Humana People to People Educational and Training Foundation (the Foundation) is a Swiss non-governmental organization, officially registered under the Registre du Commerce de Geneve, Switzerland with IDE CHE-213.021.797.

The Foundation’s purpose is “to contribute to development projects and charitable activities worldwide, in particular educational programmes and projects undertaken by “The Federation for Associations connected to the International Humana People to People Movement (FAIHPP)… or any other member organisation of “FAIHPP”.”

In its fifth year, the Foundation has funded education in Malawi, Mozambique and Namibia. The Foundation values investment in education as it can assist to transform people’s social and economic conditions including that of entire communities.

Education is a pre-condition for development; the foundation for peace, solidarity, inclusiveness and sustainable development. Peace is not a static condition.

It is a dynamic process that requires the active engagement of people and communities, and the establishment of norms and institutions that allow human well-being to flourish.

In 2023 the Foundation received dividends of US$307,625 from Humana Social Enterprises Europe.

The global calls for education to be transformational have grown stronger in 2023. After decades of focusing more on technical results, individual success and the contribution of education to economic growth, the general developments in the world have laid bare the necessity for views that education must encompass attitudes and skills of cooperation, solidarity and innovation.

Children, young people as well as adults must be able to cooperate with each other, must be willing to act in solidarity with others, and must be encouraged to seek new avenues to meet the challenges of their today and tomorrow. They also need it for their own sake. Being together and co-existing with others through life might be the safest way to achieve a life of hope and happiness.

Pursuing these traits, education becomes transformational, which is also much needed in our common striving to meet the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Such views are being promoted by UNESCO, African Union and others, and shared by the Humana People to People Educational and Training Foundation.

The Foundation promotes access to education as a critical human right and the most powerful aid to development. The Foundation is committed to contributing specifically to the achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goal 4: “Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.”

In 2023 the Foundation has continued its support to DAPP Malawi’s Teacher Training programme and has supported with two new educational activities, namely DAPP Namibia’s Pre-School of the Future (POF) teacher training and Solidar Suisse’s Vocational Training for Youth in Mozambique.

DAPP Malawi Teacher Training programme aims at complementing the government’s efforts in improving quality of education in the rural primary schools through reducing teacher-pupil ratio, which is currently very high with an average of 1:90 learners against the recommended ratio of 1:60. DAPP Malawi, through its teacher training colleges is committed to the training of youth who are self-motivated in supporting children to have access to quality education with a focus on hard-to-reach rural areas of Malawi.

In 2023, DAPP Teacher Training College in Dowa received US$80.000 and DAPP Teacher Training College Chilangoma received US$85.000 from the Foundation. DAPP Malawi’s approach to teacher training is centred on creating a space for student teachers to be the drivers and navigators of their own training, in a collective setting where studying together and individually goes hand in hand.

The programme is designed to nurture student teachers with ‘tools, heart, courage and wisdom’ to act in schools and in their communities. One of the characteristics of the pedagogy practiced at the colleges is that, student teachers are directly involved in planning and executing their own teaching and learning programme. They also get the practical experiences of running an institution, as they are part and parcel of the daily operation of the college in all aspects. Extensive supervised school practice is part of the curriculum and gives student teachers the opportunity to develop their teaching and class management skills, while also engaging with colleagues, parents and communities in general around the practice schools.

DAPP Chilangoma Teacher Training College

At DAPP Teacher Training College Chilangoma, 80 student teachers (Team 2021) completed their training and graduated from the college. At the time of this writing, they are waiting for Government deployment and as they wait some are teaching as part time teachers in some private primary schools. 134 new student teachers were enrolled in the year and started their first year of training. The college continued to provide support to 17 pre-schools around the college through supervision of preschools and reconditioning playgrounds in the schools so that they are safe for the learners to use.

DAPP Dowa Teacher Training College

At DAPP Teacher Training College Dowa, 71 student teachers completed their training by writing final examinations administered by the Malawi National Examination Board, with a 100% pass rate. 102 student teachers from the 2023 intake went for teaching practice in 16 primary schools around Dowa District as part of their training. The college continued offering community lessons in adult literacy and environment protection, and also the support for early childhood development continued with training of 166 care givers and improvement of infrastructures.

Supporting DAPP Namibia Pre-School of the Future (POF) Teacher Training

The Foundation supported DAPP Namibia with US$60.000 for the Pre-school of the Future (POF) Teacher Training. The programme trains young Namibians to become teachers in Early Childhood Development classes in an innovative training programme with a duration of two years. The programme started in 2014 and is implemented at the DAPP Vocational Training School in north-west Namibia. The training program is accredited by the Namibia Qualification Authority and leads to a Diploma Level 5.

The programme puts focus on fuelling the curiosity of the participants, providing them with skills in the profession through theoretical and practical training in 15 subjects. The programme also gives the students all round training through a variety of experiences such as travel in their country, community actions, working with parents, practice in kindergartens and pre-primary classes, growing vegetables, so they become generally capable, experienced and responsible teachers.

In 2023, a total of 42 students were in training in the programme.

Solidar Suisse – Vocational Training for Young People

The project started as a pilot in 2016 after analysing challenges faced by the youth in Mozambique. It aims to promote vocational training and the integration of young adults into the labour market. Young entrepreneurs receive seed capital to set up their start-up and supported by training institute.

Solidar Suisse works together with a number of training institutions in central Mozambique and supports the establishment of start-ups and young entrepreneurs. In 2023, a total of 21 young adults from difficult socio-economic backgrounds received full scholarships for the three-year training programme at Instituto Agrário Marera. The project contributed to the boarding school costs of the institute, so that all 285 boarding students at the institute were supported.

A total of 299 young adults successfully completed short term vocational training, further training and/or retraining, of which 34% were women.

The project supported 40 visually impaired people to complete a computer training course at the Association of the Visually Impaired (ACAMO).

Solidar Suisse directly targets 600 trainees on vocational training courses and indirectly reaches 2,985 family members of direct participants.

The Foundation supported Solidar Suisse with a total of US$25,000 in 2023 as general project support.