- Our goal is to keep children at the bottom of the pyramid in school and learning, and to close the gap between the most marginalized learners and their most advantaged peers.
- To achieve this goal, we work on the specific barriers that keep specific groups of children out of school — poverty, hunger, disability, gender discrimination, displacement, and language.
- Our approach is evidence-based, drawing on what has been tested and found to work in Kenya and comparable settings, and measured by what changes for the children we serve.
- Our work is rooted in communities, designed with the people closest to the child, and accountable to the families and schools we work alongside.
- Our work spans Kenya's 47 counties, with a focus on the arid and semi-arid lands, informal settlements, and other marginalized communities.
Ten commitments
Our strategy is built around ten commitments. Each one addresses a part of the work, and together they describe how we raise the floor of learning for the children furthest behind.
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1. Reach the children furthest behind first.
We prioritise the children who are most marginalized, because if a system works for them, it works for everyone. -
2. Remove the barriers that keep children out of school.
Poverty, hunger, disability, gender discrimination, displacement, and language are the barriers we address. -
3. Measure learning, not only enrollment.
Schooling is not the same as learning, and we measure what changes in what children know and can do. -
4. Work with communities, not around them.
Parents, teachers, religious leaders, and local institutions are the foundation on which lasting change is built. -
5. Adapt to the context of each community.
What works in one county may not work in another. We design for the realities of the places where we work. -
6. Invest in teachers.
A teacher who is trained, supported, and equipped is the most important resource a school has. -
7. Support children who are not coping.
A child who is struggling, who has lost a caregiver, or who has lived through trauma needs support to stay in school. -
8. Protect children from harm.
A child who is not safe, not heard, or not protected is a child who will struggle to stay in the classroom. -
9. Use technology where it helps.
Technology is a tool, not a solution, and we use it where it strengthens teaching, learning, and accountability. -
10. Publish what we find.
We share our results, our data, and our failures, because the work of reaching the children furthest behind requires honesty.