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Montessori Education In Africa and Asia

Montessori Education in Africa

Africa, massive in size with a plethora of cultures, languages, landscapes and history is a continent with uneven education systems. Montessori education has adapted throughout the continent to aid in providing education to communities, both urban and rural. For example, Ms. Deborah McCracken founded the Olive Branch for Children in Tanzania to help provide education to orphans in the Mbeya region. The majority of the orphans are such because they were born to AIDS victims and many were born infected. The school not only provides a Montessori education, but also aids in community development and provides medical care to the children and local residents. McCracken does not just provide courses for children. She has also integrated programs for the community utilizing Montessori Methodology and informal education to better develop self-sustaining projects within the region.

Further south in Zimbabwe Karen Madsen-Barton started the Nhimbe Maaya Preschool for children aged 3 to 6 years old with a similar concept. Not only is education provided for children, there is a large emphasis for sustainable development within the community. Interestingly, in the Nhimbe Magaya Preschool there is a greater emphasis on the use of Shona music, indigenous to this area of Africa. Madsen-Barton has used this music as an inspiration for the environment set up for children and uses the local music as a tool for education wherever possible.

Montessori Education in Asia

Asia is another vast continent rich in culture, topography, languages and history. Montessori schools have spread across Asia creating heart-warming tales of success in war torn communities of Afghanistan, the poor communities of India, the refugees of Burma.

Afghanistan has become a poster child for war and conflict over the past decade, but as a result of conflict, many small and effective projects have been funded to benefit the locals, especially on the education front. The House of Flowers was build in 2002 by MEPO (The Medical, Educational and Peace Organization) a small non-profit organization. This Montessori school and orphanage serves children aged 6 to 13 years of age and has blossomed a number of success stories in child development. The co-founders are now planning to expand their vision into larger orphanages in Kabul where children are in dire need of a nurturing environment that can positively influence their academic, social, behavioral and psychological achievements.

In the country of Bhutan, the Montessori Method seems to be effective in its most pure form as the country not only has a GNP, but also a GHP, or Gross National Happiness monitor. In an education system that focuses more on social interaction, fairness and justice, it only seems natural that the Montessori school would be extremely successful- and that it has been. Even in the most competitive of societies such as Japan, Montessori education has been very successful.

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Home Based Businesses Work – 3 Ways You Can Gain Control in These Uncertain Times

Today there is a lot of uncertainty with regards to the economy and many people finally are realizing that times are different. The age of industry, where a secure job with retirement and a pension were common, has now become the new information age. People have realized that the gov’t and/or their job can no longer provide these kinds of benefits. And with the instability and large dips and peaks in stocks over the past few years, many have already lost 12 years of their hard-earned wealth. Home values are still dropping, foreclosures continue to increase, the employment rate isn’t moving below 9% even with all the injected money and promises and taxes across the board are increasing…No longer can people accept the status quo. No longer are people going to just give their liquid assets to brokers of stocks or real estate firms, or rely on the government’s social security program – “broker” will be the result for most people!People in droves are realizing that they must take control of their future, and more specifically their finances. More and more people are searching for a viable means of creating more cash flow. The issue is people are short on time already and long on commitments. They need to find another income source, but cannot find a job that will shell out the $200 plus per hour they may need to achieve their goals given the time constraints they have. Even if they could find such a job, another job would only magnify the problem described above, further increasing your tax liability, meaning you would actually have to make more income in order to keep pace with what taxes the government’s going to take from you.The good news is, you have choices. Besides getting hired for that magical secure job, besides THAT, what else is possible?One option is investing. If you’re holding onto a large chunk of money – and with today’s low rates and yields it needs to be quite a bit – this is one way. Chances are if you have this kind of money, you’re probably pretty well off already and not relying on an employer or the government anyway. But just for kicks, let us say you needed $10,000/month to cover your living expenses, to pay down some debt maybe and to put aside for savings or tithing, and so on. $10,000/mo is the same as being paid a 12% return on a million dollar investment. That’s just not going to happen for the average investor any time soon in today’s economy – particularly when you take into consideration the government’s portion (taxes). Truthfully, you would need more like ten million dollars invested in order to net $10,000/mo in today’s economy. Therefore not very realistic for the majority…The next option is how most of the world’s richest acquired their wealth: by starting their own business. So let’s look at a few different choices when it comes to business building:Business Building – Option 1:Start a conventional business. You can start a business to design, build and market your product. This too will require a large capital investment up front and financing for start-up businesses is not so easy to get right now, regardless of how good a product you might have. A service-based business may be cheaper to start up but the service sector is shedding jobs and you may have quite a struggle. On top of that, nice of ten businesses fails their 1st year in business. One mindset to have is to just realize this and look to start up 10 businesses. The education would be invaluable and your accumulated wealth by the 10th business – if you even needed to start all 10 – would be among the richest one percent of the U.S..Business Building – Option 2:Buy a Business Franchise (like TCBY Yogurt or KFC). A Franchise is a proven business with pre-developed success structure or system of doing business. In purchasing a franchise, you are buying a cookie-cutter business where you simply follow directions and you are likely to create as much as a multiple six-figure income. The downside again is the initial outlay: some of the most successful franchises will cost $500,000 to $1,000,000 or more just to gain access and the rights to have a franchise with that company. You still have all the other costs of a location, employees, supplies, equipment, et cetera. Banks are more apt to lend money to this type of business structure because of the successful track record these established business models have rather than a new start-up business, but even today that may be hard to obtain. So someone with limited business experience could earn income with a franchise business if they follow the system – and they would have a much, much higher chance of succeeding than with starting up a traditional business – but it’s still too cost prohibitive for the majority.Business Building – Option 3:Home Based Business Work. With a much lower entry cost compared to either business vehicle mentioned above, but still the strength of an an established business model as with the franchise business model, the Home Based Business Work model is often times the best solution for the majority of people wanting to take control and get ahead today. The convenience of being able to work from home and leverage the power of the internet to plug into an existing company’s successful business brings together all the advantages of the above business models with few of the disadvantages. One disadvantage, due to the low cost of entry, is a home business owner has access to the strategies and tools to be successful but must take responsibility to work the business consistently to produce consistent results.One more important advantage the Home Based Business work model has over the others is the ability for Home Based Business work to create lasting residual income – where you are paid over and over for work created once. This does take time to develop, as little as 2-5 years for those serious and committed to their success, though combining internet marketing with the home based business work model in recent years has produced even better results within 12 to 24 months.

A Simple Product Creation and Product Launching Formula

If you tried to think of people involved in product creation, who would come to mind? You may think of Edison, Franklin, or maybe Henry Ford. Would you ever think of yourself as someone who can create a quality product? Product creation is actually relatively easy and product launching is not that tough either! If you follow a few easy to understand steps, you could be starting the product creation and product launching process sooner than you think.

The first step in creating your information product is to know and understand your market. This can be very time-consuming, especially if you are unsure of what to do or where to look to know your market. Studying your niche market and understanding the buzz words and buying patterns can ease the process dramatically. Personally, I would recommend networking with someone who has had success in the niche market you are considering and learn from their results. If they are into product creation and not very business savvy expect some hesitation. If they only sell products and have nothing to do with product launching or product creation you may your first affiliate (sales person)! Something else you can use to find hot trends is with the Google Trends tool.

The second step is the product creation process. Take your niche market and brainstorm ideas and topics relating to it. There are a lot of product launching contests going on recently relating to a newly created internet marketing tool. There are so many aspects to the mentioned niche that literally, and unfortunately, anything can be considered an Internet Marketing tool. The reason that anyone can basically create an Internet Marketing tool is because of something called Private Label Rights products.

What I use private label rights products for, and highly recommend them in this specific manner, is to cure writer’s block especially when it is lingering. Many people base their entire product creation and product launching on a private label rights product. This is where you can start to shine and build a strong brand for yourself. If you set goals for yourself, short-term goals to be exact, you can see your product creation come into being much faster and there is a good chance with less revision needed. If you keep hitting time restraint road blocks; however there is nothing wrong with a slow and steady approach, you can consider outsourcing portions of your project. Outsourcing can be an extremely huge benefit or just as great of a disaster.

You can find someone to outsource work to at a freelance site such as Guru.com or eLance.com. When reviewing proposals it is almost mandatory you perform a background check on them as you are in essence hiring them. Doing a background check on freelancers is as easy as asking for samples of their work and reviewing feedback on the freelance site from previous customers. Depending on the size and requirements of your project this can add up to a decent sized investment, so caution is very important. One tip I always recommend to people looking to hire an individual is to ask them what they can provide you that no one else can. This simple question gives them a chance to “toot their own horn” and acknowledge where they feel most competent as far as their skill set.

The final portion of the product creation and product launching formula is the launch. This can literally make or break the effort, time, and maybe (if you invested) money you put in to your project. There are numerous aspects to product launching and although their relevance is debated in terms to their effect, experts agree all must be followed. The person in your field who you asked for product advice from can help you substantially if you have kept in touch. If not, the first thing you need to do is to create a visually appealing website with flawless design work.

I also mentioned outsourcing before, this is one aspect of product launching I have little strength in and I always outsource this portion. The website does not have to be large however the content (ad copy in Internet Marketing) must be stellar and as perfect as possible. This is where advertising knowledge or experience is beneficial. When the site is set up you now put a lead capture form on your website.

I put two lead capture pages on all products I create on the internet and is one of the best methods of getting a solid start when you are in the product launching stage. When you gain information from a prospect or someone looking to get paid for referring sales you are able to provide them updates or specials. Many people abuse their prospect or affiliate lists by in turn emailing them with a new product daily and I find the recommendations to be totally unrelated to their original need, problem, or interest.

Another stage in the product launching stage is creating a free report or demo version of your product to entice the product to sign up to your email list. Using proper follow up with this can help generate numerous sales for you. One thing you need to ensure is that your free product completely relates to your main product that you are looking to sell.

You are now ready to advertise your product launching to customers as well as the opportunity to sell for affiliates. This is the single aspect that many product creations and launches fail on. It is actually not entirely difficult. One thing you can do is write articles (and a good amount of them) on topics relating to your product. I am a huge advocate of giving a solution in forums. When you join a forum you are normally offered the opportunity to create a signature. In your signature, you should enter the link to your opt-in or lead capture page. When you respond to posts, you are advertising your opportunity.

It is not impossible to create a product and it does not have to take a long time. You need to setup a plan and stick to it. If you get stuck, look at similar and successful products to your own and try and see how they did it. When you sit down and brainstorm you will be surprised with what you can imagine.

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