Our history

Still I Rise is an independent international organization, created to provide education and protection for the vulnerable.

Still I Rise is a nonprofit organization bringing world-class education to refugee and vulnerable children around the globe.
Our mission is to end the global education crisis. We open schools to emancipate the most vulnerable and through our revolutionary educational model and our unshakeable advocacy work we aim to ensure top-quality, free schooling to all children within our lifetime. We are independent, transparent and efficient, and we make progress every single day. We change the world one child at a time.

Still I Rise was born to address a specific need: to educate and support minors living in the Samos hotspot, the refugee camp on the island of Samos, Greece. Here we opened Mazí, the first youth center for children and adolescents on the island, where we offer education, food, therapy and a safe place to escape from the horrors of the camp. In Samos we have developed a school model with the initiative to rehabilitate traumatized and deprived minors by providing them the opportunity to secure a better future for themselves.

Now we are opening high quality international schools in nations that have become the destinations or long term transit spaces for migrants. By doing so, we are exporting the values and the educational and teaching techniques developed in Mazí. Our international schools offer a global education to the most destitute by awarding them an internationally recognized diploma upon graduation. It is a concept that no organization has ever implemented before.

In  Kenya, and also soon in Colombia and Italy we are opening internationally accredited schools. Our curriculum begins with a preparatory year, in which students participate in a rigorous and holistic educational experience in order to elevate their knowledge and skills, encourage them to reclaim their hopes and dreams, and to prepare them for the international program. Then, students will begin six years of study in an international curriculum, designed to equip them with the knowledge, skills, confidence, and diploma to enroll in quality institutions of higher education and to apply for competitive positions.

We strongly believe that one student, one teacher, one book and one pen can change the world. We are building schools in order to make it happen.

Our values

Independence

We actively refuse funding from governments, supranational organisations and multinationals that we deem unethical through our code of ethics.

Transparency

We strive to allocate the highest possible amount of donations towards our programs and activities, reducing management costs to a minimum.

Efficiency

We listen to the actual needs of the people we serve and empower local communities and leaders to solve the issues they are facing.

Roadmap

May 2018

Still I Rise Italy is founded with the goal to support projects on Samos for child refugees.

June 2018

Still I Rise Greece is founded with the goal to open the first youth center on the island.

August 2018

Mazí youth center for informal education is opened.

March 2019

Through Our Eyes, the photographic exhibition realized by students of Mazí, is inaugurated.

June 2019

Still I Rise condemns the Samos refugee camp authorities for their  negligence of unaccompanied minors.

October 2019

Operations in Turkey to open the first international schools for child refugees in the world begins.

December 2019

The European Court of Human Rights granted interim measures for an immediate transfer of 5 unaccompanied minors who were studying at Mazí.

January 2020

Still I Rise Kenya is founded with the goal to open the first International School for refugee and vulnerable children in Africa. 

February 2020

Nicolò Govoni, president of Still I Rise, nominated to the Nobel Peace Prize.

March 2020

The school in Gaziantep - Turkey is opened.

April 2020

Still I Rise has been authorized by the State of California to teach their curriculum in the International Schools.

 

April 2020

Launch of Together, Still I Rise's first e-learning platform.

July 2020

Beginning of the operations in Kenya to open the International School.

August 2020

Opening of Ma'an, educational center in Syria.

December 2020

Opening of the Still I Rise International School in Nairobi, Kenya.

June 2021

Admission of the Still I Rise International School in Kenya to the International Baccalaureate circuit.

Beginning of operations in DRC.

October 2021

Still I Rise Switzerland is founded

November 2021

Law for the foster care of unaccompanied minors becomes operational in the Republic of San Marino

February 2022

Opening of Pamoja, the emergency and rehabilitation school in DRC

Gallery