Our principles of implementation are based on an effective and hands-on approach to all our project activities with an emphasis on adaptation to local customs. We work closely with the local communities and authorities to create ownership and commitment in the community benefitting from our project activities.

Human Practice Foundation’s local project teams are well trained professionals typically hired from the local or surrounding area. Our project teams in both Nepal and Kenya are managed by a strong management team with expert knowledge on financial control, public policy, project management and strategic decision-making. Our implementing teams work directly with the schools and the local population – with no middlemen or external organizations. With this method we gain a strong local presence and understanding of the local needs and challenges, making our implementation more effective and our projects more impactful with in the local context. Our teams on the ground in Kenya are supported by our CEO, Head of Projects, and Head of Finances at the Copenhagen office, who ensure that the daily operations run smoothly with the support of 4 employees working at HPF’s HQ.

Today, it is an approach that is based on a well-defined and highly replicable process, following 4 steps: proof of concept, scale-up, broaden the scope based on local needs and handover to local authorities and communities. Human Practice Foundation’s programs in Nepal, Kenya and Denmark are supported by the local governments and communities either through in-kind or monetary contributions.

Human Practice Foundation always seeks funding for its programmes in a coordinated effort with local governments and authorities.

The Nepali ministry of education have kept committed to supporting Human Practice Foundation’s work during our 7 years of operation in Nepal. We are currently within our Second 3-year Project Agreement with the Nepali Government. Through Human Practice Foundation’s Project Agreement with the Social Welfare Council of the Nepali Government, we work with the District Development Committees in Taplejung and partner with the Rural Municipalities and School Management Committees to initiate and follow through on each project as well as the renovation and maintenance work associated with all Human Practice Foundation’s projects. The Rural Municipalities are responsible for maintenance and budgeting of the school facilities that Human Practice Foundation install.

HPF is registered as an INGO with the Kenyan NGO board. Our INGO registration in Kenya will enable us to coordinate our work with public schools even closer with the national and local authorities. By having close partnerships with the local authorities, we enhance the sustainability of our interventions. The Kenyan government’s decision to guarantee free primary education in 2003 has exacerbated the problem with under resourced schools due to a major increase in student enrolment in already run-down and overcrowded schools. Thus, the local authorities are very inclined to work closely with Human Practice Foundation to strengthen the quality of education, as the inequality in Kenya has created a major problem for many public schools.

Human Practice Foundation’s Inner Strength Programme in Denmark is supported by Fredensborg Municipality, who have chosen to co-finance the programme to be able to reach more students. Human Practice Foundation will continue to work in a coordinated effort with the Danish Municipalities, as co-financers and co-creators to facilitate that Inner Strength can become an ingrained part of the Danish public school system.

In Denmark Human Practice Foundation is further supported with a yearly amount by the Ministry of Culture in Denmark.

Human Practice Foundation works in Nepal, Kenya, and Denmark. Human Practice Foundation have chosen primarily to work in districts and local communities with immense poverty and a huge need for development. Common for the communities we work in is that there are little to no help from other organizations and that the authorities do not have the capacity to improve the situation. The educational system is lacking resources and capacity to provide quality education. This is a criterion for the areas Human Practice Foundation work in. We assess the specific needs and develop our intervention based on that. This is also the reason why our activities in Denmark are vastly different from the ones in Nepal and Kenya.

In Nepal Human Practice works in Taplejung District in the Himalayas and Dhankuta District. Both districts are highly secluded and impoverished areas in Nepal.

Despite Nepal’s transition to democracy in the 1990s, according to the 2018 report produced by the Central Bureau of Statistics of Nepal and OPHI, 28.6% of Nepal’s population is still multidimensionally poor. Affected by many years of civil war and the fatal earthquakes in 2015, the Nepalese government is not capable of improving the quality of the school system alone.

According to the UNDP Human Development Report (2016) and the World Economic Outlook Database (2017) in Nepal only seven out of ten children enrolled in grade 1, reach grade 5 and more than half drop out of school before reaching secondary level. Only 43% of all adults have passed primary education and only 12% have passed secondary education; the average number of years in school is 4. The poor performing educational sector in Nepal restricts the social development of the country.

The poverty level and lack of local job opportunities in the poorest regions of Nepal results in many young men migrating to the Emirates to work 10-15 hours a day under inhumane conditions to support their families and girls being trafficked to India by their desperate families to survive.

In Kenya Human Practice Foundation works in Meru County, Laikiplia County, and Isiolo County. Kenya is known as one of the more developed Sub-Saharan African countries. However, the inequality in Kenya continues to pose a challenge with many families living below the poverty line, particularly when comparing the urban and rural areas. In the rural counties where Human Practice Foundation works in Kenya daily income per capita is less than half of Nairobi, with communities largely dependent on agriculture according to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (2017).

Reports from the UN World Population Prospects Data Booklet (2017) and World Bank (2016) reveal that in the rural areas of Kenya almost 40% of the population live in poverty. This has a huge negative impact on the educational sector. Communities with many struggling households often deprioritize education and involve children in household and agricultural labour at the expense of their education, resulting in low enrolment, attendance, and education levels. Only around 50% of the students make it to grade 4 achieving a minimum level of learning. In the poorest regions of Kenya only 28% of the youngest students obtain the expected numeracy and literacy skills of their age group.

In Denmark Human Practice Foundation works at primary public schools where an increasing number of Danish students experience stress, loneliness, depression, and anxiety, which often leads to withdrawal from social contexts. Studies and research from the Danish Health and Medicines Authority (2017), dst.dk (2020), DCUM (2017), VIVE (2018), and the Ministry of Education (2021) show a marked increase in children who experience stress and loneliness and therefore fail to thrive. In alignment, the treatment of children with stress increased by 900% from 1995-2015. Studies also show a clear correlation between children who are unhappy/discontented and absenteeism/learning patterns. This is, a contributing factor to the fact that in 2018 32% of Danish students nationally were not deemed ready for higher education in eighth grade, and that in 2019 10% of the students in the ninth grade did not complete the primary school’s mandatory exams.

In the Learning Compass 2030 OECD points out that we must ensure children’s well-being and mental health to promote learning and ensure the best future opportunities for children. To alleviate this rising challenge for Danish primary students, Human Practice Foundation has established the Inner Strength programme, enabling children from all ages to thrive better, learn more, and enhance their social skills.

Human Practice Foundation prioritizes detailed evaluation and monitoring of its projects to make sure that its programmes have the desired impact. Human Practice Foundation employs both quantitative and qualitative methods to collect, compute, and analyse collected data from its schools and at the household level to measure the impact and outcomes of project activities. Before Human Practice Foundation’s projects and programmes are implemented, we conduct a pre-test to form the baseline, a mid-line and finally a post-test after two years of implementation. This evaluation is overseen in coordination with our partner on impact measurements, Deloitte.

Our reporting system for monitoring results has been reviewed and optimized and accordingly, we have designed an outcome framework and a hierarchy of measures in collaboration with Deloitte. Human Practice Foundation’s means of verification include, quantitative data collection, questionnaires, informal and structured interviews with students and teachers as well as observation. Deloitte works as an independent evaluator for Human Practice Foundation, assisting with the ongoing assessment of the validity and reliability of the data we collect through our local M&E teams. Deloitte will eventually visit the field to assess the data and support the operationalization of our outcome framework.

We measure the following educational performance indicators at the project schools according to the listed Hierarchy of Measures:

1. Secondary school (grade 12) completion ratio
2. Average learning achievement grade 1-12.
3. English learning achievement grade 1-12
4. Enrolment ratio grade 1-12
5. Drop out ratio grade 1-12
6. Grade promotion ratio grade 1-12
7. School absence grade 1-12

To measure our impact on livelihoods, we will measure the following going forward:

1. Financial capital – measured as income and savings per household.
2. Human capital – measured as individuals’ skills, knowledge, ability to pursue different livelihood strategies.
3. Physical capital – measured as land, shelter/house and facilities, equipment, and other assets per household.

With our investment in education to date, we have more than 80 ongoing school building projects, reaching more than 32,000 children in Nepal, Kenya and Denmark.

Human Practice Foundation is currently working on 80% of the secondary schools in Taplejung District in Nepal. Please find an overview of the result of Human Practice Foundation’s interventions to reduce the education gap in Nepal measured from 2019-2020 at 33 schools:

Furthermore, Human Practice Foundation has many great case examples from its schools. For instance, at Hangpang Secondary School in Taplejung in Nepal from 2018-2020 the graduation ratio has improved by 27%, enrolment has increased by 16% and the dropout ratio has improved with 50%. Likewise, at Yuba Secondary School the grade average has in­creased by 12,5% and the school’s dropout ratio has decreased by 42%.

To date, Human Practice Foundation can report the following impact from its income generating programmes:

• 1,100 coffee and tea farmers trained in Good Agricultural Practices.
• 290,000 coffee seedlings planted in 10 constructed nurseries, $200k annual income potential for farmers (+50% production expected in 2021).
• 200,000 tea saplings planted, and a tea factory has been built.
• 300kg tea shipped to Perch’s Tea Shop in Copenhagen from the first harvest in 2021, with 100% of the profit to be reinvested in the Tea Impact Programme.
• 150kg coffee beans to Hagen Espresso Bars in London from the first harvest in 2021, with 100% profits to be reinvested in the Coffee Impact Programme.
• 27 new, small entrepreneurial business generated by our social entrepreneurship programme.

Human Practice Foundation works with partners with complementary priorities and competencies, collaborating with public and private sector partners to mobilize and leverage expertise, and resources.

We invest alongside our partners, jointly financing and finding project solutions that can create maximal impact for our project beneficiaries. We have entered into several agreements with partners taking on multiple roles, including as a technical advisor and a co-investor. In all Human Practice Foundation’s projects, we take on the role as the head implementer. However, we believe that comparative advantages can be achieved from co-creation, and therefore work with many technical partners on our programs:

Human Practice Foundation operates based on a model, where we have two channels of donations – Founding Partner contributions and Project/programme donations. Since 2014 more than USD 13.8 million has been raised from various financial institutions, corporates, and private persons.

Human Practice Foundation’s administrative costs in Denmark and all the activities related to Human Practice Foundation’s chapters in UK, Switzerland and Sweden are funded entirely through the support of Founding Partners. Consequently, donors can see 100% of their donation go directly to their selected project. This is at the core of Human Practice Foundation’s 100%-financial-model.

At Human Practice Foundation we make every donation count. For only USD 2,000 we can build a playground or supply a whole school with a school equipment package. For USD 10,000 we can build a fully equipped computer lab and for USD 75,000, we can build a new public school with 8 classrooms.

Human Practice Foundation has a wide variety of donors. Some donors, often private philanthropists, choose to donate a one-off amount, for instance for the construction of a new public-school building. Where others select a long-term donation for at time duration of 2-4 years. This can either be to support 2-3 school building projects or to support one of our programs i.e., a Quality Education Program or an Agricultural Impact Program. Finally, Human Practice Foundation has very large donors such as the Kavli Trust, which has provided funding for the completion of a Quality Education Programme at 33 schools in Nepal where the funding has been provided in accordance with accomplished milestones.

It is difficult to define in strict terms, as Human Practice Foundation has had an almost exponential increase in its funding since the organization was founded in 2014. As highlighted in the table below:

Human Practice Foundation receive the highest number of donations from private philanthropists and foundations. Please find a breakdown of Human Practice Foundation’s donations by source in 2019 and 2020.

Human Practice Foundations biggest donors are: The Kavli Trust, which has funded projects with USD 1,6m, Lotus Life Foundation, which has funded projects for USD 900.000 Gudbjørg og Ejnar Honores Fond, which has funded projects for USD 700,000, Lars Förberg, who has funded projects for USD 650,000, Goldman Sachs Gives, which has funded USD 360.000, World Diabetes Foundation, which has funded projects for USD 350.000, Jochnick Foundation, which has funded projects for USD 300.000 and Rambøll Fonden, which has funded projects for USD 170.000. A few other current major Human Practice Foundation donors include Gorrisen Fiederspiel and Famsa Foundation.

Human Practice Foundation’s fundraising activities are currently focused on its Kenya Country Program and Nepal Country Program and its Inner Strength Program in Denmark.

In Denmark Human Practice Foundation’s goal is to expand the Inner Strength Program with the establishment of 5 model schools at Danish public schools.

Human Practice Foundation’s Country Programs in Kenya and Nepal both set forth targets for:

1. Constructing modern safe school buildings.
2. Quality education programs involving teachers, students, management, and parents.
3. Community workshops and entrepreneurship activities.
4. Agricultural impact programs to support students’ parents in developing sustainable livelihoods.

Human Practice Foundation aims to expand with new school building projects in both countries, reaching 100 schools by the end of 2022.

The selection process starts with site visits to the schools, which have been longlisted as the most impoverished public schools in collaboration with the local authorities. Site visits are conducted with a construction engineer and an educational specialist from Human Practice Foundation’s local teams.

Human Practice Foundation assesses educational deficits based on student performances, teacher quality and quantity, as well as the management’s competence level. Likewise, Human Practice Foundation provides an assessment of the schools’ construction requirements based on the engineer’s expert advice.

The premise for Human Practice Foundation’s selection process is to achieve maximum impact for each social investment in a school project. Thus, as an important part of the selection process in-depth meetings with the Schools Management and the local community are held to evaluate each school’s commitment towards improvements. Human Practice Foundation further requires support from the local community either monetary or in-kind to ensure local ownership as well as the projects long term sustainability.

Based on these inputs, Human Practice Foundation prepares a report providing an estimate of where its efforts will have the largest impact. These schools are then selected to become Human Practice Foundation Schools.

The sustainability of our projects is key for Human Practice Foundation, and we always work hard to ensure that our projects will stay sustainable after completion.

We believe that through local ownership and contribution, we can empower local communities to become advocates for education, keeping the quality of education to the highest standard at the schools after we exit. That is why our partnership with governments to take co-ownership of our projects and programmes through our INGO registration in both Nepal and Kenya are so important.

We work closely with the local authorities and municipalities to ensure that the necessary funds are prioritized and allocated for sustaining the change created by our programmes. We work with the school management as an implementing partner, sign individual MoU’s with each school and develop maintenance manuals for all schools. The school management at Human Practice schools are held responsible for implementing maintenance work and coordinating their needs with the local municipalities, who have allocated funds for maintaining the school buildings and facilities installed by Human Practice Foundation.  The mutual responsibilities created between the school management and local authorities ensures that the schools maintain the new standards and “best practices” that we create. After projects are completed, we continue to monitor the school, ensuring that the necessary maintenance and cleaning work is conducted according to plan.

We further build up the capacity and academic skill level of the local school management and teachers that can be continued and passed on for years after the completion of any of our programmes. Our training of teachers is structured as a “Training of Trainer’s model” where focal teachers are trained to be become a permanent resource for our schools, to be able to replicate trainings. These focal teachers are mobilized across districts to become a part of a knowledge sharing network. Likewise, material is developed for each learning outcome that we want to achieve. Thereafter, the materiel is codified and shared with all our schools.

We also believe that the support of students’ parents is essential to ensure the sustainability of our quality education programmes. Therefore, we implement income generating programmes to support students’ parents in their ability to sustain a household income freeing their children’s time from household chores to focus on their education.

Human Practice Foundation’s Inner Strength Program is a 3-year intervention with a goal of helping children strengthen their self-worth and relational competencies.

It is a principle for Human Practice Foundation to try and help the children who are not receiving the help they need – the children who are being left behind in an increasingly complex world. Regardless of whether a child struggles with their self-worth or lack access to quality education, we aim to make a difference for them. Accordingly, as more and more Danish students are experiencing stress, loneliness, anxiety and feelings of inadequacy, Human Practice Foundation has decided to tackle this increasing need, by helping Danish students work with their Inner Strength – working with both students, teachers and parents at Danish public schools.

The program will include the establishment of cross-cultural learning schemes with partner schools between Denmark, Nepal, and Kenya, so school children can visit each other’s countries and make connections and friendships across borders.

In the rural districts where Human Practice Foundation operates in Kenya and Nepal, communities are largely dependent on agriculture and families struggle to secure a stable income from their farming activities. Therefore, the risk of parents deprioritizing their children’s education is high. This in turn can result in low enrolment, attendance, and academic performance results, as children then often become involved in agricultural labour at the expense of their schoolwork. Therefore, we Include Agricultural Impact Programmes as part of our Holistic Community Approach to minimize this risk.

Human Practice Foundation’s Impact Programmes are focused on capacity building and income generation targeting the parents of students at Human Practice Foundation’s schools and the surrounding community to ensure that students are supported in their pursuit of a quality education. With our Agricultural Impact Programmes, including a coffee, tea, and a potato/beans programme, we train parents in good agricultural practices, facilitate farmers’ access to high value crops and inputs and connect them to the market. In the long run this will create jobs, economic growth and improve the livelihood of the households in Human Practice Foundation’s school communities. Poverty rates and education levels are highly intertwined issues and therefore, we treat them as such.

We have established very strict financial management processes, controlled by Human Practice Foundation Copenhagen, to ensure, that we have full control of our donations and project payments. The process is based on strict internal controls where project milestone payments are always based on verified project progress and budget control.

We have cut out all ‘middlemen,’ as we are registered with operating INGO’s in both Nepal and Kenya and are working directly with the school management, thereby being able to have full control of our cashflows from the initial donation to project implementation.

Multiple purchasing offers from retailers are always collected when buying materials for our projects. After receiving offers from retailers, the School Management Committee selects the offer that is of the best quality and cost for what is needed in alignment with their obligations, as a legal entity of the Nepali Government.

These processes are upheld by Human Practice Foundation’s finance department in its implementing INGO’s in Nepal and Kenya and Head of Finance and Administration in Denmark to ensure that our financial mechanisms are characterized by total transparency.

Human Practice Foundation does not tolerate corruption. One of the main reasons we registered as an INGO in both Nepal and Kenya was to hire our own teams in both countries to minimize corruption risks.

We control how project funding is spent through thorough financial reporting to minimize the risk of corruption. We are working directly with the school management, who have very strict reporting demands and provide thorough financial and progress reports according to predefined milestones that have been shared with donors.

In addition, Human Practice Foundation works with a dual approval principle, ensuring that no transaction is conducted without at least two parties, who are part of Human Practice Foundation’s Management team signing off on the transaction.

All Human Practice Foundation Personnel and partners are educated in Human Practice Foundation’s Child Safeguarding Policy and Code of Conduct and have an obligation to do the following:

1. To confirm that they have familiarised themselves with and understood the importance of the policies and will act in accordance with it.
2. To conduct themselves in a manner consistent with Human Practice Foundation’s values.
3. To act in accordance with this policy in both their professional and private lives.
4. To immediately and in accordance with Human Practice Foundation’s reporting procedures report suspicions that a child has been exposed to some form of discrimination, injury, violation, physical or psychological violence, sexual abuse, or exploitation.

All Human Practice Foundation’s stakeholders have been made aware of a mailbox in which they can report breaches to policies to Human Practice Foundation. Students, who are our primary beneficiaries are also informed about their access to an anonymous mailbox, which they can use to raise any concern that they have regarding their environment or raise their concerns if any of these safeguarding measures have been breached. If any incident is made apparent through the mailbox Human Practice Foundation’s personnel have the obligation to report this to Human Practice Foundation’s headquarters in Denmark.

To mitigate organizational and personnel risks, we have very strict operating procedures to protect our personnel against landslides, floods, and muddy roads when they walk between project sites and at our construction sites to project against injuries. All staff recruited to Human Practice Foundation has been authorized by the Country Manager in Nepal or Kenya and the CEO in Denmark to ensure the highest level of professional and ethical competencies in our staff.

We update the donors on our projects, while implementing projects, so they can follow the progress closely. Additionally, we offer donors the opportunity to travel to Nepal and visit the school that they have supported and participate in the local opening-ceremony. This must be arranged with the team, and the expenditures will be paid by the donor. Please see our donor update policy below:

Initial phase

• The donor receives an update when the donation is received, and the project is decided.
• The donor receives an update when the agreement is signed with the school management and the project is formally started.

Ongoing projects

• Bimonthly progress updates are sent to the donor, including pictures, a status on the progress and facts regarding the project.
• HPF shares updates with the donor if something extraordinary happens at their project.
• When the project is completed HPF shares a Final Report with the donor, including pictures, finances, process descriptions and the impact of the project.

Completed projects

• The donor receives a summer update including results from the previous academic year at the school and pictures.
• The donor receives a Christmas/New Year update including pictures and a story from a student, parent, or teacher at the school.

Please feel free to reach out to Human Practice Foundations Founder, Pernille Kruse Madsen, if you want to discuss options for supporting a project or program at + 45 93 93 27 74 or send a mail to pkm@humanpractice.org.

As we are registered in both Denmark, UK, Switzerland, and Sweden you can achieve tax deductions/gift aid in these countries from your donation and the entirety of you donation will be channelled directly to your selected project/programme.

• For USD 75.000 we can build a new school from the ground up
• For USD 600.000 we can implement a Quality Education Program targeting 25 schools
• For USD 300.000 we can implement an Agricultural Impact Program targeting 500 farmers