Navitas | 27 June 2014
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Private global education provider Navitas has announced four education focused charitable partnerships to support education and learning across Australia, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Cambodia and Afghanistan.
These projects are funded via the Navitas Education Trust (NET), a vehicle for Navitas as a company to support charitable organisations and activities,to which Navitas contributes a set amount each year. A proportion is used to fund education based initiatives developed in partnership with charities while the remainder is invested to generate interest for future use.
The first project is supporting Room to Read to establish 12 libraries in existing schools; six in Sri Lanka and six in Nepal. In addition Navitas will fund the creation, production and distribution of new local language books in both countries. This partnership builds on NET funding provided to Room to Read last year to build 20 libraries in Sri Lanka, Nepal and Vietnam.
The second project has been developed in partnership with the Australian Business and Community Network (ABCN) and will offer six three-year scholarships to Australian, high need, low SES, high school students to support them to enter higher education. Again this partnership builds on a similar program funded by the NET in 2013.
The third project is working with Hagar to help educate abused and trafficked women and children in Afghanistan via the Empower through Education Program. The program provides Hagar’s clients with educational opportunities that range from basic literacy and numeracy to ‘catch-up’ schooling for adolescents and women. This three year project aims to help around 300 women and children re-integrate into society through education. The fourth partnership is with Classroom of Hope and aims to improve the skills and resources of teachers, school leaders and the community based around seven schools in Battambang province, Cambodia. This three year project will support Classroom of Hope to collaborate with local and international not-for-profit organisations to create child friendly school environments that are consistent with government policy and which address factors that depress educational access and quality.
In announcing the partnerships,Group CEO of Navitas, Rod Jones said.
The ability for education to break cycles of poverty and illiteracy are well known and we hope that through this range of projects we can help many people improve their lives significantly.
