The month in pictures: July


Canoeing through the mangroves of Madagascar, learning innovations in Zanzibar, and installing solar panels in Syria: see what we’ve been up to this month.

Aga Khan Foundation |


In the early morning light, a Malagasy fisherman expertly navigates his pirogue (handmade dugout canoe) through mangrove forests in the Mozambique Channel. This moment was captured en route to the Barren Isles, where AKF is working with ABALOBI, Blue Ventures, and MIHARI to support small-scale fishers to develop new livelihoods that bolster community-led marine conservation efforts, funded by the Blue Action Fund.

Location: Maintirano, Madagascar / Photographer: Grégoire Imberty

In a classroom, surrounded by her classmates, a young girl holds a bundle of sticks, a tool used to teach place value in numeracy. Since July 2024, AKF, in partnership with the Ministry of Education Zanzibar, TaRL Africa, and UNICEF, has been piloting the Teach at the Right Level (TaRL) approach in 25 primary schools in Zanzibar.

Targeting 10,000 students in Standards 3–6, the programme aims to help 80% of them master basic literacy and numeracy skills. With context-specific materials and a team of 243 teachers trained, the initiative has already shown promising results, making strides in bridging learning gaps and paving the way for scaling across Zanzibar.

Location: Unguja, Zanzibar / Photographer: Zubeir Omar Zubeir

AKF’s Hafiz Moledina, Apoorva Oza, Davlatsulton Dorgabekova, and Abdul Malik spoke on a panel, titled ‘Signals of Hope: Stories of Change and Resilience from Around the World’, at the recent Global Encounters Festival in Dubai, UAE.

A deeply human, story-driven session that took audiences across continents – from remote mountain villages in Central Asia to arid lands in sub-Saharan Africa – the panel offered a rare window into the personal journeys of resilience and transformation unfolding through the work of AKF.

Speaking to his own experience of being impacted positively by the initiatives of AKF, Malik said, “The first time AKF came into my life was in the form of a Jeep, with the AKF logo on it. I used to draw the logo – and sometimes I feel like it was my destiny to be with this organisation. How often does this happen – from being a beneficiary, a rural boy, to move on to becoming the CEO of the AKRSP?”

Location: Dubai, United Arab Emirates / Photographer: Ellen Agnew

Taking advantage of Syria’s hot, arid climate, the AKF team has installed solar-powered water pumping systems across Hama and Tartous. Local farmers are harnessing this renewable energy to irrigate crops, water livestock, and access clean drinking water.

More than 300 individuals across 11 villages in Hama and 43 in Tartous now have more sustainable water management, improved agricultural productivity, and are more resilient to the impacts of climate change.

Location: Hama, Syria / Photographer: Ali Shaheen

“AKF’s YES courses have enhanced my skills in planning and profit calculation. The seed grant fuelled my small business, and the knowledge – using templates for tax reports and daily tasks – drives my success. These tools empower me to expand and diversify my small business in the future.” – Sukhrob Mirzoev

The Youth Entrepreneurship and Employability Skills (YES) programme, launched in 2021, aims to empower youth, promote entrepreneurship, and build job readiness. Initially piloted in Tajikistan and the Kyrgyz Republic, the programme has been growing ever since, equipping young people like Sukhrob with essential skills such as financial and digital literacy, leadership, and critical thinking to prepare them for both employment and self-employment.

Location: Khatlon, Tajikistan / Photographer: Sharofat Shafieva

At the Global Encounters Festival in Dubai, UAE, Munir Ahmad, AKF’s Global Lead for Innovation, ran a series of ‘Design for Impact’ workshops – inviting participants to explore real-world challenges, and design human-centred solutions.

Through these fast-paced 90 minutes, participants not only discovered how the Aga Khan Foundation works hand-in-hand with communities to improve quality of life — but also realised the role individuals can play in making a difference.

Location: Dubai, United Arab Emirates / Photographer: Munir Ahmad

At the Schools2030 Portugal National Showcase, teachers from across the country shared their experiences with the Schools2030 programme, including Cesário Silva (pictured), who is Headteacher of the Marinha Grande Poente School Cluster in Leiria, Portugal.

The event brought together over 130 educators, partners, and education experts who are dedicated to teacher-led transformation. Participants took the opportunity to showcase stories of innovation, inclusion and resilience from 15 school groups, representing 92 public schools across Lisbon, Porto, Leiria and Santarém towards building a more holistic, inclusive and teacher-led future for education in Portugal.

Schools2030 is AKF’s flagship education programme, operating across 10 countries worldwide to drive teacher-led change in the education sector.

Location: Lisbon, Portugal / Photographer: Samir Samssudin

Earlier this month, Canada’s Secretary for International Development, Honourable Randeep Sarai, visited Nour Abswar Primary School. The school is currently being supported by AKF and the Madrasa Early Childhood Programme in Zanzibar.

During the visit, he observed play-based learning in action and met with educators trained through AKF’s Foundations for Learning (F4L) project, funded by Global Affairs Canada. The project has trained over 120 teachers in Zanzibar and supported more than 2,400 teachers across 257 schools in Lindi, improving literacy, inclusion, and early learning.

Location: Unguja, Zanzibar / Photographer: Habiba Omar

A student tends to his school’s garden in Ruangwa, Tanzania. The creation of the garden is a community-led solution to address the challenge of school attendance, and falls under the F4L (Foundations for Learning) component of AKF’s F4EE (Foundations for Education and Empowerment) programme.

Funded and implemented in partnership with Global Affairs Canada, F4EE supports students, teachers, families, communities, civil society, and government leaders across East Africa to build more inclusive, gender-responsive, and high-quality education systems.

Location: Ruangwa, Tanzania / Photographer: Richard Townsend

At the recent Global Encounters Festival in Dubai, UAE, visitors to the AKF booth embarked on virtual reality journeys to Kenya, Madagascar, India and Portugal – via Virtual Reality headsets, their phones, tablets or laptops – with The Learning Hub‘s 360° videos.

Immersive and interactive, these 360° videos are designed to transport viewers to the communities where AKF works – often some of the most remote areas in the world – and offer a unique perspective, and deeper understanding, on development projects and community initiatives.

 

Location: Dubai, United Arab Emirates / Photographer: Ana Barfield

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