“As heart wrenching as it is informative…. You’ll have a pit in your stomach by the end of the show.”
–Families.com

WIDE ANGLE’s unprecedented, award-winning 12-year documentary project, Time for School, returns in 2009 with visits to seven classrooms in seven countries to offer a glimpse into the lives of seven extraordinary children who are struggling to get what nearly all American kids take for granted: a basic education. We started filming in 2002, watching as kids first entered school in Afghanistan, Benin, Brazil, India, Japan, Kenya and Romania, many despite great odds. Several years later, in 2006, we returned to film an update — and now, three years later, we travel to check in on our young teenagers who are making the precarious transition to middle school. Among the highlights: in Afghanistan we reunite with 16-year-old Shugufa, who resolutely remains in school despite the Taliban’s recent acid attacks on young women her age. “If they continue attacking schools, our country won’t progress. Without an education you can’t get anywhere,” says Shufuga, whose own education was delayed when her family lived in a refugee camp in Pakistan during years when the Taliban ruled her country. We also visit the biggest slum in Nairobi, Kenya, where 15-year-old Joab’s mother has died and his father has abandoned the family. We watch as, incredibly, Joab manages to stay at the top of his class while also raising and feeding his two younger siblings. And in the blazing desert of Rajasthan, India, we encounter Neeraj, 15, only to learn that she has been unable to realize her dream of making it to 10th grade: since our last visit her night school has closed, and she now helps support her family by grazing the livestock full-time while her brothers continue their education.

These children’s stories put a human face on the shocking fact that more than 75 million children are currently out of school; of these, two thirds are girls. One in four children in developing countries does not complete five years of basic education, and there are nearly one billion illiterate adults — one-sixth of the world’s people. WIDE ANGLE plans to continue revisiting all the children, and their peers and families, through 2015, the year they should graduate — and, not coincidentally, the U.N.’s target date for achieving universal education, a Millennium Development goal endorsed by all 191 members of the United Nations.

While each child in Time for School 3 has a unique story, taken together their lives tell an epic tale, shedding light on one of the most urgent and under-reported stories of our time.

AFGHANISTAN

Central Asia Institute
Promotes and supports community-based education, especially for girls, in remote regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA)
The oldest organization of Afghan women struggling for peace, freedom, democracy and women’s rights; has run clandestine literacy programs and home-based schools for women, and hopes to start building “free and modern” schools – especially for women – in the future.

Mercy Corps
Global relief and development organization that helps people build secure, productive and just communities, including agricultural schools in Afghanistan that teach modern farm practices.

BENIN

FADEC (Femmes Actrices de Développement Communautaire/Women Actors in Community Development)
FADEC works with Nanavi, the Beninese student in Time for School, and other girls in her village, to improve access to education. Email: Fadecd@gmail.com.

Batonga Foundation
Created by Beninese singer Angelique Kidjo to support both secondary school and higher education for girls in Africa.

BRAZIL

Two Brothers Foundation
Provides educational opportunities in Rocinha, one of the biggest favelas in Rio de Janeirio, through local and international community service and cultural exchange.

Viva Rio
One of the major NGOs in Rio de Janeiro that is fighting the growing armed violence, social exclusion and poor education in Rio’s lowest income neighborhoods, like Rocinha.

KENYA

Sumerian Foundation
Works to eliminate long term poverty to some of the world’s most vulnerable children through the building of social enterprise and development programs. In the past, the Sumerian Foundation has provided resources to Ayany Primary school, the school that Joab attends in Time for School.

Children of Kibera
Started by a Kibera-born U.S. high school teacher to provide educational opportunities for orphans and vulnerable children in Nairobi’s largest slum, Kibera.

Kenya Krew
After watching Time for School, a group of students from Lawrence Middle School in Long Island, NY, wanted to do something to help Joab, the Kenyan boy in the film, and his classmates at Ayany Primary School in Nairobi. After conferring with Joab’s teacher about the school’s needs, they decided to raise money to build a library for the school. They have raised $8000 towards their goal of $15,000. To contribute to this project, send your donation to the attention of Karen Weiner (the Lawrence Middle School teacher who sponsors the organization) at:
Lawrence Middle School
195 Broadway
Lawrence, NY 11559.
Include the words “Kenya Krew” in the memo line.

INDIA

Barefoot College
Operating on the principle that “solutions to rural problem lie within the community,” the organization seeks to improve, girls’ education, health & sanitation, rural unemployment, and environmental issues.

Pratham
Established in 1994 to provide education to the children in the slums of Mumbai city, Pratham now reaches millions of children living both in rural and urban areas, providing pre-school education, reading and literacy programs, vocational training, early childhood care, and urban learning centers.

SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA

Building Tomorrow
Building Tomorrow works with students in the U.S. to raise awareness and funds for the education of underserved children in sub-Saharan Africa.

Part 2

Just as important as the growing library are the friendships that have sprung up between students in two very different parts of the world. Teachers from the two schools matched up sets of pen pals, and the kids have been writing back and forth since 2007.

When producer Frederick Rendina returned to Kenya in 2008 to film Time for School 3, he brought video messages from the Lawrence Middle School students to their pen pals at Ayany Primary. Click below to watch their messages and to see the responses from the Kenyan kids.

Afghan election officials begin preparations for a second round of voting to determine last month’s controversial presidential election marred by allegations of large-scale rigging in favor of Hamid Karzai. The second round will take place in five weeks only if Karzai’s share of the vote – which currently stands at 54% – falls to less than 50 percent. With 10 percent of ballots currently under scrutiny, this appears increasingly likely.

The World Bank says development efforts in poorer nations will be derailed without a huge increase in funding for climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts. The bank warns that the increase in global average temperatures will still result in shrinking levels of G.D.P. for many African and Asian countries and lead to a global health catastrophe.

Kenyan authorities begin to move residents out of Africa’s largest slum – the Kibera settlement in Nairobi. Officials expect the clearance of about one million people to take up to five years. The first people to move will be housed in 300 new apartments. Prime Minister Raila Odinga says new ground is being prepared for a “modern, low income residential estate with modern schools, markets, playgrounds and other facilities.”

A senior United Nations official begins a visit to Sri Lanka for two days of talks about the slow pace of release of Tamil refugees. Many are still detained in government-run camps four months after the end of the war. The U.N. official may also press for a probe into human rights abuses during the final stages of the military’s victory over Tamil rebels.

Call (718) 506-1351 to join the conversation!

WIDE ANGLE’s unprecedented, award-winning 12-year documentary project, Time for School, follows seven kids in seven countries struggling to get what nearly all American kids take for granted: a basic education.

On Thursday, September 10th at 12:00 noon, EST, we’ll be hosting a live discussion with Oren Rudavsky and Frederick Rendina, two of the film’s producers, and two experts on global education: David Gartner of the Brookings Institute and Faryal Khan of UNESCO.

The discussion will be hosted by Pamela Hogan, Executive Producer of Time for School. You can read a Q & A with Hogan about the series on the Inside Thirteen blog.

Visit our site to listen live through Blog Talk Radio, and call (718) 506-1351 with any questions for our guests. You can also send us your questions in advance by leaving a comment below.

We’d especially like to hear from students and educators, and want to extend a special welcome to members of Classroom 2.0, a social network for people interested in using collaborative technologies in education.

We look forward to hearing from you!

Click on any image to begin.

Iran media reports that more than 5,000 security forces guard the block outside President Ahmadinejad’s swearing in ceremony and use tear gas against nearby demonstrators who shouted “death to the dictator.” When the U.S., France, Britain and Germany refused to send a customary congratualtory message, Ahmadinejad replies that, “the Iranian nation neither values your scowls and threats, nor your smiles and greetings.” His next step is to introduce his new cabinet, which must be approved by members of parliament, many of whom boycotted his inauguration.

While urging American companies to invest in Africa at a trade conference on the first stop on her tour of the continent, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says the U.S. is disappointed at the slow pace of prosecuting the masterminds of post election violence in Kenya. At least 1,000 people were killed and about 650,000 were evicted from their homes as a result of the violence.

Delegates nearly come to blows during the first Fatah General Conference in two decades after participants demand information on the 20 years of the Palestinian political party’s activities and finances since the last conference, and discover that the Central Committee prepared no reports for the conference. President Mahmoud Abbas opens the conference in the West Bank city of Bethlehem by saying, “It is a miracle that Fatah is still standing strong in spite of all that has happened.”

Russian military officials suspect Georgia is planning new military action, and say unnamed third countries are helping Georgia rebuild its military potential. Last August’s war saw Russian forces expel invading Georgian troops from South Ossetia amid accusations on both sides of human rights abuses. Russia eventually recognized the independence of both South Ossetia and Abkhazia, another former Georgian republic.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton begins a seven-nation visit to Africa. Her first stop is Kenya for a forum on trade and investment with senior officials from 41 African nations.  Experts say by next year, China will likely overtake the U.S. as the world’s largest investor in Africa.

In a scene that recalls her leadership during the Philippine democracy movement in the 1980’s, tens of thousands thousands attend a funeral procession for former President Corazon Aquino. Thousands more grieve online. Aquino died Saturday of a cardiac arrest after suffering from colon cancer. She defeated dictator Ferdinand Marcos in 1987 and is credited with restoring democracy to the Philippines.

Christians in Pakistan close their schools for three days to protest the killings of at least seven members of their community by Muslims who stormed a Christian section of the eastern city of Gojra on Saturday. Spurred by reports that Christians had desecrated a Quran, Muslims burned burned dozens of houses as police failed to intervene.

After returning from a fact-finding mission in Honduras, the head of a London-based media rights group says dozens of Honduran journalists and human rights activists have been attacked or threatened with violence by the military and supporters of ousted President Manuel Zelaya. Three Zelaya supporters have been killed since the June 28 coup. More protests are planned this week.

The first Guantanamo detainee to face charges in a U.S. civilian court arrives in Manhattan. Indicted for his role in the bombings of the U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, Ahmed Ghailani is expected to appear in court later this afternoon.

Oil-giant Shell agrees to pay a $15.5 million settlement in the case of nine environmental and human rights activists who were hung in Nigeria in 1995. Shell allegedly hired government troops to shoot protesters opposed to the construction of an oil pipeline in the Niger Delta.

Zimbabwe could be heading for a new wave of violence in the lead up to elections scheduled for 2010. Opposition leaders have been receiving threatening phone calls saying that their names are being added to an assassination list.

HIV-prevention interventions appear to be paying off in South Africa — a new study shows that infection rates in children have declined, while rates have leveled off at 10.9 percent among the general population.

North Korea announces the trial date of two reporters arrested on suspected espionage activities. Current TV reporters Laura Ling and Euna Lee will be tried June 4th and face up to 10 years in prison for illegal entry and “hostile acts.”

Nobel Prize Winner and Burmese democracy advocate Aung San Suu Kyi is arrested and faces three to five years in prison after American John Yettaw swims the lake to her villa driven by “strong religious convictions.” Suu Kyi’s house arrest had been due to expire at the end of May.

Iran sends two warships to the Gulf of Aden to protect its country’s vessels from attacks by Somali-based pirates.

In Nairobi, Kenya, aristocrat Thomas Cholmondeley is sentenced to eight months for shooting and killing a black man who was on the aristocrat’s property. The light sentence sparked outrage; the 37 year old Robert Njoya is the second black man shot and killed by Cholmondeley. The first case was dismissed.

The world’s largest space telescope is launched from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana. One of its missions is to search for water throughout the Universe.

President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister Odinga have led a unity government since 2008, when the two agreed to share power after disputed elections led to a outbreak of violence in which more than 1,500 Kenyans were killed.

But the coalition, which has always been shaky, is now on the verge of collapse. Prime Minister Odinga complains that President Kibaki has tried to sideline him, while Kibaki accuses Odigna of trying to incite a coup. Earlier this week, Odinga called for new elections if the dispute cannot be resolved.

Inspired by Aristophanes’ Lysistrata, the women organizing the boycott hope to pressure the male-dominated political leadership to negotiate by denying them sex until they do.

“We have looked at all issues which can bring people to talk and we have seen that sex is the answer,” said Rukia Subow, one of the organizers.

It worked for the Greeks.

Three students and an 83-year-old man are the most recent victims of vigilantes tracking down and killing members of the outlawed Mungiki religious sect in Kenya.

Former Pakistani Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif, expresses concern over a peace deal with Taliban militants in the Swat region.