The Action Foundation

Kenya

The Action Foundation

Building equitable, inclusive, and resilient communities for children, women, and girls with disabilities

The Action Foundation empowers caregivers, teachers, and institutions to nurture and support children, women, and girls with disabilities by providing them with psychosocial support, skills, and resources needed to effectively care for children with disabilities. Their interventions improve access to health care, education, and economic empowerment through direct service provision and strengthening the capacity of existing education, health systems, and networks.

The Action Foundation serves the major informal settlements of Nairobi including Kibera, Mukuru, Mathare, and Kawangware and partners with schools in all eight regions of the country.

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Swaziland Action Group Against Abuse (SWAGAA)

Eswatini

Swaziland Action Group Against Abuse (SWAGAA)

Fighting to keep women and children safe from abuse

For nearly 40 years, the Swaziland Action Group Against Abuse (SWAGAA) has worked to combat the scourge of gender-based violence (GBV), sexual abuse, human trafficking, and child abuse. Through its three pillars, prevention, care and support, and access to justice, SWAGAA is helping to shape the agenda to end GBV.

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Start a Library Trust

Kenya

Start a Library Trust

Fostering a Reading Culture, One Library at a Time

Start a Library Trust was founded in 2012 and supports more than 200 fully equipped school libraries in 19 counties, each led by a teacher-librarian trained by the trust. 

Dedicated to closing the literacy gap in Kenyan public primary schools, the organisation establishes functional school libraries, trains teachers and community reading champions, and creates engaging reading experiences.  

Their comprehensive programming builds core literacy skills (fluency, comprehension, and writing) and essential life skills, including imagination, critical thinking, and communication. 

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Uviwe Child and Youth Services

South Africa

Uviwe Child and Youth Services  

You are heard 

Uviwe - which means “you are heard” in isiXhosa – is building strong futures for children and young people through integrated education and social support programmes. 

Partnering with local communities, Uviwe provides early childhood development, afterschool, and parenting classes, child protection and empowerment programming, as well as economic development opportunities to the Schauderville and Gelvandale communities near Port Elizabeth.  

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Uwezo Youth Empowerment

Rwanda

Uwezo Youth Empowerment

Every child deserves a chance to learn and grow

Inspired by his own experience of isolation and stigma as a youth living with a disability, Bahati Satir Omar established Uwezo Youth Empowerment in 2014 with a vision to advocate, empower, and serve Rwandan children and youth with disabilities to live independently and with dignity.  Since then, thousands of children and young people have been empowered to live independent, full, meaningful, and dignified lives.

Collaborating with local partners, Uwezo leads advocacy programmes that promote equal access to human rights, healthcare, and economic opportunity.

To date, they have enabled over 4800 children with disabilities to access quality education. Uwezo also provides caregiver training and support and ensures young people have access to inclusive health services.

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Ububele Educational and Psychotherapy Trust

South Africa

Ububele Educational and Psychotherapy Trust

Improving the emotional wellbeing of South Africa

Founded by clinical psychologists in 2000, Ububele’s models of community-based mental health care address the emotional trauma of South Africa’s past, the ongoing mental and physical effects of the cycle of poverty, and the daily challenges faced by individuals, families, and communities.

Through the development and dissemination of training programmes, psychosocial support, and home-based care—all with an early childhood development focus—Ububele is supporting children to grow up to be emotionally healthy adults, competent parents, and concerned citizens. Ububele serves families of Alexandra Townships.

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Umunthu Plus

South Africa

Umunthu Plus

Empowering youth, women, and girls

Umunthu was founded by a group of young women in Nkhotakhota in response to the rise in school dropouts, and increased cases of early forced marriages.

Their services support early childhood development for 430 children, keeping girls in schools, and engaging men and boys to eliminate gender-based violence and early marriages.

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Urunji Child Care Trust

Malawi

Urunji Child Care Trust

Child protection, education, health, and nutrition

Urunji Child Care provides essential education, health, nutrition services, and psychosocial support to orphaned and vulnerable children living in Lilongwe District.

They ensure that each child receives support from their community so that they are able to maintain a sense of belonging and grow in a familiar and comforting environment.

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Umoja Tanzania Incorporated

Tanzania

Umoja Tanzania Incorporated

Improving the lives of young Tanzanians

Umoja empowers young people in Arusha to thrive through holistic education, good physical and mental health, and safe employment. Umoja offers a range of services to vulnerable Tanzanian youth, their families, and their communities including education and youth empowerment services, skills training, and social enterprise development.

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Uhambo Foundation

South Africa

Uhambo Foundation

Enabling children living with disabilites to lead full and happy lives

Uhambo Foundation provides the design and production of posture support, mobility devices, and therapy products to children living with disabilities in Cape Town.

They are committed to the inclusion of children living with disabilities by partnering with government, NGOs, community members, and families within a holistic, ecosystem approach.

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Tumaini International Trust

Kenya

Tumaini International Trust

Tumaini means hope

Tumaini provides education and healthcare services to orphaned and vulnerable children, and those impacted by HIV/AIDS, as well as income generating activities to their caregivers and the communities where Tumaini operates. Currently they serve children and families in 11 counties in Kenya.

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Touching Tiny Lives Trust

Lesotho

Touching Tiny Lives Trust

Saving one child at a time

Touching Tiny Lives Trust (TTL) is the only organization caring for orphaned and vulnerable children in the rural, mountainous district of Mokhotlong, Lesotho that supports children affected by severe malnutrition and HIV/AIDS.

Since 2004, TTL has directly supported thousands of children under the age of five with services that include nutritional rehabilitation, health assessments, immunization support, and vitamin supplementation. With an increased emphasis on prevention, TTL has expanded their scope to improve the nutritional status of families.

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Tiny Tim and Friends

Zambia

Tiny Tim and Friends

Envisioning a world where no child has HIV

Tiny Tim and Friends is one of the few providers of specialist pediatric HIV services in Zambia. Their clinic, which sees 850+ patients each year, offers medical, nutritional, and psychosocial support to HIV+ children and pregnant women.

Tiny Tim and Friends works in communities across Lusaka providing HIV testing and prevention services, with an emphasis on the prevention of mother-to-child transmission as well as counselling and support groups.

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Thanda After-School

South Africa

Thanda After-School

A safe environment for children to have fun, learn, and grow

Thanda provides innovative solutions for sustainable development in their community of Hibberdene, KwaZulu-Natal. They create safer, stronger communities by providing educational and skills-building opportunities to individuals and their households through early and creative learning and organic farming training.

In 2022, Thanda piloted its Baby Programme, which aims to support caregivers to learn how to engage and play with babies.

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Stara Peace Women Organization

Kenya

Stara Peace Women Organization

Transforming communities through empowerment, education, and healthcare

Located in Makina, Kibera, the largest slum in Kenya and sub-Saharan Africa, Stara Peace Women Organization has supported nearly 10,000 children since 2000 through education, early childhood development, girls and women’s empowerment programs, as well as psychosocial and nutritional support, and income generating projects.

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St. Vincent de Paul Community Development Organization

Kenya

St. Vincent de Paul Community Development Organization

Protecting children and strengthening families

By providing access to essential services to children and families living in Kibera, Kenya’s largest informal settlement, St. Vincent’s is building a community in which children and their families can thrive.

St. Vincent’s provides early childhood development, education, healthcare, nutrition support, business training, and runs a rescue centre for abused and abandoned children.

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Siyakwazi

South Africa

Siyakwazi

Improving learning outcomes for children living with disabilities

Siyakwazi helps children living with disabilities to reach their full potential by providing therapy, education, and home-based learning interventions as well as advocating for the rights of children with disabilities and barriers to learning.

They work with primary schools and early childhood development centers in KwaNzimakwe, KwaZulu-Natal, to ensure that children with special needs and learning difficulties and their caregivers are equipped with the knowledge and tools to access mainstream educational opportunities.

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