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At Firelight, we are inspired by how African communities are making a better life for families, children and young people.

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We also believe in the extraordinary potential of young people – and their ability to solve problems and create opportunities for themselves and for their communities.

We’re talking about changes that are so deeply rooted – in the community and in systems – that they result in lasting impact.

What we do

At Firelight, we partner with community-based organizations that are working with their communities to realize shared visions of change and the true potential of children and youth.

The evidence shows that supporting CBOs and communities to fully realize their own agency and capacity enables them to improve the life trajectories of their children and youth over the long-term.

This is why we invest in African CBOs to work with their own communities to identify, analyze, and address their own most pressing priorities.

Why we exist

There is a huge need

More than half of the 50 million out-of-school children live in Africa, and there are approximately 32.1 million children in Africa who are either single- or double-parent orphans. At the same time, approximately 38% of girls in sub-Saharan Africa are married before the age of 18.

There is a huge opportunity

By 2050, one in every three children under the age of 18 will be African. It is essential to ensure that these young people grow up in safe, strong, nurturing environments that prepare them to participate in ever-growing economic opportunities.

Community solutions hold the key

Community-based organizations are among the greatest assets in creating safe, strong, nurturing environments for children and youth. This is why we focus on building the capacity of catalytic organizations that are born and embedded in a community.

Our approach

Firelight funds and strengthens catalytic community-based organizations (CBOs) that are working with their communities to address important systems for children and youth in eastern and southern Africa.

Our model, community-driven systems change, is employed in an adaptive process through constant learning and refining.

We identify

Support communities to map the challenges or opportunities for their own children and youth or the systems in which they live
Identify catalytic community-based organizations (CBOs)
Listen: to identify root causes of vulnerability
Identify solutions

We enhance

Cluster CBOs together at their request
Invest in CBOs using patient, flexible, but targeted capital
Enhance individual CBO capacity
 Support communities of practice with other CBOs, technical experts and policymakers
Measure progress and document best practices

We shift systems

Support grantee-partners to shift systems and share their ideas more widely so that, for example:

An entire community adopts healthier, more child-centered norms
Other CBOs adapt our partners’ solutions
Governments embrace new policies and practices

We support lasting impact

At Firelight, we aim to leave our grantees and their communities stronger than when we met them. They tell us that they do not want to be dependent on outside donor funding in the long term. We honor that by supporting them to drive and sustain systems change after our funding ends.

Download our strategy