Light Academy - Kenya

In the heart of Kenya's Kalobeyei Refugee Settlement, where displacement, dwindling humanitarian aid, and classrooms of up to 240 children per teacher define daily life, one school is rewriting what education can look like in crisis. Light Academy, founded in 2018 by the refugee-led Kalobeyei Initiative for Better Life (KI4BLI), has grown from a volunteer-run after-school programme into a beacon of community-led learning serving over 300 children, training 50 teachers and 60 parents, and indirectly reaching more than 2,000 learners each year.

What makes Light Academy extraordinary is not just survival against the odds, it is transformation. When UNHCR and WFP funding cuts stripped neighbouring schools of teachers and food rations, Light Academy refused to let its children pay the price. Instead, it innovated.

At the core of its response is the Light Instructional Framework for Excellence (LIFE), a locally developed teaching model blending Kenya's national curriculum with social-emotional learning, play-based pedagogy, digital literacy, and family engagement. Since its introduction, student performance has risen by 15%, attendance by more than 20%, and the framework is now being adopted by other refugee-led schools across the settlement.

To replace lost teachers, the school trained parents as co-educators, embedding them into classrooms and homes as partners in learning. To counter food insecurity after ration cuts, it launched a Sprout Farming Programme that now supports over 100 households to grow nutritious microgreens using recycled containers and minimal water, feeding children, generating income, and turning gardens into living classrooms for science, nutrition, and entrepreneurship. To keep large refugee families enrolled, the school introduced a household-based levy system, "one family, one fee", ensuring no child is excluded by cost.

Students are not passive beneficiaries. Through the Student Peer Well-being Club, Student Council, and the student-led "Back to School Campaign," learners shape policy, support struggling peers, and design nutrition awareness for their own families. Trauma-informed classroom safe spaces, daily emotional check-ins, and weekly staff wellness sessions ensure that healing and resilience are built into the school's rhythm for children and teachers alike.

Light Academy's impact has been recognised nationally and internationally, with the Metis Collective Community-Led Impact Award (2022), Kidogo ECDE Member of the Year (2023), and the Inclusive Child Protection Award from Humanity & Inclusion (2022), honouring its work on child protection and disability inclusion. Its leadership now advises the Turkana County Department of Education and contributes to Kenya's broader refugee education framework.

Led by founder and director Samuel Binja Cimanuka, Light Academy embodies the Global Schools Prize theme of Overcoming Adversity: a school built by refugees, for refugees and their host community, proving that when the most marginalised are trusted to lead, education becomes not just a service delivered but a foundation for dignity, resilience, and lasting change. Prize funds would build permanent classrooms, scale sprout farming, train more teachers, and share Light Academy's model with displaced communities worldwide.