Off to Geneva for an Education Summit at the United Nations!

Isack and I are off to Geneva today for an Education Summit at the United Nations! We're going with some of our Pearson colleagues from London and have a lovely booth with flyers about Tinga Tinga Tales, movies about the BridgeIT and Digital Arts programmes, and lots of excitement. Ban Ki-Moon will stop by our booth to chat with us about the Pearson Foundation's work, as well as what Pearson does globally.

This photo shows Isack (in the middle in green) at Gombe National Forest during the week that Andy (next to Isack), Gabriel (next to Andy) and I met him. That was in 2007. Isack wasn't sure where his life was going to take him. At that time, he was selling tomatoes off of his bike. He volunteered for Jane Goodall's Roots and Shoots program, but his father had recently died and as the oldest child, he had to find some way to earn a living. He attended our digital arts programme. After Andy taught him how to use the mouse, Isack quickly mastered high-end editing software, and he'd never used a computer before!

Now Isack facilitates our digital arts programmes across Africa with two of our other Tanzanian students Alex and Hassan, and Rosemary from Kenya. Isack, Alex, and Hassan also have their own film company and make films for the Ministry of Education and NGOs in Tanzania. AND...Isack is off to talk about the Pearson Foundation at the UN in Geneva today!

Look at that young kid in the photo. Isack has changed in so many ways since that visit to meet Jane Goodall's chimps in Gombe, and I'll be sure to post photos of him in Switzerland. We're off to buy him a suit and that is giving all of his friends a great laugh!

Off we go. by Erik Gregory