Pestalozzi World provides education for poor children in poor countries. The education develops "hands, heads and hearts" - practical skills, technical knowledge and empathy and ethics.
Children come from mostly rural families and places are given to the brightest children. The children are selected on the basis of two girls for every one boy to try to redress the traditional imbalance.
Donations are used to provide scholarships to poor children aged between 8 and 18. Without the scholarship their families are unable to send them to school, and the alternative is usually to work as labourers, or early marriage.
The children are selected on the basis of ability as well as need. Many scholars excel and are able to obtain further scholarships to attend university and obtain professional qualifications. The students graduate with secondary education diplomas, a range of practical skills that they can apply in their communities, and a strong sense of citizenship. They are then in a good position to help the communities and countries from which they originated. Generally, students remain in their own countries, able to support themselves and their families and also make an effective contribution to the development of their communities.
Crucial to the Pestalozzi World approach is the Circle of Success, whereby alumni set up foundations in their own countries and help educate new generations of disadvantaged children.
In 1998 the Pestalozzi Children's Centre, near Lusaka was built to accommodate 80 girls. 80 now live in the Centre, where they learn skills such as sewing, knitting, farming and computing that will help promote self-sustainability, the ability to run a small business and lead to self-employment.
