Creating Foundations for All Children and Young People to Thrive
01.
Early Childhood Education
The Eden Stream Foundation (EdSF Burundi) works in partnership with NIYONGABO Foundation and the Government of Burundi through the Ministry of Education and other development partners to improve the quality and availability of early childhood education for all by sharing best practices among sector stakeholders, increasing funding and investment, and promoting laws, policies, and awareness campaigns dedicated to preschool education.
The Problem
The world is experiencing a learning crisis. In Burundi, in 2023, 70% of children from low-income families (orphans and other children whose families live on less than USD 1 per day) were unable to read or understand a simple text by the age of 10. At least 1.5 million preschool-aged children are out of school. Children from the poorest families are seven times less likely to attend preschool. Burundi allocates less than 5% of its education budget. And yet preschool investment is not considered in national education budget.
Preschool Education and Development
In pursuit of UNICEF’s goal, “Every child deserves access to quality preschool,” Eden Stream Foundation (EdSF Burundi) has found that children who receive at least one year of preschool are more likely to acquire the essential skills they need to succeed in school and are less likely to repeat a grade or drop out. As adults, they contribute to peaceful societies and prosperous economies. Around the world, data shows that preschool advances development.
Quality preschool lays the foundation for a child’s journey: all subsequent stages of education depend on its success. Yet, despite the proven lifelong benefits of preschool, far too many preschool-aged children in Burundi are not enrolled in preschool. As a result, children from poor families are the least likely to participate in early childhood education programs.
What we do?
- We support the Government and partners in improving their results in terms of access to, quality of, and learning outcomes in early childhood education.
- We encourage country to ensure that all children have access to at least one year of preschool, in line with the commitments of Sustainable Development Goal 4.
- We promote good practices through exchanges between the Government and other sectoral actors to strengthen the country's and partners' capacity to plan and implement quality programs.
- We improve the quality of pre-primary education programs by supporting the development of quality standards, curriculum frameworks, and teacher training modules, among other things.
- We collect data and generate evidence to define innovative strategies for the implementation of quality pre-primary education for vulnerable children.
- We implement locally appropriate early childhood education and psychosocial support for young children and their families within rural remote areas.
- We also support the mobilization of funding and investment for early childhood education.
- With the funding obtained, we support the Government and sector partners develop laws, policies, and awareness campaigns to increase the number of children enrolled in preschool.
02.
Youth Entrepreneurial Education
Eden Stream Foundation is a lead organization in Burundi addressing the issues related to the private sector by providing skills, coaching and mentoring to young entrepreneurs in Burundi. The initiative is growing faster fostering local tourism, services provision, agriculture, manufacturing, and construction and enhancing industrial output. Launched in 2023, EdSF Burundi’s advocacy efforts for its Doing Business in Burundi Initiative (DBBI) continues to play a vital role in fostering economic growth, enhancing market access, and facilitating business collaborations on a global scale. The programme supports business run by young people, women and other vulnerable groups (indigenous people, displaced persons and returnees) while increasing decent jobs for all.
What we do?
- Incubation of entrepreneurs in accordance with the various phases of the program, taking into account the start-up and scaling-up phases for Small, Medium, and Large Enterprises in private sector.
- Training of trainers (ToTs) in the best incubation methods, coaching, support, and acceleration.
- Training of young entrepreneurs in business management, including best social, environmental, and climate safeguard practices.
- Advisory support to individual and collective businesses on more specific issues (constitution/status development; HR manual development; Finance management manual development; business plan development; packaging design; branding and labeling; optimization of operations and technologies, access to financing through community-based finance; credit unions, co-operative banking, commercial banks; specialized skills, and knowledge).