7/9/07

Hewlett and Gates Foundation award $9 m to Pratham

Sixty million children in India will get added help in basic math, reading and writing from the non-profit organization Pratham, thanks in part to a $9.1 million grant from the William and Flora Hewlett and Bill & Melinda Gates foundations. The grant supports Pratham's Read India initiative, which is working in conjunction with Indian state governments to help ensure that children between the ages of 6 and 14 achieve basic mastery in these skills by the end of 2009.

The grant will improve basic learning skills in 100 districts of India, touching 10 million children spread over 10 states for three years.

The gift to Pratham is the first grant the Hewlett and Gates foundations have awarded in their partnership to improve the quality of education in developing countries. The two foundations previously announced that they will collaborate on a series of grants to improve the quality of education at primary and secondary schools in the developing world.

Hewlett Foundation President Paul Brest said. "It's hard to reduce poverty, improve health or raise the status of women without also extending to the poor access to a quality education."

[India Post News Service]

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