Archives
September 2020
Dana Schmidt / The Puggle / October 15, 2020
September is typically a back-to-school month here in the U.S., but this year school looks a lot different. With many children going back to school online, it’s not surprising that this month we’ve seen a lot written about education technology. First, a new study from Brookings on “Realizing the Promise” of education technology to improve […]
Read MoreAugust 2020
Dana Schmidt / The Puggle / September 10, 2020
Our last post was a bit gloomy, so we’re dedicating this month’s Puggle to discussing solutions that might help the education sector to come out of this crisis stronger. We’re moved by the way Arundhati Roy describes this opportunity: “Historically, pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and imagine their world anew. This […]
Read MoreJuly 2020
Dana Schmidt / The Puggle / August 3, 2020
What does COVID-19 mean for education and girls’ education in particular? We discuss four themes: (1) Education is in crisis. In fact, it faces more than one crisis. (2) The crisis is especially bad for girls. (3) The pessimistic view is that it will take a long time to recover and inequality will be starker for many years to come. (4) The optimistic view is that we’ll “build back better.”
Read MoreJune 2020
Erin Ganju / The Puggle / June 24, 2020
As you, our global colleagues, have no doubt seen, it has been a turbulent few weeks in the United States. All of us at Echidna Giving share in the collective anguish and rage at the senseless killing of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Aubrey Ahmad, and countless other Black Americans. We stand in solidarity with all […]
Read MoreMay 2020
Erin Ganju / The Puggle / May 18, 2020
The students we aim to serve, their families, you, our grantees continue to be front of mind. Obviously health and safety concerns dominate our thinking as well as the commensurate economic impact, but we are also beginning to shift our focus to the mid and long term. The effects on the education sector, and our […]
Read MoreApril 2020
Erin Ganju / The Puggle / April 23, 2020
If you are like us, it is probably challenging to think of anything other than the COVID-19 global pandemic. We are anxious about its impact in our communities and what the next phase of this global crisis will bring. It dominates most of our conversations, work, the news cycle and social media streams. So rather […]
Read MoreMarch 2020
Erin Ganju / The Puggle / March 27, 2020
This unprecedented time of the COVID-19 global pandemic has us reflecting on leadership and how strong leadership is more important than ever in a crisis. The World Health Organization is doing their part to focus the response to the crisis on facts, not fears. We appreciate their guidance that “Evidence clearly shows that stigma and […]
Read MoreFebruary 2020
Dana Schmidt / The Puggle / March 4, 2020
February is the month of love. At least that’s what a whole bunch of retail marketers want us to believe. We don’t have anything to sell, but we are orienting this month’s Puggle around the theme of love…as it relates to girls’ education. The case for teaching love — or at least teaching socioemotional learning […]
Read MoreJanuary 2020
Dana Schmidt / The Puggle / February 12, 2020
Happy 2020! To kick off the year, we’re excited to share a recent episode of the Do One Better Podcast, in which host Alberto Lidji interviews Echidna Giving founders Craig Silverstein and Mary Obelnicki. Listen to the impetus behind founding Echidna Giving — including Craig’s theory of change, which, broadly characterized, “starts with girls’ education […]
Read MoreDecember 2019
Dana Schmidt / The Puggle / December 18, 2019
It’s hard to believe it, but the futuristic-sounding year of 2020 is just two weeks away! Before we race into the future, our last Puggle of 2019 provides an opportunity to reflect on three lessons from the past year. These are drawn from work our grantees are doing to: (1) promote gender equality in early […]
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