United World Schools (UWS) is an independent charity providing the opportunity to children who have been denied access to education. UWS has a strong sense of social purpose combined with a balanced sustainable model that focuses on educating children in post-conflict developing countries whilst stimulating global cultural exchange and understanding. As its mission, the organisation works with communities to build schools and develop the skills of local teachers, providing a low-cost and sustainable path “to teach the unreached”. Through active partnerships between community schools in economically disadvantaged regions of the word and more affluent schools and organisations, UWS’ intervention model has proven effective since 2008.
In an attempt to increase access to quality primary education and reduce the prevalence of OOSC in Cambodia, Myanmar and Nepal, EAC and UWS have come together to launch the Southeast Asia Schools Development Project for OOSC. This project targets some of the most remote and marginalised communities in rural Cambodia, Myanmar and Nepal; communities that often subsist without access to any education at all. By consulting with and empowering local communities, aligning with government priorities and forging partnerships with education institutes abroad, UWS will construct 163 new primary schools that reach 33, 830 OOSC over the course of a three-year period in these countries.
For more information on this EAC Implementing Partner, please visit the United World Schools website.
Projects
Supporting 5,000+ At-Risk Children Project
Since 2016, EAC and United World Schools (UWS) have been working together to increase access to quality primary education to some of the most disadvantaged out of school children (OOSC) in Cambodia, Myanmar and Nepal. By confronting poverty, lacking infrastructure and socio-cultural discrimination, EAC and UWS are collaborating again to help prevent 5,198 at-risk children from dropping out of primary education.
Southeast Asia School Development Project for OOSC
Across remote rural communities in Cambodia, Myanmar and Nepal, access to quality primary education is inhibited for myriad diverse factors. In the Ratanakiri and Stung Treng Provinces of Cambodia, stigmatisation and discrimination against ethnic minority communities have pushed indigenous peoples outside the reach of the public education system. According to UNESCO, Myanmar allocated just 1.6 percent of its GDP to education in 2010, which had been indicative of generations of underinvestment in the country’s education systems. To date, the Myanmar government does not have the capacity or the infrastructure to reach the most remote communities in rural areas. As for Nepal, scant government investment in education and where schools exist, mismanagement, teacher absenteeism, a lack of parental commitment and the high-cost of school fees, coalesce to put education out of bounds for the most disparate members of society.
