Keda CBO, a grass-roots aid organization determined to enhance educational prospects for impoverished youths in the country of Georgia, plans to develop an English Resource Center which will serve both as a universally accessible collection of English language resources for teachers and as a central location that students may access to engage in fun and interactive activities aimed at promoting the development of their English language skills.  By developing a single, central, and superbly stocked resource center open to all teachers and students Keda hopes to provide equal access to all of the region's educators in one single project.  Additionally, Keda believes that such an approach may prove more effective overall, as the most motivated students and teachers will be drawn to the center, as opposed to providing resources on a school by school basis that may or may not be effectively used.  Being able to speak English well is highly valued in Georgia, meaning the project will help lift many out of poverty by providing the skills they need to succeed in the marketplace.  

The center will consist of a library of English language books, teaching guides and audio resources for both teachers’ and students’ use. In addition, the center will have tables, chairs, activity boards and other resources to help students engage in interactive learning experiences, along with a printer and scanner to assist teachers and students in taking resources back to their villages. Lastly, by providing a computer with Rosetta Stone’s English program Keda hopes to provide students with a fun and interactive method of learning that may motivate less than avid readers to improve their English.

Keda CBO also plans to use the center as a central location for the development of the regions teachers through a series of training programs. Georgia has recently enacted a new teacher certification program to ensure higher quality educational results in its schools. Aside from the obvious benefits to the children in the schools from these new certifications, teachers who pass the national certification exam can their salary increase from 300 Lari per month to nearly 1000 Lari. This serves as a great motivating factor for the teachers, but also materially improves the living conditions of the region's youth, many of whose parents are teachers in local schools (often the only steady/paid job in a village). 

The space for the center has already been secured.  It will be fully operational within one month of this project being fully funded.  

Keda CBO believes that knowledge is power, and seeks to empower future generations of Georgians in their development through the generous support of WideAwake.org and its donors. Keda believes that access to the materials in the planned English Resources Center can make a significant impact in helping to bring Keda’s classrooms and students into the 21^st century.   There are over two-hundred students currently studying English in Keda center alone, and many hundreds of others within a short distance from the town center in surrounding villages. This project will help provide every one of them (nearly 3000 students in all) a more enjoyable and modern classroom. 

Keda expects that 15-20 students from the main village in Keda will visit the center on an average day, with perhaps 5 students from outlying villages making the trip in. Educating outlying teachers of the resources provided by the center will be facilitated by the regional Education Resource administration. Keda hopes that 3-4 teachers per day from various villages will make use of the resources, and hope that over the course of a full year nearly every English teacher in the district will benefit from Peace Corps led training programs to introduce the center (though this will admittedly depend greatly on the continued placement of volunteers in the region and their active involvement). Given the extended lifespan of the center we believe that thousands of the district’s students can benefit directly from the sources provided.

Keda CBO will measure the success of the center by how often the software and resources in the Resource Center are used, as well as tracking the number of students and teachers we will additionally track their home schools in order to better target informative sessions to underrepresented villages. 

Breakdown of Costs