Education Empowerment for Rural and Urban Slums Initiative (EERUI) Jackfruit Finance, Lake Region Development Programme and TotoCare programme pioneered Taraji Afrika have been selected as the final four organisations for the Impact at Scale Labs – Early Years in Kenya Programme.
The overall goal of the Early Childhood Education and Development sector in Kenya, as prescribed in Vision 2030, is to ensure that all girls and boys have access to quality early childhood development, care and pre-primary education so that they are ready for primary education. However, current efforts at scale by the government are focused on provisioning for children between 3-5 years.
Aashti Zaidi Hai, CEO and Founder Global Schools Forum, said:“As part of our mission to improve education outcomes globally, our Impact at Scale Labs programm supports education programmes to scale through funding, coaching and intensive support. Our second Labs programme,Early Years in Kenya, will partner with locally led childcare and ECED organisations focusing on children aged 0-6 years in low-income communities.After receiving applicants from 39 inspiring organisations across Kenya. I am thrilled to welcome Education Empowerment for Rural and Urban Slums Initiative (EERUI), Jackfruit Finance, Lake Region Development programme and TotoCare programme pioneered by Taraji Afrika, as the final four organisations to join the second Impact at Scale Labs programme. The team and I are excited to begin our journey to work alongside these four organisations to scale the reach and impact of their inspiring work to improve equitable access to quality childcare and ECED services.”
Non-state actors in this sector in Kenya are a vibrant community of organisations driving innovation and forming effective partnerships with the government for holistically servicing the needs of children in the early years. There are many locally led childcare and ECED programmes in Kenya that are ready for scale.However, achieving scale is challenging. This is because of a lack of flexible funding for implementation,limited support in the form of relationships with scaling partners such as governments and funders, and lack of a dynamic platform to share actionable evidence and learning.
Global School Forum’s (GSF) Impact at Scale Labs programme aims to identify, fund, and support promising,locally led education organisations to scale. The comprehensive programme includes an extended 18-month duration for intensive support, offering up to GBP 75,000 in grant funding tied to milestones and providing one-on-one coaching and expertise for solution challenges, strategy building, and ongoing implementation.Additionally, participants gain access to a vast local and global education community, fostering vital relationships with government representatives, private sector implementers, funders, and other strategic partners. The programme ensures organisations are embedded in the GSF network, providing opportunities for peer interactions, training and development, and participation in GSF networking and learning events.
EERUi works with vulnerable children aged 0-3 in rural and urban slums in Uasin Gishu county to improve childcare and educational outcomes. They provide technical and infrastructural support, policy advocacy, economic empowerment and community sensitisation programmes aimed at building school readiness in the early years. They partner with ECED Centres to facilitate high transition rates and success rates in school for children in their programmes.
Simon Wamu, CEO, EERUi, said: “At EERUi, we are immensely honoured to be selected for the Lab in Kenya.Being among the top 4 organisations signifies a vote of confidence from GSF, given the intense competition and rigorous selection process. We are committed to strengthening foundational learning and eagerly anticipate forging strategic alliances, sharing best practices, and amplifying our impact. Through the Labs, we aspire to expand our partnership to five ECDE Centres, training 42 teachers to seamlessly transition 375 schoolready children. Concurrently, we are committed to educating 5250 community members across six subcounties, strengthening collaboration with Uasin Gishu County, and other scale partners. These collaborative efforts aim to promote responsive and protective caregiving interventions in Uasin Gishu County, solidifying our commitment to transformative change in early childhood development.”