LEGOs are for building spaceships, crafting castles and getting lost in your couch. But what if they could be used not just to dream of lands long ago and times far away, but to inspire future scientists? 361 more words
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Octopus's garden: A TED Fellow with a radical approach to saving fisheries
Eco-entrepreneur Alasdair Harris is passionate about conserving marine biodiversity, and he’s doing it in unusual ways. While most marine conservationists focus on what’s in the water, Harris’ company… 3,109 more words
For girls in rural Yemen, just getting permission to go to school can be an obstacle. Here, first-graders sit five to a bench. Classrooms often number 150 students to one teacher.
Of the five countries Boushnak has documented for the “I Read I Write” series so far, Tunisia offered the best education opportunities for women. There, she focused on the role of women in political activism. In this shot, college student Asma reads in her apartment, with the message “The people want the fall of the regime” scrawled behind her, a popular slogan from the Tunisian Revolution.
In a literacy class in the suburbs of Amman, Jordan, women in their fifties and sixties read the Quran for two hours in the morning, then practice English and math. One 61-year-old woman joked to Boushnak that she joined the class so she could get on Facebook and find a young blond husband.
In Kuwait, where Boushnak herself grew up, women attend university in equal numbers as men and education reforms are in motion. Here, Intisar teaches math in a Kuwaiti public school, where the principal believes in a dual emphasis on education and culture.
According to a UNESCO literacy report, 34% of Egyptian women over fifteen are illiterate. The Association of the Development and Enhancement of Women provides free classes to the women of this neighborhood. Says Boushnak, many of the women who attend this program are empowered by basic literacy, which enables them to read traffic signs, count money, read medical prescriptions, and, importantly, encourage their own kids to stay in school.
Gallery: When reading is an act of daring
Most of us take for granted that we can read, say, the street signs outside of our house. But for an overwhelming number of women in the Arab world, basic literacy is not a given. 361 more words
How a TED Fellow's mobile triage app could save lives around the world
Every day, emergency room workers use triage to prioritize patient care — but exhausted personnel in under-resourced hospitals can easily make deadly errors in diagnostic tests and symptom scoring. 2,820 more words
Could you build your own house, car or tractor? A TED Fellow on his adventures in extreme manufacturing
What if you could build a civilization from scratch, using tools that could also be built from scratch? In his talk “Open-sourced blueprints for civilization… 1,608 more words
How to build a real energy revolution in Africa
TED Fellow David Moinina Sengeh explains why he’s bullish about the “microgrid.”
Nearly 70% of the sub-Saharan African population doesn’t have electricity. That’s about 600 million people who are completely off-grid, often paying high prices in cash and health to use diesel generators, kerosene lamps and charcoal fires. 868 more words
