The annual South by Southwest (SXSW) festival started March 8, covering all the new topics and releases in film, music and interactive. This week-long event is big on hype, crowds, food, drinks and celebrities. The do-gooder events get tucked in here and there – and when you find them, they are usually fascinating and informative.

ONE Regional Faith Organizer Joe Mason recently traveled to Ethiopia to document a faith-based aid and development program. This morning, I took a walk down a busy street in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in order to take in some of the sights and smells of this ancient culture. Known for its wide variety of exotic spices that

The highlight of my visit to Ethiopia had to be visiting the various schools and childrens’ homes that were a liberal part of our agenda. Here’s a pro tip: if you’re ever in a country that feels completely foreign, find a spot where there are children, and close your eyes. There is something so universal

Photo credit: http://www.brecorder.com/ Malala Yousafzai, the 14-year-old student activist from Pakistan who was brutally shot by the Taliban on October 9, awoke from her coma last week. Doctors say that she has regained consciousness, but will need a significant period of rest and recuperation. She wakes up from her coma to a world very different

This week, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) released the 10th annual 2012 Education for All Global Monitoring Report, focused on youth skills. It’s a 480-page tome chock-full of analysis and the statistics that allow us to measure progress in education. Here’s a breakdown of some of the statistics from the report: Worldwide,

I’m sure a lot of you heard about Malala Yousafzai, the 14-year-old girl activist from Pakistan who was shot by the Taliban this week for standing up for the right to be educated. The Taliban targeted her for “propagating” Western culture and promoting education, which they called an “obscenity.” This tragedy couldn’t have come at

“You can’t marginalize more than half of the globe’s population and expect to see any meaningful solutions to the problems that ail the world.” Those powerful words are from Dr. Helene Gayle, President and CEO of CARE and a member of ONE’s board of directors, about the critical need to put women and girls at

In this blog post, former UK Prime Minister and newly appointed UN Special Envoy for Global Education Gordon Brown explains how activists can help provide every child in the world with a decent education through a new UN initiative, Education First. Education, we all know, is the foundation of a better life –- not just

This post by Kadiatu Blango was kindly provided by the Restless Development My name is Kadiatu, I am 20 and have two daughters. I had my second child when I was 18. Like every mother, I want the very best for my children and do everything I can for them, but I worry that it

My grandmother was an English teacher, a poet and a lover of books. She gave me The Very Hungry Caterpillar, and Little Women, Where the Sidewalk Ends and My Antonia. Children reading at the Matau Primary School, Zimbabwe

This post by Abdulai Shefu was kindly provided by the Millennium Villages Project Hello, my name is Abdulai Shefu and I am the head teacher at Duu Primary and Junior High School located in the West Mamprusi District in northern Ghana. I can say that here at school we have two major challenges: There are

The African Economic Outlook (AEO) published their 2012 report recently, providing us with an overview of the economic progress for the entire continent over the past year. The Outlook is published annually by the African Development Bank, the OECD Development Center, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, the United Nations Development Programme and a

We are proud to present our first Amazing Africa guest post from Andrea Burk. She has been a missionary to the Dagara people group in Dano, Burkina Faso for 9 years, and is now pursuing a career as a photojournalist. Enjoy her photos, and find her on Twitter at @BurkAndrea. Educating children is the key

On the eve of International Women’s Day, I had the opportunity to attend a screening of the film “Pray the Devil Back to Hell” hosted by our friends at CARE. This bold film is the first in “Women, War and Peace,” a special five-part series on PBS that challenges the conventional wisdom that war and

Many countries that have experienced a surge in primary school enrollment have not been able to make adequate investments in quality, such as recruiting and training teachers, expanding classrooms and purchasing materials. Sub-Saharan Africa faces the most pressing need for teachers, with 1.1 million more needed in order to reach the goal of universal primary