Changing Lives Through Mother Tongue Based Multilingual Education

Group of Maasai people standing outdoors on dirt ground, wearing traditional red and black shukas, some holding wooden staffs, with a clear blue sky and Maasai huts made of mud and wood in the background.

40% of children worldwide do not have access to education in a language they speak or understand*

International Network for Development exists to change that.

We work with minority language communities to develop and support Mother Tongue Based Multilingual Education (MTB MLE) projects. In partnership with organisations on the ground INfD has the privilege of supporting three programmers - two in India and one in Tanzania.

*UNESCO study

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Group of Maasai women dressed in vibrant traditional clothing standing outdoors on a dirt ground, with some women smiling and one using a mobile phone.

Where we work

  • Group of children sitting on the floor, looking intently at something outside the frame, with varied expressions of curiosity and surprise, in a classroom setting.

    India

    In recent years, INfD has partnered with Nirmaan and Asha Kiran, NGOs in Rajasthan and Odisha, to develop strong MTB MLE programmes.

    INfD is also part of a national advocacy group and participates in an online Community of Practice which shares good practice and provides training.

  • Two smiling children, one girl and one boy, sitting at a table with a world map in the background. The girl has dark skin, short dark hair, and is wearing a blue and red plaid dress and headband. The boy has dark skin, short dark hair, and is wearing a red and green plaid shirt.

    Tanzania

    INfD partners with Mulika Afrika, a local NGO, to develop MTB MLE in the Maasai region of Tanzania and Kenya.  The first workshop for developing curriculum and materials was held in September 2025 with more planned for the coming year.

Learn more

Could you support teacher training in Tanzania?

After a visit to a Maasai school in 2024 we discovered that children who start school only speaking Maasai were force to learn in a language they didn’t understand. So we worked closely with local teachers and community members to develop a suite of learning materials in their own language to make learning easier, more effective and more relevant to them.

Now, we need your help to train the local teachers to develop an activity based, multilingual curriculum using these tools.

Find out more and donate

Thank you!

Support our work

Make an impact in a child’s life today by supporting our projects. Whether you can give financially or stand with us in prayer we’re excited that you’d like to be part of journey.

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