Academy for Educational Development
Tuesday 1 May 2007 by Mercy Ngare
AED is a bridge, a link between the problem and the solution, the need and the resource, people and their potential.
Founded in 1961, AED is an independent, nonprofit organization committed to solving critical social problems and building the capacity of individuals, communities, and institutions to become more self-sufficient. AED works in all the major areas of human development, with a focus on improving education, health, and economic opportunities for the least advantaged in the United States and developing countries throughout the world.
Education
For more than 40 years, we at AED have approached our work in education as a means of serving society.
Starting with a project in Kansas, and eventually expanding to more than 130 countries, AED has affected the lives, and improved the educational opportunities, of thousands of students around the world.
From preschool children to retirees, from one-room schools to large urban districts, we have worked in education by partnering with communities and their educational institutions to help them create innovative programs and sound policies.
Environment and Energy
AED is working with many partners to improve how people impact the health of the planet. We use our expertise in social marketing, education, communications, and advocacy to reach a wide variety of audiences in order to influence behaviors and policies affecting the environment.
Health
Our health is largely defined by our behavior. In the 1970s, AED launched its first healthbehavior change initiative to effectively treat diarrhea disease, a major killer of children under the age of 5 in the developing world.
AED now works to change behavior—and improve health—all over the world. Our programs include mother and child nutrition, drug and alcohol abuse prevention, and malaria prevention.
HIV/AIDS
AED began its work in HIV/AIDS by focusing on specific sexual and drug-using behaviors performed ribbonby people who are at-risk of exposure to the virus, but who are often invisible to larger society.
Today it is clear that fighting HIV/AIDS requires more than just treating infected individuals.
Prevention and treatment must extend to whole families and their support systems, which is why AED continues to work to increase the effectiveness of prevention programs in the U.S. and internationally.
In addition, our work in HIV/AIDS now focuses on fighting the stigma that many HIV/AIDS sufferers face in their workplaces and communities.
Leadership and Democracy
AED draws on decades of experience in training and professional exchanges to develop leaders and leadershipstrengthen institutions worldwide.
Judges, journalists, educators, legislators, and business owners who have developed new skills and insights through our programs have helped to lead government agencies, community groups, independent media, hospitals, and schools and universities.
AED has played a vital role in strengthening fledgling democracies and bolstering leadership capabilities of individuals and institutions. We believe our individualized exchange and training programs have made a significant difference in promoting civil society.
Youth
In the United States, more than 40 million people, or about 15 percent of the total population, are between the youth3ages of 10 and 21. In many developing countries, the under-25 population makes up 50 percent or more of the total population.
Often public attention, in the U.S. and elsewhere, focuses on the negative actions and outcomes of a minority of young people, in the U.S. or elsewhere. Rather than viewing young people as problems that need to be "fixed," AED sees them as partners and resources who need access to support and opportunities as they learn and mature.
AED has pioneered many approaches to working constructively with youth and continues to design, guide, and evaluate initiatives and programs that affect and involve youth in many issues of critical concern.
Click on http://www.aed.org/ to learn more on AED.
See also
- » Countries
- • Afghanistan
- • Bangladesh
- • Croatia
- • El Salvador
- • United States
- • Viet nam
- » Themes
- • Human rights
- • Childhood, Education
- • Health, medical care
- » In this section
- • Friends Of Earth International
- • African Conservation Training Association
- • 1000 FRIENDS OF PENNSYLVANIA
- • KAWI