Planet Aid is firm in its belief that education is the cornerstone of all development.  While we are engaged in educational campaigns in the United States, we devote the majority of our educational resources to supporting teacher training in developing nations.  Countries such as Mozambique, Malawi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo suffer from an acute shortage of well qualified teachers, especially in rural areas.  The network of colleges we help support in sub-Saharan Africa are training approximately 5,000-6,000 qualified new teachers per year. These colleges utilize the DNS training program, an approach that seeks to create “another kind of teacher.” These uniquely qualified teachers possess the knowledge, skills and heart to become self-driven and effective catalysts for change in both the classroom and the community.  

We are strong advocates for primary school teacher training, but we also do much more. For example,  we recently launched a new U.S. Department of Agriculture sponsored school-feeding project in Mozambique.  This three-year project is helping feed 60,000 school children, providing a vital nutritional boost at a critical stage of development.  The education component of the program will focus on training more than 4,000 primary school teachers at colleges operated by Planet Aid’s partner, ADPP Mozambique.  Upon graduation, the teachers will reach 264,000 primary school students each year.

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Planet Aid was instrumental in recently establishing a new teacher training college in the area of Maluku to train primary school teachers.  This college will be part of a new network of 54-teacher training collegesestablished throughout the nation. 

In Angola, student teachers at the colleges we support recently embarked on a four-month field trip across southern Africa.  Read more about this innovative aspect of the program on the DNS website.

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