Rafiki Thabo Foundation

Rafiki Thabo Foundation is a small UK based charity that support individuals and their communities in Africa through education that embraces their differing abilities. Our vision is that children and young people, including those living with disabilities, will be empowered through education to enable them to reach their full potential and initiate positive change in their communities. Our aim is to enable access to education through our scholarship programme, school meals programmes, school infrastructure projects and by inspiring our scholars and graduates to in turn help others.

The young people Rafiki Thabo Foundation support all live in poverty, many are orphaned and many are living with disabilities. Without support, they would be unable to access education as they cannot afford the school fees, and as such remain trapped in poverty. Our patron, blind TV presenter Amar Latif, recently talked about young Praise in our BBC Radio 4 Appeal. Praise’s story resonated intensely with Amar: She lost her eyesight at 8 years old from an illness that was curable, but her family could not afford the treatment. Her father abandoned her and her family due to the shame and stigma of her disability, leaving her mother penniless to care for four young children. With no money for school fees Praise remained out of school for years. Now twenty years old, Praise is a Rafiki Thabo scholar and she is thriving at secondary school! She wants to become a lawyer and fight for the rights of disabled people in Uganda.

In Uganda alone 8 in 10 children never go to secondary school. It costs an average £350 per year to send one child to school: two-thirds of the average annual household income. Rafiki Thabo Foundation currently support 250 scholars, and by hosting successful events like our Gala Dinner and our Rafiki Relay for Education we can not only continue to do so but make sure we can help even more young people towards a limitless future.