DirectEd Development Foundation

For a world in which any person can realise their full potential, regardless of their draw in the lottery of life

For progress updates, roadmap and much more, check out our public Notion page!


What we do

We enable high-potential under-resourced students in Kenya and Ethiopia realise their full potential in the globalised economy through our coding bootcamp scholarship where they learn the most sought-after digital skills on the market.


Developer shortage

  • The US Buereau of Labor Statistics projects a software engineer shortage exceeding 1.2 million by 2026

  • The shortage of IT professionals in Europe amounts to half a million

  • 38% of companies in Europe plan to oursource more in the next 2 years


Where traditional charities fail

  • Transparency - who received my donation? What was it used for?

  • Feedback - what difference did my donation make? How is it transforming someone's life?

  • Efficiency - charities often spend 25% of their revenue on administrative overhead and marketing


Our programme

We are creating a impact pipeline with three steps.

  • Intro Coding Course: an accessible 1-week mobile-phone based and remote Python course.

  • Full-stack Bootcamp: an intensive 10 week full-stack coding focused on the MERN framework in Javascript.

  • Graduate Programme: a 6-month long study-internship where teams of students work with tech companies whilst specialising in high-demand languages part-time OR enter further full-time coding bootcamps.


Why donate?

  • Transformative impact - for every $1 donated, we create an estimated value of $15 for the students and their communities.

  • Accountability - access scholarships that are given to needy students are conditionally on successful coding bootcamp progress.

  • Join a community - united by a vision of a future in which anyone can realise their full potential, regardless of their draw in the lottery of life.


Step-By-Step Process

1. Intro Coding Course and Onboarding

We select partner high schools in Kenya and Ethiopia that have many high-potential under-resourced students. We then provide a free 1-week mobile phone-based remote coding course for all students to take part in. We also help students and schools set up the necessary infrastructure for the stipend disbursement.


2. Scholarship pools

We set up a smart contract scholarship pools. Each school has their own funding pool. This pays for both costs of running the coding courses for free and to enable students from needy backgrounds to receive Access Scholarships covering tutoring expenses, laptop lending and more. We clearly define the milestones needed for each payout from the smart contract.


3. Bootcamp

After a merit-based selection process students enrol in a 10-week bootcamp. The bootcamp is free of charge and covers the most sought-after skills as identified by our employer surveys. Needy students receive milestones-based stipends with funds from the scholarship pool.


4. Graduate Programme

Upon successfully completing our coding bootcamp, we continue to support our scholars through a graduate scholarship.
This has two pathways:

  • Entry into a longer full-time coding bootcamp

  • Internship project with our partner companies


5. Employment

When our students are employed as remote software engineers, we ask students to contribute part of their salary back to the same pool that financed their training, creating a self-perpetuating cycle of funding for future scholars.


DirectEd Lions Collection

The DirectEd Lions is a 2130-piece art collection divided into 4 tiers created by Simon Sällström in collaboration with the Caviar AI model developed by Mohammed Baioumy and his team to help the fundraising efforts for DirectEd Development Foundation's work in Africa. With larger donations, the quality, uniqueness and utility of the art goes up.Warrior Tier
Donors gain access to an exclusive donor's portal and invitations to online events.
Hero Tier
Invitation for two to an annual Donor's Dinner held at the University of Oxford and student-written hero chronicles.
Royal Tier
A physical nameplate in recognition of the contributions made to the recipient school.
God Tier
This tier will have only 2 pieces released per fundraising campaign, stay tuned...
Below you will one samples from each of the tiers of the DirectEd Lions collection!

Our Team

Learn more about our team & advisors



Follow our work

Find out more about our organisation, our team, what we do and read monthly project updates on our Notion page.

Contact

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