 

Tell me about the food.

The food is probably my favorite part because I get to sample it! It’s all locally sourced. It’s a fishing village, so there’s quite a bit of seafood in their cooking. Some of it is served in the ceviche style which is raw and marinated in lemon juice. But it’s all locally caught fish. And one of the other areas that I was surprised by but shouldn’t have been is their focus on chocolates. One of our beneficiaries creates chocolate with local Mapuche fillings, so things like pumpkin and chile. I was able to try the different arrangements she had and it was really tasty and it’s something I don’t think we find in many parts of the world.

Where are these products typically sold?

Most of these products are sold by women individually out of their kiosks and their stores. A couple of them have such strong demand—and I can attest to how much I would love to buy from them—that they sell from their own houses; people, restaurants, small shops come to them, they buy an array of chocolate or prepared foods that they then take back. 

Tell me more about the crafts. 

The crafts are really unique. It’s all locally sourced, so if they’re making something from leather, it’ll be from local animals. I was also really interested to see that they make purses and pouches made of skins from fish. This is locally caught fish, fish that’s already being used for its meat so it’s all done in a sustainable way.

The other thing I like to see is the strong belief in silver; and how the silver metal is very healthy and how there’s good luck in it. They make a really large amount of jewelry out of it. And this jewelry displays symbols of their culture. So you’ll see rings with a small symbol of Mapuche women. The jewelry itself is made of local silver and the jewelry is representative of their culture. It’s really an amazing thing to see.

And you said they also do a lot of clothing and textiles too, right?

Yes, that’s right. And clothing is the biggest symbol of Mapuche female culture. They make ponchos, headdresses, scarves out of leather, and local wool. In fact, one of our beneficiaries who makes these products out of wool assured me that the Mapuche sheaf is warmer than anything the Europeans ever brought to them because of the secrets of Mapuche animal rearing. I couldn’t test that, but you can tell that’s it’s really solid and really well-made. And when they color these wools or other materials they’re using local vegetable dyes. It’s all clean and it’s all sustainably sourced. That’s something they’re really proud of.

This kind of textiles and weaving is performed exclusively by women. The loom that they use symbolically represents the spirit of the Mapuche people. So it’s something that is deeply held by them, it’s passed on from grandmother to mother to daughter and it’s something that’s very important to the female Mapuche culture and the beneficiaries that we help.

Is there a community of women outside of SKI beneficiaries who are able to make a living out of this kind of work? Is it lucrative enough for them; are they able to sustain themselves?

I would say that most women have this expertise, it’s something they were taught when they were young and it’s something they all have in their genes. But it does take capital, it does take money in order to buy the raw materials, in order to buy the machines, and of course to be able to make it to a quality that they can then sell and it make good business out of it. Too many women I meet are unable to do that. Those who have been able to join SKI Charities, especially our SKImfi microfinance project, they’ve been able to expand their businesses or start their businesses. 

It seems like all of these skills are skills they’ve had for a while because they’ve been part of the Mapuche culture. But they don’t necessarily have the skills to make sustainable businesses for themselves. But that’s where SKImfi comes it, because it allows women to enact their culturally ingrained skills and put them to use.

Right, it’s expertise that’s passed down. SKImfi exists to support these women and to promote that knowledge and that culture. But unfortunately, unless it’s a business, unless it’s profitable, most of these women will not see a reason to continue with these skills. They’ll go to Santiago to work in an office, or even within their own community they’ll decide to do something that does not allow them to pass this information on. So the most important thing, besides good business, is preserving and promoting this culture.

Do a lot of these women have children who are able to witness their mothers’ creating and making and cooking?

Yes. When I visit, they’re always accompanied by their daughters. These are all large families and of course we support these families being strong and together. I always encourage our SKImfi beneficiaries to make sure their daughters go to school, that they pay their fees and everything goes well in that sense. But of course, they are observing their mothers and they’re seeing their mothers are role models and good businesspeople. There’s nothing bad that can come from that. They need to see their mothers doing it, and they need to see their mothers succeeding at it in order to want to continue the family work. 

You can also listen to this interview on SoundCloud.

Categories : SKILLS, SKImfi
December 18, 2019 by SKIC | No Comments

“I Feel Like An Empowered Woman”: Meet Our Beneficiary Nataly Becerra

Nataly with SKI Charities’ program manager, Anita.

Before Nataly Becerra became a SKI Charities microloan beneficiary, she was relying on income earned selling snacks at her children’s school at special events and holidays. “With the few resources I had, it was difficult for me to sustain my business and support my family,” she says.

Despite her circumstances, she “radiated confidence,” says our program coordinator on the ground in Lebu, Chile, Gaby Lopez. “The first thing we noticed was her perseverance and enthusiasm, and the clarity of what she wanted for her business,” Gaby says. “It was all based on her self-reliance to support her family.”

Her enthusiasm and potential made Nataly a perfect candidate for a microloan—and she’s lived up to expectations. Nataly now has a successful business selling cakes, tarts, pies, bread, dough and more. Thanks to her microloan, she’s been able to purchase a refrigerator, a generator and a popcorn machine, which have allowed her to produce more goods and work more consistently, and even lease her supplies for events. “I have been able to sustain my business and expand my business,” she says. “With this project, all the expenses of my home are 100% supported, and I feel like an empowered, self-sufficient woman who wants to move forward and specialize my business.”

Nataly with some of the purchases she was able to make with her microloan.

Nataly’s dedication to her work and her family is part of what makes her so successful, says Gaby, but she’s also an innovative businesswoman who knows how to make smart investments and use her resources strategically.

What’s next for Nataly? Her goal is to open her own amasandería, or bakery where she can sell a wide variety of quality products. According to Gaby, Nataly has everything it will take to make that dream a reality. “We have seen her empowered, fulfilled, happy and with many ideas and tools to continue advancing in her entrepreneurship,” says Gaby. “What surprises us about her is the joy she places in what she does and her willingness to reinvent herself. She has been able to get up from all the difficulties she has faced as a determined woman.”

Through it all, her microloans have been the fuel propelling her towards success. “It means a lot to me,” says Nataly. “They gave me help without knowing me. They trusted in me, and that made me believe that I could. It gave me the push I needed and it keeps doing it.”

 

Categories : SKImfi
November 5, 2019 by SKIC | No Comments

Why Microfinance Was the Perfect Fit for SKI Charities

When Shyam K. Iyer first began SKI Charities, there was no question that microfinance would be the best method for him to execute his vision. Though the effectiveness of microfinance has been questioned since its rise to prominence in the early 2000s, Shyam stands by it as a powerful way to provide people with autonomy, responsibility and confidence.

We got Shyam’s take on why microfinance has been an ideal choice for SKI Charities:

A lot of sources question how sustainable microfinance is for beneficiaries who graduate. What happens when a woman graduates and is on her own?

Shyam with a Chilean beneficiary

For SKI Charities, the goal of sustainability is the most important factor in the entire program. We want to be in the countries that we’re in for many, many years. Sustainability means a lot. When women are participating in our programs, they’re learning skills; they’re also becoming more confident, becoming more independent. And that plays right into being on their own when they have graduated the program. The sustainability comes not just from the wealth they’ve accrued as participants but also in the strength that they have, their ability to stand on their own, to take risks, to work for their family knowing that they’ve succeeded before and now they’ve been set up to succeed on their own.

It seems like these women have picked up skills that aren’t just related to how to sustain a business. They’ve picked up skills like self-confidence and responsibility. How do you teach these kinds of intangible things at SKI Charities and how integral is that to your program?

It’s hard to teach. We have people teaching business skills, bookkeeping skills, but how do you teach someone to be strong and independent? That is best taught through experience. So, we set them up to have their own businesses, to take responsibility for their actions and their money and through their participation in their own business, in entrepreneurship, they’re able to develop that strength on their own. Developing it on their own is so precious to them and makes it sustainable. Because they did it on their own, they believe in it. It’s not what someone told them to be, it’s what they are.

Shyam with beneficiaries in Zimbabwe

What about when there’s some sort of emergency and they can’t keep up with the program?

Where we operate, public health is an issue. Many of these people are so poor they can’t go to a hospital, they can’t go take care of themselves, they need to make the money first. It is a real challenge for them. We’re hoping that our participants will have enough time in the program to start creating a bit of wealth for themselves and their families and working with people around them who can support them if they are sick. And thinking more long-term, they have people working for them, they have vendors relying on them, so if at any point they drop out or have difficulties keeping with the program, they will have others who have benefited from their participation and who will hopefully support them and get them back on their feet.

Another concern is accountability. Without collateral, how do you trust participants to operate honestly in these otherwise poorly-regulated markets?

This is the real risk of microfinance for the people on our side. Of course our participants cannot provide collateral or any type of requirement that a regular bank would need. But the reason we’re in these locations is that we feel we can push through that based on the reputations of these small communities, based on their knowledge of the local market. We believe that by trusting people who have been properly vetted by our staff, that trust is something they’re going to want to repay us as well. So they’re going to want to make sure they do the job they set out to do. When you trust in somebody, when you show that you believe in them, more often than not they will return that favor to you. 

And there’s the lengthy process that beneficiaries go through. We’re also interviewing their families and determining who would reap the biggest benefits. When you invest that much time and energy into one individual, it’s way harder for them to betray your trust.

That’s a great point. Our staff does a really great job. They’re on the ground every day looking after the participants. And our staff is part of the community as well so our beneficiaries don’t want to let them down. They want to work together, they want to succeed together. So there’s a lot of emotional connection that helps us when operating in the micro bank. 

And if you were larger scale it would be harder to monitor people’s progress. It’d be harder to monitor participant responsibility and sustainability. 

Shyam with a Chilean beneficiary

I agree with that. We do want to grow and become larger scale. We’re hoping that our community anchors and adding more like-minded staff will help us manage that risk as well.

When you were first starting, did microfinance feel like the most logical path to execute your vision?

Yes, microfinance was exactly the way we thought we could empower the economically excluded in as short a time frame as possible. We want people to feel like they’re part of a broader economic system. We want people to feel like equals, like they are empowered to take control of their own lives. And the best way we feel to do that is through microfinance. Provide them with capital, treat them as if they’re coming to a regular bank. Believe in their plans to be entrepreneurs, to have their own businesses and to take control of their own lives. There’s a lot of other great ways to assist people. SKI Charities works on scholarships and we work to support people in a number of different ways. But microfinance was always our first choice because of how much faith we have in the people and their own talent.

You can also listen to this interview on SoundCloud.

Categories : SKImfi
September 25, 2019 by SKIC | No Comments

SKI Charities in the News: What It Takes To Sustain an Impactful Charity

What does it take to start and sustain an impactful charity like SKI Charities? Between start-up challenges to growing pains, it’s easier said than done. In the past year, our founder Shyam K. Iyer has been asked this very question many times—here are some of his best answers:

On starting a business on a budget:

“The key to start-up success is involving like-minded individuals to both finance and operate the organization. Then I hired and gave increasing responsibility to staff and beneficiaries from the community being served.” 

Read the full story on opploans.com. 

On the definition of success:

“Success is a balanced focus on people, returns, and the environment. Everything that makes and sustains a community, from within the community. People are the most important aspect.”

Read the full story on upjourney.com. 

On more socially-conscious business trips:

“A common mistake many people make is to ignore or shy away from the importance of social customs overseas. Be open to accept hospitality and engage with respect and patience and understanding of the challenges inherent to life in their country. Try the local food, seek out conversations with varying members of the community, and take the time to sit and listen.”

Read the full story on fitsmallbusiness.com.

On the spillover effects of empowering women:

“Study after study has backed up women’s reliability as beneficiaries. On a personal level I thought a lot about my own mother and many of her peers who grew up in modest circumstances. Somehow she was given the space to get educated, follow her ambitions to become a medical doctor, and then move the USA with my father to start a medical practice. The spillover effects of her hard work include employing so many people and serving countless patients. And now with SKI Charities, when I visit our locations in Mutare or Lebu, I see women following the same path towards adding tremendous value to their families and communities.”

Read the full story on cake.co. 

On his team mindset:

“From raising small donations through our website to delegating increasing responsibility to staff and beneficiaries from the community being served, it takes a full network to make a vision into reality. Nine years later, my team and I have empowered hundreds of females and their families in Zimbabwe and southern Chile through microfinance to become independent entrepreneurs.”

Read the full story on freepressdirectory.com.

On the importance of critical thinking:

“Encouraging critical thinking throughout the organization is vital as local-level ownership and buy-in will determine the success of any project or enterprise. Autonomy in thought and decision-making must be shared from the entrepreneur to the field.”

Read the full story on upjourney.com.

On making international connections:

“The key to a successful trip has been to take time to cold call local experts in my field, such as Rotary Club members and NGOs, brainstorm potential solutions that address concerns while also maintaining respect for cultural markers such as age and experience, and communicating the need for compromise on behalf of the team and community served by our charity.”

Read the full story on fitsmallbusiness.com. 

Categories : SKICharities
August 22, 2019 by SKIC | No Comments

How Financially Empowering Women Can Reduce Domestic Violence

The United Nations Population Fund reports that in Zimbabwe, 1 in 3 women age 15 to 49 have experienced physical violence and about 1 in 4 women have experienced sexual violence. UN Women reports that 35% of women in Zimbabwe have experienced physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence. The Zimbabwe National Statistic Office reports that from 2010 to 2016 there was a 42% increase in rape cases—at least 21 people being raped every day. They also report that 78% of women who have experienced violence claim it was at the hand of their husband or partner.

All of these numbers are likely low considering that many women don’t report domestic or sexual violence. The ongoing prevalence of child marriage in Zimbabwe and the country’s economic crisis don’t help matters.

Indeed, violence against women and domestic violence is unfortunately still a problem across the globe. Though there are many factors that enable this pattern to continue, we’ve identified one that we are working to rectify: The financial disempowerment of women.

When women don’t have the opportunity to be financially self-sufficient, it’s easier for them to get stuck in relationships that are abusive. According to Oxfam America, the financial empowerment of women can also “increase women’s household bargaining power and ability to leave a violent relationship,” and decrease household poverty, which in turn can relieve the factors contributing to domestic violence. And though how much money women earn shouldn’t determine how much they are respected by their partner, increased income can indeed lead to added respect and subsequently less domestic violence.

microloan beneficiary

One of our microloan beneficiaries.

And on a community level, Oxfam reports, women’s economic empowerment can help change the attitudes that perpetuate patterns of domestic violence, and reduce the acceptance of domestic violence. 

The relationship between women’s empowerment and domestic violence shifts based on cultural factors in any given area. And there is much more than financial disempowerment perpetuating violence against women. But we believe that the focused work that we do—providing women in rural Zimbabwe and Chile with microloans to fund their own businesses—chips away at domestic violence, one microloan at a time.

Categories : SKImfi
July 20, 2019 by SKIC | No Comments

Why Vaccination Is Key to Our Education Efforts in Zimbabwe

Though our primary focus is economic empowerment and early childhood education, we are invested in the greater prosperity of the communities we serve. Sometimes that means broadening our reach to tackle some of the other challenges Zimbabweans have been facing due to the economic crisis the country is experiencing. 

“Historically, Zimbabwe has had a very strong healthcare system,” says our founder, Shyam K. Iyer. “It’s common for children to be vaccinated. But due to the current lack of local currency and exports, the country needs to import medicine and it is expensive. They don’t get much help from other countries and big institutions because of the country’s politics.”

Because of this, it has become difficult for Zimbabweans to obtain the vaccinations they need. Combined with the other issues posed by the economic climate, risk of illness is high. “Cholera is a recent issue because of the lack of public services along with the overcrowding and lack of food hygiene,” says Shyam. “We lost a SKIPGO scholar to malaria, which weighs heavy on us.”

To help with this mounting health crisis, SKIPGO has been working with the Early Learning Center, where many of our scholars attend, to help ensure that they are vaccinated and to assist in this process however possible. “The parents are very positive and open to vaccination,” our founder says. “Sometimes they bemoan having to wait for services due to the region’s hardships, but they’re completely aligned in the effort to increase vaccination rates.”

And for children especially, these vaccinations are absolutely vital. “They run, play, explore and interact closely with each other,” he says. “At home there are often small infants who cannot be vaccinated. Vaccinating the school-aged children protects them as well as others around them.”

Categories : SKICharities, SKIpgo
March 21, 2019 by SKIC | No Comments

How We Choose Our Scholarship Recipients

In order to maximize our impact as an organization, we give early-stage scholarships to girls between the ages of four and five in and around Mutare, Zimbabwe. We believe that the earlier we can jumpstart a child’s education, the more successful they will be.

But when you’re working with such young children, how do you decide who will receive a scholarship? Here’s how we determine eligibility and assess who will benefit most from our SKIPGO program:

How We Find Scholars

Our local team assembles a short-list of candidates before the beginning of each school year. They speak with schools, community leaders and local institutions such as churches to learn about girls who might be a fit for the program.

What We Look For

As most our candidates are very young, we often look to their guardians to assess their level of commitment to education and opportunity for women to ensure that they will be supportive of their daughter’s academic work.

We also look at their financial need, as we try to choose scholars whose lives we can add the most opportunity to. We speak to community references, and study the child’s fit at their school of potential enrollment. “As time has passed, we have put more of a focus on candidates from more challenging backgrounds,” says SKIC’s founder, Shyam K. Iyer. For example, in our newest class of scholars, four of the girls are being raised by single mothers, and one by a single grandmother.

“At such an early age of matriculation it is difficult to determine academic potential,” Shyam admits. “However we have always believed in the Zimbabwean proverb that ‘the tree bends when it is youngest.’ “

 

Categories : SKIpgo
January 17, 2019 by SKIC | No Comments

8 Ways Parents Can Support Their Child’s Education at Home

Two of our SKIpgo scholars with their families.

When we’re choosing girls to participate in our scholarship program, one of the most important factors we look for is their guardians’ commitment to education. We seek out parents and grandparents who will not only support their child as they begin their journey in education, but will go the extra mile by supplementing that education at home.

Not sure how to do this? Here are some tips:

1. Point out words in your everyday surroundings, and ask your child to spell them out.

2. Ask your child’s teacher for resources you can use at home.

3. Give your child independent tasks to grow their confidence; resist fixing their mistakes.

4. Get involved in your child’s school when you can, whether than means volunteering in the classroom or attending school events.

5. Use humor and fun voices to make reading aloud together a special experience.

6. Know when to quit. If your child is no longer enjoying a home learning experience, stop and try again another day.

7. Make a point to ask your child about their school day every day, so they learn that education is important to you. If they know you take it seriously, they’ll take it seriously, too.

8. Encourage free play! Having unstructured time to play is essential in your child’s development and will help them learn better.

Categories : SKICharities, SKIpgo
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