Bridge International Academies
is the largest company providing
for-profit education in the entire world, operating primarily in portions of Africa - primarily Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria, and Liberia - and in India. The World Bank and billionaire philanthropists jumped at the chance to invest in the group.
But Bridge International has also been the cause of
horrors for many children. Particularly at Bridge schools in Kenya and India,
dozens of students were sexually abused, and more than 100 were revealed to have "suffered potentially preventable injuries."
Now, the World Bank has finished conducting its internal investigation, which concluded that the Bank was, in fact, complicit in these abuses against young children and that the Bank mishandled this tragedy.
Yet it's refusing to take proper accountability - and in particular, has demonstrated it has no interest in compensating these victims for their suffering. The World Bank financed abuse. Now it must finance healing. Sign the petition now!The World Bank has known about these grave sexual abuses against children
for years. Back in 2018, the World Bank received a formal complaint about horrors at Bridge schools, after a Kenyan non-profit stood up for the victims.
But the Bank continued funding Bridge International Academies until 2022 - four whole years later! Even after divestment, it still maintained a profitable financial connection to the company through indirectly retaining a $200,000 stake in the group.
The World Bank knew about these abuses. It was aware that it was investing in an organization that allowed teachers to groom and sexually assault children. And it just didn't care. It simply turned a blind eye.
Not only did the World Bank not intervene to stop these known abuses, but it continued to fund this abuse-ridden establishment anyway.An internal agency within the World Bank conducted an investigation into the situation and the Bank's handling of it, which recently concluded. Its final report stated the Bank should provide direct financial compensation to acknowledge the suffering these children endured and empower them to seek healing resources and build a better life.
But the Bank refused.
Survivors, their families, and non-profit groups are sharing their outrage over this unforgivable decision. As the Accountability Counsel, a coalition of non-profits,
stated: this "
is a global embarrassment that signals the moral bankruptcy of the IFC's [World Bank's private financing] leadership."
We must stand with these children and their families. The World Bank is at fault here for intentionally continuing to fund an organization it knew was harming children, and allowing those monstrous actions to continue. The World Bank must provide a direct remedy to these children to acknowledge their pain and suffering in the form of compensation.Sign the petition to demand the World Bank do the right thing and provide direct compensation to the victims!