Sunflower Trust

Sunflower works towards building a sustainable, long-term solution to educational inequality through partnering with high-resource institutions of excellence to improve schools and programs that level the playing field, while challenging long-held attitudes about who really deserves quality education. We improve access to high-quality education, coupled with an equal distribution of resources; will every child the opportunity to succeed. These are fixable problems; these systems can easily be disrupted. Sunflower Trust is dedicated to disrupting them. Since 2018, Sunflower has implemented four programs to achieve its main goal of having an equitable world; the Pathways to Alternative Learning and Education program (PALE) and the Sunflower Early Education and Development Program (SEED), Squash sports Program and Girl Rising.

Sunflower is a social enterprise dedicated to providing high-quality education to vulnerable children throughout the world. We envision a just and equitable world where all children can live up to their potential. Through leveraging the resources of high-performing private institutions, Sunflower  works with schools in the developing world that serve vulnerable girls and young women at the risk of ending their education early due to poverty, instability, and illiteracy; Sunflower’s PALE Program changes the trajectory of the girls’ life. 

Provides   leadership   in   all   matters   relating   to   operations   of   the organization   and   implementation   of   its   programs   and   activities.

Ensures the fiscal management is in accordance with the terms or conditions of any funding received by the organization.

Has overall authority and responsibility for all human resource related matters. Monitors and improves the overall performance of staff.

Provides   leadership   in   the   planning,   development,   implementation   and evaluation of Board policies. Supervises and keeps the policy register up to date.

Leads the Strategic Planning process and implements plans as approved.

Complies  with  all  legal  and  Board  mandates  and timelines. Ensures effective operation of the organization.

Establishes and maintains positive, professional working relations with the Board.

Takes appropriate actions to ensure open, transparent, positive external and internal communications are developed and maintained.

The team lead is also the head of the organization. Sunflower being a growing organization, means that the head is very hands on and works on the supervises the projects first hand to ensure that there is efficiency. She is the best fit as she has more than 10years experience in project management and execution. She is also based at the implementation office full time which will make it easy to supervise and the staff to reach out to her incase of any arising need. Sunflower is very open to organizational development opportunities and LEAP will be a potential in that area. This means that it is without a doubt that time will be created and  team lead will commit to the 2 -4hours every week in the 12 week project period. As much as she will have other team members working under her, the team lead will be incharge of reporting to the board and approving all communications regarding the project to other stakeholders. With her being the team lead, means that their will be  trust and buy in within the other stakeholders and community.

Sunflower  is a social enterprise dedicated to providing high-quality education and leadership activities to vulnerable children throughout the world. 

Kibera, Kenya, located just three miles outside of Nairobi, is an informal settlement with an estimated population of about one million people. Of these one million people, an estimated 52% are youth under the age of eighteen years old. Youth living in Kibera face a unique set of challenges, including unemployment, drug abuse, and a lack of opportunities for education and advancement; illiteracy rates are high among youth in Kibera. Illiteracy disproportionately affects people of informal settlements, where limited access to educational opportunities and resources, such as libraries, hinder the development of literacy skills.

As published in The Conversation (www.theconversation.com/ how-to-keep-kenyan-children-in-school-longer-its-not-only-about-money-157461, April -1-2021), the school completion rate has emerged as one of the most pressing issues facing education in Kenya. Only 58% of pupils who enroll in the first year complete primary school. This proportion falls as they advance to higher levels. Even fewer complete secondary school. The contributing factors vary and can include personal, family, school quality, economic and environmental reasons.

It is notable that dropping out of school is a process and if walked with the learners and given enough support (which is extended to mentorship, lifeskills and academics) though their journey, they will complete their education smoothly. Sunflower supports learners not drop out of schools but  equips its beneficiaries with the skills they need for a successful future to gain universities and colleges admission.

The development, preservation and creation of culture through reading, writing and literature contribute to a more economically robust society, while allowing democracy and human rights to flourish. Sunflower assists in developing this reading culture throughout Nairobi by improving the quality of learning through literacy and leadership activities. In addition to serving the most vulnerable students, those who are fully illiterate to functionally literate, Sunflower is determined to influence public and legislative policy in Kenya through literacy advocacy programs and studies, through the Pathways to Alternative Learning and Education (PALE) and Sunflower Early Education and Development (SEED) programs.

Sunflower’s Pathways to Alternative Learning and Education (PALE) program is a leadership and literacy program undertaken as an afterschool program with partnership of local schools. The PALE is an afterschool program for vulnerable girls, at risk of ending their education early, invites them and their families to join our holistic alternative program, where it runs concurrently with academic curriculum. PALE students are recruited before they start fifth grade and are enrolled at Sunflower’s PALE school until they complete the eighth grade. Our PALE Program and curriculum are highly effective with students improving from 8% to 33% in literacy, English, spelling, and comprehension in the first six weeks. Additionally, our PALE students report a high level of “self-confidence, self-esteem, and desire to pursue high education” during the first year at our program. This has been demonstrated over the years through the strong results at the end of primary exams given by Government of Kenya.

Sunflower Early Education and Development (SEED) is a child-centered, holistic approach to education, with developmentally appropriate curriculum and child-centered methodology. SEED is boosting the brains of pre-primary students, preparing them for successful academic careers and life. SEED gives more students throughout Kibera the opportunity to participate in early literacy programming, making them more likely to stay in school, be more academically engaged, and more likely to finish secondary school. There has been high demand into the program but Sunflower has been deliberately reluctant  as we want to maintain the current teacher student ratio on 1:15 so as to maintain the standards.

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In 2022, with the help of London School of Economics students, Sunflower conducted a formative research with the stakeholders. The research main focus was how to create a revenue model that will sustain Sunflower concept. It looked at how Sunflower academic success and holistic growth of resource-deprived children by offering quality & affordable education to address the core social problem of Poverty through an innovative, asset-lite & scalable Satellite School model.

The research focused on the Sunflower Early Education and Development (SEED) that targets children between 3 -6years. The study realized that Sunflower models thrives on quality by maintaining a teacher student ratio of 1:15 of the years. It also offers safe space for the children. The limitation was that for more expansion, it might not be possible because of the current minimal space. The study was looking at options for expansion and concluded;

Replicate Sunflower Trust’s current SEED program in the form of satellite schools across multiple locations to serve a larger population of preschool aged students within Kibera.

• Provides safe space for children to access preschool at affordable rate but avoids the dangers and inconvenience of children commuting
• Capacity maximum 15 students, or 20 with 1 assistant teacher + main teacher
• A centrally located neighborhood with proven interest and funding, based on waitlist.
• Pilot candidate neighborhood: Karanja Road
• Use a rented space (non-permanent classroom) in a residential space

As Sunflower continues to expand and grow; the demand for our programs has increased. As students in our  programs continue to improve academically, behaviorally, socially and emotionally, Sunflower has seen an increased demand from both students and parents for our high-quality educational programs. Through funding from foundations, Sunflower will be able to expand its programs to more vulnerable children throughout the region. Through gradual expansion of our programs, Sunflower will be able to serve more students, as well as expand our curriculum programs to other schools that we already work with, so they will also be able to implement similar programs as well. In the next three years, Sunflower hopes to triple its outreach and number of students, as well as strengthen partnerships with other local organizations that will be able to share curriculum with us to assist beneficiaries of multiple organizations. 

To achieve the above, Sunflower will need to conduct an evidence based research that will help us design and achieve the growth strategy. 

How can Sunflower continue providing low cost and quality learning to the less privileged with the reduced donor funding.

What sustainable models can be implemented for Pathways to Alternative Learning and Education (PALE) after school program to reduce reliance on donors/ funding.

Identifying the gap - Sunflower will need to evaluate the intervention and identify all the gaps related to sustainability and how it is affecting the organization. The evaluation will involve staff members and some stakeholders outside the organization who are part of the process. This will also show how the organization will look like in a few years time considering the gaps have been worked on.

Collecting Feedback - There will be need to collect feedback from the stakeholders regarding the currents programs and how effective it has been to them. This will help in how we design and improve new interventions.

Learning progression - within the 12 weeks Sunflower would have crafted priority areas on how to improve the organization sustainability and scalability of the programs. This will help in evaluation on the capacity of the organization's resources against what is being offered.

Stakeholders engagement - Stakeholders being the backbone of the organization's existence, it is important to engagement them in the  whole process because we are working towards improving their well being.

Development of a logical framework / Theory of change for the project.- This will help in a proper layout  and flow of the project which includes, the outputs, outcomes and relation to the existence of the organization. It will also assist in as a planning tool consisting of a matrix which provides an overview of a project's goal, activities and anticipated results. It provides a structure to help specify the components of a project and its activities and for relating them to one another. The framework will also be used as a reporting tool.

Monitoring and evaluation framework - The plan will outline the key evaluation questions and the detailed monitoring questions that will help answer the evaluation questions. This will allow us to identify the information we need to collect, and how we can collect it. The plan will also assist in identifying the people responsible for different tasks, as well as timelines. The plan will be picked up by anyone involved in the project at anytime and be clear as to what is happening in terms of monitoring and evaluation.

Stakeholder engagement -   To consider the needs identified by stakeholders, opportunities that can foster partnerships and trust for longer partnerships and relationship. The engagement will also lead to identifying project constraints and risks.

By the end of the project period, Sunflower should be able to identify the gaps related to the research question, define a priority list with resources needed for each item. With that, it will be easy to craft how to mobilize the resources and assign roles to the different staff. All these will be in the logical framework that will assist in the monitoring and evaluation of the project. With the stakeholder analysis, Sunflower will be ale to map out potential partners that will assist in the implementation of the proposed project. The mapping will involve their strengths, kind of partnerships and capacity of partnership.

We anticipate tremendous long term impacts of the program. In the next 5years, we hope to reach an additional 500 young children. With increased literacy rates we suspect that these beneficiaries we work with will continue their education through secondary school and beyond. At the completion of primary school and the afterschool program, the children are matched with sponsors and placed in secondary schools all over Kenya. Each child is mentored, supported and tracked through the age of 18 when he/she graduates from secondary school and is equipped with the skills she needs to build the future they desire. We believe that the development, preservation and creation of culture through reading, writing and literature contribute to a more economically robust society, while allowing democracy and human rights to flourish.