Scientia et Educatio Naturam Sanitatemque Emuniunt
Science and Education Preserve Nature and Health
La Science et l'Éducation Préservent la Nature et la Santé
Supporting students
Supported Projects
2024 - 2026
Project country: United Kingdom
Grant period: 2022 - 2024 & 2025 - 2026
Birkbeck, University of London, is a leading research and teaching university in the heart of Bloomsbury, London. Without Birkbeck’s unique model of learning in the evenings, many would have no other access to study. For nearly 200 years, Birkbeck has forged ahead at the cutting edge of alternative education for students of all ages and backgrounds. Today, Birkbeck’s student body is rich in diversity, with 40% coming from low-income backgrounds, 46% identifying as Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic (BAME), and 150 nationalities represented in its classrooms. Of its student population, 57% are women. Notable female alumni include Rosalind Franklin (1920-1958), biophysicist and X-ray crystallographer, best known as the co-discoverer of the structure of DNA. Birkbeck is proud to be one of only 24 non-specialist universities in the UK that is both in the top quartile for its research quality (measured by REF score) and to hold at least a Silver Teaching Excellence Framework award. In 2022/2023, the SENSE Foundation Brussels supported Birkbeck, ensuring it was equipped to assist students through financial hardship. Due to the cost-of-living crisis, Birkbeck saw a tripling of demand for its core hardship funds, offered to the most vulnerable in its student community. Specifically, in 2023, the SENSE Foundation Brussels supported 19 students: 12 home and 2 international students studying a STEM subject, and 5 home students studying non-STEM disciplines, such as PhD Organizational Psychology, MRes Structural Biology, MSc Business Analytics and MSc Advanced Computing Technologies. In 2023/2024, the SENSE Foundation Brussels supported Birkbeck, helping 41 international STEM students coming from low-income backgrounds or facing financial hardship, to continue their degree studies. In 2025/2026, the SENSE Foundation Brussels renewed its support of Birkbeck, helping to provide bursaries to 100 students who come from low-income backgrounds or who are facing financial difficulties. The funds will support living costs and/or provide essential study equipment. Many of the students are studying STEM subjects and are international students from unstable nations who have been cut off from support. https://www.bbk.ac.uk/
Project country: United Kingdom
Grant period: 2024 - 2025
Feed Me Good is an inclusive community-led Community Interest Company (CIC) specialising in health equity, climate action programs, and services for marginalised and disabled communities. Drawing from lived experiences, its mission is to develop systems that combat health inequality and social exclusion. Feed Me Good has delivered bespoke health and wellbeing services to over 2500 participants in various communities across London, Essex, West Suffolk, and Kent. And over the past ten years, its award-winning Smart Food Shopper accredited programme has been taught to over 5,800 students. Feel Me Good engages hard to reach groups such as black and ethnic minorities, young people, people struggling with mental health, homeless and sheltered living residents, and people with learning difficulties and disabilities. The Smart Food Shopper Programme is an inclusive health and well-being 8-week CPD programme that teaches life skills such as cooking, nutrition, and sustainable practices to marginalised communities. This programme features: • In-Person Sessions: 2-hour interactive cooking classes. • Online Sessions: 1-hour weekly lessons on nutrition and sustainability. The programme helps students save money on food shopping, improve cooking skills and health outcomes, reduce food waste, and create new bonds and feel more community connection - positively impacting both people and the planet. In 2024/2025, the SENSE Foundation Brussels is supporting Feed Me Good, helping to deliver its Smart Food Shopper Programme to 50 adult students from low-income black and ethnic backgrounds in the London borough of Southwark. https://www.feedmegood.co.uk/
Project country: Colombia
Grant period: 2025 - 2026
Fundación Desarrollo y Paz (FUNDEPAZ) is a Colombian non-profit organisation dedicated to promoting, defending, and protecting economic, social, and cultural rights, with a special focus on the right to quality education and the right to a healthy environment. Since 1998, FUNDEPAZ has worked to empower vulnerable communities affected by conflict, poverty, and exclusion, strengthening their capacities to participate in peacebuilding, environmental protection, and sustainable development. In 2025/2026, the SENSE Foundation Brussels is supporting FUNDEPAZ and its project “Promoting Inclusion and Girls’ Empowerment in STEM (PROGESTEM)”. Implemented in schools and communities in southern Colombia, a region affected by conflict, poverty and migration, this project aims to reduce educational inequalities by supporting disadvantaged girls and young women to pursue science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. PROGESTEM will provide targeted opportunities for participation in science fairs, mathematics Olympiads, and vocational orientation. It will also offer scholarships and mentoring to strengthen access to higher education in STEM. By opening these pathways, the project will not only enhance individual opportunities but also contribute to broader social inclusion, innovation, and sustainable development. https://www.fundepaz.org
Project country: Tanzania
Grant period: 2024 - 2025
Girls Livelihood and Mentorship Initiative (GLAMI) mentors secondary school girls in Tanzania to complete their education, develop into confident leaders, and transform their own lives and their communities. Only 39% of Tanzanian girls go to secondary school, and only 3% go on to tertiary education. Girls enrolled in school still face the risks of early pregnancy, early marriage, female genital mutilation, and poor school environments which undermine their ability to focus and make the most of their education opportunity. All too frequently, girls dropout and have fewer choices in life. GLAMI equips girls to overcome challenges and reach their full potential because educated girls create lasting positive change. Its mentorship approach is holistic, maintaining in-school liaisons and full-time social workers who work with the mentors, the schools, the girls' parents/caregivers, and the community to identify girls who are especially at risk of dropping out of school, and develop and implement a support plan to help these scholars remain in school. The outcome is proactive, resilient, and socially-responsible girls who secure better jobs, raise healthier families, and increase the standing of women in society. GLAMI has touched and positively impacted nearly 11,700 girls and aims to reach more than 20,000 secondary school girls by 2026. In 2024/2025, the SENSE Foundation Brussels is supporting GLAMI and its extracurricular mentoring programs Kisa Project and Binti Shupavu which operate in 3 regions in Tanzania (Arusha, Kilimanjaro and Morogoro). In addition, emergency materials support will be provided throughout the year (lunches, sanitary pads, shoes for long distances, clean uniforms) to help ensure girls in rural areas don’t skip school. https://glami.or.tz/
Project country: Uganda
Grant period: 2025 - 2026
Groundbreaker is a non-profit organisation founded in 2018 in Cologne, Germany. Its mission is to provide access to high-quality education and sustainable learning environments for young African women from underserved communities to break the cycles of poverty and achieve economic independence. Together with its Ugandan sister organisation, Groundbreaker Talents, it delivers impact-driven programs that combine training in STEM fields, such as Software Engineering, Artificial Intelligence, and Climate Tech, with full financial and residential support on its 24/7-campus in Bukerere, Uganda. Its long-term vision is to build Africa’s largest female tech campus by 2030, creating a lasting model for inclusive and transformative education. Uganda faces a critical intersection of systemic poverty, a widening digital skills gap, and entrenched gender inequality. Nearly half of Ugandan women live in poverty, compared to 39% of men, and they are twice as likely to lack formal education. Social norms, early motherhood, and caretaking responsibilities restrict their ability to pursue studies or stable employment. Many young women work in the informal sector, earning little and lacking social protection, making it nearly impossible to break the cycle of generational poverty. Groundbreaker Talents addresses Uganda’s gender and skills gap by providing a holistic, fully funded residential programme that enables young women from underserved communities to access high-quality education and launch sustainable careers in the digital economy. The programme removes financial and social barriers by covering all costs for training, housing, meals, healthcare, and psychosocial support, creating a safe and focused learning environment. Participants are selected based on motivation and talent rather than formal academic credentials. The programme operates in Uganda’s Central Region but recruits nationwide, focusing on women from low-income, rural, or displaced communities facing generational poverty. Training is delivered in partnership with leading national and international institutions, offering career tracks in Software Engineering, Artificial Intelligence, and Climate Tech. In 2025/2026, the SENSE Foundation Brussels is supporting Groundbreaker Talents, and its one-year, fully funded residential education and training programme, helping up to 30 young women to participate and transform their lives. https://groundbreaker.org/
Project country: Belgium
Grant period: 2019 - 2024 & 2025 - 2026
Created in 1962, the Institut National Supérieur des Arts du Spectacle et des Techniques de Diffusion, better known as INSAS, is a public Belgian performing arts university college, specialising in audiovisual, theatre, and dance studies. The philosophy of INSAS is focused on openness, perpetual self-assessment, looking critically at the world, and the responsibility of the creative person. In 2019/2020, the SENSE Foundation Brussels supported INSAS and provided bursaries for its new dance certificate programme, organised in partnership with La Cambre (ENSAV) and Charleroi Danse. The SENSE Foundation Brussels also provided financial support to master’s students finishing degrees in sound engineering, image, editing/scripting, film directing, and theatre and communication techniques. In 2022/2023, the SENSE Foundation Brussels supported INSAS and provided financial support to an additional 7 master’s students completing their degrees in sound engineering, image, editing/scripting, film directing, theatre and communication techniques, cinema and theatre writing, and radio production. In 2023/2024, the SENSE Foundation Brussels supported INSAS to provide a financial boost to another 7 master’s students, as well as a bursary for its new master’s degree in dance and choreography. Specifically, the financial boost enabled the beneficiaries to purchase necessary equipment or invest in new projects to launch their professional careers, and thanks to the bursary, 19 students benefited from a mobility abroad to Marrakech and Lyon, where they gained international experience, experimented with different choreographic practices and made professional connections. In 2025/2026, the SENSE Foundation Brussels renewed its support of INSAS to help cover the increased fee imposed by the Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles (FWB) and ensure that students from non-European Union countries continue to have equal access to studies at INSAS - preserving the social diversity and cultural richness of its artistic education. https://insas.be
Project country: Brazil
Grant period: 2025 - 2026
Established in 1992, Instituto de Pesquisas Ecológicas (IPÊ) is one of Brazil’s largest non-governmental organizations working for socio-environmental conservation across the country. Its mission is to develop and disseminate innovative models for biodiversity conservation that promote socio-economic benefits through science, education and sustainable business. It is present in several ecoregions in Brazil, such as the Amazon and Atlantic rainforests, the Cerrado (Brazilian savanna) and the Pantanal (wetlands). In 2025/2026, SENSE Foundation Brussels is supporting IPÊ and its project “Climate Schools: Empowering Youth for Climate Action and Biodiversity Conservation in southeast Brazil”. Located in the Climate School in Pontal do Paranapanema, one of Brazil’s most biodiverse yet socially vulnerable regions, the project will empower public school students, teachers, and communities to become leaders of climate action, biodiversity conservation, and social transformation. Structured in three stages (training, knowledge sharing, and community outreach), the program integrates science-based learning with hands-on practices in waste management; composting; agroecological gardens with native species and Non-Conventional Edible Plants (NCEPs); and climate adaptation. It also addresses climate justice and environmental racism, promoting inclusive participation and local empowerment. https://ipe.org.br/en/
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Project country: Malawi, Zambia
Grant period: 2025 - 2026
Founded in the Netherlands in 2011, Join for Joy organized the first sports camps for children in rural Kenya. Today, it is an international organization committed to making hundreds of thousands of children playfully resilient every day, positively influencing their lives and helping them to believe in themselves. Join for Joy trains primary school teachers to openly discuss health and social issues through sports and playful learning methodologies. This approach creates engaging, safe, inclusive, and joyful educational environments that reduce school absenteeism and dropouts. Its vision is to ensure every child at primary school in sub-Saharan Africa has the opportunity to experience the power of playful learning, encouraging them to come to school and stay in school. In rural Malawi and Zambia, a significant number of girls miss school during their menstrual periods due to a lack of access to menstrual products, disrupting their learning and confidence. In addition to the practical and financial challenges, the topic of menstruation remains taboo in many communities, adding a layer of shame and discomfort for girls that often keeps them from seeking support or discussing their needs openly. As an extension of its mission and to help address these challenges, Join for Joy enables girls to attend school consistently and without hindrance by providing comprehensive menstrual health education using unique, inclusive, and playful learning methodologies and by distributing menstrual cups and underwear. The menstrual health program is implemented using a holistic, whole-school approach, which recognises that schools reflect the values and norms of the communities they serve. Teachers are supported in their central role as change-makers, and caregivers and community members are actively involved in the program to address stigma. Through play-based learning in the classroom, both boys and girls are educated about menstruation, normalising the topic from an early age. Join for Joy has a proven track record in both Zambia and Malawi, with program data showing a reduction in menstruation-related school absenteeism, from nearly one day on average per month to almost zero. In 2025/2026, the SENSE Foundation Brussels is supporting Join for Joy and its “No Girl Left Behind” project. Implemented in Malawi’s Mchinji district and Zambia’s Chongwe district, this initiative will reach 20.000 girls with comprehensive menstrual health education and product distribution. By addressing both practical and social barriers, this project will create a safe, informed, and supportive school environment where girls can manage their periods with confidence and continue their education without interruption. The project includes sensitisation sessions for parents and caregivers to inform them about menstruation and address concerns, and following product distribution, trained female teachers will lead girls’ clubs to reinforce the importance of menstrual health, and ensure the girls remain comfortable using the menstrual cups and underwear they received. https://www.joinforjoy.net/
Project country: Belgium
Grant period: 2024 - 2025
In the French-speaking regions of Belgium, La Scientothèque works to reduce social inequalities by supporting equal access to education through a multidisciplinary STEAM approach (Sciences, Techniques, Engineering, Art, Mathematics). For over 20 years, it has been promoting sciences and technology to children aged 4 to 20 from underprivileged groups, including refugees. Attracting girls from these backgrounds is at its core. Its activities include: homework support centers (écoles des devoirs, EDD) and academic support to disadvantaged children aged 8 to 20; extracurricular workshops on scientific topics such as AI, climate or space; a FabLab open to all; and support to educators (teachers and associations), from underprivileged areas, to implement STEAM activities. All the activities aim to fight school dropout, restore the joy of learning, encourage creativity, promote citizenship, and contribute to social emancipation. In Brussels, where 40% of children are born into underprivileged families, La Scientothèque operates two homework support centers, Ecoles des devoirs (EDD), which offer comprehensive support to youngsters aged 10-20 from disadvantaged backgrounds. The support offered by the EDDs is unique. It extends beyond academia through to digital training (to fight digital divide), citizenship education, and family support. This inclusive framework helps young people develop both cognitive and social skills and promotes broader community involvement and greater social benefits. In recent years, La Scientothèque has seen an increased participation of special needs children (e.g., with ADHD) in its EDDs, representing up to 10% of the children. These children, when from disadvantaged backgrounds, are particularly vulnerable due to limited care access, reduced family support, or social stigma. Limited access to healthcare leads to inconsistent diagnoses, undiagnosed or misdiagnosed children wrongly placed in special education. This makes them more prone to school dropout and social isolation. Its EDD support offers interactive and flexible learning, parental involvement, and individualized attention—all proven to work for special needs children, especially with ADHD, but essential resources to create a fully supportive environment are lacking. In 2024/2025, the SENSE Foundation Brussels is supporting La Scientothèque and its EDDs to help build environments fully adapted to children with special needs. In addition, new societal and citizenship activities will be developed, including an educational program on cybersecurity using STEAM-based activities (digital forensics). https://www.lascientotheque.be/
Project country: India
Grant period: 2024 - 2026
Simple Education Foundation (SEF) wants children in India's public schools to thrive through the powerful experience in their classrooms. Believing that teachers who are highly skilled, loving, and intuitive can transform a student’s learning experience, SEF partners with state and local governments to develop training programs for school leaders and teachers, aiming to make learning more engaging and impactful for children. The SEF approach involves Partner School programs, where it engages deeply with select public schools. The programs are designed to address specific local teaching and learning needs, test effective practices, and refine methodologies that can be scaled through partnerships with state governments in similar contexts. SEF operates across Delhi, Uttarakhand, and Punjab, directly impacting over 1,500 children through its partner schools and approximately 2 million children through state programs. To date, it has trained 100,000 teachers and school leaders and is on track to reach 1 million by 2028. In Uttarakhand, North India, primary education struggles as each of the 3,455 schools in the region has only one teacher. This leads to overworked teachers and ineffective teaching, causing over 50% of 5th graders to fall below 2nd-grade reading levels (ASER 2022), high dropout rates, and limited opportunities, especially for girls. To help address this, SEF is collaborating with the Uttarakhand government in 5 primary/partner schools and recruiting young women from local communities as teaching assistant fellows to enhance instructional quality and provide innovative teaching practices. In 2024/2025, the SENSE Foundation Brussels supported SEF and its project in Uttarakhand, helping to transform the learning experience of 132 students in grades 1-5. Specifically, the project: - Empowered fellows/young women to lead educational change in their communities. - Supported teachers in managing multi-grade, multi-level classrooms with differentiated teaching methods to ensure every child is included and learning. - Introduced concrete and engaging math practices to help Grade 1–2 students develop number sense and understand place value. - Used local, culturally relevant storybooks and lesson plans to build English reading and comprehension skills for students in Grades 3–5. - Strengthened Hindi reading and writing in early grades through hands-on strategies built on SEF’s own language framework. - Documented and disseminated successful practices for wider application within the state. In 2025/2026, the SENSE Foundation Brussels renewed its support of SEF and its project in Uttarakhand. In 2026, SEF aims to ensure that 75% of children are learning Hindi at grade level and 50% in Math (up from 61.1% and 35% respectively in 2025). As the project has become a model for expanding across the region, SEF will also focus on further empowering women from local communities to build trust, create economic opportunities and become role models for girls. https://www.simpleeducationfoundation.org/
Project country: Cambodia
Grant period: 2021 - 2022 & 2025 - 2026
Founded in France in 1982, Sipar is a French NGO focused on the development of reading; education through access to books; and the fight against illiteracy. Sipar operates in all 25 regions of Cambodia. Its sole aim: to make books a lever for education, bringing them to the most disadvantaged populations and making them accessible. With nearly 20% of the Cambodian population unable to read and write, Sipar's programs contribute to developing access to knowledge and education, and to helping young people and adults alike to progress along the path to literacy. In 2021/2022, the SENSE Brussels Foundation supported Sipar and its project to improve the employment prospects and civic engagement of rural Cambodian youth, in a post-Covid-19 context. Specifically, Sipar set up libraries with multimedia orientation spaces in 15 provincial high schools, supported the strengthening of a network of 23 grassroots youth organisations, and produced and disseminated personal development and orientation tools. In 2025/2026, the SENSE Foundation Brussels is supporting Sipar and its project “Socio-educational development of children and brick factory workers.” This 3-year project aims to improve the socio-educational development of workers and their children (1,200 families and 1,800 children) living in 32 brick factories on the outskirts of Phnom Penh. In a context of great precariousness, where families are often trapped in debt bondage, it proposes an innovative educational and social approach to breaking the cycle of poverty. Specifically, the project will: - Deploy mobile libraries run by specialized educators, tutoring in Khmer and mathematics; provide supplies; and create school libraries and community micro-libraries to boost access to reading. - Design and implement programs for out-of-school youth to support their personal and professional development and provide school equivalence classes and practical training. - Raise awareness of health, nutrition, hygiene and rights, with the involvement of peer educators and brick factory employers to improve the families' living conditions. https://sipar.org
Project country: Belgium
Grant period: 2024 - 2026
Created in 2014, the Young Belgian Strings (YBS) is a string orchestra composed of 21 young talents, (graduates or students, no more than 30-years-of-age), from the different string instrument classes of all the Conservatories and Higher Music Schools of Belgium, (both French- and Dutch-speaking). YBS aims to give the selected musicians the opportunity to meet, exchange experiences, perfect their learning, perform on the most prestigious international stages and prepare for a future career in the world's major orchestras. The work within the orchestra complements the musical training in the national institutions. Selected during auditions before a jury, the musicians generally stay in the orchestra for 3 years. In 2024/2025, the SENSE Foundation Brussels supported YBS to purchase some tablet computers to enable the reading and sharing of musical scores, particularly during study trips and summer music academies. In 2025/2026, the SENSE Foundation Brussels renewed its support of YBS to help acquire essential IT equipment for the development of new string instrument orchestra arrangements. https://www.youngbelgianstrings.be/
Supported Projects
2021 - 2024
Project country: Spain
Grant period: 2022 - 2023
Launched by a group of scientists, Apadrina la Ciencia (ALC) is a platform which aims to promote scientific research and public understanding of science in Spain. Supported by more than 280 internationally renowned scientists from different universities and research institutions, ALC promotes communication and direct collaboration among scientists and the rest of society, and supports basic research in Spain, securing resources through patronage, and sponsorship. ALC also works to make science more accessible, especially to children and young people, through fun and educational experiments and talks. In 2022/2023, the SENSE Foundation Brussels supported ALC, enabling it to award bursaries to 2 PhD students with limited financial resources from Mali and Nigeria, focusing on malaria and climate change research. From 2024-2025, the beneficiaries will join Spanish research institutions for 9 to 12 months and after, will bring the acquired knowledge and skills back to their home countries. https://www.apadrinalaciencia.org
Project country: Fiji
Grant period: 2021 - 2022
Barefoot College International’s mission is to demystify, democratise and decentralise technology, education & skills to foster self-sufficiency and sustainability among those living in rural poverty. In 2021/2022, SENSE Foundation Brussels is supporting the Fiji Barefoot College Vocational Training Centre (Fiji BVTC) to train six women to become "Barefoot Women Solar Engineers". Each of them will install, maintain, and repair solar equipment in the houses of participating communities. In addition, the Fiji BVTC will educate women in digital and financial literacy, environmental stewardship, reproductive and women’s health, civil and human rights, and microenterprise and entrepreneurial skills. https://www.barefootcollege.org
Project country: Canada
Grant period: 2021 - 2022
Across 38 sites in Ontario, Canada, and in 26 different communities, Collège Boréal offers quality training and services to a diverse body of students. At the heart of the communities it serves, the college provides leadership to fulfil the potential and ensure the sustainable development of Ontario’s Francophone communities. In 2021/2022, SENSE Foundation Brussels is supporting the development of the Multicultural Scholarship Programme. This program aims at facilitating access to postsecondary education for students from minority groups and allowing them the same opportunities in a professional and exciting new career so they can become a great asset to their communities. https://collegeboreal.ca
Project country: Haiti
Grant period: 2020 - 2022
Geomoun supports local projects focused on enforcing children's rights in Haiti and Peru. It aims to strengthen all agents of civil and state society. In Belgium, Geomoun promotes the right to children’s participation through projects encouraging reflection, openness, and commitment to being an agent of change. In 2020/2021, SENSE Foundation Brussels supported Geomoun to give 440 hours of training in professional agricultural technology to 30 vulnerable young single mothers in South-East Haiti. These women also received 5 days of training in entrepreneurship and kits to help them start their activity. This training is an income-generating activity that develops their self-confidence and entrepreneurial spirit. Psychological and health support was offered to the participants, through consultations and the distribution of free medicines. After the training, young people got together to work and set up small projects (goat breeding, egg production, vegetable garden). Most of the beneficiaries now have a small income-generating activity. In 2021/2022, SENSE Foundation Brussels is renewing its contribution to Geomoun, supporting the future of 25 young Beninese women through vocational training for vulnerable girls, girl mothers, and girls in difficult situations, and helping them find or set up their small business. https://www.geomoun.org
Project country: Belgium
Grant period: 2021 - 2022
La Cambre is one of Belgium’s leading art and design schools. Founded in 1927 by the architect and designer Henry van de Velde, the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Visuels of La Cambre (ENSAV) has nearly 650 students in 18 different departments: ceramics, animation, drawing, urban design, printmaking, painting, photography, sculpture, and fine art conservation & restoration. Its design departments include industrial and textile design, book design and bookbinding, interior design, set design, fashion and accessories design, as well as graphic and visual communication and typography. SENSE Foundation Brussels supported the school's International Fund, enabling students to pursue projects abroad. In January 2021, students from the ENSAV La Cambre completed a month-long mission in Deir el Medina, Egypt, to work on the restoration of several ancient tombs. https://www.lacambre.be/fr
Project country: United Kingdom
Grant period: 2020 - 2023
Consistently ranked within the top three universities in the UK and Europe, and the top ten worldwide, Imperial College London has a global reputation for teaching and research across four disciplines: engineering, medicine, science, and business, and attracts the very best students and academics from across the world. Imperial’s Department of Life Sciences is one of the largest departments of its kind in Europe, with over 100 academic staff, 180 research fellows and post-docs, and over 1,300 students. Ranked 2nd in the UK, the department’s undergraduate and postgraduate teaching activities run along two strands – biochemistry and biological sciences – and support a diverse student body comprised of approximately 60% female students and over 60% of students from outside the UK. Since 2020, the SENSE Foundation Brussels has supported Imperial College London by providing a series of annual prizes to celebrate outstanding undergraduate and postgraduate students in the Department of Life Science, as well as a hardship fund for students struggling to meet the costs of living whilst studying. For the 2022-2023 academic year, 24 students benefitted from funding from the SENSE Foundation Brussels. https://www.imperial.ac.uk
Project country: Belgium
Grant period: 2021 - 2022
The fund and non-profit association L'Instrument du musicien helps young musicians from the French-speaking Belgian Conservatories to acquire their string instruments. A good instrument is essential for any student's academic curriculum and decisive to take part in an orchestral competition. Pending the purchase of their instrument, the fund makes quality instruments available to them. In 2021/2022, SENSE Foundation Brussels is contributing to the purchase of a cello and a violin by the fund. https://linstrumentdumusicien.be
Project country: France
Grant period: 2021 - 2024
Opened in 2014 and located at the heart of Hôpital Necker-Enfants Malades in Paris, Institut Imagine is a University Hospital Institute which aims to improve our understanding of genetic diseases and offer a better, more innovative patient care from childhood to adulthood. Institut Imagine’s mission is based on world-renowned biomedical research, patient care services, and top-notch university and training programs. As the largest European centre for research, care and education on genetic diseases, the ultimate goal of Institut Imagine is to improve the lives of families affected by these diseases. In 2021/2022, the SENSE Foundation Brussels supported Institut Imagine, enabling 6 months of MD-PhD research work. This work was focused on the development of new tools, based on Machine-Learning and Deep-Learning approaches, to help in the interpretation of genetic variations, and hopefully lead to an increased diagnostic rate in patients with a rare disease. In 2022/2023, the SENSE Foundation Brussels renewed its support of Institut Imagine for an additional 2 years, enabling the research of one of the students attending its PhD international Program. This program trains and secures the next generation of medical and laboratory geneticists around the world, exposing them to state-of-the-art medical genetics research, and allowing them to learn the science by doing. With the support of the SENSE Foundation Brussels, the research conducted was focused primarily on advancing the genetic diagnoses and treatment development for hereditary kidney diseases, particularly those presenting unique diagnostic challenges. A new bioinformatics pipeline was designed for Autosomal Dominant Tubulointerstitial Kidney Disease (ADTKD), leading to a diagnosis of 45 patients who had previously been overlooked in conventional screenings. This new effective tool has now been fully integrated in the institute’s bioinformatics platform, continually diagnosing additional patients. https://www.institutimagine.org
Project country: Belgium
Grant period: 2022 - 2024
Established in 2005 in a fully restored train station in Brussels, the Jazz Station is known both as a lively centre dedicated to quality jazz (concerts, exhibitions, residencies, festivals, lessons, conferences), and as a place of welcome and support for young artists, suffering from a lack of visibility, difficult distribution channels, and minimal professional support. The Jazz Station offers young artists a free creative space to put aside their fears and worries, and fully concentrate on their art, in a caring, professional, and equipped environment. The Jazz Station is open five days a week to artists who wish to train, record demos, and seek guidance, without charge. In 2022/2023, the SENSE Foundation Brussels supported the Jazz Station, enabling it to build up a better recording studio, improve its technical equipment, finance and promote 8 concerts of young jazz artists, and host 150+ days of residencies. In 2023/2024, the SENSE Foundation Brussels renewed its support of the Jazz Station, helping to provide a further 200 days of residencies, and offer young jazz artists the opportunity to record not just audio but also video free of charge. https://www.jazzstation.be
Project country: DRC
Grant period: 2020 - 2024
KIYO is a Belgian NGO that empowers youth to take charge of their lives and realize their rights. Together with its partners, KIYO strengthens life and technical skills of children and youth, enabling them to bring about positive individual and social change as active global citizens. KIYO currently works in Belgium, Brazil, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), and the Philippines. In 2020/2021, the SENSE Foundation Brussels supported KIYO, enabling 290 youth, primarily girls, in the DRC to attend training on agro-entrepreneurship and helping them to obtain their own land. Helping them move out of poverty, this project had a crucial impact on the lives of these young people. In 2022/2023, the SENSE Foundation Brussels supported KIYO and its local partner ASCEN to provide 88 Congolese youth - 49 girls and 39 boys - living in situations of economic hardship and vulnerability due to ongoing armed conflict, with a vocational course of their choice as well as the materials and technical support to develop their own micro-businesses. In 2023/2024, the SENSE Foundation Brussels renewed its support of KIYO, enabling it and its local partner ASCEN, to provide an additional 75 Congolese youth - 48 girls and 27 boys - living in situations of vulnerability, with a vocational course of their choice as well as the materials and technical support to develop their own micro-businesses. The earnings from their micro-enterprises allowed the youth to organize themselves into Village Savings and Loan Associations (VSLA) through which they can mobilize funds to sustain their businesses. Each youth also committed to training, coaching and mentoring at least one other youth in the trade they themselves learned, creating a multiplier effect in their communities. The project plays an important role in reducing unemployment among Congolese youth, improving their living conditions and equipping them with the skills and resources necessary to pursue their dreams. As a result, the risk of youth succumbing to the pressure of engaging in petty crime, joining armed groups or being manipulated by political factions is significantly reduced. https://www.kiyo-ngo.be
Project country: Belgium
Grant period: 2019 - 2022
This Public Interest Foundation works in the field of education, set up by experienced professionals from the business world. It champions quality education that inspires, trains and motivates young people to combine professional success with a positive impact on society, ultimately contributing to solving our major environmental and societal issues. Make It Happen is implementing a program in high schools to enable students to imagine solutions to societal and environmental concerns, based on the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This program, based on collective intelligence methodology, provides students from both privileged and less privileged backgrounds with the skills and attitude required to play a positive role in society. In 2019, SENSE Foundation Brussels supported the Make It Happen Trophy, a competition for innovative projects proposed by young students, expressing their vision of tomorrow’s society. Thanks to the grant, Make It Happen Foundation was able to hire facilitators who guided more than 250 young people in imagining, defining and presenting their project, aligned with the UN SDGs. In 2021/2022, SENSE Foundation Brussels is donating to the You-Coach Initiative. You-Coach is a programme offered to Belgian secondary schools, enabling them to develop tutoring amongst their students, thus reducing school dropout. The objective is to get good students in any given school subject to coach their peers who are struggling in that subject. You-Coach is a turnkey programme that provides schools with the know-how and a web-based platform to develop successful tutoring among their students. The overall objective is to enable five schools to launch and operate a You-Coach tutoring programme every year. https://www.make-it-happen.org
Project country: Kenya
Grant period: 2021 - 2024
NairoBits is a non-profit organisation based in Nairobi, Kenya, which serves disadvantaged youth from low-income backgrounds through the innovative and creative use of Information and Communications Technology (ICT). NairoBits aims to ensure that each beneficiary's life is transformed sustainably through a combination of hands-on digital skills training, reproductive health education, job placements, and other business development services. This approach seeks to unlock the potential of the targeted youth and improve their economic well-being and psychosocial welfare by building and developing relevant interpersonal and professional skills through an advanced training curriculum. In 2021/2022, the SENSE Foundation Brussels contributed to the project Girls Go: Powering a Future for Girls through Digital Inclusion. By enabling access to a learning environment that develops and supports the acquisition of knowledge and technical competencies, this project promoted digital literacy among 500 girls and young women aged 15-24 from informal urban settlements and rural Kenya. In 2022/2023, the SENSE Foundation Brussels renewed its support of NairoBits and the Girls Go project for an additional 2 years, helping to: • Train 450 young women in digital skills; • Expand the program to 2 additional counties in Western Kenya; and • Acquire a larger classroom space, increasing student capacity in its Advanced Multimedia Program from 30 to 50 students, and creating more opportunities for young women to gain high-demand skills. https://www.nairobits.com
Project country: Mozambique, Lebanon
Grant period: 2020 - 2024
Right To Play is an international humanitarian and development organisation that has pioneered a unique play-based approach to protecting, educating, and empowering children and young people to rise above adversity. Its mission is to use the transformative power of play to overcome the challenging effects of poverty, conflict, and disease in disadvantaged communities. Founded in 2000, Right To Play works with over 2.7 million children and young people in over 15 countries in Africa, Asia and the Middle East. In 2020/2021, the SENSE Foundation Brussels supported Right To Play and its project Restoring Hope for Education (ReHopE) located in provinces in Mozambique hit by Cyclone Idai in 2019. This program improved access to and the quality of education and school safety for over 26,250 children aged 3 to 11. Specifically, temporary learning spaces were created to help compensate for the destruction of education infrastructure and to protect children from strong winds, cold and rain, and 52 primary school teachers and 452 kindergarten facilitators were trained in integrating gender-responsive play-based learning and psychosocial support into their teaching practices. In 2022/2023, the SENSE Foundation Brussels supported Right To Play and the Kids’ Athletics for Protection (KAP) project. KAPs overarching goal is to improve peaceful coexistence between Syrian & Palestinian refugee children & youth and the Lebanese host community (youth and children) through sport and play. As of the end of 2023, Right To Play had reached 2080 children and 75 coaches through KAP. Thanks to the support of the SENSE Foundation Brussels, KAP was reinforced with the addition of psychosocial support- specific training, ensuring that coaches were equipped with the skills needed to work with children through trauma. In 2023/2024, the SENSE Foundation Brussels supported Right To Play and its Sexual Health and Reproductive Education (SHARE) project in Mozambique. Launched in 2021 for 5 years, the goal of the SHARE project is to increase access to health-related human rights by the most vulnerable rights- holders, particularly adolescent girls and young women. SHARE Mozambique aims to work with girls and boys (10 – 24 years old) across the implementation period, both in and out of school, to empower them to demand better sexual and reproductive health. During 2024, the project mainly focused on school-based mentorships. Specifically, 56 mentors were trained, complemented by the training of 151 teachers in the delivery of Comprehensive Sexuality Education. Through proven methods of social behaviour change and the mentoring of adolescent girls and boys, young women and men, the SHARE project aims to transform attitudes across hundreds of communities and for thousands of people. https://righttoplayusa.org
Project country: United Kingdom
Grant period: 2021 - 2022
The Royal College of Music (RCM) is the top-performing arts institution in the UK and Europe. The College is committed to music’s transformative power and its founding principles of excellence, advocacy, and access. They embrace the ideals of an inclusive, open, and just society, supporting students from diverse backgrounds. The Royal College of Music trains the most gifted music students from around the world for careers as performers, conductors, and composers. In 2021/2022, SENSE Foundation Brussels is contributing to the RCM Scholarships Fund: Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) Scholarships, enabling the College to assist more than half of its students financially. This support is all the more critical in the context of the pandemic, which has left many RCM students in great financial difficulty. The Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Scholarships provide life-changing opportunities, positively impacting the RCM and the classical music industry more broadly with a myriad of voices, cultures, and talents. https://www.rcm.ac.uk
Project country: France
Grant period: 2022 - 2024
Rura (formerly known as Chemins d'avenirs) aims to reveal the potential of the +10 million young people in the rural areas and small towns of France and ensure they have at least as much opportunity as the young people in large cities. Historically neglected by public authorities, these youth face consequences in economic, social, and political spheres, and encounter numerous challenges including limited access to information and the digital divide. Rura is the first organization to mentor students from rural areas and small and medium-sized towns regardless of academic results or social criteria, so that only motivation, curiosity, and potential make the difference for their future career and plans. Rura acts through a sponsorship system and the creation of an ecosystem of success around its students. Its approach is two-tiered: • A grassroots action supports rural youth in low-density areas to build a civic, academic, and professional pathway that matches their aspirations. • An advocacy action highlights these young people and encourages public policies and companies to evolve in favour of territorial diversity. In 2022/2023, the SENSE Foundation Brussels supported Rura, enabling it to support 8000 young people in underserved regions by the end of 2023, expand into 7 new academies, and open support to all students, not just those in high and middle school. In 2023/2024, the SENSE Foundation Brussels renewed its support of Rura, enabling it to empower 130 students in middle, high school, and university within the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region. Each participant engaged in a year-long program which unlocked their academic, professional, and civic potential, and addressed the challenges unique to their location. https://rura.fr/
Project country: Canada
Grant period: 2022 - 2024
With more than 35 years of experience in popular science, Les Scientifines' mission is to promote sciences, technologies, engineering and mathematics (STEM) among girls aged 8 to 17 from underprivileged neighbourhoods primarily in Montreal, Canada. Les Scientifines operates with the principles: • That girls can flourish and succeed as much as boys in the STEM sector; • That by acting early with girls, it’s possible to have a real impact on the development of their interest in STEM and contribute to the development of their future employability and their commitment to the community; • That by promoting an active role for girls rather than a passive one in the search for solutions, their creativity, their autonomy and their self-confidence are developed. To date, Les Scientifines remains the only organization in Greater Montreal to offer free activities to girls aged 8 to 17 to encourage them to stay in school, awaken an interest in STEM and develop transversal skills. In 2022/2023, the SENSE Foundation Brussels supported Les Scientifines, enabling almost 150 girls to participate from 2 to 5 days a week in its after-school Science for Girls Program. In 2023/2024, the SENSE Foundation Brussels renewed its support of Les Scientifines and its Science for Girls Program. Divided into 5 parts, the program offers guided experimental science activities; working sessions to prepare for the annual science fair; science journalism workshops; workshops by women working in the STEM field; and extracurricular activities in partnership with other organisations. In total, in 2024, the program hosted more than 14,000 participants. https://scientifines.com/
Project country: The Philippines
Grant period: 2021 - 2022
SIBAT is a duly registered NGO advocating for appropriate technology that is pro-people, and whose immediate goal is for the disadvantaged communities to experience energy, water, and food security. In 2021/2022, SENSE Foundation Brussels’s grant is supporting food production through climate-resilient sustainable agriculture for small farmers. SIBAT will teach farmers sustainable agriculture and climate change orientation, diversified and integrated farming systems and farm planning, soil fertility management with biofertilizer production and vermiculture, seed technology and seed banking, alternative pest management, a system of rice intensification or adlai cultivation trial and production, and organic vegetable production. Specifically, a climate-resilient crop, adlai, will be introduced as a more nutritious alternative to rice as a staple crop. SIBAT will also design and build an adlai processing/milling machine and help market the surplus adlai from the farmers. https://sibat-apptech.org
Project country: Cambodia
Grant period: 2022 - 2023
Created in 2010, Toutes à l'école Luxembourg (TAE L) is part of the Toutes à l'école (TAE) network of associations, created in France in 2006. The TAE network is focused on offering high quality education to the most disadvantaged girls in developing countries. Toutes à l'école France (TAE F) opened its first pilot school, Happy Chandara (HC), in Cambodia, 15 km from the capital Phnom Penh. HC offers an educational, socio-medical and training program to promote the integration and social advancement of young girls from the most disadvantaged families. TAE L has developed a program, Chandara Students Home, to promote higher education and the inclusion of HC graduates in Cambodian society by accompanying them from the end of their primary and secondary education at HC, to the end of their university or professional studies and their entry into professional life. In 2022/2023, the SENSE Foundation Brussels supported a student of the Chandara Students Home, helping to cover the costs of her studies and living expenses, and enabling her to focus on her studies and successfully complete the first year of the 2-year ASINSA programme - the integrated preparation for INSA Lyon, rated in the Top 10 engineering schools in France. She is the first ever Cambodian student to enter the ASINSA programme. https://toutesalecole.lu
Project country: United Kingdom
Grant period: 2021 - 2022
Universify Education champions educational equality, helping to build a fairer society through social mobility by tackling underrepresentation at university, making its benefits accessible to all. Universify works with UK school students from underrepresented groups. It helps them increase their aspirations, reach academic success and, in all likelihood, successfully apply to a highly selective university. In 2021/2022, SENSE Foundation Brussels is supporting Universify's specialised year-long programme, enabling the organisation to deliver its tailored programme to more students. The programme supports young people from underrepresented backgrounds experiencing financial hardship and at risk of not fulfilling their potential. It empowers them to thrive in education and the wider world, equipping them with the knowledge, grades, and self-belief to make informed decisions about their future and follow them through. Universify organises a week-long summer school at Oxford or Cambridge University, monthly 1:1 coaching for a year, and an intensive revision residential to boost GCSE attainment and explore career paths. SENSE Foundation Brussels's grant enables an additional 30 students to attend the programme. It also helps Universify keep making a difference for vulnerable young people, increasing their access to the life-changing opportunity of higher education, and powering social mobility in the UK to build a fairer society for all. https://www.universifyeducation.com
