Lively Minds

07/08/2026

Have you registered yet? There is still time! Hear from our Founder and CEO Alison Naftalin as she shares key learnings from the Lively Minds experience scaling with government.

Governments everywhere are searching for practical ways to scale up parenting and early childhood development programmes that actually work. The harder question is what it really takes to embed these interventions successfully within existing government systems.

Join us today 7 August at 12pm BST for an engaging webinar exploring practical lessons from countries integrating parenting support into health, education, and social protection systems.

Hear from leading experts:
• Aimee Vachon (The Human Safety Net)
• Zainal Madon (Universiti Putra Malaysia)
• Alison Naftalin (Lively Minds)

Moderated by Isang Awah, Head of Advocacy at the Global Parenting Initiative.

📅 Date: Friday, 7 August 2026
🕛 Time: 12:00 BST | 13:00 SAST | 14:00 EAT

Register today: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_IeJS-GV6RhGCrH7zgSC_jA #/registration

30/07/2026

Cast your mind back to your childhood.

Think about your very first friend. Chances are, you didn't become friends because someone introduced you. It probably started with a simple invitation: 'Come and play.' A shared toy. A race across the playground. A game that turned a stranger into a friend.

Friendship doesn't happen in isolation. It grows in communities where children have the freedom to play together, families support one another, and everyone has the chance to belong.

The friendships children build today teach life's little lessons: how to share, be kind, work together, navigate disagreements and look out for one another. Long after the games are over, those lessons and essential social and emotional skills stay with them.

That's why friendship matters to us at Lively Minds. Every day, we create opportunities for children to come together through play, where a simple game can become the start of a friendship, a boost in confidence, or a child discovering that they belong.

In addition, parenting workshops create stronger relationships between Mothers from the community as they learn, discuss and practise together, united in their desire to provide learning for their children at home.

This International Day of Friendship, we're celebrating the friendships that shape childhood and the families and communities that help them grow.

29/07/2026

Unpack the Photo

So what is the 'secret sauce' of the Lively Minds approach?

How do we know how to unlock one of the greatest, yet often overlooked, drivers of quality early childhood development - parents?

Years of experience supporting parents in rural communities across Ghana and Uganda, and now in The Gambia and Oromia, Ethiopia, have taught us that lasting change doesn't come from telling parents what to do. It comes from building their confidence, nurturing their motivation, and helping them recognise that they already have the skills they need to support their children's learning.

Small changes in everyday interactions - talking, playing, singing, counting and responding to children's curiosity - can have a profound impact on a child's cognitive and social-emotional development.

We partner with governments to share this learning and co-create parenting courses and radio programmes that they deliver using their existing systems and workforce.

The result? Government systems that are better equipped to support families, and parents who are informed, confident and empowered to give their children the best possible start in life.

24/07/2026

The real impact begins when learning is put into practice at home. It's inspiring to hear parents sharing how they're using what they've learned to support their children's development.

Together with Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education, The Gambia, we're helping families create brighter futures for their children through play and early learning.

“𝙋𝙖𝙧𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙨 𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙛𝙞𝙧𝙨𝙩 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙢𝙤𝙨𝙩 𝙞𝙢𝙥𝙤𝙧𝙩𝙖𝙣𝙩 𝙩𝙚𝙖𝙘𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙨 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙘𝙝𝙞𝙡𝙙,”

Ms. Awa Mbakeh of Kolley K***a, Lamin Koto Village, CRR North is among over 1,500 parents who benefited from the just concluded Eight-Week Parenting Sessions for thirty-two schools in Region Five (5) North.

During the parenting delivery sessions, parents and caregivers learned simple play activities to do with their children at home such as: how to create games and learning materials from locally available resources, and how to use storytelling, songs and play activities to strengthen children’s language, listening, and thinking skills.

They were also introduced to basic nutrition, hygiene, and positive discipline practices that support children’s health, wellbeing, and early development.

MoBSE places parents at at the centre of foundational learning to strengthen early childhood education outcomes.

Communications Unit, MoBSE

23/07/2026

Congratulations to the Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education, The Gambia on the successful completion of the Partnership with Parents in ECD pilot in Region 5 North.

We're proud to have partnered with MoBSE to strengthen parents' confidence and skills as their children's first teachers, helping create stronger foundations for early learning at home.

We look forward to building on these learnings together so that even more children across The Gambia get the best possible start in life.

22/07/2026

🎉 Exciting news from Lively Minds!

We have been selected to join the 100x Impact Accelerator's 2026/27 cohort at the London School of Economics!

Following a rigorous process involving around 2,000 global applicants, Lively Minds is one of just 12 ventures joining a cohort of organisations working to scale proven solutions through governments, markets, and communities.

As our Founder and CEO, Ali Naftalin shared:

“We're honoured to join the 100x Impact Accelerator at such an important point in Lively Minds' journey. We have spent years working in Ghana and Uganda to build a model that helps governments activate parents as powerful partners in early childhood development. We are now taking this model to many new countries. This opportunity will help us accelerate our vision of making parent-powered early childhood development the new norm, so millions more children have the best possible start in life.”

Joining 100x will give us the opportunity to learn alongside a global community of organisations working to address complex challenges, while strengthening the pathways that help proven approaches move from successful programmes to wider systems change.

Read more about the 100x Impact 2026/27 cohort in the comments.




100x Impact Accelerator | The Marshall Institute | The London School of Economics and Political Science - LSE | Alison Naftalin

21/07/2026

When are equipped with the right knowledge and support, learning doesn't end when the classroom session is over. It continues at home, in everyday moments of .

During a home visit to Sinchu Malick Barry village in The Gambia, we met Mr. Sheriff Jallow, who had taken part in a parenting session under the Parent-Led ECD programme being piloted by the Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education, The Gambia, with technical assistance from Lively Minds.

Rather than simply telling us what he had learned, Mr. Jallow showed us.

🎥 In this video, he demonstrates one of the matching games he learned during the parenting sessions with children in his community. Fathers do not always see that they too have a role to play in the learning opportunities of their young children, so seeing how he interacts with the three little girls, praising them, making sure they get turns to contribute, repeating key words - that's foundational learning right there, starting at home, in their community.

This is what the Lively Minds government-led approach does. It activates and caregivers to develop quality at home, by showing them that they already have all the knowledge and skills they need to be their child's first teacher.

19/07/2026

It was thrilling for Lively Minds to be at FLEX2026 in Lilongwe this week, and to see the early years included in both official sessions and discussions 'in the room'.

Perhaps there has been some debate about where exactly foundational learning begins, and what it actually entails. For the last few years, it has meant early-grade literacy and numeracy, delivered through many innovative programmes achieving great results in primary schools across Africa.

Yet a conspicuous absence has been exploring how the early years are the best place to start building these foundations - not only in pre-primary classrooms or formal settings, but also in the home, with parents.

A young child spends around 75% of their time at home. As the GEEAP report says, the first step to reading is developing oral language skills - speaking, listening and vocabulary development.

Easy to start at home!

Oral literacy can be richly developed by parents who know how to ask their children 'why' questions, who sing songs and tell stories as they walk to the market, who talk about the green, tall maize growing as they farm, who play games identifying familiar sounds, or ask their children to copy a simple pattern of claps or words.

No cost and easily integrated into life and routines, with the added bonus of building closer family relationships and FUN into daily activities - and children who have already started their literacy journey by the time they begin formal schooling.

It really did feel as if the early years were included at FLEX2026 this year - and Lively Minds will continue to partner with governments to support them in activating the extraordinary sleeping giants of quality ECD at home: parents.

Please enjoy our welcome dance from those whom every person in the room was there for - children.

16/07/2026

We're excited to be part of tomorrow, 17 July, from 6:30–8:30 GMT, joining the conversation on strengthening the foundations of children's learning.

Join us for the session, 'Strengthening the Early Years Workforce for Foundational Learning.' Bringing together government representatives and partners from , and , the session will explore how countries are creating stronger early childhood education systems and ensuring young children receive the support they need to learn and grow.

At Lively Minds, we know that children have the best possible start when quality, play-based learning is woven into everyday routines at home. By activating parents to become active partners in their children's learning, we can help give every child the knowledge, skills and confidence they need to succeed in school and beyond.

Our Advocacy Lead, Eleanor Sykes, will represent Lively Minds alongside partners Sabre Education, Right To Play Ghana, Innovations for Poverty Action, Education Development Trust, and Dr Samuel Awuku from Ministry of Education (Ghana), who will share reflections on Ghana's efforts to strengthen the early years workforce.

We’d love for you to join the conversation. Register using the link in the comments.

Ministry of Education (Ghana) | Ministry Of Education, Kenya (MOE) | UNICEF Mauritanie

16/07/2026

Where do you start with reflections from a day 1 like we have just had at ?

There have been an extraordinary number of brilliant sessions, with brilliant speakers sharing their experiences, successes and challenges improving early grade foundational literacy and numeracy in many African countries.
So let’s just focus on two key points.

The session ‘Teaching in a Language Children Understand: Evidence on Literacy and Multilingual Instruction’, delved into what works, how it works and what stops it working. This session spoke to the heart of what Lively Minds does.

By activating parents to provide quality play-based learning opportunities and holistic nurturing care at home, we are already focused on early literacy in the home language. The Lively Minds approach supports parents to talk more with their children, improving literacy in their local language right there.

And during the session ‘From Participation to System Integration: Reframing Community Leadership in Foundational Learning Systems in Africa’, we were delighted when the conversation naturally shifted to why mothers were an obvious solution to the literacy and numeracy crisis, the ‘low-hanging fruit’ as one contributor named them.

Of course, this is what Lively Minds does - and we were proud to tell everyone during the session!

We partner with governments to support them to unlock the sleeping giants of quality ECCE - they are the perfect solution to start children on their literacy and numeracy journey.

Looking forward to more learning and meaningful discussions in the days ahead.