PANGEA NETWORK

Our vision is to help foster a society where all have the ability to live up to their full potential and be important contributing members in their communities. At The Pangea Network, we believe women and youth are an integral part of positive change throughout the world. Our vision is that by working together with these sectors of society, we will extend positive change to families, villages, and the entire communities.

The Pangea Network's belief is that every life has a great purpose and education is the key to an individual discovering their full potential. We have made education the cornerstone of our programs and the key to sustainable change for all of our communities. Whether she is a woman with no formal education living in rural Kenya struggling to feed and educate her children or a high school girl living in Houston, TX who doesn't believe in her abilities to successfully navigate the world around her, the world is missing out on their contributions. Our work is to give them the tools and resources to ensure their brilliance is seen, felt and heard in their communities.

The organization provides mentorship and educational opportunities in the U.S. to high school girls as well as critical life and business skills training to women in Kenya that builds personal and financial independence. In both areas, the focus is on building new skills and gaining knowledge that can fundamentally change lives.

Our mission and vision are clear and we hold true to our founding values. When we go into communities, we first listen to the needs of the community and then create a structure for empowerment and success. We have an adaptable framework for the success of each community. Pangea values transparency as a key to the success of our programs and partnerships. Whether it be financial or informational, we always aim towards complete transparency.

We call ourselves The Pangea Network for a reason. Pangea staff, board members, program alumni and community leaders are dedicated to supporting active program participants and graduates by providing them with the resources and ongoing guidance they need to be successful. We keep our network strong by organizing retreats, events and follow-up training sessions in order to share ideas and best business practices. Together, we find solutions to overcome challenges and motivate each other with our stories of accomplishments within the Network.

Our team is small but our impact is huge. Our operations are run by a small and extremely qualified staff, making them both efficient and impactful. In Kenya, when we are invited into a community, we use local and highly trained staff, fluent in the language and cultural practices of the community. This makes our programs less intrusive and more successful in the long run. We only work with women who are already dedicated to changing their lives. This ensures that Pangea is not imposing practices and is only teaching willing participants.

We realize that various groups have different needs. Our team knows how to take initiative and make changes when they need to be made. We hold highly the ability to respond quickly and to instigate change and innovation when it needs to happen.

In Kenya, over the past 13 years we have seen:
• 1,174 Kenyan women have been trained through our programs
• 563 Small businesses, including several group enterprises and 45 new start-ups, have been created
• Average weekly income for our KWN participants rose by 39%
• 62% reported being their family’s main source of income.

In the U.S., The Pangea Network’s Young Women’s Leadership Challenge (YWLC) program has been investing in high school aged young women across socioeconomic, racial and ethnic backgrounds since 2012 with 342 alumnae from 85 schools in the Houston, Austin, and Dallas areas. The success here is seen many areas including an increase in leadership skills, feelings of greater self-esteem and one's ability to affect change and greater understanding of financial decision making and planning.