For close to a decade, Segal Family Foundation (SFF) has been one of Hatua Network’s key partners, working with us to break the cycle of poverty for youth in Mombasa.
In 2013, we were still a fledgling non-profit, abundant with vision but lacking the funding we needed to implement all of our ambitious ideas. In the years since Segal Family Foundation’s support has helped us grow in leaps and bounds.
In 2013, when we received our first grant of $15,000, Hatua had 140 students in its program – 2 in primary school, 109 in high school, and 9 students who became our first group of students to join college and university. In that first year of funding, we were able to add 40 more of Likoni’s brightest students in need of financial support to our scholarship and mentoring program. Eight years later, Segal’s continued support helped us reach our scholarship milestone in 2021 – expanding across all six sub-counties in Mombasa. Today we’re serving 731 students – 336 are in high school, 245 are in college and university, and we’ve graduated 150 alumni to date!
SFF’s funding also helped us implement some of our community-targeted initiatives. For starters, in 2015, Segal partnered with us to implement our Reproductive Health & Relationships community outreach program. That year, 42 gap year students were trained as peer educators tasked with disseminating specific health issues on reproductive health, Gender and sexuality, and HIV/AIDS awareness.
While SFF’s funding has been instrumental in the growth of our programs, perhaps the most significant impact of Segal’s support has been a result of being part of its network of partners. “Segal has always been focused on supporting grassroots-led organizations,” says Peter Kwame, Hatua Network’s co-founder and director. “Thanks to their recommendation, I was accepted into their African Visionary Fellowship program. As a fellow, I had the opportunity to learn and collaborate with my peers in other parts of the continent, like Kesho Kenya. From these fellowship programs, I was also introduced to major donors who currently are our partners.”
In 2019, our status as a Segal partner gave ELMA Philanthropies and the Jewish Women’s Foundation of New York, the confidence they need to partner with us. ELMA Philanthropies is now one of the biggest partners in our library program and has helped serve more than 82,000 cups of nutritious porridge to under-nourished children in some of Likoni’s primary schools. And in 2021, SFF’s endorsement help us get funding from one of our newest partners, IF International Foundation.
This year, we were honored to once again receive a multi-year grant of $200,000 which will go a long way towards educating more financially underprivileged youth in Mombasa. “The new funding we have received will help us guarantee that the youth we support are able to continue with their education over the next couple of years,” Kwame says. “It means that we can add 100 new students into our scholarship program in 2023.”
Kwame credits the success of Segal’s ongoing partnership with Hatua to its people and culture. “There is always a power dynamic that exists between donor organizations and their recipients. But with Segal, they treat partners as equal. They trust that their partners know best, and position themselves as an organization that wants to support grassroots organizations like ours to achieve our ideas.”
“Segal is truly a unique organization. It’s a family, right from Segal’s director to its program officers, everyone is an amazing professional but also very approachable. We aspire to be like Segal,” says Peter Kwame.
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