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Who We Are

Our Background

Learning for Life has had an incredible journey since it began in 1994. The initial idea, developed by Charlotte Bannister-Parker and Sophia Swire, was to help develop girls’ education in India and Pakistan. Almost 30 years on, we have expanded our vision and commitment, working with impoverished communities across South Asia, including Afghanistan, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Nepal. ​Learning for Life continues to create transparent local partnerships to work with neglected and isolated communities and individuals. We continue to tackle difficult issues in South Asia, working with communities cut off by floods in Bangladesh, reconstructing schools after the earthquake in Nepal, and supporting working children in India.

Our Vision

Learning for Life's vision is of a world where everyone has access to education, health, human rights, and safe, sustainable employment.

Our Mission

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

Realising our 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.

 

Our Values and Commitments

  • We will develop effective partnerships with governments, civil society, communities, funders and children where the need is identified and the opportunity arises across all the areas of our work to develop projects in the geographical areas we have identified.

  • We will be focussed but agile in evaluating new opportunities for development.

  • We will deliver value for money in our services and be transparent and accountable to our funders, partners and beneficiaries.

  • We will build on our excellent service delivery and develop our organisational capacity by investing in our staff to be leaders in their field.

  • We will use our knowledge and expertise to build the capacity of our local implementing partners.

  • We will value our independence, evaluate our impact and provide an authoritative voice in service delivery in the area we work.

  • We will continue to make an impact in service delivery in south Asia.

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