Blog

by Mark Lynd, STS President and Co-founder   Setting off As I got off the plane in Arusha, Tanzania, questions were swirling in my head: Can the Whole Child Model (WCM) really work in Arusha? Will the lessons we learned working in Guinea for 16 years be applicable in a place as different as Tanzania?Read more

At STS, we often think of our expertise falling into one of four buckets: Research and Evaluation, Curriculum and Training, Planning and Policy, & Integrated Approaches to Education.Read more

This spring, School-to-School International and the Alcoa Foundation transformed a temporary school into an established structure in Kabata, Guinea.Read more

Dear STS Supporter, For the past few months, you have heard about STS’s expansion of the Whole Child Model to schools in the Arusha District of Tanzania. And while it’s easy to get caught up in the excitement of expansion—and indeed, I very much want you to be excited with us—you may also be wonderingRead more

THE PROBLEM IS TWOFOLD. 1 – Children are not learning. Over 59 million children will not go to school this year—half of them live in sub-Saharan Africa. Of the nearly 30 million elementary-age children who are out-of-school, half have never stepped foot in a classroom. Girls are impacted far more than boys, accounting for 55%Read more

Although the links between girls’ education and improved quality of life and economic growth are well known, school-age girls in Guinea continue to face conditions that limit school success—from systemic impediments, such as shortages of qualified teachers, to cultural factors, like the practice of early marriage. As a result, many female students leave school beforeRead more

For more than a decade, School-to-School International has implemented and refined an approach that embodies our founding principle: In order for students to thrive, they must have their basic needs fulfilled. We have pursued activities from all three components of the Whole Child Model—Education, Health, and Community Engagement. This year, we are committed to expandingRead more

Children face numerous challenges receiving a quality education around the world. In Guinea, West Africa, less than half of boys and only a third of girls make it to 7th grade. Not surprisingly, only one in five adolescent girls can read. Since 2002, STS has been working in Guinea to try to change this pattern.Read more

Building on lessons learned from years of implementation and research in Guinea, School-to-School International will expand our signature Whole Child Model to Tanzania in early 2018. Since 2002, one single principle has guided STS’s work in education: In order for students to thrive, they must have their basic needs fulfilled. For over a decade, STSRead more

Dear School-to-School International supporters: Three years ago, I met a fourth-grade student named Fatoumata Diouf at STS’s partner school in Filimia in the Boke region of western Guinea. She was an ideal candidate for the girls’ scholarship program. In addition to meeting all the scholarship criteria, Fatoumata showed exceptional promise and enthusiasm for learning whileRead more