Step Up International

Step Up educates, empowers and inspires children who come from communities affected by HIV, poverty, unemployment and alarming school dropout rates to reach their full potential.

In Botswana, the vulnerable children who most need our support lack access to quality learning and social-emotional opportunities that go beyond the classroom – the opportunities that we provide to our own children so they have every opportunity to succeed.

Step Up is relentless driven to address this striking educational gap in Botswana – the lack of access to quality out-of-school enrichment programs and experiential learning activities essential to the positive social-emotional development of young people. Through our ACCESS Education Initiative (AEI), Step Up provides educational and social development opportunities they would otherwise not have access to - mentoring, academic tutoring, library books, English language support, music, arts, sports, STEM programs, computer classes, life skills activities, educational field trips, games, and more.

The Step Up center provides a safe, productive space for children to go after school and during school breaks, a time they would otherwise have nothing to do and nowhere to go. Our model puts the child at the center of everything we do and our programs are designed to help our Achievers develop the confidence, resilience and self-reliance so birthplace doesn’t have to determine their future.

Our headquarters are based just outside of Boston, MA, but we work on the ground with children between 10-18 years old in Molepolole, Botswana. Molepolole is about 30 miles/50km from the capital of Gaborone.