Vision: Learning for Life's vision is of a world where everyone has access to education, health, civil liberties, and safe, sustainable employment.

Mission: Learning for Life's mission is to overcome poverty by providing South Asia's poor and oppressed with education and opportunity and to raise awareness of development issues and challenge stereotypes in the UK.

What we do

Since our creation in 1994, LfL has worked hard to provide education that is realistic and relevant to people's lives. Learning for Life UK enables South Asia's poorest populations to gain access to education, health and employment. These basic human rights form the first, essential step in overcoming poverty. We work with local partners to provide education for children, training for teachers, certified vocational training for safe employment and catch up education for adolescents, and reproductive health and HIV/AIDS awareness for communities in South Asia. We provide our local partners, who understand local issues, with the skills and support to help communities set up and manage practical and sustainable projects that meet their real needs.

Realising the vision

We are committed to supporting teachers and their pupils: on streets, in refugee camps, slums or in remote villages. In South Asia, LfL provides pre-primary education for younger children, and vocational training for those who are a little older. In the UK we work with primary schools and youth groups to help children understand the hardships affecting their fellow pupils in South Asia, as well as things that make them smile and dream. We aim to increase our impact both directly on the ground through our partner organisations, and indirectly by creating networks, promoting and sharing best practice in the field and in our offices.

Above all, we aim to be transparent, accountable, effective, innovative and creative. As an organisation in an ever-changing political world, through our learning from the field, we are constantly evolving. We conduct research, analysis, evaluation and dissemination with all our projects and enhance our partners' capacities to do the same both nationally and internationally. We monitor project progress collaboratively, through regular field visits by LfL staff and independent evaluators. We also help our partners to strengthen their own monitoring and evaluation skills so they can better measure and understand the positive impacts of their work. Our team - partners, donors, staff, volunteers and trustees - are vital components, without whose cooperation our vision would remain incomplete.