Street Child
The Geoff Herrington Foundation has generously supported Street Child since 2019 – to advance education and support Street Child’s mission to ensure children are safe, in school and learning – especially in low resource environments and emergencies. Street Child prioritises children in the most marginalised populations and currently works in over 25 countries across sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Europe. Street Child wants to thank the Geoff Herrington Foundation and to recognise the impact that its grants have made to children living in Sierra Leone, Afghanistan and Liberia.
In Sierra Leone
88% of out of school children live in rural areas, and even when they are in school are least likely to learn to read and write. Street Child is working to transform educational opportunities on scale for children living in rural Sierra Leone by training teachers, resourcing classrooms with teaching and learning materials, constructing and renovating classrooms and working with communities so that children can learn.
In 2019 GHF supported the education of 1,011 children attending 5 remote, rural primary schools in Sella Limba Chiefdom, in Northern Sierra Leone by funding a teaching specialist to provide in-classroom mentoring and coaching for 26 teachers, and supplying the schools with textbooks and writing materials. 97 children preparing for their National Primary School Examination also received catch up classes and exam preparation after schools shut for 4 months due to COVID.
In 2020, GHF extended its support to reach 2,181 children – attending the 5 rural schools in Sella Limba and a further 5 remote, rural schools in neighbouring Sanda Loko Chiefdom. The Foundation funded 2 teaching specialists to provide in-classroom mentoring and coaching for 31 teachers and supplied the schools with critical teaching and learning materials.
In Afghanistan
Following the Taliban’s takeover in 2021, the Geoff Herrington Foundation supported Street Child to deliver community based primary education to girls and boys in Uruzgan, one of the poorest provinces in Afghanistan and an area with one of the lowest levels of access to education in the world.
The Foundation’s support contributed towards the training of 138 teachers on teaching methods and teaching in crisis contexts, to 59 classroom psychosocial support kits to support the mental and psychosocial wellbeing of children and to the establishment of a temporary learning centre. GHF’s support contributed to Street Child’s wider intervention which supported the education of 14,715 children in Uruzgan.
In Liberia
Only 54% of children complete primary school. In urban areas household poverty is a key barrier – extremely poor families cannot afford to send their children to school.
Street Child’s award-winning Family Business for Education programme tackles the social and economic barriers to educational access – supporting children to enrol and settle in school and their caregivers to establish a small business sufficient to fund ongoing education costs. In 2023 The Geoff Herrington Foundation supported 400 out of school children living in some of the poorest areas of Liberia’s capital, Monrovia, to go to school through the scheme.
“A huge thank you to the Geoff Herrington Foundation for your generous support. Your vital funding has played a key role in ensuring thousands of children living in rural Sierra Leone, in Afghanistan and in urban Liberia have been able to go to school and to learn. We are so grateful for your support.”
Lucinda Dannatt, Street Child Co-Founder & Director