Igniting change through education and human rights

In Ethiopia, illuminAid partnered with Save the Children and World Vision to strengthen their Literacy Boost program by training local staff in video production and giving cordless projectors to rural teachers. Through this initiative, educators not only gained new skills but also the power to create their own educational videos localized, relevant, and deeply rooted in community needs. This work is more than just delivering lessons; it’s also about amplifying agency. By equipping teachers and community members to produce and show videos, illuminAid helps build more than literacy: we help build voices.

Amnesty International’s report Empowering Minds: Human Rights Education, Literacy and the Right to Education finds that literacy is a foundation for understanding one’s rights, making informed decisions and participating fully in community life. They emphasize that human rights education, especially in marginalized communities, is essential to achieving not just access to school, but meaningful, rights-based learning.

That’s exactly the kind of transformation illuminAid strives for: enabling communities to consume information and to document their own experiences, reflect on their challenges and act on their dreams. When teachers in rural Ethiopia learned to film, edit, and lead discussions with their own projectors, they created content that mattered to them. The videos they produced highlighted local stories, familiar environments and relatable role models that students could see themselves in, strengthening both engagement and pride.

Together, with your support, we’re doing more than improving school attendance. We’re building a movement of human rights-literate, confident learners. Every teacher trained, every projector kit deployed and every video produced helps shift the power of knowledge into the hands of communities who need it most. Your belief in the power of education is fueling real, lasting change and together, we’re illuminating pathways to dignity, opportunity and hope.