A Closer Look the Organizations Ade + Ayo Gives Back To
An integral piece of Ade + Ayo operations is focused on creating beautiful, comfortable, and kind collections. The “kind” refers to our core commitments: our priority on artisan-crafted products and our focus on eco-friendly and sustainable practices. "Kind" also refers to our commitment to donating a portion of the proceeds from Ade + Ayo to organizations aiming to improve the education gap for young children in sub-Saharan Africa. In this blog post, we will be taking a closer look at two charities that Ade + Ayo gives back to: Imagine Worldwide and Unbongo. When you purchase from Ade + Ayo, we hope you experience both the joy that is inherently intertwined with African culture, as well as the joy of being a part of something bigger.
Imagine Worldwide
Meet Imagine Worldwide: an organization that provides education and opportunity for young children in sub-Saharan Africa. According to the UNESCO Institute for Statistics, “sub-Saharan Africa has the world’s highest out-of-school rate for primary school age children. In 2014, nearly one in four children of primary school age were out of school.” Imagine Worldwide is working to bridge this education gap by providing access to quality education for young children in sub-Saharan Africa.
Their mission is simply this: to empower children around the globe to build the literacy and numeracy skills needed to achieve their full potential. This is done by providing children with state-of-the-art software and technology that provides research-based curriculums that not only allow them to learn at their own pace but also allow them to learn in their own space. The software and technology provided to children by Imagine Worldwide can be used without internet access or grid power, so it is easily accessible no matter the circumstances.
Imagine Worldwide makes their solutions for children scalable by keeping things accessible, high quality, and most importantly -- affordable. The annual cost of their learning solutions is less than $10/day per child and declining. This includes software, accessories, power, shipping and receiving costs, and all fees associated with implementation and support from Imagine.
From Imagine Worldwide:
“In 2016, blended learning advocate Joe Wolf wondered: “Has technology evolved to the point where we can teach children to read and do math on their own without a formal teacher or school? Could that innovation allow us to leapfrog school infrastructure and serve the millions of kids that do not have access to high quality education?” Joe and Susan Colby imagined what would be possible for children if that were true. The possibilities were limitless – and from that expansive vision, Imagine Worldwide was born.”
Check out Results & Impact Here
Check out Report & Resources Here
Ubongo
Ade + Ayo is also committed to donating a portion of proceeds to Ubongo, an organization that creates educational content for children in Africa. According to the World Bank, “Africa has the world’s youngest population with 200 million children under the age of 14. By 2050 that number is expected to rise to 1 billion.” Ubongo is working to provide educational content for these young children in Africa so they can have the opportunity to reach their full potential.
The organization creagoogle.comtes engaging, locally-relevant, and entertaining animated series that teach kids life-changing skills like math, critical thinking, hygiene, and environmental conservation. Their goal is to make learning fun and accessible for all kids, regardless of where they live or their socioeconomic background.
Their award-winning educational content is available in 13 languages and reaches over 23 million kids across Africa every week. Their animated series, Akili and Me, has been praised by the likes of Oprah Winfrey and Time Magazine, and has won over 30 international awards.
Ubongo is also committed to making their content accessible to as many children as possible, regardless of whether they have access to technology or not. They partner with local organizations and NGOs to ensure that their content is distributed in a way that reaches the most kids possible.
From Ubongo:
"As Africa's leading edutainment company, we create fun, localised and multi-platform educational media that reaches millions of families through accessible technologies. Our programs significantly improve school readiness and learning outcomes for kids, and also promote social and behavioural change for kids, caregivers and educators."
Learn More About Ubongo's Impact Here
View Ubongo's Annual Reports Here
How Can you Support Imagine Worldwide and Ubongo?
Support Directly
Each charity has easy options for setting up monthly donations for advancing their mission. You can do this by visiting the links below,
- Support Ubongo Directly
- Support Imagine Worldwide Directly
Shop AmazonSmile
On last weeks blog, we broke down a few ways to shop more sustainably on Amazon, one of them being switching to AmazonSmile for your Amazon shopping. With AmazonSmile, you still have access to the entirety of Amazon's storefront, but the key difference is that a portion of the money spent goes to a non-profit organization of your choice. It really is as simple as logging into your Amazon account through smile.amazon.com, choosing the charity of your choice, and shopping as usual. Both Imagine Worldwide and Ubongo are available to select as the charity of your choice.
Shop Ade + Ayo
We are proud to donate a portion of all sales on Ade + Ayo collections directly to these organizations. We stand by keeping "kind" at the center of what we do here, and will continue to contribute to organization like these, and hopefully others in the future!
Thank you for reading, and we hope this has inspired you to find your own way of giving back!
Sources:
https://www.imagineworldwide.org/our-story
https://www.oprah.com/spirit/ubongos-akili-and-me-winsaward
https://time.com/4741453/best-inventions-2017-akili-and-me/
https://www.cnbcafrica.com/news/special-report/2017/09/28/animated-series-ubongo-akili-me/#
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_iazC9tJqM&feature=youtu.be
https://www.cnbcafrica.com/news/special-report/2017/09/28/animated-series-ubongo-akili-me/#