Education & health · West and East Africa

Teach a woman how to fish, and you will feed a nation for a lifetime.

Since 2016, in memory of Usman Yunus, we have kept girls in school in rural Mali and supported rural health clinics in Somaliland and Ethiopia.

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Drawn with a qalam, the reed pen of the scholar.

2016Working in Africa since

2Pillars: education and health

501(c)(3)Registered nonprofit since 2019

$0Paid in salaries. Founder-funded.

“A child in the villages of Africa must have access to the same level of education as one in the finest school in America.” Our founding vision

Our story

Our father never turned away an orphan. We carry his work forward.

Usman Yunus dedicated his life to one thing: making sure that every child in his care, no matter how they arrived at his door, was prepared to succeed. He took in orphans. He fed them. He educated them. And he never asked for anything in return.

When we lost him, we made a promise: to continue his work, but to scale it. To reach not just the children in one home, but girls who are denied the most basic right, the right to learn. Since 2016, we’ve funded schools in rural Mali, provided scholarships from elementary through middle school, and given women microloans to build businesses and feed their families. Today we also support rural health clinics in Somaliland and Ethiopia.

To the old saying, “Give a man a fish, and you will feed him for a day. Teach a man how to fish, and you will feed him for a lifetime,” we add our own line. Because we’ve seen what happens when women are given the tools to lead.

What we do

Two pillars, one promise

A girl who is ill cannot learn, and a family far from care cannot keep its daughters in class. So we work on both.

Pillar one · Mali

Education

Children at their desks in a rural classroom in Mali as volunteers hand out school supplies — School supplies arriving in a classroom we support in rural Mali.

Every year since 2016 we have funded rural schools in Mali, not with one-time gifts but with full-year supplies, from notebooks and pencils to textbooks and uniforms. Many parents have told us plainly that without this support, they would not have sent their children to school at all.

A full school year of supplies for rural schools
Scholarships so girls can attend from elementary through middle school
Microloans for women: not charity, but a hand up to start a business and support a family
A village water point, funded in 2025, so families can draw water close to home

What she learns

She reads, she leadsReading and writing. The girl who can read a contract won’t be cheated.

Minds that solveScience and math, to question, analyse and fix.

She buildsEntrepreneurship, so she can employ her neighbours.

Pillar two · Somaliland & Ethiopia

Health

We support rural health clinics in Somaliland and Ethiopia, so that families in the countryside can be seen by a health worker close to home.

Rural health clinics in Somaliland and Ethiopia
Care for women, including a women’s clinic in Jijiga, eastern Ethiopia, whose opening in 2025 we were proud to support

Through the years · Mali

From the field

Moments from our work in Mali, taken by our team and volunteers.

A smiling boy raises a new notebook above his head in a crowded classroom — **2020**A new school year: children holding up their new notebooks.

Rows of children at wooden desks fill a classroom, some waving — **2020**A full classroom on supply day.

Women and a small child fill basins at a village water point in Mali funded by the Foundation — **2025**Women filling basins at the village water point we funded.

How we work

From your gift to her classroom

We don’t build empires or hire armies of administrators. Here’s exactly how it works.

We listen to the community
Every program starts locally. We adapt to the culture and the specific challenges of each village and school.
We partner with local schools and clinics
We strengthen what already exists: supplies, teacher support and care go directly to our partners.
We connect volunteers
Volunteers from the United States and across Africa bring expertise and mentorship, and our network is growing.
She walks into a classroom
With books in hand, a teacher who believes in her, and a curriculum designed to unlock her potential.

Founder-funded. Our founders pay for this work themselves, and no one at the Foundation draws a salary.

122 million

girls around the world are out of school today. Each one we reach is a family, and eventually a village, that changes course.

Source: UNESCO, “Progress on girls’ access to education: What the new UNESCO data reveals”

Voices from the ground

In their own words

“Without the Yunus Foundation, my daughters would not be in school today. We could not afford the supplies, the uniforms, any of it. Now they come home and teach me what they learned.”

A mother in rural MaliParent of two scholarship recipientsTranslated

“The loan was small, but it changed everything. I started selling fabric at the market. Now I employ two other women. My children eat three meals a day. That was not the case before.”

Microloan recipientWomen’s empowerment programTranslated

“Every year when the school supplies arrive, you can see the children’s faces light up. They run to school. For many families here, this is the difference between their child being educated or not.”

A local school directorPartner school in MaliTranslated

Right now, a girl is waiting for a seat in a classroom.

$25 a month gives a girl her books, meals and uniform.

Help us reach the next village, and the next clinic.

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Leadership

The people behind the promise

Dr. Firdaus Usman Yunus

Founder & Chief Executive Officer

The daughter of Usman Yunus, Dr. Firdaus founded The Yunus Foundation to carry forward her father’s life’s work: caring for children and making sure every one of them has the chance to learn.

Amad Camara

Chief Financial Officer & Secretary

Amad has been part of The Yunus Foundation since its founding in 2016. As Chief Financial Officer and Secretary, he handles the Foundation’s 501(c)(3) filings and annual reports, budgets each school year, vets the schools and clinics we partner with, and makes sure every gift reaches the work it was meant for. He has travelled to Mali to deliver school supplies and to see the village water point through, and he grew up in Ethiopia, where the Foundation now supports rural health clinics. He brings 25 years of corporate finance and executive leadership in Silicon Valley to the role, and leads the Foundation’s strategic investments so that it can stand on its own for the long term. Like everyone at the Foundation, he serves without pay.