Partnering with Communities: Our Foundations

For Our Society

Through its two Foundations, the Safaricom Foundation and the MPESA Foundation, Safaricom continues to partner with Kenyan communities in all 47 counties, in a true embodiment of the Twaweza partnership spirit. The Foundations implement programmes in health, education, economic empowerment, environmental conservation, all in line with the Sustainable Development Goals.

We believe that business cannot be successful if society around it is failing. This provides us with the imperative to continue and deepen our community engagements. Over the last two years, we have worked through our Regional Offices in the six regions of the country to ensure that we are even closer to our communities and their needs.

15 Years of Partnering with Communities

Over the past 15 years, the Safaricom Foundation has partnered with communities across the country to implement projects in Education, Health, Economic Empowerment, Environmental Conservation, Water,
Arts and Culture, Technology for Good and Disaster Relief.

We also applied mobile technology to solve community challenges through our Technology for Good portfolio. We have touched the lives of over 5 million people. This report highlights just a few of our
successful and impactful partnerships and programmes. The full detail on the work of the Safaricom
Foundation can be found at www.safaricomfoundation.org

Ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being for all at all ages

The doctor to patient ratio in Kenya lies at 1:17000. In addition, many Kenyans never get the chance to
access specialized medical services. The Safaricom Foundation partnered with the Kenya Diabetes
Management and Information Centre (DMI) to provide a wide range of health information and services (dental care, eye care, general consultations and specialized services) to Kenyan communities country
wide. Using diabetes and hypertension as entry points for information and screening, the partnership has delivered 120 medical camps and reached more than 300,000 people.

Beyond on-site diagnosis, treatment and prescriptions, hundreds of Kenyans were referred for cataract
surgeries, cancer treatment and other lifesaving surgical interventions.

Ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all

In many parts of the country, children do not always have the opportunity to study in well-equipped and well-furnished classrooms. This situation is more common in lower classes, and in Early Childhood Development (ECD) education. With a desire to improve the quality of learning facilities for young learners, in 2001, the Safaricom Foundation partnered with the Tinga Tinga Tales Foundation and Coca-Cola CEWA (Central, East and West Africa) and formed the Know and Grow Education Partnership Programme to improve the learning environment for children in their early years in public sector schools.

Using the poverty index, and through a robust partnership with District Education Offices, the partnership identified the top school in each constituency that needed improvements in their ECD
learning environment. To date, 54 schools have new ECD classrooms, furniture, learning equipment; new ablution blocks;water harvesting equipment; and in some instances, enhancements to the school feeding programme through the establishment of a greenhouse in the school.

To date, over 7,500 early learners have started their formal school experience learning in dignified
classrooms.

Promoting sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth

In 2015, the Safaricom Foundation partnered with Hand-in-Hand International East and Junior Achievement to provide financial literacy and financial management training as well as micro loans to Kenyans. This was in recognition of the fact that access to credit for micro businesses and self-employment is limited.

A revolving loan of Shs. 20 million was established to be loaned out to women organized in groups and to out of school youth. Completion of the financial literacy and financial management training was a mandatory prerequisite to accessing the microloan.

Through this programme, 18,000 micro loans were disbursed and 9,870 enterprises established in Homa Bay, Bomet, Busia, Makueni and Kajiado counties. Some 6,458 jobs were created as an indirect outcome.

Looking Forward: The New 2018-2021 Strategy

After the successful implementation of its 2014-17 strategy, the Safaricom Foundation embarked on assessing progress in the implementation of the expiring strategy, and developing a new strategy. In its 2018-2021 strategy, the Safaricom Foundation will focus on three strategic areas: Health, Education and Economic Empowerment with a specific focus on young people.

The Trustees are committed to ensuring that the Foundation uses its resources in an ambitious, efficient and flexible way that drives positive change in health, education and economic empowerment. The Safaricom Foundation will also allocate a portion of its funding.