Zelmerlöw & Björkman Foundation

The Zelmerlöw & Björkman Foundation was founded in 2013 by Måns Zelmerlöw and Jonas Björkman.

After visiting a school in South Africa, Måns decided to support the young people there more, as he was extremely impressed by the joy and hope they exuded despite their difficult living conditions. When Måns got the opportunity to finance a specific school in South Africa, he turned to Jonas for further assistance. Both had already raised a lot of money through fundraising events, but there was always a sense of uncertainty about how the money was handled and what difference they really could achieve in the end.

With the establishment of the Zelmerlöw & Björkman Foundation, they now had the opportunity to closely follow the path of donations and to monitor the effects and results of their projects. By merging their two biggest interests - singing and playing tennis - they created the foundation’s single largest fundraising event, the Zelmerlöw & Björkman Invitational, a ProAm tennis tournament with a subsequent gala dinner and charity auction. This was the starting point of the collaboration and has been held every autumn since then.

With the collection of donations, they pursue the goal of strengthening Africa’s marginalized youth, leading them from exclusion and poverty to work and self-determination in their lives. This is mainly done through education and entrepreneurship. It is important for the Zelmerlöw & Björkman Foundation to reach the most vulnerable youth in the areas in which they operate. Hence, they focus on girls and young women, who are often not only those most at risk, but also those with the greatest potential for positive change that will also affect their families and communities. They create confidence in the future through education, health and safety.

Together with local partners, they are based in Ngong Hills, Kenya, in one of the most vulnerable areas in Africa. There, ZBF develops and finances the Kenswed model (Kenswed = Kenya + Sweden), which currently consists of a high school, a boarding school, a scholarship program for higher education, a maternity and health clinic and a vocational school.

Would you like to support the Zelmerlöw & Björkman Foundation?

Then click here to find out how to donate!
www.zbfoundation.se

About the Kenswed Model

The aim of the Kenswed model is to create better conditions for vulnerable young people living in poverty so that they can be successful in school and thus come out of poverty independently. In order to enable the students to improve their living situation, the training offered by ZBF is more than just academic knowledge. The Kenswed model is therefore based on three equally important and interdependent cornerstones: education, health and creativity. Experience has shown that there is a strong correlation between study results and health. Good results lead to better health, while good health provides better conditions for achieving educational goals. In addition, creativity not only gives students hope, but also paves the way for a professional life.

Cornerstone Education

The Kenswed Academy is a high school for young people from very poor conditions. Almost 400 students from the slums live here, divided into 8 classes. The school works hard to achieve a high student participation and to meet each student’s need for stimulation and support. The prerequisites for this are created, among other things, through continuous teacher training as well as special education support. In addition to the compulsory subjects of the school curriculum, Kenswed Academy also offers the fields of agriculture and computer programming. Two very valuable and appreciated, but also unusual directions. In general, Kenswed works very consciously with digital tools and resources to enable students to develop digital skills.

Cornerstone Health

The students at Kenswed Academy come from very poor, vulnerable home conditions or are homeless. In order for them to focus on their studies, it is necessary to contribute to their health, well-being and security. Both in the educational situation itself and in their environment. The school offers weekly physical education, offers health and exercise-promoting activities in the afternoons and organizes sports competitions with other schools. Together with local partners, ZBF examines the need for basic services that exist among the students and in some cases even in the surrounding area. One example of this is the boarding school that was built on the school’s campus in 2017. Today 185 girls live here and ZBF also offers accommodation for 92 boys. Other examples of how they work with cornerstone health is that they have invested in access to clean water, food for all students and access to a curator.

Kenswed Hospital, which opened in June 2019, will initially serve as a maternity and health center for the students and the local community as the need for both preventive knowledge and medical care is very high. Most of the students and the community around the hospital have never had access to any form of health care, and ZBF is building on doing this to increase the number of students graduating from Kenswed Academy and to improve the health of the school and society at a wider scale.

Cornerstone Creativity

Self-esteem and hope grow in a creative environment. Creativity also paves the way for entrepreneurship and a professional life for many young people. It was extra important for Måns and Jonas to invest in creativity as a tool to get young people to find their own livelihood opportunities, their driving forces and faith in the future. The school strives to strengthen students’ creativity in the classroom by integrating aesthetic subjects into the curriculum. Among other things, ZBF has participated and invested in the school’s music studio and a multi-sports court in the schoolyard. Kenswed also offers afternoon activities to encourage creativity and ingenuity. Every day from 4 p.m., students can choose from attending the music studio, drama group, various types of sports, visual education, film knowledge, journalism and scouting.

Kenswed Academy

The Kenswed Academy in Ngong near Nairobi, Kenya, is the high school and education system for the most vulnerable youth in the area, which ZBF finances and manages together with local partners. In addition to theoretical training, the program provides the best possible conditions for students, including important elements such as equality, entrepreneurship, sustainability, sports, culture and access to health care. To transition from poverty, these young people need more than a traditional education to have the possibility to affect their future - this is what makes Kenswed much more than just a high school.

Kenswed Higher Education

It is often not enough just to offer students at Kenswed Academy’s an upper secondary education in order for them to transition out of poverty. This is one of the reasons ZBF also finances a scholarship program providing students the financial standing to study at the university.

Kenswed Boarding School

When ZBF created the Kenswed-model they realized that many youth, especially girls, had problems getting to school since they either lived far away or had difficult situations at home. As a result, in 2017 ZBF built a boarding school that then provided room and board to 185 girls. The boarding school provides girls access to a modern and established education program, three meals a day, fresh water and a bed with clean sheets. In addition, they are protected and cared for by adults concerned over their wellbeing. Since 2018, ZBF has also assisted 92 boys in a resident near the school. Since ZBF created the Kenswed-model, they have expanded the boarding school through the procurement of additional beds. In the coming years – and in connection with the expansion of the school – they aim to add an additional floor to the boarding school in order to offer even more girls room and board.

Kenswed Hospital

The Kenswed Hospital Health and Maternity Clinic was completed in June 2019. It constitutes an important prerequisite in the Kenswed Model to ensure good conditions for students and the surrounding community, and it focuses on the provision of prenatal care, general health care and sex education for youths. In addition, the clinic has started to assist with childbirth. The goal is to provide the best possible medical care to everyone who comes to the hospital.

The expansion of work with mental illnesses is also being planned.

Kenswed Vocational Training Center

The next step for the Zelmerlöw & Björkman Foundation was to open the Kenswed Vocational Education Center in June 2021 to provide more students with post-secondary education through various practical education programs that lead to more job opportunities directly after graduation. ZBF has identified the need for educational programs that match the needs of the local labour market, such as ICT (coding, web design), electricity (solar cell installation, etc.), handicraft (couture, design), and plumbing. In addition, a platform for entrepreneurship is going to be included in all educations, where the students will learn about sustainability, democracy, human rights, how to run sustainable activities, how to create and manage budgets and which processes to employ.

Kenswed Dental Clinic

Construction of the Kenswed Dental Clinic began in autumn 2020 and it opened in 2022. The clinic will initially be staffed several times a month with a full-time oral health officer and a dentist on site. Working closely with Kenswed Hospital, the clinic will provide a base for preventive oral health work in the Ngong Hills region. There are several primary schools near the clinic with many thousands of students who are in urgent need of health skills.

In addition, ZBF has launched the Kenswed Dental Project. In addition to meeting the treatment needs at the Kenswed Dental Clinic, this also includes preventive oral health work. The preventive oral health work was started by Kenswed Hospital staff by providing information, toothbrushes and toothpaste to students, youth and patients.

Would you like to support the Zelmerlöw & Björkman Foundation?

Then click here to find out how to donate!
www.zbfoundation.se

Open external link in new window

Many thanks to the
Zelmerlöw & Björkman Foundation
for their support with texts and photos for this page!