Our projects are run in the least developed countries of the world in order that your donations and our gifts will have the maximum possible impact. “Least developed” means the bottom third of countries by Purchasing Power Parity, and preferably countries among those with the greatest percentage of the population living in poverty, and those with the highest Fragile States Index.
Click on any of our project pages below for further details.
Project Pages
Links below are to our current and ongoing projects. Details of projects that are now finished are on our Completed Projects page.
Guatemala University Scholarships
Kenya University Scholarships
Sierra Leone Afterschool Project
Ak’ Tenamit High School Scholarships
Our Projects on a World Map
All of our projects, both ongoing and completed.
Project Criteria
The TIES tagline or catchphrase is “Advancing education in developing countries”, so obviously our projects must be solely focused on education. But what do we mean by developing countries?
Our definition is that these are countries in the bottom third of the world by purchasing power parity (PPP). This concept simply means that the costs in a country are measured relative to the income in that country. For example, in Kenya we can cover a young woman’s university tuition and room and board for about $1,200-$1,500 Canadian dollars (CAD) per year. That seems like an incredible bargain compared to the $20,000 CAD or more that a student in Canada spends. However, the average family income in Canada is many, many times higher than in Kenya so a relative comparison is needed.
The problem with using PPP to measure poverty is that it is an absolute measurement that doesn’t account for the distribution of wealth within a country. Using our example of universities in Kenya and Canada, Kenya has over 36% of the population living in poverty, while Canada has just over 11%. There are therefore many more students in Kenya that need our support. There are even relatively wealthy countries such as Mexico and Guatemala (which are not in the bottom third by PPP) that have a high percentage of the population in poverty. Due to massive inequity in the distribution of income, Guatemala has a shockingly high 59.3% of it’s population living in poverty, 10th worst in the world. So that is why we run projects there.
The final criterion that we use in deciding where to run projects is the fragility index. A country’s fragility index is a combined ranking of 12 demographic, social, economic, and political factors that predict a state’s vulnerability to conflict or collapse. Education is a powerful tool for making counties less fragile over time.
While all of these criteria are used, our final selection for project countries tends to be somewhat subjective. While countries like Somalia and Yemen meet all of the criteria, the practicalities of actually running a project there are a major hurdle. And sometimes a personal connection or the availability of an intermediary or an existing partner contribute to a decision. Unfortunately, there is no shortage of deserving projects for advancing education in developing countries.
To support a specific TIES project, use the button below and use the drop-down arrow to select the project for your donation.
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