Sponsors

Aon Hewitt is the global leader in human resource consulting and outsourcing solutions.  The company partners with organizations to solve their most complex benefits, talent and related financial challenges, and improve business performance.  Aon Hewitt designs, implements, communicates and administers a wide range of human capital, retirement, investment management, health care, compensation and talent management strategies.  With more than 29,000 professionals in 90 countries, Aon Hewitt makes the world a better place to work for clients and their employees.  For more information on Aon Hewitt, please visit www.aonhewitt.co.uk.

JLT Benefit Solutions is one of the UK's leading providers of pension and employee benefit services. We offer a single, centralised source for all pension and benefit requirements. This means that with JLT at our clients and partners have access to everything they require, from pension and investment consultancy and actuarial services, to healthcare, flexible benefits, benefit communications and scheme administration all under one roof.

Principal Global Investors is a diversified global asset management business, headquartered in Des Moines, Iowa. Our team of over 430 investment professionals worldwide manages over $235 billion in assets, primarily for institutional clients (as of 31 March 2011). Our London office can provide UK and European pension schemes with access to a range of world-class investment capabilities with solutions in equity, fixed income, real estate and currency.

Standard Life group is a long term savings business providing meaningful solutions built on thorough insight and inspired by the lives of the people they help, building their confidence in their future wealth and well-being. Standard Life aim to lead the way in which people think about employee benefits. Their award-winning administration, combined with their strong long-term investment record and effective members' communication, place them in a marketing leading position.

Established in 2003, EdUKaid works with children, families and schools in the Mtwara region of Tanzania, one of the poorest areas of the country. EdUKaid has helped some of the most vulnerable and disadvantaged children to be able to go to school and has also provided desks, chairs and more than 10,000 books. Committed to improving the provision and quality of education, EdUKaid not only provides vital educational resources, but works closely with schools and parents to improve conditions and find ways to enhance the teaching and learning environment.

EdUKaid's core projects focus on the introduction and delivery of pre-primary classes, improving school resources and facilities, and child sponsorship. Our pre-primary initiative addresses insufficient pre-primary schooling as currently, children are entering formal education unprepared at the age of six or seven. They face difficulties with the level of curriculum and syllabus, and lack basic social skills and competencies with the abrupt transition to school. Pre-primary education provides an important foundation for later learning. It is a way to bridge the gap between home and elementary school and to prepare the children for primary education. It plays a crucial role in nurturing key attitudes to learning, supporting educational achievement and improving the efficiency of primary education. Our programme includes the refurbishment of classrooms, the deployment of a locally training pre-primary teacher and teaching assistant and activities to engage parents in their children's education. 

Our Resources and Facilities initiative recognises how schools are in poor states of repair and lack core resources. In order to ensure these do not become a hindrance to learning, EdUKaid seeks to identify the schools' most urgent needs and provide books, chairs and desks, and for some, a water supply, sports equipment, teaching materials, first aid kits and even football pitches.

EdUKaid's child sponsorship scheme matches individual donors or donor bodies in the UK with children in Mikindani who most need the finance and resources to go to school. The donor receives information and updates about their sponsored child; the child gets their school-related costs covered such as any school fees, uniform, shoes, exercise books, exam fees and a bicycle when they start secondary school.  

EdUKaid is committed to empowering and developing the skills of local people in the delivery of its projects. The charity works with local people to provide employment, develop role models and provide a source of inspiration and motivation to local communities. EdUKaid has always worked closely with both local government and non governmental organisations in the area to ensure its work is both complementary and effective.