TrustAfrica aims to enhance the chances of the African child not merely to become literate but to become globally competitive as well. This pan-African grant making foundation with partners and associates across Africa, works in partnership with the Hewlett Foundation. It is presently seeking letters of interest (LOIs) to design and implement early learning innovation projects from organizations in Kenya, Uganda, Mali and Senegal. The trust is planning to disburse grants averaging US$55,000 for projects that can be implemented over 12 months, starting from April 2013.
TrustAfrica seeks to enter into partnership agreement with organizations that can develop and pilot innovative and relevant learning approaches that can effectively deliver adequate literacy, numeracy and critical thinking skills to all early learners. The envisaged innovations must be cost effective and scalable in order to produce the “seismic shifts” required at the mezzo and macro-levels across Africa.
The exploratory areas and the range of possibilities for developing early-learning innovations in Africa could include the use of local languages, engagement of community stakeholders, peer-learning processes, adaptation of ICTs, use of creative and artistic modalities, promotion of a reading culture through mobile libraries, mentoring systems, parent-teacher associations, improved teacher training, children’s critical thinking and problem solving skills, etc.
The proposed projects should demonstrate the capacity to design and implement an early learning innovation that:
- Significantly improves the quality of early learning in literacy and math;
- Has a framework for measuring the effectiveness of the innovation;
- Is cost effective (projects that demonstrate capacity to remain active beyond the funding period will be prioritized);
- Replicable at a national scale or even regionally;
- Demonstrate how an education policy gap can be rectified.
Deadline: 15 January 2013
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