Safaricom - 2020 Sustainable Business Report

SAFARICOM 2020 | SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS REPORT 64 INTRODUCTION OUR BUSINESS OUR MATERIAL TOPICS OUR STAKEHOLDERS CONCLUDING REMARKS Education: Accelerated Learning Programme (Safaricom Foundation) The Accelerated Learning Programme (ALP) is a partnership between the Safaricom Foundation, the Participatory Action Learning Network and ZiziAfrique to build foundational literacy and numeracy skills in struggling learners rapidly. The programme targeted children in Standards 4 and 5 in 60 selected schools in Tana River, Turkana and Bungoma. Teachers and assistants underwent six days of training on the teaching method for the ALP, which focuses on play in each lesson and one-on-one coaching for the learners. A maximum of 45 learners are in each class and each class runs for an hour. Song and dance herald the beginning of the lesson, inviting the children into a place of joy while breaking down barriers between teacher and pupil. Students are grouped according to reading ability rather than age. For a period of ten days, the learners meet each day to focus on learning to recognise a letter, a syllable or a word. Bright and engaging materials that have been specifically developed for each cohort are shared by two students as they motivate each other by vocalising letters and syllables and by tracing words with their fingers. The lessons break for ten days, allowing the children to rest and reflect on learnings, before resuming for another intense 10-day round. This happens three times and the learners attend 30 days of lessons within a 50-day period. ALP learner, Scovia Waswa from Shidodo Primary School, progressed from reciting from memory to writing and reading her own words on paper in under two months. Education: Keeping Girls in School Initiative (M-Pesa Foundation) A 2016 report by FSG, a global consulting firm, showed that only 65 per cent of women and girls in Kenya can afford sanitary towels. Additionally, it is estimated that girls from disadvantaged families miss at least 20 per cent of school days in a year due to lack of sanitary towels, which severely impairs their academic performance and chances of graduating. Accordingly, more than 800 000 girls sitting for their final year national examinations, including those in Kakuma and Dadaab refugee camps, benefitted from three months’ supply of sanitary towels, courtesy of the M-PESA Foundation. The initiative ensured that no girl would miss sitting for her exams due to lack of sanitary pads. The M-PESA Foundation worked with local manufacturers to produce the pads, and the Ministry of Education to distribute them, at an estimated cost of KSh 281 million. The girls received a Menstrual Health package, consisting of three packets of sanitary pads (enough to last for three months), three pieces of underwear and a menstrual health information booklet, all enclosed in a drawstring bag.