Kirubel is a boy with hearing impairment in Addis Abeba, Ethiopia. He learned how to save and spend money wisely, to take care of the environment, and also how to set up a mini-organisation, to plan, budget and to write a business plan. Kirubel follows the Aflatoun programme at the Alpha Deaf School, supported by our Partner of the Week, StartUp4kids.

In many places, children with disabilities have it especially hard as there are few opportunities for them and they often lack support from society. That is why StartUp4kids focusses on this group to teach basic life and entrepreneurial skills with Aflatoun lessons. StartUp4kids believes that the most important part of the Aflatoun program is that children are not only taught how to do things, but actually are putting their lessons to practice.

Aside from the project in Ethiopia that is implemented with local partner Dires for Development, Startup4kids works in Peru, Ethiopia, Uganda, Guatemala, Nepal and the Netherlands to offer extra-curricular schooling to socially disadvantaged children in primary schools. Between 2010 and 2016 they reached 14.059 children, in 2016 alone that was 3600. For 2017 the plan is to reach 6.500 children in 6 countries with 266 trainers and local teachers.

They will make this growth possible by implementing Aflatoun in primary (special) schools in the Netherlands with a project called Klas4klas. Furthermore they will scale up the project in Peru by training 200 local teachers in rural areas and scale up the Aflatoun project for blind children in Ethiopia and children with disabilities in Guatemala.

By offering internships abroad, organising sponsor trips and by connecting classes in the Netherlands and Ethiopia, StartUp4kids helps creating more awareness for the Aflatoun programme and related organisations, but also to create consciousness for the world around us.

See many great photos on their Facebook page and take your chance to hear the Aflatoun song in Quechua! For more information, see the foundation’s website  or directly contact katja@startup4kids.nl.