LM International sees education as a cornerstone in the empowerment of individuals and communities. Equitable and quality education for all is the first step for right holders/affected populations to make their voices heard, exercise their rights and hold duty bearers accountable.
Our initiatives include traditional schooling of children, youth and adults as well as education in emergencies, special inclusive education for children and young people with functional impairments and basic literacy and numeracy education.
The primary focus of our interventions are the most vulnerable and marginalised members of the communities, i.e. those excluded from mainstream education programmes during and after the humanitarian crisis, people with disabilities, members of minorities and indigenous people. Illiteracy is a major barrier that prevents individuals from achieving their potential and demanding accountability from duty-bearers, hence one of LM International’s main offerings has been literacy programmes. One of the successful models we developed intensive courses, known as ‘speed schools’, for young people and adults who have never had the opportunity to attend school. Our programme allows them to compensate for the missed schooling.
The aim of our intervention is to create the conditions for our beneficiaries to advance, with proficient results, in their education and therefore build their capacities to become active and empowered members of their communities. Our comprehensive interventions endeavour to involve the community as a whole, by creating awareness and mobilisation around education, building capacities for and supporting schools and other education facilities and, finally, following up children throughout their education.
All this stimulates the social dialogue around education which is a key component to reaching relevant results on equitable education. Multiple barriers (structural, cultural, social, etc.) hinder the equal access to education for all the young members of the community and therefore the engagement of multiple stakeholders (families, traditional and local authorities, etc.) is of pivotal importance.
LM International´s interventions also support capacity building activities for community members and school teachers to strengthen the inclusivity of education programmes through innovative methodologies. Schools and other education facilities (such as ‘speed schools’) are also supported to strengthen their services and methodologies to enable all children to attend school. By building partnerships with and supporting civil society, LM International aims at strengthening local capacities and services as well as to build a social dialogue with duty bearers in favour of inclusive education.