Children on the Edge win prestigious ‘Theirworld Education Innovation Award’

22/10/2021

We’re delighted that our early years programme for Congolese refugee children in Uganda is one of five winners at the 2021 Theirworld Education Innovation Awards!

Children on the Edge join a group of four other inspiring organisations that have been chosen as winners of the Theirworld Education Innovation Awards 2021.

The award will help make an even bigger impact and reach more families as we deliver education to marginalised children in Kyaka II refugee settlement in Uganda.

In Uganda, we deliver Community-owned, sustainable early childhood development for Congolese refugees. The project offers centre management and teacher training to refugees and creates safe spaces throughout 30 communities in Kyaka II. Where the 30 buildings we support are at capacity, we’re extending education support by offering lessons to in local community areas.

Cluster Learning groups outside in Kyaka II

Groups meet under trees outside

Children on the Edge Co-Founder and CEO Rachel Bentley said:

“We are delighted that our programme in Kyaka II refugee settlement has been recognised by the Theirworld Innovation Awards. Classroom based early years education has already helped reach over 5,000 children here, but there are still a huge number of children in the settlement who are unable to access our buildings and are missing out on vital early childhood education.”

“During lockdown our classrooms were forced to close so we started holding lessons outside with small groups of children from that area. This innovative way of learning at the heart of each community, gave us an opportunity to reach many more children in the refugee settlement. We are now developing and expanding the programme, enabling us to provide quality early years education to thousands more children across Kyaka II”

We were chosen by an expert panel of judges from 11 finalists - all non-profits, NGOs and charities actively working towards - or planning to scale up to - reaching marginalised learners in seven countries where Theirworld have projects running: Greece, Kenya, Lebanon, Nigeria, Tanzania, Turkey and Uganda.

The key phrase that seemed to grab their attention was, ‘we took facilities out of the equation!’. This statement simply conveys the truly inclusive concept of taking early years education to wherever children are, opening up access to education for thousands more children than can be served by physical school buildings.

Find out more about our innovative programme at our virtual event: An Introduction into Cluster Learning in Uganda on November 30th at 7-8pm on Zoom. Book your free place >>

Children can meet in communal spaces to learn

Theirworld Chair Sarah Brown - one of the judges - said:

"Innovation is key to ending the global education crisis. We need new ways to deliver education and to achieve their world's mission of unlocking big change.

"It was a really tough process to find our five winners but, in the end, we found some amazing, innovative projects. We're so delighted at Theirworld to be partnering with them to help them scale up their ideas and to really unlock big change."

Along with the other finalists, Children on the Edge have already had masterclasses with Theirworld to help build connections and hone the skills needed to scale up our innovative programme in Uganda.

The other winners we are joined by are:

Watch our CEO, Rachel Bentley talk more about the project in the video below.

All the winners cover early child education, digital skills and low-resource/emergency education in sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East. If we all reach our scale goals - thanks to Theirworld - we will collectively reach six million learners by the end of 2024.

Children on the Edge was born out of a response to the Romanian orphanage crisis. Since those early days, we've always done what it says on the tin - help children who are very marginalised, who are living ‘on the edge’ around the world, particularly refugee children, helping them gain access to education.

The Theirworld Award Grant will help us perfect our programme in Kyaka II so we can roll it out and reach many more children.

Find out more about our innovative programme at our virtual event: An Introduction into Cluster Learning in Uganda on November 30th at 7-8pm on Zoom. Book your free place >>