Launched in 2013, the mission of the East Africa Character Development Trust(EACDT) is to transform the lives of thousands of disadvantaged young Africans through Character Education and sport.

Approved by the Kenyan Ministry of Education and currently working in 11 schools in the Nairobi area, the EACDT is dedicated to improving the lives of children, some of whose stories you can read here. In a country with no no free secondary education and where youth unemployment is 39%, a good education is critical to a child’s future. Using a syllabus inspired by the work of the world renowned KIPP Foundation in the USA, we have developed an innovative programme that marries Cricket and Character Education.

Success in life depends on more than academic learning. We instil character strengths deemed essential for development and success; and, as importantly, we empower children to express their voices and thus help them improve their own communities.

As with many others, we believe that Character Education is incredibly important. In the United Kingdom the former Secretary of State for Education Nicky Morgan began the process of putting it into the National Curriculum. President Kenyatta of Kenya has also talked about the importance of both education and character.

In Africa, where living and working conditions are much more uncertain and challenging and where de-stabilisation and extremism are real, major issues , it is needed even more.

At every stage we aim to build the characters of the girls and boys in a deliberate, planned and structured way.

Our Character Education Programme instils those values, skills and attitudes that enable children to reach their potential at school, at home, in their communities and in the workplace. Cricket lends itself especially well to developing essential characteristics. It creates a dynamic in which players are not only team members but are also individuals charged with particular responsibilities from which there is no hiding place. It demands high levels of concentration, strategic thinking, stamina and physical courage. It is a complex sport offering a range of different opportunities to contribute, on and off the field. Cricket’s best traditional values – play hard, play fair – are highly relevant to all aspects of the human experience.

EACDT works with up to 5,000 children a week. We have 13 full time African cricket coaches, skilled in Character Education. Learn more about them here.  Our Operations Director is a schoolmaster by profession, with an MBE for his work with under-privileged children.

Most of the schools we work in are in massively deprived and dangerous areas. Many of the children have been orphaned by HIV/Aids. Their future could be bleak. But the work of the EACDT gives children some fun in their lives with cricket and  in developing character, self control and confidence gives them hope for their future.

OUR CASE FOR SUPPORT

CHARACTER THROUGH SPORT PROGRAMME

“Education is what remains when we have forgotten everything we have been taught”, George Savile (1633-1695)

“Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime”, ancient Chinese proverb.”

CONTEXT:  Kenya is a place of extreme poverty and deprivation, ranking 152 out of 191 countries and territories on the United Nation’s 2021 Human Development Index.  An estimated 45% of the population live below the poverty line.  Despite primary schooling being both free and a mandatory requirement, only 63% of Kenyan boys and 68% of girls complete primary education. About 60% access secondary schooling for which some fees are mandatory, while in Nairobi only 22% of girls enroll at secondary school.  60% of the population is under the age of 26 and youth unemployment currently sits at 55%.   The Covid pandemic made matters worse, impacting badly on the economy and on educational provision.  According to UNESCO, between 2019 and 2021 there was a 9% decrease in the number of boys meeting minimum educational proficiency levels.

Since 1970 Kenya’s population has exploded from 10 million in 1970 to 53 million today (World Bank, 2021). Government educational resources are worryingly over-stretched.  While progress has been made in increasing access to education, investment in education has not matched this growth.  In many larger primary schools in slum areas class sizes regularly number 100, with 5 children frequently sharing a desk, while the absence of free secondary schooling means that many disadvantaged young people are excluded from the age of 14+.  Many thousands of youngsters in Kenya, especially from slum communities, including many orphaned or from single-parent households as a consequence of AIDS / HIV and drug abuse, grow up without hope.  They also grow up without opportunity and without the skills, values and attitudes that would enable them against the odds to break the cycle of poverty and hopelessness.

Unsurprisingly, Kenyan education has focused narrowly on academic attainment with inadequate attention given to the personal development of young people, on Character Education and Life Skills.  Whilst the Kenya Government has defined and imposed a Life Skills Education programme, there are, predictably, few resources available with which to deliver it.

Kenya is also a place where, over a long period of time, girls and women have endured widespread discrimination.   Kenya ranks 109 out of the 153 countries in the 2020 Global Gender Gap Report; significant inequalities between males and females remain in education attainment, health outcomes, representation in parliament and participation in the labour market.  Women and adolescent girls are by a long way the most vulnerable group. They are particularly vulnerable to poverty, exacerbated by gender-based violence, harmful cultural attitudes and beliefs around gender roles, norms and female empowerment.

1:  About EACDT (www.eacdt.org)

Against the devastating backcloth of extreme poverty, disadvantage and discrimination in Kenya, the East Africa Character Development Trust (EACDT) – UK Charity 1153030 – was founded in 2013 together with a sister charity registered in Kenya, (EACDT, Kenya).

Our Mission is to provide vital Life Skills to disadvantaged East African children to enable them to elevate the quality of their lives and futures.   Our Vision is a world where all young East Africans can become positive contributors to Society.  In other words, we support young East Africans, regardless of background and disadvantage, so they can succeed in all aspects of their lives.  We aim to enable their success by helping them as young people develop (through the medium of sport and other complementary activity) the skills, values and attitudes essential for leading a purposeful, fulfilling and rewarding life as a young adult.  Central to our Character Through Sport Programme is Character Education and the nurturing of positive character qualities, those judged to be the best predictors of personal and professional success, which, in turn, are the conduits to young people’s ability to achieve “success in all aspects of their lives”.

The Character Through Sport Programme is delivered in Nairobi’s slum communities to benefit some of Kenya’s most disadvantaged young people – girls and boys in equal numbers.  The Programme has Education at its heart – proper holistic Education based on developing the whole person so that, irrespective of formal education opportunities, young people can face their personal and professional futures with greater confidence and ambition.  The Character Through Sport Programme has three inter-related components, each designed to translate our Vision and Aim into focused, structured activity which can deliver strong short-term, mid-term and longer-term outcomes with the young people with whom we work.  The outcomes we aspire to achieve relate to personal fulfillment and wellbeing, to academic success at school and/or (where appropriate) at university, to their futures within the national workforce, as active citizens and as outstanding role-models.

In engaging girls and boys in equal proportions, EACDT is mindful of the need to empower all disadvantaged people regardless of their gender, but we are also especially aware of the particular need to empower girls and women in a place in which they have faced significant historic gender-based discrimination and been denied adequate opportunities.

2:  Our Beneficiaries:  All of the girls and boys we engage come from Nairobi’s slum communities where invariably they live in a single-room constructed of corrugated iron.  Crime, alcohol and drug abuse are rife within these communities.  Our analysis in 2022 of a sample of 121 girls and boys engaged since 2014 (when our programme was first launched) confirms that 12% were raised as orphans and that 43% are products of a single-parent household; 36% were raised by a single-parent mother and 7% by a single-parent father.  Our beneficiaries grow up in households where the average number of siblings is five.   The pressure on them to contribute financially to the household through casual labour and to prioritise roles as “bread-winners” ahead of their education is extreme.

3:  Our People
EACDT is well-led and supported.  Our Patrons include Mike Boit (Olympic and Commonwealth Games medalist, former Commissioner for Sport in Kenya and Professor of Sports Sciences at Kenyatta University), David Gower OBE (former England cricket captain raised in East Africa) and Derek Pringle (former England cricketer also raised in Kenya).

EACDT is governed by a Trustee Board who know East Africa very well and who bring significant skills and experience.  Chairman is Chris Newson, former Director of Standard Bank in Africa; Emily Burness, EMEA SAGE Implementation at Cochlear; David Hardisty, Managing Executive of Retail & Business Banking, ABSA Bank of Kenya; Julian Ince, former senior partner of PwC Africa and former trustee of GALVmed;  Roger Johnson, former Programme Manager of Hewlett Packard and Senior Programme Officer of the United Nations; Naval Sood, former Executive Vice President of Stanbic Bank in Nairobi; Galib Virani, CEO of SuperCosmetics in Nairobi and Founder of First Africa Energy Technology Services; Denis Awori, former Ambassador for Kenya in Japan and current Chair of Toyota, Kenya.  Every trustee is additionally steeped in sport and has a strong cricketing background.

EACDT’s Character Through Sport Programme is led operationally by our Programme Director David Waters MBE, whose MBE was awarded for his work with under-privileged children in Kenya, and by Collins Odhiambo in his role as Assistant Programme Director . The programme is delivered on the front-line by EACDT’s 13 Kenyan salaried qualified coaches and by additional Kenyan volunteers.  All of these have been additionally trained by EACDT to act as Character Tutors to deliver Character Education seamlessly integrated into sporting activity.  Further support is provided by a small administrative team.  Almost all of the coaches and administrators originate from the same Nairobi slum communities which EACDT aims to serve.

4:  What is meant by Character Education?

Research in USA by Dr. Martin Seligman and Dr. Angela Duckworth at Pennsylvania University identifies seven key character traits which, they argue, serve as the best predictors of personal and professional success.   These are:  ENTHUSIASM – PERSEVERANCE – SELF-CONTROL – OPTIMISM – GRATITUDE – SOCIAL INTELLIGENCE – CURIOSITY.

The term “Character Education” has been coined to refer to the conscious, deliberate development of clearly-identified character qualities.  Experts insist that character should be “taught” as well as “caught” (in other words that its development should not be left merely to accident) and that effective Character Education is intentional, planned, organised and reflective.  While the development of positive character derives from everything to which human beings are exposed, team sports played competitively arguably offer the very best vehicle through which positive character can be “taught” and  also “caught”.  Competitive team sports demand, and can develop, every single one of the key character traits identified by Dr. Seligman and Dr. Duckworth.

5:  How is Character Education applied within EACDT?

Drawing on the power of sport to build character, since 2014 EACDT has delivered the Character Through Sport Programme in schools and other settings in disadvantaged areas of Nairobi.  The programme, formally endorsed by the Kenyan Ministry of Education, seamlessly integrates Character Education into cricket coaching and competition activities.   The concept is simple: if young people from disadvantaged communities are to flourish, however restrictive their formal education might be, they will need to draw on a strong set of positive character qualities in order to overcome multiple disadvantages and succeed in all aspects of their lives. The seven qualities identified by Dr. Seligman and Dr. Duckworth are the ones which matter most if young people are to become good, purposeful citizens, effective performers throughout their formal education and in the workplace.  It is these same character traits that EACDT intentionally aims to nurture through the Character Through Sport Programme.

6:  Why Cricket?

Character Education can be delivered through almost any engagement vehicle.  Competitive team sports lend themselves especially well.  While EACDT is actively considering other sports through which to scale-up the Character Through Sport Programme, since 2014 cricket has been deployed exclusively as the vehicle through which our programme has been delivered in Nairobi. Even though it is relatively unfamiliar to many Kenyans, cricket is an excellent vehicle. A multi-faceted game, cricket is ideal for building character and for creating a sense of community.  It has a unique dynamic, one in which players are team-members but also individuals with particular responsibilities; it is a game for everyone – for girls, boys and those with disabilities.  It is complex, offering wide-ranging roles and opportunities to contribute – both on and off the field; it demands high levels of strategic thinking, patience, self-control and it also requires physical courage and risk-taking. Its best traditional values – play hard, play fair – are highly relevant to all aspects of life.  Cricket requires fitness, intelligence, skill but, above all, it demands positive character.

Notwithstanding cricket’s unfamiliarity to most Kenyans, the girls and boys to whom EACDT has introduced cricket have taken to it remarkably well.  Attendance records are very high.  Furthermore, since 2014 at least 165 young people have progressed to Kenya’s national and junior squads and to Nairobi’s premier clubs and wear their team’s colours with pride and gratitude.

7:  EACDT Character Through Sport Programme, its three components

The Character Through Sport Programme has continuously evolved since 2014. Originally operating only through a Schools Programme, it currently has three component programmes:

• The Schools Programme, (operating currently in ten schools across three School Hubs), delivered within the PE curriculum in schools, and also on Saturdays and in school holidays, when coaches seamlessly integrate Character Education into core cricket coaching and competition activity;
• The Community Programme (operating since 2021), delivered outside of schools in two new Community Cricket Clubs and in other venues, when coaches continue to integrate Character Education into cricket coaching and oversee an enhanced programme of cricket competition;
• A Mentoring Programme, delivered informally by the coaches and also through peer-to-peer mentoring led by EACDT participants with a view to supporting and motivating other programme participants.

8: EACDT’s Character Through Sport Programme, the Challenges
Since 2014 EACDT has needed to address many challenges while implementing the Character Through Sport Programme.  For instance:

• in Kenya the concept of Character Education, and broad education more generally, has barely existed because of pressures on schools to deliver exam results – even though, for many young Kenyans, formal education stops abruptly after primary school at the age of 14;
• in Kenya sports provision in government schools is totally inadequate – a result of financial constraint and because the benefits of sport (health, wellbeing and personal development) are under-valued;
• in Kenya statutory requirements to deliver Physical Education in schools have largely been ignored;
• despite Kenya’s reaching the 2003 Mens’ Cricket World Cup semi-finals, cricket is an unfamiliar sport to almost all Kenyans.

Since 2014 EACDT has responded to these and other challenges and has:

• developed a unique method for delivering Character Education by seamlessly integrating it into all cricket coaching and competition activity;
• developed a training programme to equip coaches, and also schoolteachers, with the understanding and skills to implement Character Education through sport and other vehicles;
• trained and deployed 18 Kenyan coaches and trained over 150 teachers from the schools in which EACDT has worked, as well as trainee teachers at Kenyatta University;
• secured the endorsement of the Kenyan Ministry of Education;
• persuaded schools to allow us to deliver the PE curriculum (in part at least) on their behalf, partnered with 23 schools across five School Hubs in Nairobi’s slum areas and delivered the Character Through Sport Programme at no cost to the schools;
• devised evaluation tools to measure impact on schools and in developing positive character qualities among young people;
• undertaken regular impact evaluation using a variety of assessment methods;
• invested in new cricket-specific facilities at the schools and provided equipment;
• established two new Community Cricket Clubs and invested in new cricket-specific facilities in areas close to the schools;
• established a programme of Mentoring delivered by the coaches and by young people who are flourishing as a consequence of the programme;
• adapted quickly to the 9-month closure of schools enforced by the Covid pandemic by implementing new activities in the communities local to the schools in which we operate.

Significantly, at a time when the Kenyan Ministry of Education has imposed mandatory requirements on schools to deliver Life Skills programmes but without providing financial resource, the schools engaged by EACDT have confirmed that the Character Through Sport Programme has enabled the schools to fulfil this requirement.

9: EACDT Pilot Programme (2014-2016)

EACDT piloted the Character Through Sport Programme between 2014 and 2016.  At this juncture the programme operated only in 17 schools and on Saturday mornings and during school holidays.  Robust evaluation confirmed that, while inevitably there were lessons to be learnt, the programme had created strong initial impact. Despite early reservations, activities were overwhelmingly well-received by schools, their headteachers and staff, as well as by girls, boys, their parents or carers.

Assessments confirmed positive development of the identified character attributes in all schools among both girls and boys.  Case Studies produced numerous examples of bullies becoming role-models, of habitual truants whose levels of absenteeism declined, of young people overcoming very limiting home situations to develop personally, of new levels of confidence and perseverance among participants and of academic attainment significantly above earlier school expectations.  Headteachers were happy to attribute these developments in significant part to the students’ engagement in EACDT’s programme.

10:  EACDT Programme (2017-2022)

Building on the success of the Pilot, between 2017 and 2022 EACDT’s Schools Programme has operated in 23 schools, a combination of primary and secondary schools.  The Schools Programme has engaged on average 6,000 girls and boys each term-time week throughout every year- although in 2020 and 2021 we were badly disrupted by the Covid pandemic which required schools to close for 9 months.  Evaluation undertaken in 2019 and in 2021 confirmed even stronger support from school headteachers, further significant progress among participants in developing the specific character qualities and continued academic and wider personal progress.  After the Covid disruptions, the Schools Progamme resumed in 2022.  However, Covid had taken its toll on fundraising in Kenya and in the UK between 2020 and 2022 on account of funders’ prioritising the drastic impact of the pandemic.  This required us temporarily to suspend the Schools Programme in two School Hubs; we aim to re-establish the programme in these Hubs during the course of 2024.

In 2021 EACDT launched the Community Programme and created two new Community Centres through which to provide further activity in which Character Education is seamlessly integrated into cricket coaching and competition.  Since only an estimated 50% of girls and boys engaged by EACDT at primary school progress into secondary education, the Community Programme was introduced primarily to enable those who had left primary school (but who might otherwise become lost to EACDT) to continue to engage with EACDT.   This development also served to give EACDT an immediate visibility at the heart of the communities in which the young people we support live alongside their friends and families.

11:  RESULTS 2022

In 2022 a total of 5,229 unique individuals (excluding those additionally supported through informal Mentoring) were engaged in EACDT’s Character Through Sport Programme within the Schools Programme and Community Programme.

Schools Programme

• 4,962 girls and boys (2,509 girls and 2,453 boys) were engaged through the Schools Programme across ten schools in three School Hubs;
• Of the 4,962 girls and boys, 446 were additionally engaged in the Saturday Programme and 185 girls and boys participated in the Holiday Programme;
• 198 competitive inter-class and inter-school cricket matches involving the 10 schools were played.

Community Programme

• 267 girls and boys were engaged in new Community Cricket Club activities;
• Of the 267 girls and boys 120 were previously known to EACDT as participants in the Schools Programme and 147 girls and boys not previously engaged within the Schools Programme;
• 48 competitive matches were played in the Community Cricket League.

Informal Mentoring

• An estimated 250 young people who had left primary school from 2014 were informally mentored by EACDT coaches;
• Based on surveys involving 121 of the estimated 250 young people (58 girls and 63 boys), the top three character qualities influencing their future progression developed through EACDT’s Schools Programme were: Self-Control, Perseverance and Social Intelligence;
• 87 of the 121 surveyed (72%) acknowledged that EACDT’s Character Through Sport Programme had helped them to develop greater self-confidence and self-esteem;
• Every one of those surveyed (100%) attributed their development of positive character and its impact on their lives to their engagement in EACDT’s Character Through Sport Programme.

Kenya Certificate of Primary Education results

In 2014, the first year of EACDT operations, the average score of our partner primary schools in the national KCPE examinations was 224 out of a maximum score of 500.  By 2022 the average mean score in these schools was 245, a 9% improvement over 9 years.   Headteachers have told us that our programme has positively improved discipline, school attendance and the concentration span of girls and boys in classes leading to better academic performance.

Schools Reporting

Interviews with Headteachers re-confirmed numerous examples of bullies becoming role-models, of habitual truants becoming regular attendees, of strong personal development and new levels of confidence and perseverance among participants and of levels of academic attainment significantly above the schools’ expectations.  Headteachers were happy to attribute these developments significantly to the students’ engagement in EACDT’s programme.

Progression of “alumni” mentees
While we recognise that the sample group of 121 “alumni” mentored by EACDT coaches is by no means representative of all EACDT participants, surveys nonetheless have confirmed that 73% of the sample group progressed to secondary education (often with bursary support facilitated by EACDT), that a further 19% progressed to tertiary/university education (invariably with bursary support) and that only 12% discontinued their formal education after primary school.   These outcomes (albeit from a selective sample) are very significantly stronger than those typically achieved by young people who come from Nairobi’s slum communities.

Of the sample of 121 “alumni” mentored by EACDT coaches, 57 (47%) were either formally employed or else at secondary school or in tertiary education.   While the 53% who were not in Education, formal Employment or Training, the vast majority were working casually in Kenya’s vast “gig economy” to support their households while about 15 were engaged as regular volunteers for EACDT.

Cricketing Outcomes

Even though cricketing outcomes are not our priority, it is no surprise that since 2014 EACDT has unearthed widespread cricketing enthusiasm and talent.  A total of 165 girls (43) and boys (122) have made spectacular progress as cricketers by making their way into Kenya’s full national and junior squads and/or as members of Nairobi’s premier cricket clubs.  In August 2023 out of 64 girls selected to take part in a new Nairobi Women’s League, no fewer than 43 were first introduced to cricket by EACDT.

12:  EACDT Strategic Review 2023; Future Plans (2024-2026)

During 2023 EACDT trustees undertook a major review of the charity’s strategy.  Trustees intend, perhaps with effect from 2027, to expand the programme further afield into other parts of Kenya (before ultimately looking to expand even further into other East African countries such as Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda) and also decided to consider sports additional to cricket as vehicles through which to deliver the Character Through Sport Programme.  However, the immediate focus is on consolidation and further development of the Character Through Sport Programme in Nairobi.

The Strategic Review has resulted in a significant step-change, bringing enhanced plans to refine and scale-up both the School and Community programmes in Nairobi.  It also identified the need to strengthen provision for those aged 14+ – 22+.  In particular, trustees determined that, as EACDT approaches its 10^th year of operations, now was the time to ensure a much sharper focus on mid to longer-term outcome for older girls and boys, many of whom are now in their late teenage years.  These outcomes relate to Female Empowerment, Leadership, Education, Employment & Enterprise and Social Action.  The review resulted in decisions relating to the existing programme but also, critically, to one significant new component, the implementation of a Structured Support programme for those aged 14+ – 22+.   These proposals will be implemented from 2024:

• to (re-) establish two additional School Hubs at Kangemi and Dagoreti in 2024 and restrict the Schools Programme to primary schools only;
• to establish one additional Community Centre at Eastleigh in 2024 and two additional Centres at Kangemi and Dagoreti in 2025, the one at Eastleigh to provide a Cricket and Community base for girls in line with our particular wish to enhance provision for girls and women;
• to engage secondary schools only as an adjunct to the Community Programme and to deliver activities in these schools after school (and not during time allocated to the PE Curriculum);
• to award Good Character Certificates to every primary school leaver at the end of the 2023 academic year, and every year thereafter, in two categories (Standard and Gold);
• to deliver increased levels of Character Education training to teachers, volunteers and others working with young people to enhance the impact of the Character Through Sport Programme in the schools in which we operate and in other settings;
• to increase focus on Career Professional Development of our own staff.

The final development, and the most significant one, relates to the decision to replace the Mentoring activities (Component 3 of the current programme) with an ambitious Structured Support Programme (whose activities would include a much more structured mentoring programme).  The Structured Support programe will specifically target Gold Award winners of Good Character Certificates alongside a group of older girls and boys who have remained positively engaged by EACDT through the Community and Mentoring components.  This group will collectively be known as The Leading Lights.  The purpose of the Structured Support Programme is to complement activities delivered through the Community Programme and give The Leading Lights continuous, intensive access, from the age of 14+ to 22+, to the following:

• individual and group mentoring, delivered by volunteers recruited and trained by EACDT;
• a Female Empowerment programme for girls and women only, delivered in partnership with experienced local providers;
• Leadership training, delivered in partnership with experienced local providers, and the facilitation of leadership roles in the Community Programme;
• Employability & Enterprise training, delivered in partnership with experienced providers;
• facilitation of Work Experience and Internships, delivered by EACDT through its network of businesses and community organisations;
• academic support, delivered by volunteer educationalists recruited by EACDT;
• facilitation of engagement in Social Action Projects, undertaken either directly with EACDT or with other community organisations or else with Nairobi businesses in line with their CSR agendas.

13:  EACDT Planned Outputs & Outcomes (2024 and onwards)

In 2024 we aim:

• to engage 6,000 girls and boys through the Schools Programme;
• to engage 500 girls and boys through the Community Programme;
• to engage 160 Leading Lights (a sub-set of those engaged through the Community Programme) through the Structured Support Programme.

The Schools Programme, operating from 2024 only in primary schools, is now regarded as the “foundational” phase of our programme.  The Schools Programme gives girls and boys (aged 8 – 14) at formative stages in their lives opportunities to understand and reflect upon their character and to develop a positive set of character qualities (based on the seven identified character qualities), while also learning to play and enjoy cricket.  This “foundational” stage aims to achieve immediate impact on the schools in which we operate and on young people’s attitude towards and performance at school, as well as at home and in their communities.

The Community Programme and the Structured Support Programme both aim to build upon the foundation established through the Schools Programme.  Both components support young people (aged 14+-22+) in further developing positive character and, in the case of the latter, to enable The Leading Lights to access tailored support, to set personal and professional goals and to make verifiable progress towards these goals.

The outcomes we aim to achieve from 2024 through each of the three components of the enhanced Character Through Sport Programme (Schools Programme, Community Programme and the new Structured Support Programme) are:

Schools Programme (Girls and Boys aged 8-14)

• strong endorsement of the programme from headteachers of the schools in which we operate, from the Kenyan Ministry of Education, from young people (aged 8-14), their families and from other stakeholders;
• commitment from teachers, new volunteers and others working with young people to receive training in Character Education and enhance impact;
• young people who understand the seven identified character qualities and are continuously developing a positive set of character qualities to help them succeed in all aspects of their lives;
• young people who are demonstrating improved attendance, discipline and behaviour and achieving academically above expectations;
• motivated, determined and compassionate young people who are optimistic about their futures;
• young people who have committed enthusiastically to the Character Through Sport Programme and who wish positively to extend their engagement in subsequent components of EACDT’s programmes.

Community and Structured Support Programmes

• strong endorsement of the programmes from young people (aged 14+ -22), their families and from other stakeholders;
• young people (aged 14+ -22) who are continuously developing a positive set of character qualities to help them achieve their personal, academic and professional goals and to succeed in all aspects of their lives;
• young girls and women (aged 14+ – 22) who, as young women, are feeling empowered and are ambitious to surmount the barriers that girls and women have traditionally faced in Kenya;
• young people who, if they progress to secondary education and/or to university, are achieving strong academic results;
• young people who, regardless of access to secondary education and/or university, are setting professional goals, are accessing careers advice, acquiring employability and enterprise skills and progressing towards these goals;
• young people who are developing leadership skills and demonstrating these through their participation in Social Action Projects and/or in EACDT’s Community Cricket Clubs.

Across all three components

• as a bi-product, young people with talent and enthusiasm for cricket who are making good progress as players and in other roles and who are becoming permanent participants as cricketers, playing to the highest levels of which they are capable and/or in other roles.

14:  Evaluation and Impact Assessment

Since 2014 EACDT has tracked on a weekly basis all 15,763 young people and their participation in all areas of our programme in order to assess the impact made as a consequence of their committed engagement.  We have also developed an assessment tool for measuring progress in developing each of the seven identified character qualities, while also interviewing all of the headteachers of the schools in which we operate, analysing examination results and attendance records of the young people engaged and receiving reports about their general conduct and attitude towards school.

We also recognise that, while the development of positive character is vital to young people’s future success in all aspects of their lives, this is not an end in itself – rather it is a means through which a series of positive short-term,  medium-term and longer-term outcomes can be achieved, those relating to the Outcomes identified in Section 11.  The implementation of the Structured Support programme (replacing the previous Mentoring component) will necessarily require us to utilise additional assessment tools so that we can demonstrate the extent to which The Leading Lights are succeeding in achieving their individual goals as a consequence of the new Structured Support

Programme.

15: Finance, Funding & Budget

The Annual Report & Accounts for the financial year ending December 2022, filed with the Charity Commission in July 2023, report income of £125,335, expenditure of £147,885 and reserves of £35,973.   In September 2023 projections for total income (assuming no further income were to be raised prior to December 2023) during the current year ending December 2023 are £111,252, for total expenditure £120,314 while reserves projected to be held at year-end are c. £27,000.

The most significant funders during both 2022 and 2023 were COSARAF, The Aldridge Foundation, Tatu City and Koy Clothing, as well as a number of individual philanthropists.

A budget for 2024 (January 2024 – December 2024) is set at £209,000, while provisional budgets for 2025 and 2026 have been set respectively at £261,000 and at £225,000.   These budgets reflect our intentions to (re-) establish two additional School Hubs in 2024; to establish one additional Community Centre in 2024 (to serve as a Cricket and Community Centre for Women and Girls); to establish two further Community Centres in 2025; to employ additional staff and coaches needed to deliver the expanded Schools and Community Programmes;  to recruit additional staff to lead and deliver the new Structured Support Programme in 2024 and to implement some of its activities alongside experienced delivery partners for whose services we will pay.

For 2024, we have current commitments totaling c.  £92,000 to support the 2024 expenditure budget of £209,466; current commitments for 2025 and 2026 are c. £72,000.  Our immediate fundraising priority lies in generating £117,500 needed to deliver our plans for 2024 while additionally seeking funds, perhaps in the form of three-year, commitments to support delivery in 2025 and 2026.

16:  Fundraising Strategy:

Our fundraising strategy is straightforward.  EACDT aims to raise income from Kenya and from the UK and other parts of the world.   We are bringing EACDT to the attention of Kenyan-based businesses and their respective foundations and also to Kenyan philanthropists, while also targeting trusts and foundations in the UK and USA and from individual philanthropists.

17:  Our Motivations

All of us involved in EACDT have in common three particular concerns. Firstly, we know East Africa intimately well, a place where poverty, disadvantage, gender discrimination and lack of opportunity is rife but where there is such vast human potential.  Secondly, we recognise how sport, played competitively and in teams – and cricket in particular – can engage young people and enrich their   lives. Thirdly, we believe passionately in Education, provided formally in school and at university but also provided less formally outside of these institutions.  We insist that young East Africans from the most disadvantaged communities, and especially girls, need help to access excellent, innovative opportunities so that they can build a strong set of character qualities; we are adamant that, drawing on positive character, they can access opportunities to empower them and to enable them to progress satisfyingly into the world of work, while undertaking important social action within the communities of Nairobi.

It is for these reasons that EACDT was founded and that our Character Through Sport Programme was conceived. We continue actively to seek support in order to fill the financial gap between what we have and what we need in order to drive forward our programme for the next three years so that we can provide the dynamic support which we know will make such a difference to thousands of Kenyan’s young people.

Your best support

If you share our concerns about the education of young people in Kenya and our conviction that character building through sport will very significantly enhance their personal development and life prospects, please help us.

PLEASE VISIT OUR WEBSITE: https://eacdt.org/