The power of Theirworld: our campaigns, projects and networks in 2025

Theirworld’s vision is to end the global education crisis and unleash the potential of the next generation.

Throughout 2025, we used the power of our diverse and active network of youth, social entrepreneurs, campaigners, businesses and researchers to help young people have the best start in life, a safe place to learn and skills for the future.

Here we look back at some of the major moments, the ongoing successes and the inspiring people who helped us make a real and lasting difference in the lives of so many children and young people.

Act For Early Years

2025 saw major breakthroughs for Act For Early Years – a growing movement launched by Theirworld – and its goal of increasing investment in childcare and early childhood education. Many countries made or announced significant spending on the early years, with South Africa showing inspiring leadership during its presidency of the G20.

On behalf of Act For Early Years Theirworld Global Youth Ambassadors were in South Africa to urge G20 members to invest in the future of millions of under-fives. They appeared at key summit events and persuaded leaders to sign the Act For Early Years ‘Minifesto’.

At the G20 summit in Johannesburg in November, world leaders made a historic commitment to young children by agreeing to increase investment. By putting the early years at the centre of the global agenda, governments recognised that childcare and preschool education are critical for every child to thrive and that investing in them is one of the smartest moves any country can make.

Earlier in in the year, Brazii’s President Lula da Silva launched a bold national plan to support the wellbeing and development of the country’s youngest children. With the Act For Early Years momentum growing, other nations announced lifechanging policies, including the Philippines and Jordan.

Another was Ukraine, which revealed major plans to increase access to learning for the youngest children. Theirworld announced a package of support – providing funding, training and expertise – to help kickstart Ukraine’s preschool reforms.

In September, Theirworld co-hosted a major event during the United Nations General Assembly, along with UNICEF, the South African government and Act For Early Years partners. It was attended by government officials from several countries, UN agency chiefs and leaders of foundations and philanthropic organisations. At the event, global leaders took a historic step towards transforming the lives of young children with the announcement of the first-ever International Finance Summit for Early Childhood, to be held in 2027. 

Projects and partners

Theirworld supports projects and initiatives in more than 140 countries. We have impacted over 34 million learners, educators and caregivers through our projects, emergency responses and the Theirworld Education Innovation Awards. More than 90% of our projects are locally run and managed.

Our mission is to ensure every child has the best start in life, a safe place to learn and skills for the future. Highlights of Theirworld’s work during 2025 included:

Best start in life

In April, the BBC featured the remarkable work of the Theirworld Edinburgh Birth Cohort, which follows 400 children from birth into adulthood to develop new treatments to support the healthy development of premature babies. Cohort research revealing the impact of poverty on brain development was also covered by BBC Radio 4, the Daily Mail, The Independent and the BBC Breakfast TV show.

Theirworld collaborated with Ukraine’s Ministry of Education and Science to pilot its new early childhood framework through a project called First Steps Forward. In September, we announced a package of support – providing funding, training and expertise – to help kickstart the preschool reforms.

Throughout the year we also continued to support early years projects in Ghana, India, Kenya, Lebanon and Uganda.

Safe place to learn

Also in Ukraine, the Cuboid Museum of Mathematics was opened, made possible with support from Theirworld. We worked with the Ukrainian government on the project in Kyiv, which is vital because the conflict has disrupted education for millions, with maths being hit hardest.

Theirworld unveiled a suite of initiatives, working with local partners, to support children across the Middle East impacted by conflict and displacement. We released a report in January that warned about Gaza’s youngest and most vulnerable children facing a severe early childhood development crisis. In Gaza, our partnership with the Ajyal Foundation supports the education and wellbeing of children affected by trauma. In Israel, we support Givat Haviva’s Children Teaching Children programme which combines learning with emotional healing. In Lebanon, Theirworld is working alongside Lebanese Alternative Learning to create alternative learning spaces.

Skills for the future

Theirworld supported a health and life skills education project in Kenya and climate-related education projects in Ghana, India, Kenya and Tanzania.

In the United States, the 2025 Youth Skills and Employment Accelerator welcomed 15 exceptional nonprofits working with young people from underserved communities The Accelerator is run by the Global Business Coalition, an initiative of Theirworld. You can learn more about this further down.

Education Innovation Awards

We also worked throughout 2025 with the six non-profit organisations chosen to be the fifth cohort in the Theirworld Education Innovation Awards. Each received support to grow their impact through leadership coaching, masterclass training sessions, one-to-one mentoring and grants. We also started working with the sixth cohort and that support will run throughout 2026.

To learn more about our projects and partnerships, see our 2025 Impact Report.

Projects visits

The Act for Early Years campaign has been working with advocates in Kenya’s Kwale County to help spread awareness of the importance of quality childcare and preschool learning. As part of this collaboration, Theirworld President Justin van Fleet visited the area in February to discuss the successful early childhood programmes and explore ways of promoting Kwale’s innovation as a model for others. We also visited projects in Nairobi and handed out certifications to winners of the Theirworld Education Innovation Awards.

Justin and Sarah Brown also travelled to Ukraine in September, to meet with world leaders, ministers, educators and young people, to visit existing Theirworld projects and to back new national preschool reform plans. And Sarah attended the Summit of First Ladies and Gentlemen in Kyiv, hosted by Ukraine’s First Lady Olena Zelenska, and announced a support package to help launch the first pilot projects under Ukraine’s First Steps Forward national preschool strategy.

In November, Senior Projects Manager Paula‑Louise Eze‑John and Director of Programmes Abdulrahman Alhalawani visited Theirworld‑supported projects in Johannesburg and Cape Town, South Africa. They observed programme activities, developed innovation case studies and assessed the impact of Theirworld’s grants to Digify Africa, Bookdash and the Ladles of Love Foundation.

Global Youth Ambassadors

Theirworld’s Global Youth Ambassador programme is a network currently numbering more than 2,400 young people from over 130 countries who are working together to end the global education crisis.

As well as taking part in the regular two-year programme of learning advocacy and campaigning skills, 10 young advocates also undertook an additional 10-month journalism project. This equipped them with the training and tools to report stories from their often under-represented communities. Theirworld worked with The Observer Studios, the content studio of The Observer newspaper, to bring together those stories in the first edition of The Education Issue, which will be an annual newspaper.

Their power and passion was on show when 100 young champions of inclusive education gathered in Kenya for Theirworld’s Young Leaders in Education Summit, where they were joined by entrepreneurs, campaigners, educators, supporters and business leaders. The event in Nairobi followed two days of advocacy training for GYAs.

The LGBTQ+ Inclusion and Education Task Team was established at the beginning of April. In May, the Climate and Education Task Team launched its mentorship activity, designed to strengthen the impact of young project leaders.

Throughout the week of the UN General Assembly in September, GYAs took part in high-level events, panel discussions, additional activities and networking opportunities. The Education Issue was also unveiled there. 

In November, Global Youth Ambassadors made a major impact at the G20 summit by turning up the pressure on leaders to protect the world’s youngest children. On behalf of the Act For Early Years campaign, they were in South Africa to urge the biggest economies to invest in the future of millions of under-fives who need quality healthcare, childcare and preschool education. GYAs appeared at key summit events and persuaded leaders to sign the Act For Early Years ‘Minifesto’.

Fundraising and supporters

We kicked off the year with a special event at which Suzanne Heywood CBE, the author of Wavewalker, was interviewed by Theirworld Chair Sarah Brown. Hosted by Advisory Board member Tamara Box, the evening explored Suzanne’s experiences growing up at sea for a decade without access to schooling – and how those experiences shaped her life. Guests had the opportunity to buy signed copies of Wavewalker, with proceeds going to Theirworld.

In January, Theirworld was awarded €900,000 (£750,000) a year for three years to advance the education of some of the world’s most vulnerable children as part of a renewed partnership with the Dutch Postcode Lottery (Nationale Postcode Loterij).

We’ve also been supported by incredible individuals who fundraised for us again this year – from marathon distances, quiz nights and even contortion challenges. In March our wonderful supporter Nadezhda Aksenova set a new Guinness World Record for the longest splits with an incredible four hours.

Our community once again stepped up for Theirworld, Your Walk during June. From breathtaking Icelandic treks to furry friends proudly sporting their Theirworld bandanas, our supporters’ sponsored steps challenges raised more £28,000 to help children in conflict continue their learning.

Also in June, we hosted a reception at Dover House in Westminster, London, to celebrate Theirworld’s contribution to global education and honour the support of our valued community. Our supporters were warmly welcomed by Scottish Secretary the Rt Hon Ian Murray MP. Attendees included actors Bill Nighy, Dougray Scott, Claire Forlani, Ingrid Oliver and Matt Lucas.

We took part in The Big Give Christmas challenge again to raise £60,0520 for two of our early childhood development programmes in India and Kenya. Highlights included screenwriter and director Richard Curtis generously donating a rare, lost script from an un-filmed Blackadder Christmas Special and an original studio script with handwritten notes from the episode Blackadder Goes Forth: Corporal Punishment, which raised over £10,000 in a public auction.

Research and reports

In January Theirworld issued a stark warning about Gaza’s youngest and most vulnerable children facing a severe early childhood development crisis. Early Childhood Development in Gaza: an Urgent Call for Action highlighted the urgent need for a co-ordinated global response to address the needs of young children, pregnant women and lactating mothers.

International funding for vital preschool education is at a critical crossroads, according to research published in May. The 2025 version of the annual Act For Early Years donor scorecard shows investment in pre-primary education more than doubled over five years to $250 million. But early education remained severely underfunded at just 1.2% of total education aid.

A new Theirworld study in June revealed that LGBTQ+ students across the world are dropping out of education at alarmingly high rates. In some countries more than half of LGBTQ+ students are projected to leave secondary school early if current trends continue.

Also in June, a report by Theirworld and Act For Early Years titled All Means All called for disability-inclusive early years financing to transform education and care services for young children with disabilities, as well as universal support for families.

Global Business Coalition for Education

Fifteen nonprofits that work with young people from underserved communities in the United States were selected to join the 2025 Youth Skills and Employment Accelerator. The Accelerator is run by the coalition, which is an initiative of Theirworld. You can read case studies about each of the organizations. GBC-Education also welcomed Stellantis as the newest corporate partner of the Accelerator and the first Youth Skills and Employment Accelerator virtual fair was held.

The coalition also announced a new partnership with the Ukrainian Business Council to advance business support for education in the war-torn country. On the third anniversary of the Ukraine conflict, we delivered 500 laptops to schools that urgently need updated technology to help more than 21,000 students. This was on top of more than 70,000 laptops delivered to displaced Ukrainian children and teachers earlier by the coalition and Theirworld.

GBC-Education also continued to expand its advisory services with members SAP and HP. Watch video case studies about SAP and HP to learn more. And the coalition held its first in-person engagement with businesses in Kenya, where it mobilised local business for skills and workforce development.