The Waka Waka Project

Named after the Swahili word for “shine” or “blaze,” The Waka Waka Project’s goal is to ignite young minds through education, so that our students can lead richer lives and embark on brighter futures. Education changes everything for a child, and having access to it makes them healthier, happier, stronger, and smarter. 

We're different from other children’s education charities: we focus exclusively on 15 promising students in the Kilimanjaro region of Tanzania, whom we've supported with full-ride, room-and-board scholarships since 2011. Our students come from farming households that live on less than $2 a day; our scholarships are meant to support their immediate well-being as well as help break some of the long-term cycles of poverty. Equipped with a good education, our students will be a force for change within their families, their communities, their country and, because we can all dream big, even the world.

Education should be a basic human right but, devastatingly so, it is in truth a privilege that often comes with the circumstances we're born into. An estimated 263 million school-age children around the world — that is one in five children — are not in school. Which hinders mental and physical development, and robs them of the ability to lead healthy and productive lives. Being out of school affects children, families, and communities in deep and lasting ways. The scale of the problem is immense but so is the impact we can have, even individually, when we pool our efforts and resources into getting more kids learning and in school. 

Access to schooling and poverty are closely linked, and while the problem is complex, funding education scholarships is a relatively simple and immediate tool to combat it. Since 2011, we've supported our small group of students by nurturing their educational growth and personal well-being. Being in school has changed their lives profoundly for the better and seeing them grow up and thrive has been such a huge privilege.  Our two oldest students are now in college and university. This, in a country where only 9% of the population has a secondary school certificate and an even smaller and more appalling 1.3% has a university degree. Our scholarships have fuelled lasting and tangible change in the 10+ years that we've been doing this and, with continued help from people like you, we'll keep nourishing change, dreams, and the lasting opportunities that come with education.