Cliff Schmidt receiving the 2010 MSAF Integral Fellows Award from Bill and Melinda Gates
2010 Integral Fellows award winner Cliff Schmidt will be speaking at the MSAF 2011 Celebration, Wednesday, November 16, at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Keep checking back for updates.
President Bill Clinton congratulates Cliff Schmidt on Literacy Bridge's CGI commitment
The CGI Annual Meeting offered an unparalleled opportunity to introduce Literacy Bridge to a worldwide audience. Among the many people who learned from Cliff Schmidt about Literacy Bridge’s work included President Bill Clinton, former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, and actress/activist Geena Davis.
Each expressed strong interest in Literacy Bridge’s work along with a large number of people from all corners of the world. For example, President of the Rockefeller Foundation Judith Rodin said that she has been impressed with Literacy Bridge from the day that she was first introduced to its work as a member of the selection committee for the Microsoft Alumni Foundation Integral Fellows Awards. Cliff was chosen as one of three award winners in 2010. President Obasanjo, former President of Nigeria, was among several leaders who expressed a great deal of interest in getting the Talking Book Program into their countries.
Literacy Bridge’s CGI commitment attracted attention from CGI members, as well. The Health & Agriculture Communication for Women & Children Program was developed in response to the need for a comprehensive solution in global health and hunger. Utilizing an integrated, cost-effective communications strategy, the program incorporates critical health messages and farming best practices that help reduce maternal and child mortality.
Contact:
Forrest Carman
Literacy Bridge
206-859-3118
forrest@literacybridge.org
Seattle, WA, September 29, 2011 — Literacy Bridge is responding to the need for a comprehensive solution in global health and hunger by kicking off its Health & Agriculture Communication for Women & Children Program, which is designed to improve the health of 24,000 women and at-risk children in 75 low-literate communities across rural Ghana. The program utilizes an integrated, cost-effective communications strategy that conveys critical health messages and farming best practices on-demand through the organization’s network of low-cost audio computers, or Talking Books.
Literacy Bridge’s program specifically targets pregnant women, mothers of under-five children, and family members. Working with local experts from UNICEF, Ghana Health Service (GHS) and Ghana Ministry of Food & Agriculture (MoFA), Literacy Bridge will produce engaging messages created in local languages to address topics such as breastfeeding, hand-washing and proper sowing of seeds for the most nutritious and lucrative crops.
At the heart of the program is an innovative and robust audio touch-pad computer that provides on-demand access to life-changing and life-saving information for people without literacy skills or access to electricity. Audio libraries, created specifically for Talking Books, include local language messages that help smallholder farmers improve their crop yields and help new mothers to protect their infants from disease.
Additionally, the program will set new standards for demonstrating cost-effectiveness through transparent accounting and rigorous evaluation. This, along with the Talking Book’s innovative technology, enables the Health & Agriculture Communication for Women & Children Program to stand apart from other global development programs, and is Literacy Bridge’s commitment to this year’s Clinton Global Initiative (CGI). It directly addresses three of the eight United Nations Millennium Development Goals, which call for specific health improvements by 2015: reducing child deaths, reducing maternal mortality and slowing the spread of HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis. Moreover, health is increasingly viewed as fundamental to the first Millennium Development Goal, eradicating poverty and extreme hunger.
Currently, Literacy Bridge is spearheading its efforts in several villages in Ghana, and has established existing partnerships with local experts in health, agriculture and education to help ensure that Talking Book lessons are relevant and actionable. Over 90 percent of Talking Book users within these communities have applied new practices based on downloaded lessons. New farming practices have led to significantly increased crop production, resulting in a threefold return on investment within a single year. Furthermore, Talking Books have been distributed to hundreds of primary school children and their families, helping to promote literacy learning through a variety of interactive reading lessons.
“Literacy Bridge’s success in delivering critical health and agriculture messages on our Talking Book platform has been largely due to our collaboration with businesses, foundations, governments, and other nonprofit organizations,” said Cliff Schmidt, executive director of Literacy Bridge. “I am excited by how much further our impact will extend as we implement our health and agriculture program, and as we continue adding funding partners and collaborating with fellow CGI members.”
Mr. Schmidt was awarded a complimentary membership to CGI by President Bill Clinton, following his selection as a winner of the 2010 Microsoft Alumni Foundation Integral Fellows Award.
About Literacy Bridge
Literacy Bridge is a nonprofit organization established in 2007 to improve the health, education and income of impoverished rural families through knowledge. To serve this mission, the organization has developed the Talking Book, an innovative, low-cost, digital audio computer for people to build their literacy skills and for those who are illiterate to gain access to locally relevant information so that they can learn new practices to better their lives. Literacy Bridge partners with local governments, businesses, and nonprofits to develop and distribute such content.
Literacy Bridge’s growing involvement with the Clinton Global Initiative resulted in the evolution of the Health Behavior Change Program into our comprehensive program that addresses the dual issues of global hunger and health.
Related Blogs on the Health & Agriculture Communication for Women & Children Program
Note to editors: If you are interested in viewing additional information on Literacy Bridge, please visit http://literacybridge.org.
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Contact: Forrest Carman
Literacy Bridge
206-859-3118
forrest@literacybridge.org
Literacy Bridge Founder Joins Clinton Global Initiative (CGI)
Microsoft Alum, Cliff Schmidt, joins exclusive list of invitation-only members and will participate in the CGI Annual Meeting along with heads of state, Nobel Peace Prize winners, corporate executives, philanthropists, and prominent members of the media
Seattle, WA, September 8, 2011 — Today Literacy Bridge announced that its founder, Cliff Schmidt, has been selected for membership to the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) and will be attending the CGI Annual Meeting in New York City. The conference takes place September 20-22 and coincides with the UN General Assembly.
Each year, CGI extends a limited number of complimentary membership invitations to the heads of highly effective nonprofit organizations. Membership includes participation in the Annual Meeting, which has emerged as an unparalleled venue where members of the business community connect with philanthropists to discuss and develop effective partnerships to achieve social change. To date, members have collectively pledged over 2000 commitments valued at approximately $63 billion US dollars, and have impacted more than 300 million lives in more than 180 countries. For more information about CGI, please visit http://www.clintonglobalinitiative.org.
Mr. Schmidt has been selected to receive a complimentary membership based on the results of Literacy Bridge’s Talking Book program to improve the health and income of some of the world’s most impoverished people. At the heart of the program is an innovative and robust audio touch-pad computer that provides on-demand access to life-changing and life-saving information for people without literacy skills or access to electricity. These audio libraries include local language messages that help smallholder farmers improve their crop yields and new mothers to protect their infants from disease.
“Literacy Bridge’s success in delivering critical health and agriculture messages on our Talking Book platform has been largely due to our collaboration with businesses, foundations, governments, and other nonprofit organizations – exactly the organizations represented at CGI,” said Mr. Schmidt. “I am excited by how much further our impact will extend as we work with CGI and my fellow CGI members.”
Currently, Literacy Bridge is spearheading its efforts in several villages in Ghana, and has established existing partnerships with local experts in health, agriculture and education to help ensure that Talking Book lessons are relevant and actionable. Over 90 percent of Talking Book users within these communities have applied new practices based on downloaded lessons. New farming practices have led to significantly increased crop production, resulting in a threefold return on investment within a single year. Furthermore, Talking Books have been distributed to hundreds of primary school children and their families, helping to promote literacy learning through a variety of interactive reading lessons.
Mr. Schmidt’s invitation to the CGI Annual Meeting follows his selection as a winner of the 2010 Microsoft Alumni Foundation Integral Fellows Award, which included an unrestricted $25,000 grant for Literacy Bridge and ongoing access to the talents and skills of the Foundation and its Microsoft alumni members.
About Literacy Bridge
Literacy Bridge is a nonprofit organization established in 2007 to improve the health, education and income of impoverished rural families through knowledge. To serve this mission, the organization has developed the Talking Book, an innovative, low-cost, digital audio computer for people to build their literacy skills and for those who are illiterate to gain access to locally relevant information so that they can learn new practices to better their lives. Literacy Bridge partners with local governments, businesses, and nonprofits to develop and distribute such content.
Note to editors: If you are interested in viewing additional information on Literacy Bridge, please visit http://literacybridge.org.
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Literacy Bridge
