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How do PEAS and Costa Foundation work together?
We began working with PEAS in 2011 and our first investment was Hibiscus High School, in Uganda. Over the years we’ve invested in 10 high schools in Uganda and two high schools in the northern province of Zambia.

We typically fund phase one of a high school which could include building classrooms, boarding accommodation, and getting the basics running. We’ve also invested in expanding the schools.

What do PEAS do well?
I think PEAS manages the whole process from start to finish of educating children well; I think it’s extremely good at identifying the right locations to put schools in and very good at identifying the right teachers and training them.

It’s extremely good at developing the people it’s got. It has a very strong team and I’m not just talking about school directors, head teachers, and teachers, but PEAS has the ability to attract the best people like a magnet, quality people that are passionate about education, passionate about helping children. It’s extremely good at safeguarding and child protection.
Above all else, everybody you meet within PEAS puts children first. It’s great to visit the students and see their confidence grow over time, especially girls who might not give eye contact on the first visit, but by the next time we visit, they are laughing and sharing stories.

There’s also a tenacity, professionalism, fleet of foot, resilience, and speed about PEAS that I think is very impressive. The communication with students through radio and the telephone tree during the Covid-19 lockdown was ground-breaking and cutting edge.

What do you enjoy about working with PEAS?
I’ve enjoyed the flexibility of the relationship. We’ve been able to be very upfront and very honest with one another.

Having a track record together has meant that we can be brutally honest with one another, and it doesn’t matter if we disagree, because we can find a way to negotiate around those disagreements.

There’s no doubt Costa Foundation trusts PEAS, and there’s no doubt that PEAS trust Costa Foundation. I think this lowers some barriers that may exist in a normal relationship between the donor and an organisation that is the recipient of funds.

What is unique about PEAS?
In the other eight countries around the world, where we are funding schools, the charities hand over the schools to the government for them to run them. PEAS actually builds and runs schools, so for us, that was a first.

So, our connection to those government-run schools is a little bit fractured. I do occasionally have sleepless nights about some of the schools that we have funded; particularly when we’ve not visited them for a long time. But I don’t have sleepless nights about PEAS schools. Our relationship and connection with PEAS schools are different and the information we’re able to get from PEAS about what’s going on in the schools is a lot more robust than the information we get from a government school that we gave as a gift 10 years ago, for example.

What would you advise a donor who is considering working with PEAS?
In my opinion, I’d advise them to go ahead and invest because they won’t regret it. I’d advise them to be flexible in their thinking and to recognise the knowledge and experience PEAS has.

I would ask any donor considering working with PEAS to trust them. And I would ask donors to make sure they visit the programmes and the projects that they’ve invested in because they need to talk to the children, the teachers, and the parents, not just talk to PEAS.

I’d also advise donors to talk to Costa Foundation and have a conversation about our experiences so that we can comfort them.