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Founded by Sir Lewis Hamilton in 2021, is a charity working to transform the lives of young people from underserved backgrounds through progressive grantmaking, supporting collaboration and campaigning for change. Mission 44 is one of the few grantmaking organizations in the UK with a Black founder and CEO, a diverse trustee board and a diverse team.

In 2023, �۶���Ƶ Optimus Foundation continued supporting Mission 44 in its work, including growing its network of partners to 29 organizations changing the lives of young people, making its first international grants in the USA and Brazil, commissioning five pieces of research, and establishing a Youth Advisory Board to help shape the organization’s impact strategy.

While Bangladesh has made progress in reducing some aspects of gender inequality - such as increasing access to education for girls and boosting female workforce participation - critical challenges remain. Gender-based discrimination and violence, particularly against girls, continues to be pervasive and a persistent culture of silence and denial around sexual abuse, combined with systemic gender inequalities, contributes to the conditions that allow sexual exploitation and trafficking to flourish.

Although an estimated 30,000 girls are sexually exploited in Bangladesh (2022, U.S. Department of Labor) the issue lacks adequate attention. To confront these systemic issues, the �۶���Ƶ Optimus Foundation began supporting the Justice, Hope and Liberty Collaborative (JHL) eight years ago. In collaboration with the Freedom Fund and Justice and Care, JHL works to prevent exploitation, empower survivors, and shift the societal norms that enable trafficking.

Justice and Care, along with its survivor champions, recently launched survivor-owned social enterprises to develop skills for women and girls freed from sexual exploitation, providing them with market relevant skills development. The aim is for these enterprises to become fully self-sustaining and employ more survivors. According to Justice and Care, 79% of survivor households involved in the project already report better economic stability, with the project significantly boosting women’s leadership and workforce participation in rural areas. This is a rare achievement and a highlight for the initiative.

With the support of the �۶���Ƶ Optimus Foundation, the Freedom Fund established a Hot Spot program in Dhaka in 2021, creating a network with families, civil society organizations and the government to protect children from sexual exploitation. Initially funding four local organizations to provide direct assistance to those vulnerable to commercial sexual exploitation, Freedom Fund’s efforts attracted the attention of other funders, enabling expansion to support seven partners and increase activities to include shelters for young female survivors. This demonstrates the role of catalytic impact of funding via the �۶���Ƶ Optimus Foundation: Justice and Care has received funding from multiple State governments since the �۶���Ƶ Optimus Foundation began supporting it eight years ago.

Early childhood development is the cornerstone of future learning, behavior, and health. Yet, globally, only 20% of children have access to preschool, and just 40% benefit from necessary childcare services. In Africa, where the child population is expected to reach 1 billion by 2055, inadequate childcare is creating a human capital crisis.

Substandard care affects 33% of preschool children in Africa, causing stunted growth and significantly impacting women's earning potential after childbirth. Globally, childcare is a major barrier to women's economic equality, but the effects are most severe for impoverished women in Africa. Poor-quality childcare traps mothers, carers, and children in a cycle of poverty.

To address these challenges, Tiny Totos’s has developed a social franchise accelerator that provides informal caregivers with training and access to capital, networks and technology for learning and business management. This initiative represents a sustainable, proven and scalable solution for transforming informal care and tackling Africa’s childcare crisis. Children, regardless of their economic background, achieve age-appropriate developmental milestones, unlocking their future potential. Informal babysitters transform into motivated, profitable childcare entrepreneurs, providing high-quality care and setting new community standards. Mothers pursue their careers, and network members benefit from integrated support services that enhance their quality of life.

As of December 2024, Tiny Totos’s network had 602 daycare centers serving 15,465 children, 84% of whom are on track developmentally. The Mtoto app is used by 68% of the daycare managers use and 88% of the daycares are profitable. Tiny Totos' standardized childcare franchise network is a win-win for everyone involved, with also 621* caregivers improving their employability and employment skills. After rigorous vetting, Tiny Totos secured accreditation for their training program from the National Industrial Training Authority, the first organization in Kenya ever to achieve that.

In Kenya, nearly 60% of the urban population lives in informal settlements with limited access to affordable early childhood care. Mothers are often forced to leave their children in unregulated, informal daycare centers characterized by poor care, nutrition, and hygiene. In these settings, almost half of the children (46%) suffer from stunting, leaving them at risk of lifelong cognitive, emotional, and physical deficits.

Kidogo, a nonprofit organization, uses a social franchise model to empower female entrepreneurs, known as 'Mamapreneurs,' in low-income communities. Kidogo identifies women running informal daycares, who then undergo a 3-month accelerator program covering Early Childhood Development and entrepreneurship. Successful candidates receive starter kits, ongoing mentorship, and quality assurance as franchisees.

Kidogo's franchises provide affordable, high-quality early care options for disadvantaged children. The centers focus on six key elements: safe and stimulating environments, nurturing caregivers, play-based activities, health and nutrition, parent and community engagement, and business and administration. In 2024 alone, Kidogo supported 1986 Mamapreneurs with training and mentorship.

Instituto Natura and its partners aim to generate political momentum around prioritizing child literacy in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru, covering 70% of the population of Latin America. The initiative seeks a systemic shift in collaboration among communities and civil society to create a globally recognized model of regional and state regional success, sometimes referred to as “the Latin American miracle”.

In 2024, Instituto Natura hosted the Implementation Organizations Journey, comprising four remote meetings and an immersion visit to Sobral (in the state of Ceará, Brazil), which drew 40 delegates from six countries. Participants visited schools, spoke with the Department of Education, and explored the public policies underpinning Sobral’s success.

Additionally, Instituto Natura organized the Advocacy Organizations Journey, bringing together seven national delegations (from Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Nuevo León, Chile, Colombia and Peru) along with representatives from international organizations such as the Inter-American Development Bank, the World Bank, UNICEF and UNESCO. Together they addressed the current state of literacy across Latin America, shared best practices on successful literacy policies and supported countries in developing action plans for literacy advocacy campaigns. The meeting concluded with discussions on the Regional Commitment to Literacy in Latin America, set to be launched in 2025.

While too early to report on outcomes, the journey marked the beginning of a deeper collaboration with implementation partners across the region. The visit provided a valuable opportunity to build shared understanding of system-wide education reform, leadership development, and local ownership - laying the groundwork for future impact in the Latin America literacy consortium.

As an early and active partner, we contributed more than just funding- sharing technical input and helping shape the direction of an ambitious regional initiative. This included early thinking on outcome measurement across countries and encouraging the development of a stronger implementation and advocacy roadmap. Our support helped frame a broader vision and build momentum for regional policy advancement.

In Ghana, three Swiss foundations and ten cocoa companies are putting collaborative philanthropy into practice by pooling their funding to enhance literacy, numeracy and socio-emotional learning for all children in Ghana’s primary schools. The 13 co-funders are channeling their funding through the �۶���Ƶ Optimus Foundation network and the Global Partnership for Education, which provides a 1:1 match for their USD��40 million to support the implementation of the Ghana Accountability for Learning Outcomes Program (GALOP). These private funds will support the roll-out of play-based methodology in all public kindergartens, help to scale teaching at the right level in primary schools, and implement community and evidence-based approaches to improve education outcomes. The alignment of all involved parties was completed in 2024, with implementation of GALOP set to commence in 2025.

Colombia Evidencia Potencial en Educación (CEPE) represents a pioneering collaborative effort to enhance literacy, writing skills and socio-emotional learning among children in twelve departments of Colombia. The program is designed to bridge the expanding disparities between students from rural areas compared with urban areas and from public schools compared with private ones. Three Swiss and three Colombian foundations have pooled their funds to support initiatives selected by Communities of Change (CoC) in each of these Departments. These CoC are led by local governments and include companies, foundations, civil society and researchers that jointly define their priorities and select evidence-based initiatives to improve educational outcomes. In 2024, the set-up of the governance and co-funding mechanism for the CEPE was established, and seven CoCs conducted their prioritization activities. Implementation is set to begin in 2025, with the aim of benefiting 2 million primary school children via evidence-based programs by 2027.

Disadvantaged young people often face significant barriers when transitioning from school to work, resulting in unemployment or unclear career paths. Rock Your Life Switzerland aims to change through a program that includes one-to-one mentoring, educational support and career advice.

According to official statistics^1^, almost 60% of social welfare recipients in the Swiss asylum sector are children and young adults between 18 and 25. In 2024, Rock Your Life worked with the �۶���Ƶ Optimus Foundation network to launch a pilot scheme for unaccompanied refugee minors who have fled conflict or war zones. The program paired 193 beneficiaries (83 female and 110 male) with local mentors offering vital support with school, language and day-to-day life in a new country and culture. After successfully completing the pilot in late 2024, the organization is evaluating its impact and preparing for a second cycle.

^1^Swiss Federal Statistical Office. (2016). Asylum-related social assistance recipients by age group in Switzerland as of 30 June 2015.��

South Africa faces significant socio-economic inequality, exacerbated by factors such as unequal access to quality pre-schools. Children from poor households are 50% less likely to attend early learning programs and just 29% of children aged 4–6 years old are developmentally on track.

Earlybird delivers high-quality, early childhood developmental services to families at workplaces and in communities. Their curriculum, designed by a multidisciplinary team of early childhood development experts, includes continuous child development assessment. Operating 10 centers in 3 provinces, they serve 618 children. An external evaluation in 2022 showed a 9% improvement in child outcomes for Earlybird children over the course of a year compared with others. In 2022 an external impact evaluation using a difference-in-difference method found that children in the Earlybird program showed an additional 9% improvement in outcomes compared to similar children who did not participate in the program.

The �۶���Ƶ Optimus Foundation network first invested in Earlybird in 2021 and provided a further investment alongside a strategic investor in 2024 to fund expansion and working capital, with a structured exit planned for 2028. Earlybird’s aim is to double the size of its footprint in South Africa.

The Future of Work Fund, started and managed by Chancen International, is scaling up to finance the studies of 20,000 young Africans through income share agreements (ISAs). The fund finances the tuition fees of students in selected training institutions, colleges and universities. Graduates make income-based repayments once they start working and earn above the minimum income threshold, with payments capped at a maximum amount. The effectiveness of this educational investment is demonstrated by the students’ employment outcomes, which, in turn, define the amount ultimately paid for their education.

To date, Chancen International has financed nearly 5,000 students through ISAs totaling over USD��7.8m, working with 25 partner schools in Rwanda, Kenya, South Africa and Ghana. Of those students 71% come from households earning less than USD��5 per day, and 65% are women. Graduates have a 93% employment rate within one year of graduation, and 96% of the students financed are keeping up their repayments.

In early 2021, the �۶���Ƶ Optimus Foundation network made an anchor equity investment into the Future of Work Fund, marking the fund’s first commitment and aiming to attract additional funding through its blended finance structure. It now aims to scale to USD��40 million with a further equity investment of almost USD��3 million from the �۶���Ƶ Optimus Foundation network.

Source: Swiss Federal Statistical Office. (2016). Asylum-related social assistance recipients by age group in Switzerland as of 30 June 2015.��