There is overwhelming evidence that bilingual children perform better, gain more self-confidence and learn the school language faster when their mother tongues are included in the classroom. The UN has encouraged mother tongue based instruction as best practice since the 1950s. Yet, implementation is rare. The result is lost opportunities, wasted talent, marginalisation, ignorance, as well as massive and growing inequality. Generations of people grow up failed by their education systems from day one. A systematic human rights failure which is likely to continue unabated unless we act now. The Rutu Roadmap: we believe that it is time for mother tongue based multilingual education becoming the norm, rather than the exception. This roadmap contains our plan on how to achieve this mission.

1. Making MotherTongue Education the Norm
Ellen-Rose Kambel & Rahzeb Choudhury, Sep 2015
Rutu Foundation
2016-2020
www.rutufoundation.org

2. 2|
We ignore a world of
languages at our peril
Clearly, not.And yet, this is reality
for children in every corner of the
world.
Worldwide there are some 7000
mother tongues.While the UN has
encouraged mother tongue based
instruction since the 1950s,
implementation is rare.The result is
lost opportunities, wasted talent,
marginalisation, exploitation,
ignorance, as well as massive and
growing inequality.
Just imagine it’s your first day at
school and the teachers speak an
unfamiliar language and learning
materials are in a foreign language.
Just imagine how difficult it would
be to stay motivated and keep up.
Would this seem fair to you? Does
this represent equality of
opportunity to you?
This has been a systematic human
rights failure.
Generations of people grow up failed
by their education systems from day
one.
A failure of pandemic proportions,
hundreds of millions of children
cheated daily.Going back
generations and likely to continue
unabated unless we act now.
Respect for cultural and linguistic diversity is a
source for global unity.

3. 3|
TargetAudiences This plan is intended to inform and inspire the Rutu team, our
partners, donor organisations, family foundations and
corporate social responsibility departments.

4. 4|
Outline
5 7 16 25 31
page page page page
Vision&Mission Mother Tongue
Education
Community&
CapacityBuilding
Programmes &
Projects
Communications&
Advocacy
page
41
page
Team
39
page
Funding&Budget
The Rutu Foundation Roadmap to ensure MotherTongue
Education is the standard practice globally
46
page
Engage

5. 5|
Vision & Mission

6. 6|
Vision and Mission while cultivating the
circumstances required for a
sustainable future for mother
tongue education.
We aim to create a Global
Fund for the Revitalization of
Indigenous Languages and
Cultures, within the next five
years.
We envision that Mother
Tongue Education is the
standard practice globally.
Our immediate mission is to
significantly increase the size
and significance of the
mother tongue education
domain within five years,

7. 7|
Chapter Title Background
Bestpractice
Misconceptions
Indigenouschildren
Mother Tongue
Education
MigrantChildren
Creatingaplatform

8. 8|
Background
considerations can be overcome.
We would need to vigorously
communicate the case, build
community and capacity, and
support implementation, ensuring
best practices are applied.
Unlike other education industry-
domains, such as e-learning, mother
tongue education lacks investment
and resourcing. In this document we
articulate a vision, and then lay out a
plan to operationalize a multi-year
strategy to fulfil the promise of
mother tongue education for
hundreds of millions of children
worldwide.
There is persuasive evidence to
demonstrate the benefits of mother
tongue education. Sixty years after
the UN recognised mother tongue
education as best practice and began
encouraging its use, case after case
demonstrates the wide-ranging
potential.
Yet there is little will globally to
implement such curricula.To help
change the tide Rutu would need to
address misconceptions, generate
political will, and show practical

9. 9|
Mother tongue
alongside the official
language
Children learn best in their mother
tongue. Children’s ability to learn a
second (official) language does not
suffer.
In fact literacy in a mother tongue
lays the cognitive and linguistic
foundation for learning new
languages.
Learning in their mother tongue
during primary and secondary
school, children become literate in
the official language quickly,
emerging as fully bi/multilingual
learners in secondary school.
More importantly: their self-
confidence grows, they remain
interested in learning, they stay in
school longer, and stand a greater
chance of fulfilling their educational
potential. Enabling them to make
greater contributions to the society
in which they live.
Research has shown that six to eight
years of mother tongue education is
required.
The first teachers are actually the
family.There is much that can be
done to encourage mother tongue
education at home.
None of this insight is new, and yet
globally there is abject failure in
policy-making, practice and
outcomes.
Wepropose toinitiateand
facilitate the creation ofeasyto
accessanddigestbestpractice
guidelinesonhowtoimplement
mothertongue education.

10. 10|
Misconceptions The most common misconception is
that mother tongue education
threatens national unity – the
assimilatory idea of one people, one
language, one nation.
Policy-makers are influenced by
political, social and practical
considerations.Questions are raised
around resourcing, number of
languages, lack of orthographies,
teacher training and which subjects
should be included.
The role of international donors,
relationships with former colonisers
and the expectations of parents, are
all crucial factors affecting whether
or not investment is made in mother
tongue education.
It is beyond our organisational scope
to question ideas around national
unity, however we notice that
mother tongues co-exist with official
languages in societies worldwide.
This reality seems likely to continue
so long as migration continues.
Examples of well-planned
multilingual mother tongue based
programmes demonstrate that it is
entirely feasible to overcome the
practical challenges often
highlighted as show stoppers.
Yet around the globe at local,
regional and national level it is rare
to find the political will necessary to
apply best practices.
Wepropose tovigorously collate
andcommunicate theevidence
demonstrating the factsabout
mothertongue education.

11. 11|
Indigenous Children
territories due to large scale resource
exploitation, discrimination and
marginalization.
In most cases, indigenous children
are denied a quality education which
prepares them for the challenges of
modern life while giving them the
option to express their right to self-
determination and build their
communities in accordance with
their own world vision and values.
Mother tongue education is
recognised as a human right for
indigenous peoples, but remains
elusive as there are few trained
bilingual teachers and bilingual
materials.
There are some 300 million
indigenous people worldwide, who,
while culturally distinct, share a deep
and unique connection with their
territories.
A connection which expresses itself
in a wealth of knowledge about
ecosystems and how to manage
them sustainably.
Indigenous peoples also share a
history of colonization, loss of their

12. 12|
Indigenous youth are particularly
vulnerable.
Losing the language and knowledge
means that they lose the connection
with their ancestors, while being
denied access to modern society as
many fall victim to substance abuse,
violence and suicide when they
migrate to the cities.
Contrary to popular belief that
young indigenous people are not
interested in their own culture, there
is an increasing number of
indigenous youth who are involved
in learning about and preserving
their heritage.
They organize lessons for children in
their mother tongue, they learn how
to weave baskets and make a
business selling modern designs.
But it is an uphill struggle, they must
deal with discrimination and
derision, from mainstream society as
well as their own, and without
further support, they may be
discouraged and give up. By bringing
them together, they may get
inspired and feel empowered to
continue their efforts.
Wepropose tocreate connectand
increasecapacity andmorale among
mothertongue education initiatives
worldwide.

13. 13|
Since the 1950s a compelling body of
evidence has been accumulated to
demonstrate that supporting
children in their mother languages in
school leads to better educational
and social outcomes, including
better and faster learning of the
main language of host countries.
Yet, examples of bilingual or
multilingual curricula, leveraging the
benefits of mother tongue support,
are few and far between.
Instead emphasis has been placed
on ensuring that migrant children
master the official language to the
detriment of their home languages.
As a result, millions of children are
following lessons in a language they
do not speak at home and there
continues to be a large gap between
educational results of many migrant
children, both first and second
generation, and those of their native
peers.
The fact is that multilingual
classrooms are the reality today,
especially in urban areas. In the past
10-15 years, new approaches have
emerged in Canada, the US and
across Europe, which demonstrate
that it is entirely feasible to
overcome the practical challenges to
multilingual education that are often
highlighted as show stoppers.
With exciting results: students’ self-
confidence grows, they remain
interested in learning, they develop
multilingual abilities, stay in school
longer, and stand a greater chance of
fulfilling their educational potential.
Enabling them to make greater
contributions to the societies in
which they live.
Wepropose tocreateanannual
program ofeventstobringtogether
pioneerstoexchangeandshare
experiencesandthencommunicate
theoutcomes withdynamism.
Migrant Children

14. 14|
Time to step forward
and create a platform
for mother tongue
education
From inception in 2011, Rutu has
favoured a bottom-up approach:
developing mother tongue learning
materials and teacher training with
parents, teachers and the local
communities.This resulted in
immediate and observable results.
We intend to continue with these
programmes and projects in the
field.
Having established Rutu as a
reputable stakeholder organisation
it is now time to take the lead and fill
a void by building a platform to
advance mother tongue education
worldwide.
Positioning Rutu as a platform we
will seek to build communities and
capacity, develop educational
materials and ensure provision of
high quality teacher training, and
undertake communications and
advocacy for the mother tongue
education domain.
We believe that it is desirable and
possible to reduce inequality
globally.We believe a just education
starts in your mother tongue.
We believe that targeting a just
education for all is a multi-
generational effort that will help to
transform discussions around the
benefits of cultural, linguistic and
ecological diversity.We believe
mother tongue education is a
requirement for a better world.

15. 15|
A platform would strengthen the
voice of everyone advocating
mother tongue education, enable
network effects, make it easier to
raise funds, and ensure a more
sustainable future for the domain.
To get the mother tongue education
domain off the ground we will clearly
articulate the facts in a way that
resonates with teachers, teacher
unions, teacher training institutes,
parents, children, academics and
policy-makers.
We would connect all the bottom up
mother tongue initiatives globally, to
help make a stronger case for
mother tongue education, share
experiences and best practices, as
well as raise morale for what are
often shoestring operations.
Teacher training programs would be
developed and rolled out with
partner organisations on a larger
scale than has been the case up to
now.
Wepropose totakeaby-the-
community, for-the-community
approach.

16. 16|
Chapter Title Introduction
Directory&Library
Publications
Events
Bestpracticeguidelines
Translationtoolkits
Beyond2020
Community &
Capacity Building

17. 17|
Community and
capacity building
The mother tongue education
domain sorely misses a ‘place’ for
stakeholders to converge. Instead
there are fragmented small-scale
initiatives working in isolation.
The Rutu Foundation will create an
online resource center and a
program of events to address the
challenge of building community
and capacity.
Knowledge and resources will be
shared, best practices will be
articulated, and a toolkit will be
created to enable the development
of educational materials and teacher
training programmes.
Step-by-step significant investment
will be made to create a state-of-the-
art online resource and dynamic
community within 5 years.

18. 18|
Global organisations
directory
At the time of writing this plan, the Rutu Foundation
team is busy collating and publishing a directory of
organisations involved in mother tongue education
and the related fields of multilingual and
intercultural education.
This initial version provides listings with links to
websites. Future versions will be fully searchable
resources with more detailed listings and
classifications.
The directory helps to communicate the scale of the
domain worldwide and will help to track its evolution
in the coming years.
To visit the directory:
http://www.rutufoundation.org/organisation-directory/

19. 19|
Library
At the time of writing this plan, the Rutu Foundation
team is busy publishing a preliminary library of
research demonstrating the impact of mother
tongue education and the related fields of
multilingual and intercultural education.
The library helps to communicate the impact of the
domain to date and will help to tracks its evolution in
the coming years.
Together the directory and library are invaluable
resources for stakeholders, press and policy-makers.
They are also helpful to Rutu as we begin to more
systematically engage with the wider community
listed in these resources.
To visit the library:
http://www.rutufoundation.org/library/

20. 20|
The first state of mother tongue
education report will include a global
survey of the landscape.
Starting in 2016 we will publish
reports ranging from the practically
useful to reports that seek to
influence thought about educational
best practices.Our signature
publication will be an annual report
on the state of mother tongue
education.
We will also publish collections of
case studies and step-by-step how-
to guides.The writing will be done by
Rutu staff, in cooperation with
partners.
Reportswillbevaluableto
teachers,teachersunions,teacher
traininginstitutes, invested
parentsandpolicy-makers.
Publications
State of
Mother
Tongue
Education
Case
Studies
How-to
Guides

21. 21|
online webinars and face-to-face
events.
In 2017 Rutu will organise and host
our first large-scale online event.
These annual events will reach out to
large audiences of thousands of
people across the globe to engage in
the debate around a just education,
a mother tongue education.
Rutu will roll out a comprehensive
annual program of face-to-face and
online events to refine and build
consensus around the Rutu strategy,
share lessons from the field and
academia, and agree best practices.
Events will help build communities
and engagement, growing the Rutu
footprint.
The events programme will begin in
November 2015, and from start 2016
will alternate each month between
Face-to-faceeventswillbring
together policy-makers,teachers,
academics,andattract press.
Onlineeventswillfocuson
reachingspecificaudiencegroups.
Events
Face-to-Face Online

22. 22|
This ongoing programme will at a
later stage also involve revisiting and
improving existing guidelines.
Best practice guidelines will be go-to
resources for anyone wanting to get
started with providing mother
tongue education, useful during
advocacy work and provide vital
input for future software tools.
Whilst there is a tremendous amount
of knowledge about how to provide
mother tongue education, there is a
lack of easy to access and digest
information.
In 2016 we will begin developing best
practice guides in open consultation
with stakeholders worldwide.We will
consult on which best practices need
to be drafted, the order in which
they should be drafted, as well as
their content.
Best practice guidelines will be
go-to resources for anyone
wanting to get started with
providing mother tongue
education.
Best practice
guidelines
Draft best
practice based
on community
input
Public
consultation via
Rutu website
Experts review
feedback &
draft final
version
Best practice
guide published
& freely
available

23. 23|
Translation toolkits
and boost translator productivity.
For videos, equivalent subtitling
tools are available.
We will select and make available for
free or at a deep discount translation
and subtitling tools to the mother
tongue education communities
globally.There are a number of
benefits to Rutu making such tools
available.
• Easier access to those in need,
increasing chances of translation
• Ensuring best practices are
communicated when materials
and curricula are created.
• Ensuring translated content is
curated in a way that makes
review and iteration, reuse for
future project easy.
More generally, using technology to
record minor/endangered languages
helps ensure their preservation and
learning.
There are innumerable computer-
aided translation tools available on
the market.These range from
enterprise-class software to desktop
applications. From open source to
patented software.The cornerstone
tools are translation management
systems.These systems are business
process management technology
that help to automate the
administration of translation and
linguistic technology in order to
maximise translation automation,
consistency of quality
Translation
tools
Subtitling
tools

24. 24|
Beyond 2020 it is likely that we will
partner with organizations to share
knowledge on training programmes,
developing curricula, adapting
educational materials as well as
designing and monitoring
governance mechanisms.
This activity may also lead to
certification programmes and a
library of translated materials.
There is a tremendous amount of
work to be done in the next five
years if we are to advance towards
our vision of making mother tongue
education a norm for children in
every corner of the world.
Having established the need we will
need to ensure the quality of teacher
training, curricula, materials and
adequate governance of
implementation.
Weaimto increasethesizeand
significanceofthemother tongue
education domain withinfive
yearswhilecultivating the
circumstancesrequiredfora
sustainablefuture formother
tongue education.
Beyond 2020

25. 25|
Chapter Title Introduction
Indigenouscommunities
Migrantcommunities
Crowdtranslation
Programmes &
Projects

26. 26|
Teacher training,
development of
education materials
and curricula
Since 2011 we have taken a bottom
up approach to advancing mother
tongue education.This has meant
developing bi/multilingual learning
materials and training teachers.This
approach leads to concrete,
immediate and observable results.
We began in 2011 with projects in
Suriname.This work has since been
picked up in Mexico and our reach
continues to expand.
All the educational materials are free
to use and made available via an
(beta) open source tool that aids
translation and cultural adaptation.
Together with Kontinónhstats
Mohawk Language Custodians
Association of Canada, in July 2012
we successfully lobbied for the first
step towards the creation of a Global
Fund for the Revitalization of
Indigenous Languages and Cultures.

27. 27|
Teacher training, development of
education materials and curricula is
our existing core competency. We
are able to leverage a strong
network of expert trainers and are
guided in the leading-edge thinking
by the Rutu InternationalAdvisory
Board.This board is comprised of the
leading academics and practitioners
across three continents.An inspiring
group of pioneers developing fresh
and innovative techniques,
expanding established pedagogic
knowledge.
In the coming years the Rutu
Foundation, in partnership with local
in-market stakeholders, will increase
manifold its involvement the
number, size and locations of
projects on the ground that advance
mother tongue education.
Scope &
obtain
funding
Refine
Assess
impact
Deliver
project
Design for
target
audience
Projectsrangeinsizebetween
one-offfactfindingexercises to
multi-yearprogrammes with
lastingimpact onteacher
capability andeducational
outcomes.
Rutu Project Flow

28. 28|
In partnership with NGOs and
indigenous organisations we will
continue to focus on:
• training of indigenous teachers
and teaching assistants
• development of bilingual mother
tongue materials
• setting up a Global Fund for the
Revitalization of Indigenous
Language and Culture to secure
support for the educational
priorities of indigenous peoples
themselves
• empowering indigenous youth
through networks and training
In the coming period we will
continue or start the following
projects:
• Teacher training in intercultural &
multilingual education , with the
University of Utrecht andTeacher
Training Institute of Suriname,
funded partly by the Dutch
government.
• Cultural revival and primary
education with the indigenous
Negrito communities in the
Philippines.
• Right to education of indigenous
peoples capacity building with the
University of Querétaro, Mexico
• Indigenous youth empowerment
programmes , starting in 2016
Brazil, , India , Panama, the
Philippines and Suriname,
expanding to other countries
thereafter.
Indigenous
communities

29. 29|
Migrant communities
• a report of a survey among 12
European countries on language
education policies including 2
trilateral meetings with education
policy makers in Amsterdam and
Tallinn (Estonia).
• Most recently, together with
RISBO and 6 other Sirius partners,
Rutu submitted a 3 year project
proposal to the EU Erasmus+
programme, to translate and
share multilingual education
materials for migrant learners.
In 2013, Rutu began working with
RISBO/Erasmus University
Rotterdam and the Sirius Policy
Network on the Education of
Migrant Children in Europe.This
resulted in:
 a Peer Review on Migrant
Education in Norway
 facilitating a MigrantTeachers
Workshop in Brussels

30. 30|
Crowd translation
campaigns
As early as community engagement
allows, we will organise crowd
translation campaigns.
This means that, in coordination
with local in-country partners, we
will define the educational material
to be translated, arrange for access
and training for use of the most
appropriate translation tools, recruit
volunteer translators and, in a
defined time window, ensure the
target content is translated into the
desired language(s).
The first crowd translation campaign
will be small-scale, allowing us to get
to grips with the format and
technology.We aim to increase the
scale of each subsequent campaign,
both in terms of the languages and
materials translated.
Select
material with
in-country
partners
Set up
translation
platform
Volunteers
translate and
review
materials
Educational
material
available to
children

31. 31|
Chapter Title Nationalandlocallevel
Regionaladvocacy
Globaladvocacy
Communications
andAdvocacy
Introduction
Approach
Essentialtoolkit
AimsofAdvocacy

32. 32|
Communication is in
many ways the main
challenge
Despite persuasive evidence, little is
known of the uniquely empowering
benefits of mother tongue
education.
Whether we seek to build
community, raise capacity, report
project results, increase awareness
of the facts about mother tongue
education or lobby for policy-change
our communication will be accurate,
evocative and inspiring.
In our view the lack of mother
tongue education globally is the
result of a communications failure
which has meant an inability to
influence policy.

33. 33|
Successful communication will rely
on a series of incremental
improvements in:
• Website experience and steady
flow of publications
• Active social media activity
• Search engine optimization
• Dedicated campaign activity
No one initiative will be enough, but
rather it is the combination and
constant focus on improvement
steps (content and tonality,
campaign design and targeting,
website, face-to-face) that will be
key.
Campaigns need to be planned well
in advance and be sustained and
refreshed throughout the year, with
the flexibility to try new ideas and
deploy a toolbox of campaigns and
initiatives.What works well in one
situation will not work well in
another.
Simple, clear, consistent and steadily
evolving messaging across all media
is vital to ensuring we effectively
push the agenda for a just
education: a mother tongue
education.
The website will be the backbone of
all communication.We must
continue to grow its capability,
tracking success using analytics.
Wewillleverageourgrowingand
highly engagedcommunity of
stakeholders ensuringwepunch above
ourweight.
Reaching the right
people in the right way
at the right time

34. 34|
The communications
toolkit
• Case studies in the form of videos
and blog stories
These will be made available on the
Rutu website and in print as needed.
The communications tools will be
essential for engaging our target
audiences: teachers, teacher unions,
teacher training institutes, parents,
children, academics and policy-
makers.
Our communications toolkit will
include:
• A range of simple and clear
introductory leaflets
• Merchandising
• The Rutu annual plan
• Rutu reports and event reports
• Best practice guidelines

35. 35|
Straightforward and to
the point
Our lobbying aims are simple:
• That mother tongue based
education is recognised as best
practice amongst policy makers at
national, regional and global
levels
• Legal recognition and statutory
funding for mother tongue
education curricula and teacher
training
• Adequate governance
implementation
There is significant work to be done
in order to achieve these goals.We
must first create the resources,
network and unified voice needed to
make our case with potency.
The remainder of this section
outlines actions at national/local,
regional and global levels.

36. 36|
National level
mother tongue education in their
country
The representative's role will evolve
over the years and is likely to involve
hosting local events, supporting the
promotion of Rutu’s online events,
local media relations and
fundraising.
Rutu representatives are likely to be
subject matter experts in the areas
of mother tongue and/
or inter-cultural education.
In the upcoming eighteen months
the recruitment process will be
focused on identifying suitable
representatives, rather than driven
by hard quantitative targets.
A toolkit will be developed to
support representatives in fulfilling
their goals.
National Rutu representatives will be
recruited on a voluntary basis.Their
role will be to:
• Connect with education
departments, researchers, and
mother tongue education projects
nationally, informing each
stakeholder group about Rutu’s
function as an industry platform
• Conduct high-level research on
behalf of Rutu on the state of

37. 37|
Rutu is already working at a regional
level to lobby for change. In 2014-15,
in Europe, Rutu participated in
several events of the Sirius Policy
Network for the Education of
Children with a Migrant Background
and has developed a four year
collaborative programme with Sirius
partners around the creation of
bilingual learning materials.
In spring 2015 we participated in a
Roundtable on Multilingual
Classrooms organized by the
European Commission.There we
provided input to an EC study on
how to prepare teachers for the
increasing numbers of immigrants
who enter European classrooms with
a multitude of languages and diverse
cultural backgrounds.
Rutu is part of two Inter-American
regional networks: the Indigenous
Educators Network whose objective
is to build a space for, and by,
indigenous educators exchanging
experiences and strategies to
strength indigenous education
throughout the Americas.
In 2012, we helped establish the
Inter-American Network on the
revitalization of indigenous
languages and bilingual education
together with the University of
Querétaro in Mexico.This network
consists of both teachers and
academics working mainly in Mexico.
As the opportunities arise Rutu will
partner with local organizations to
create online and face-to-face events
focussed specifically on Latin-
America.
Rutu will establish formal ties to
regional networks in Asia andAfrica
in the coming year.
Regional advocacy

38. 38|
Global advocacy
on the Right to Education of
women and girls. Rutu will work
with partners to include the right
to mother tongue education for
indigenous women and girls.
• Organise side events on mother
tongue education at UN meetings
for indigenous peoples and
minorities.
• Build and/or deepen relationships
with movements around
Education for All , Sustainable
DevelopmentGoals and the
Global Education First Initiative to
influence discussions on global
education policies and inform
members of our network about
relevant outcomes.
To begin influencing policy-making
on a global stage Rutu will:
• Write shadow (NGO) reports
addressing human rights organs.
Specifically, reports to the UN
Committee on the Rights of the
Child.The first opportunity is to
contribute to the General
Recommendation of the
Committee on the Elimination of
All Forms of Discrimination
AgainstWomen, which focuses

39. 39|
Funding & Budgets

40. 40|
Staged investments
We intend to work with a founding
circle of organisations and
individuals who will invest in
community and capacity building
and, the communications and
advocacy action lines.
These action lines require four-
hundred thousand euros for 2016
and 2017.
We will continue working with donor
organisations for the programmes
and projects action line.We are
investigating cooperating with
corporate social responsibility
departments in order to extend and
deepen the work in this action line.
A small one-off fact-finding project
costs 25,000 euros.These are needs
assessments, including field research
and reports with detailed
recommendations on courses of
action.
A medium size project costs 56,000
euros per year.These projects last
between 18-36 months and include
developing and delivering teacher
training programmes or adapting
curricula and developing materials.
A large programme, lasting 36
months or longer, costs at least
75,000 euros per year and includes
developing and delivering teacher
training programmes and adapted
curricula and translated materials.

41. 41|
Management
SupervisoryBoard
InternationalAdvisors
Team

42. 42|
Ellen-Rose Kambel
executive director
Ellen-Rose is co-founder of the Rutu
Foundation. She has over 15 years of
experience as a trainer and
consultant working for indigenous
peoples and international
organizations, including the Inter-
American Development Bank,
UNICEF, the International Labour
Organisation (ILO) and the
Rainforest Foundation-US. She is a
lawyer and obtained a PhD on the
rights of indigenous peoples.
Sietske de Haan,
business manager
Sietske was previously managing
director of a youth theater company
in Amsterdam. She brings extensive
experiences in operations
management.
Astrid van den Berg,
communications
Astrid van den Berg was previously
creative director for
BBK/DoorVriendschapSterker, an
agency specialized in
communication for social
organizations.
Rahzeb Choudhury,
advisor
Rahzeb is advising Rutu on its
strategy, organisational
development, communications and
funding on a long-term basis. He has
previously held leadership positions
at two organisations with similar
goals to Rutu.Combining these
experiences he has successfully
overseen the rollout of every activity
outlined in this plan.
Management

43. 43|
Supervisory Board
SalimVally
Salim is the director of theCentre for
Education Rights and
Transformation and an Associate
Professor at the Faculty of
Education, University of
Johannesburg. He is also the
coordinator of the Education Rights
Project. He has been a visiting
lecturer at the Universities of
Virginia,Columbia andYork. He is a
visiting professor at the Nelson
Mandela Metropolitan University.
Tswi Rodrigues Pereira
Tswi Rodrigues Pereira is a founding
partner at PereiraTaxConsultants in
The Hague, the Netherlands.
PaulWolvekamp
Paul is deputy-director of Both
ENDS. He is vice chair of the NFTP
Exchange Programme, chair of the
Forest Peoples Programme en
coordinator of the Dispute
Settlement Facility working group of
the RoundTable on Sustainable Palm
Oil. He is also member of the
Supervisory Board of IUCN
NetherlandsCommittee and a
member of the Commissie
Duurzaamheidsvraagstukken
Biomassa (‘Commissie Corbey’).

44. 44|
Jenne de Beer, Philippines
Jenne is the founder and former
executive director of the Non-
Timber Forest Product Exchange
Programme for South and South
East Asia; a collaborative network of
community based organizations and
NGOs with the goal to strengthen
the capacity of forest communities
to sustainably manage and use
forest resources.
Carol Benson, USA
Carol is an international consultant
on language issues in education
currently teaching atTeachers
College Columbia University,USA
after many years at Stockholm
University in Sweden. She has
guided the development curriculum
by national professionals, trained
teachers and researchers in mother
tongue-based multilingual education
and provided technical assistance to
educational reform programs
That emphasize learner-centered
pedagogy and democratic
participation. Her work experience
spans the globe and she has
published extensively.
Carol Anne M. Spreen, USA
CarolAnne is Professor of Education
at the Curry School of Education,
University ofVirginia. Her research
centers on political and socio-cultural
studies of educational change,
particularly the influences of
globalization on teaching and
learning. Internationally, she has
worked with many educational
development and planning
organizations, and assisted
numerous schools, districts and
educational Ministries with various
reform innovations.
InternationalAdvisors

45. 45|
Deena Hurwitz, USA
Deena is Professor of
Law, International Human Rights
Law Clinic at theWashington College
of Law, American University, USA.
She and her students have prepared
training modules on the rights of
indigenous peoples to education.
Martha Many Grey Horses, Canada
Martha is member of the Kainai First
Nation, Blackfoot Confederacy,
Alberta (Canada) and a fluent
speaker of the Blackfoot language.
Her doctoral thesis focused on the
reading performance of American
Indian children in secondary public
schools in the USA. Martha is
currently Director of the First
Nations Métis and Inuit Centre,
University of Lethbridge,Canada.
Sabine Severiens, the Netherlands
Sabine is Professor of Education at
the Erasmus University Rotterdam
and at the University of Amsterdam,
with a special focus on diversity.
She has devoted most of her
research to diversity and inequality in
education. She was managing
director of the Risbo Institute in
Rotterdam, an independent research
institute at the Erasmus University
Rotterdam.
Emmanuelle Le Pichon-Vorstman,
the Netherlands
Emmanuelle is assistant professor at
the department of Modern
languages at UtrechtUniversity. She
has been involved in the European
Comenius projectTransitions and
multilingualism.The goal of this
project was to provide preschool and
primary school teachers with skills
that would allow them to better
support children with different
ethnic backgrounds and mother
tongues. She is the author of several
scientific papers on plurilingualism
and at present divides her time
between linguistic research and
teaching.

46. Contact
Ifyouwouldliketoknowmoreorcontribute
insomeway,pleasegetintouch:
ellen-rose@rutufoundation.org.
The Rutu Foundation is registered in
the Netherlands (KvK no. 52345084)
as a non-profit organization with
charity status (ANBI).
R.J.H. Fortuynstraat 185
1019 WK Amsterdam
The Netherlands
Tel: +31 20 7892562
www.rutufoundation.org
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