One Pencil is a 501(c)(3) non profit organization based in the United States that supports educational programs, rigorous academic research, and community development projects in southern Africa and South America. We currently have ongoing research projects within Namibia, southern Angola, and Bolivia.

Through your giving, we build strategic partnerships with local leaders to support educational programs, community development infrastructure projects, and provide disaster relief. Current partners include local leaders from the HIZETJITWA Indigenous Peoples Organisation (HIPO), the Kalahari People's Fund, Ondao Mobile Schools in Namibia, The Tsimane Gran Consejo, & The Tsimane Health and Life History Project in Bolivia.

I began working in Bolivia with the Tsimane Health and Life History Project as an undergraduate in 2005. When I began my graduate studies a few years later I focused studies on the relationship between early access to resources, quality of schooling, and lifetime outcomes. During each field visit our researchers would provide school supplies to children who participated in the project (typically a couple of pens/pencils and a notepad), and books and teaching supplies to schools and teachers. Children and teachers would often stow away their supplies rather than use them. When I asked why they weren’t using their new supplies, students often said it was because they weren’t sure when/if they’d be replaced.

Over the last few years our educational research project expanded to Namibia where I observed similar behaviors; both teachers and students would stow their supplies rather than immediately putting them to use. At one point a local administrator suggested that in Namibia the children participating in the research program should only receive “one pencil,” rather than the full set of school supplies we'd budgeted for. It was explained to me that pencils were difficult to obtain and that it was not appropriate to give such extravagant gifts for participation.

The reality that basic school supplies are often considered “extravagant” domestically and internationally highlights the need to continuously and reliably support students and teachers with fundamental learning tools. This was the inspiration behind our name and the reason why we founded One Pencil.