We are now Pebbles to Pearls Foundation!

Following consultation with our stakeholders and advisors, the Board of Directors for Mona Foundation Canada have decided to distinguish our Canadian charity as unique, while maintaining collaboration and guidance from Mona Foundation USA. Our charitable objectives and currently supported project partners will not change: Barli Institute, Study Hall Educational Foundation and Olinga Foundation will remain a part of our long term partnerships of choice.

Pebbles to Pearls is a charitable organization supporting global education by partnering with grassroots initiatives that provide education for all children, increase opportunities for women and girls, and emphasize service to community.

Founded in 2016, Mona Foundation Canada was a sister organization to Mona Foundation, in operation since 1999 and supporting educational initiatives in 16 countries globally. Mona Foundation Canada now Pebbles to Pearls, currently supports three initiatives in India: Barli Development Institute for Rural Women, Study Hall Educational Foundation (SHEF) through their Prerna Girls School, SHEF College and GyanSetu One Room Schools. In addition, we have partnered with Olinga Foundation in Ghana, focused on supporting teacher training to improve the educational outcomes of children in Ghana.

A brief description of each follows. Please visit our website to find out more about these projects and the work of Mona Foundation Canada (web site updates in progress)

Pebbles to Pearls Website

Barli

The goal of Barli Development Institute for Rural Women is to build sustainable community development through the empowerment of young rural and tribal women. Founded in 1985, the Institute has trained over 14,800 women in programs that focus on empowering women by training them in literacy, vocational skills, health and hygiene, environmental conservation and organic farming. The training programs promote gender equality and focus on education and health. This has created significant positive change among the trainees and their communities. Many of the participants arrive at Barli too shy to introduce themselves but within six months become skilled advocates for themselves. Upon return to their hometowns the graduates embark on community service, conducting literacy classes for other women, and children’s classes.

Prerna

Prerna Girls School, founded in 2003, is a highly subsidised K-12 school for girls in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India. A pioneering effort of Study Hall Educational Foundation (SHEF), the school aims to provide an affordable and accessible quality education to girls from low-income and historically marginalized communities, many of whom would otherwise not have the opportunity to study. Generally, the girls who attend Prerna come from neighbouring slums and communities, and find themselves compelled by their circumstances to work as domestic help in neighboring houses in the mornings. For this reason, school timings are set in the afternoon in an effort to accommodate the girls’ schedules. In addition, a small meal or snack is provided each day in recognition of the fact that most of the girls attending are under-nourished, and those who work may not have time to go home and eat between work and school.

The school uses a Critical Feminist Pedagogy to enable girls to take a feminist stance in their lives

GyanSetu

These one-room schools provide primary and early childhood education to marginalised children in city slums and poor rural villages to prepare them to transition to the public schools. They also provide critical training for mothers on health and hygiene, domestic violence, child marriage and alcoholism, and connect them to available community services.