Lyra in Africa was established in 2012 as a UK registered charity to address the barriers to education and finance for girls and women in rural villages of the Southern Highlands in Tanzania. In 2015, Lyra in Africa was certified as an NGO in Tanzania and in 2020 Lyra was also established in Finland as an association to fundraise for Lyra’s activities. We believe in the power of educating rural students, particularly girls and women to help end poverty. Our sole focus is on rural communities in Tanzania where we equip the next generation to be agents for systemic change. We have a particular focus on girls, we dismantle barriers that stop rural girls completing their secondary education, thus enabling them to become catalysts for positive broader long-term change. Our three interventions – building low carbon hostels for rural girls; rolling out digital learning to rural schools, and youth entrepreneurship – represent an empowering investment into an alternative future that breaks an inter-generational cycle of rural poverty. To date Lyra, together with LGAs, has constructed 13 hostels in rural ward secondary schools, housing up to 1,600 girls per year. We have installed 6 computer labs in our partner schools, giving first time access to digital offline, educational tools. Our youth entrepreneurship program has reached over 2,000 youth and 5,000 VSLA members with good impacts on higher income and sustainable businesses. Lyra’s main funders are a combination of private foundations and trusts, as well as government grants across UK, the Nordic countries and Tanzania.
