SUED Stichting Understanding, Education & Development
  • Gilgil, Nakuru
  • info@thesued.org
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OUR PROGRAMS

Program for Change Makers

SUED believes that value-based education helps individuals carry out social, moral and democratic obligations, character, citizenship, emotional and spiritual development. It emphasizes responsibility and ethical principles and thus significantly improves the decision-making abilities of an individual. This program rides on four pillars of transformation.

Pata Kitabu (Get a book)

At SUED, we believe that positive behaviour deserves to be recognized, celebrated and reinforced. Through our values-based reading programme, we recognize children who demonstrate positive behaviours aligned with the values we seek to nurture, such as responsibility, integrity, kindness, respect, resilience and care for others. As a meaningful reward, children receive books that open their minds to new ideas, experiences and possibilities.

The books we provide are carefully selected from rich literature, including inspiring stories, biographies and autobiographies of people who have made a positive contribution to society. These stories expose children to role models, broaden their aspirations and demonstrate how values, determination and positive choices can shape lives and communities.

Our approach goes beyond giving children books. We use books to create a culture of reading, reading to nurture values, and values to develop the skills and character children need to navigate life. By connecting positive behaviour with the joy of receiving and reading a book, we create a cycle in which children are encouraged to practise positive values, develop a love for reading, and learn from the experiences of others.

We support schools to establish student book clubs; Through mentorship, children are encouraged not just to read, but to share what they discover, discuss stories with their peers and pass books from one reader to the next. This gives every child the chance to own a book but also access a wide range of rich literature and keep educating themselves beyond the classroom.

Every book you donate becomes more than a gift. It becomes an opportunity to influence a child's choices, broaden their world, nurture their character and invest in the kind of citizen they can become.

SUED Libraries for Life

At SUED, we believe a book can open a child's mind, expand their world, and inspire them to become more than they ever imagined. Our journey starts with book clubs, where we introduce children to the joy of reading beyond their textbooks. This simple culture of sharing creates something powerful: a single book can reach many children.

To expand this impact, we see the opportunity of the school library: what if every child in a school could have access to a rich collection of books — not just today, but for many years to come? From book clubs to SUED Libraries for Life: we work to establish and strengthen libraries in rural schools, creating lasting spaces where children can access books, discover new ideas, and learn from the experiences of people whose lives are captured in stories, biographies, and autobiographies. A library transforms the impact of a single book.

Your support creates access to thousands of stories, ideas and life experiences that can continue educating children for years to come. A book placed on a library shelf today can be read by dozens, even hundreds, of children over its lifetime.

Sports for Values

Kenya's Competency-Based Education (CBE) approach recognizes the importance of nurturing the whole child by developing competencies, values, creativity and talents alongside academic learning. SUED seeks to complement this national effort, particularly in rural schools where children may have limited access to structured opportunities to discover and develop their talents. Through our Sports for Values programme, SUED is introducing sports as a tool for talent development, character formation and positive behaviour change among children in rural schools.

We provide sports materials, keep them accessible over the weekends and school holidays so that children can keep playing beyond school hours, and support community sporting competitions that bring children and communities together. For us, sport is more than competition. It is a classroom without walls. On the field, children learn lessons that extend far beyond the final score. They learn to work as a team, respect others, follow rules, manage disappointment, celebrate others, take responsibility, and persevere when things become difficult. These are not only sporting skills—they are life skills and values that shape responsible citizens.

Supporting Sports for Values means providing children with more than balls, playing fields and competitions. It means creating opportunities for children to discover their potential while developing the character they need to use that potential responsibly.

Child Rights and Protection

Many children, particularly in vulnerable and underserved communities, may not fully understand their rights or know where to seek help when those rights are threatened. Families and communities can also lack adequate awareness of the responsibilities they have in protecting and supporting children.

With continued support, SUED has been able to extend child rights awareness to more rural schools and communities, donating storybooks on children's rights, facilitating children's participation sessions, and strengthening community dialogue around child rights and protection.

Each year, we work alongside the government Department of Child Services and other partners in planning and supporting Day of the African Child activities.
These events provide an important platform to bring children, parents, teachers, community leaders and other stakeholders together to discuss issues affecting children and strengthen community understanding of child rights and protection.

Through these community engagements, we seek to move the conversation beyond “children need protection” to a shared understanding that protecting children is everyone's responsibility. The Day of the African Child therefore becomes more than an annual celebration. It becomes an opportunity for community education, dialogue, advocacy and collective action for children.

Your support powers our partnership with government children's services, bringing child rights awareness closer to the children and communities that need it most.