About Us
Who we are. An African-led, evidence-driven not-for-profit strengthening the foundations of learning.
Blooming World International was founded in March 2019 in Nairobi, Kenya, out of years of community work and research across East Africa. From the beginning, our focus was on children and young people furthest behind — those born into poverty, living in rural and arid regions, in displaced communities, or with developmental delays and disabilities.
We started by asking why children were not learning, and what it would take for them to flourish. That question has shaped every programme, study and partnership we have built since.
Early Childhood Development
Foundational Literacy & Numeracy
Assessment & Learning Evidence
Future-Ready Skills & Values
What we do. We strengthen the foundations every child needs — from birth through adolescence.
Our work spans a child's development pathway from birth through adolescence. Across every stage, we focus on the foundations that matter most — through evidence and learning, partnership for systems change, and innovation for practice.
Our values. Rooted in the spirit of Utu, our shared humanity.
Belonging
No one left out. The most marginalised children at the centre of our work.
Learning
Inquiry-led. We ask hard questions and let evidence guide us.
Openness
We share our data, tools and findings, and speak truthfully about failures.
One Team
We share credit and give voice to those closest to children.
Mutual Care
Safeguarding children and caring for the wellbeing of everyone we work with.
The work began with a simple question: what would it take for every child to bloom? Everything we've done since has been an attempt to answer it — one classroom, one community, one piece of evidence at a time.
Elisha Caleb
Founder, Blooming World International
Since 2019. The moments that shaped who we are and how we work.
Founded in Nairobi
BWI is founded as an African-led, not-for-profit organisation inspired by a simple question: what would it take for every child to bloom?
Reaching 20,000+ young people
Through partnerships with over 20 TVET institutions in 20 Kenyan counties, we reached over 20,000 young people with the holistic competences demanded for work and life — deepening understanding of skills for work and informing Kenya's Competency-Based Training curricula.
Accelerating foundational learning
Adapting the Teaching at the Right Level methodology to the Kenyan context, we accelerated the learning of over 17,000 children in more than 120 primary schools across three counties. After only 30 days of learning camps, 50% of children moved up two levels in reading and numeracy.
Extending our work to birth
We began working with mothers, caregivers, daycare centres and community health workers to support children from birth to age three — with nurturing care, early stimulation, and locally adapted assessment tools. This work fills a gap many organisations leave: the youngest children, and their first thousand days.
Convening partners across sectors
Through our Birth-to-Learning Platform, we bring together governments, civil society, researchers, funders and the private sector — connecting education, health and social protection sectors that too often work in isolation, even though they serve the same child.
Our partners. Governments, funders, researchers and communities we work alongside.
All partners & donors
