Project Update: The Baytree Centre are sparking brighter futures!

As we start a new year, we are delighted to announce the outcome of our second 2025 funding round, which awarded £446,517 to nine partners to fund projects across the world, with an additional £90,000 dedicated to emergency humanitarian response. Existing partnerships Trustees approved follow-on funding for existing partners who demonstrated strong evidence of the impact of their work in partner communities: AfriKids : We continue our support for AfriKids’ “Every Child in School 2026” project in Ghana, which aims to prioritise every child’s access to education and to improve literacy and numeracy proficiency. It supports parents and the wider communities in leading lasting changes, offering activities to expand livelihood support for parents and caregivers, enhance training in climate-smart agriculture in partnership and continue advocacy for teacher-retention policies. Consortium for Street Children (CSC): We have extended our partnership with CSC for a further two years of activities, which continue to place street-connected children at the heart of systemic change. The project will expand on the successful Kolkata initiative, deepening the capacity of duty bearers to include children’s rights in urban agendas and working to support and protect street-connected children in the city. Fields of Life (FoL): We continue our support of FoL’s I AM GIRL project in Uganda, which prioritises economic empowerment activities such as training teenage mothers in vocational skills. This project also focuses on increasing local knowledge, awareness and service uptake of adolescent sexual and reproductive health rights, including influencing policy and legal frameworks and raising awareness of these services in schools. Smart Girls Uganda : The Unleash Her Greatness project in Uganda will elevate the provision of skills, mentorship and innovative opportunities that create economic independence for young women and girls from disadvantaged communities. This next phase seeks to increase the focus on job opportunities through the integration of entrepreneurial and financial literacy membership, provide start-up toolkits to empower graduates to establish their own businesses and enhance the production of Ecojua Smart Bags. Smiling Through Light (STL): The next phase will scale up STL’s provision of clean, sustainable energy to off-grid and remote communities in Sierra Leone. Through this funding, STL will be able to focus on sustainability and expand its integration of digital solutions, engaging with off-grid sales training experts to advance their energy sales and reach more communities. Wasteaid : Pulling on lessons learnt from the first phase, this project will address waste management issues in Diepsloot and Cosmo City in South Africa. Activities will include more practical equipment for the “wastepreneurs” to get their enterprises off the ground following their practical training, in addition to increasing community engagement for greater sustainability. New partnerships In addition to deepening our existing partnerships, we have started working with three new partners who demonstrate strategic alignment with the Foundation’s values and priorities: STiR Education : Focuses on teacher motivation and establishing a space for teachers to network, collaborate, share strategies and experiences and support each other. This aims to improve the professional lives of teachers in Malaka and South-Central Timor, allowing them to feel happier and more confident in their positions and, consequently, inspiring children by creating a more sustainable learning environment. Hello World : Works to bridge the digital divide by providing connectivity, education and power to hard-to-reach communities. This project focuses on partnering with schools and marginalised communities to deliver cost-effective, scalable and community-led solutions to internet access, establishing Hello Hubs—solar-powered, internet-connected digital learning spaces with touchscreens and educational software. Sociedad Peruana de Derecho Ambiental (SPDA): This partnership will help SPDA strengthen and scale citizen-led conservation efforts, supporting communities, young leaders, private initiatives and grassroot collectives to transform conservation in Latin America. The project focuses on working with communities to improve nursery infrastructure, produce native and productive seedlings and test restoration models that integrate agroforestry and slope stabilisation. It also concentrates on climate-adaptation and developing participatory monitoring tools to inform regional policy and education. Humanitarian Response Under our Humanitarian Response pillar, we are proud to continue our partnership with the British Red Cross for its Gaza Crisis Appeal, UNRWA for the rehabilitation of schools in the West Bank and UK for UNHCR towards its support of Afghan refugees.

EA FOUNDATION: New Grants Announced We are delighted to announce the results of our first funding round in 2025, which awarded a total of £443,770 to 10 partners to fund projects across the world. EXISTING PARTNERSHIPS The Trustees have approved follow-on funding for existing partners who demonstrated strong evidence of the impact of their work on partner communities. The Board’s decision to provide further funding to Mercy Hands Europe is based on a nurtured partnership over the last four years. As one of our longest-standing partners to date, we have been impressed by their thoughtful and collaborative approach to their work. With partners IACO, they have invested in the economic strengthening of communities in the in Al-Bab District in Syria over many years, and this grant of nearly £100,000 sees the evolution of our partnership by making further investment to revive the district’s extra virgin olive oil industry. With a grant of £15,000, AdAmi Project will contribute to deepening its invaluable support to young mothers in Bo, Sierra Leone, enabling them to build brighter futures by providing career guidance, employability training services, building stronger relationships with local employers. Building on our previous investment in this project at the end of 2023, with this follow-on grant of £50,000, Vita will now focus on strengthening field-based activities to deepen community impact in the fuel-efficient stoves programme, ensuring sustained adoption and long-term change. Our initial partnership with the Wonder Foundation was for the refurbishment of a kitchen providing a space to train women vulnerable to dangerous and exploitative employment, including trafficking and prostitution. Managed by their in-country partner Fundación Sirama in El Salvador, further funding of just over £51,000 goes even further to provide hospitality training courses, one-to-one mentoring and job placements with industry partners to 120 women at risk over two years. NEW PARTNERSHIPS In addition to deepening our existing partnerships, we are excited to announce our engagement with new partners who demonstrated sound strategic alignment: The Board approved just under £50,000 to PEAS to further their commitment to their ‘Inspect and Improve’(I&I) programme, improving education standards for marginalized students in rural Uganda. To the Zimbabwe Educational Trust , we committed just over £30,000 to address Zimbabwe’s birth registration crisis. The project works to improve access to birth certificates, thereby addressing barriers to accessing vital basic services which require birth documentation. Our partnership with Shivia sees investment of nearly £35,000 in a self-sustaining model of goat rearing, empowering women and their families in the state of Bihar to increase income and improve nutrition. Savannah Education Trust will address a major barrier of teacher attrition rates in Lawra district, Upper West Ghana. Our grant of £45,000 will facilitate the construction of vital accommodation for teachers which will serve to strengthen retention in the rural community. It is estimated that deaf children are three times more likely to be abused globally, compared to their hearing peers. With funding of just over £44,000, DeafKidz International through their DK Defenders programme will work to improve the safeguarding and learning outcomes of 660 Deaf children (50% girls) in three schools in Western Cape and Eastern Cape, South Africa. Period poverty remains a key barrier to girls staying in school. Designed by their in-country partner COFCAWE, with our grant of £23,000, All We Can and partner will ensure sustained access to menstrual hygiene products and knowledge on menstrual hygiene management for 5,000 vulnerable girls in Busoga, Uganda, empowering them to stay in school, pursue their education & break the cycle of poverty. END

We are delighted to announce our new funded partners from our grants round in September 2024. For this round, we specifically sought to collaborate with organisations working tangibly to address environmental challenges. In addition to the focus on environmental sustainability, we provided follow-on funding to an existing partner, Global Girl Project, and responded to several global humanitarian appeals as outlined below.