In-House Briefs
FrontLines - December-January 2009-10
Telly Award Honors
Broadcast Promoting
Reading in Africa
The Bureau for Africa’s education
division picked up a
Silver Telly during the 30th annual
Telly Awards for the video
Readers Are Leaders.
The broadcast highlighted
how lives and policies have
changed in some sub-Saharan
African nations because of books
provided through the Africa
Education Initiative Textbook
and Learning Materials Program.
The Telly Awards is the premier
award honoring local, regional,
and cable television
commercials and programs. The
competition receives over 13,000
entries annually from all 50 states
and from countries around the
world. Readers Are Leaders was produced by USAID with assistance
from the U.S. Department
of Agriculture broadcast services.
USAID is addressing the lack
of textbooks and learning materials
in sub-Saharan Africa through
a partnership between six U.S.
minority serving institutions and
African ministries of education
in select countries. To date, nearly
10 million products have been
printed and disseminated at an
average cost of $1.70 each, with
62 percent of federal dollars
spent in host countries.
Water Publication
Takes Top Honor by
Education Group
The publication “Healthy
Water, Healthy Habits, Healthy
People Educators Guide” won a
Distinguished Achievement Award from the Association of
Educational Publishers.
The publication, which was
funded by USAID, was written
for sub-Saharan Africa and gives
teachers a way to teach water
safety to children. The 40-page
book details ways to teach how
common water-borne and hygiene-
related diseases spread
and how to stop them.
In addition to the winning
publication, three companion
pieces—two children’s activity
booklets and a poster—were
distributed to nearly 1 million
children in 1,000 schools in sub-
Saharan Africa.
The publications were prepared
by Project WET, an organization
dedicated to providing
water education worldwide to
children, parents, teachers, and
community members.★
In Washington, D.C.’s Union Station, USAID staff, left to right,
Chris Kisco, Amy Wielkoszewski, Maxine Hillary, Hope Bryer,
and Audra Degesys meet Muppets Elmo and Telly Monster
Nov. 10, 2009, at the opening night of a photo exhibit entitled,
“Sesame Street—The Longest Street in the World” celebrating
40 years of Sesame Street around the world. USAID works with
Sesame Workshop to bring educational television programs to
young children in Bangladesh, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Jordan,
the West Bank and Gaza, Kosovo, Nigeria, Russia, South Africa,
and Tanzania. Local productions are based on the internationally
recognized Sesame Street model but are tailored to reflect each
country’s culture and educational needs. Featuring locally created
Muppet characters, the shows foster reading and math skills, good
health and hygiene habits, and values such as tolerance and respect.
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Neilesh Shelat climbed on top of a mine resistant ambush
protected vehicle in May 2009 to counteract poor cell phone
reception during his swearing-in to the Foreign Service. He
raised his right hand to take the oath of service, held the
U.S. Constitution in his left hand, and wedged the phone on
his shoulder. When asked what keeps drawing him back to
Afghanistan, where he has worked for nearly two and a half
years, Shelat said: “There is something that is truly infectious
about this place that keeps people coming back—whether
it is the incredible sense of hospitality or just the overall
rhythm and flow that catches you off guard and shakes you a
bit.” Shelat currently serves as a field program manager in the
Wardak Provincial Reconstruction Team.
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