Moonbeam Youth Training Center, Kenya [Video Still]

The video still shows The Moonbeam Youth Training Centre in Mavoko, Nairobi. The Centre is a project of UN-HABITAT built with support from UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon and UN-HABITAT Executive Director Mrs. Anna Tibaijuk. The purpose of the center is to improve housing in urban slums by training young people in low cost, alternative construction technologies. Trainees gain employable skills, leadership skills, and self-help skills that help them transform informal housing to sustainable, permanent construction. Young people who complete the training receive certification and apprenticeships in carpentry, roofing, brick manufacture and bricklaying as well as other vocations.

With investment from local organizations and businesses, young men and women can significantly improve standards of living, including sanitation and security, for their communities while training for future employment. In addition to hands-on construction training, the program includes training in entrepreneurship and business management skills, with the objective that graduates can start and sustain viable enterprises that increase capacity in underserved communities, and enable future businesses to hire others. The project is an example of a multi-purpose, dynamic development initiative that involves youth as active rather than passive participants in achieving its goals. The trainees' work creates the project's own infrastructure, since the facility that the trainees are building actually serves as a training center when it is complete. The collaboration will eventually include youth from the informal settlements of Kibera, Mavoko, Githongoro and Thikain in Kenya.

Video: "A Ray of Hope for Youth Living in Slums," UN-Habitat, <a class="external" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YkeRxt5zmI">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YkeRxt5zmI</a> and "Vocational Trainings Launched at the Moonbeam Youth Training Centre," Nairobi, November 30, 2009, <a class="external" href="http://www.unhabitat.org/content.asp?cid=7640&catid=531&typeid=6&subMenuId=0">http://www.unhabitat.org/content.asp?cid=7640&catid=531&typeid=6&subMenuId=0</a> (accessed March 5, 2009). Annotated by Susan Douglass.

Traditional and Modern Primary Education in Thailand [Object]

The image shows the reverse of a Thai 100-baht banknote, with engravings of of King Chulalongkorn and King Vajiravudha statues. The banknote's background theme is education. The detail on the right illustrates Thailand's traditional education system, showing a monk instructing boys in the courtyard of a temple. Until the 20th century, the village temple was a place where most young boys from peasant families received a basic education. Such temples typically received small boys to serve in the temple as dek wat, or "children of the temple," from the age of eight years old. The dek wat carried out minor housekeeping chores in exchange for instruction in reading and writing. They also memorized scriptural passages appropriate for important rituals. The dek wat served for four years or more, after which they could be ordained as novice monks (samana or samanen) for one or two years. At the age of 20, the novice could advance to higher ordination. Parents often sponsor a child as novice, who still spends time at home, but donations from other villagers help to provide for novices' robes, alms bowls, and other needs.

The detail of the banknote on the left represents modern mass education in Thailand, with boys and girls in uniform exiting a modern school building flying the national flag. In 1921, the Compulsory Primary Education Act was proclaimed, and in 1960, compulsory schooling was extended to seven years. At that time, the government made a series of five-year plans that resulted in widespread construction of wooden village primary schools and concrete-block secondary schools. Universal public education has largely replaced temple and monastery for imparting basic literacy, but some villages still rely on the dek wat system for boys' religious training. While it is no longer the only path toward higher education, a temporary period of ordination as a Buddhist monk is still a valued rite of passage for boys before they marry and start familes. Young men who have served as monks for a few months or years are viewed as better marriage partners and more suitable candidates for village leadership positions. Young men who remain monks for a longer period of education learn traditional scripts and gain the knowledge to officiate at religious ceremonies in the village and surrounding area.

"Thailand Baht 1994," Joksa's Collections: Banknote collection, http://www.joksankolikot.net/setelit/thaimaa/thaimaa.htm (accessed November 30, 2009). Annotated by Susan Douglass.