The Humanities Initiative

The GLP vision is intended to provide general knowledge and develop intellectual capacities. We know that schools at many of our locations are oriented towards an education where students develop professional or vocational skills for a specific job. However, we believe in the preparation of the individual to succeed in a variety of settings. We think that learners should gain transferable skills—skills that they can take with them to any job or other work situation—such as written and verbal communication skills, the ability to solve complex problems, to work well with others, and to adapt in a changing workplace.

Promoting A Culture of Reading

Our pilot reading projects, such as in regions like Western Kenya, are run by volunteer teachers and trained student peer leaders. Each week of the academic year, there is a winner of the week who receives public praise in the school assembly, a small prize, and a place in the register of winners.

The overall goal here is to simply get students interested in reading for pleasure and self-education.

A winner is that student who chooses a book of interest to herself or himself, reads it cover to cover, and is then able to answer all of the teacher’s questions on that book. In countries like Kenya where the median per capita annual income is less than $500, prizes of even one dollar are significant to rural school children.

Since GLP starting sending educational materials to Kenya, GLP has helped in the development of a community based organization named PAMLO-Amagoro.  PAMLO is the Pan-African Mentoring and Learning Organization. PAMLO-Amagoro has expanded to serve an entire district of approximately 200,000 people—this is the Teso district of Western Kenya.

Promoting Gender Equality And Empowering Women
Some of the GLP humanities initiatives have a special focus on women’s literacy as a means of assisting local communities to move towards the UN millennium development goal of gender equality and empowering women.  

GLP works with a variety of organizations and researchers to maintain an on going focus on women’s education, and women’s leadership.

Aiding Community Development By Preventing Adolescent Drop Out
A special component of the GLP humanities initiative seeks to address the problems of adolescents who drop out of school. This part of the initiative is designed specifically for marginalized adolescents in rural areas. The goal is to intervene, via a compact program, to permit recent drop-out adolescents to return to school. GLP also tries to develop community awareness and support programs so as to identify students facing a high risk of dropping out of school.