2023 Annual Report | Nest Global

Dear Friends,

Reflecting on 2023, it’s clear the adversities faced globally have been particularly hard on the world’s children. From displacement and climate crises to conflict and economic shocks, many children have confronted challenges that are hard to imagine. However, amidst these trials, our organization has not only continued its mission but also marked significant achievements that bring us hope and a sense of accomplishment.

This past year, we’ve made remarkable strides in providing early childhood education to refugee children on the move. We successfully launched Nest Los Angeles, a free preschool program designed specifically for newly arrived migrant children in the San Fernando Valley. This program has been a sanctuary for these families, offering stability and a sense of normalcy during times that are anything but normal.

Another milestone was the creation of our Global Educators Program at the School of Education and Information Studies at UCLA. Through internships and an undergraduate course, this innovative partnership allows students to gain hands-on experience by working alongside our Nest teams and learning from our dedicated teachers.

Lastly, a recent collaboration with the Stanford University Center for Innovation in Global Health has facilitated research led by Fulbright fellow Dr. Xinshu She. This partnership aims to advance the development of a parenting program curriculum tailored for migrant caregivers that can be adapted and scaled globally.

The challenges may be great, but the success stories and progress of 2023 have been a beacon of light. From Los Angeles to Africa, the courage and creativity of the children we work with inspire us daily. It’s a powerful testament to the impact of our collective efforts – providing education that nurtures curiosity, collaboration and joy.

All of this work was only possible thanks to your compassion and commitment. Thank you for joining us on this journey. We look forward to growing with you in the years to come.

Sincerely,

Lindsay Weissert & Kristina Brittenham

For

millions of young children experiencing forced migration or poverty, education is not available.

We’re changing that.

Nest Global’s early childhood programs, or Nests, offer free, culturally responsive preschool education in refugee camps, migrant shelters, and communities experiencing poverty. An internationally-recognized leader in the field, Nest Global provides educator training and conducts groundbreaking research to further our mission of making high-quality education available to ALL children.

Our Work

We’re improving access to high quality early childhood education by responding to the present needs of communities around the world as well as training future educators in our transformative approach.

Programs for Children and Families

Nest early childhood programs, parenting programs, and caregiver & me programs provide education that centers creative expression, healing, and joy.

Research and Educator Training

Our academic programs, educator trainings, and Nest Approach Handbook train non-profit leaders, early childhood teachers, and other stakeholders in our internationally-recognized approach.

Since 2017, we have created Nests in Zimbabwe, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Greece, and on both sides of the US-Mexico border in Tijuana and Los Angeles.

What is a Nest?

Nests, our early childhood programs, are safe and engaging classrooms where young children and their families can learn and heal through play. For children who have been separated from their home or who experience daily hardship, the opportunity to be autonomous, make decisions, and play freely within a safe and supportive social environment is a significant, restorative experience.

Nests are created through close collaborations with local partners, ensuring that each program is responsive to the unique needs and strengths of its community.

Our Role

• Space design and renovation

• Staff recruitment

• Initial and ongoing pedagogical training and mentorship

• Operational support

• Ongoing funding through our institutional partners

Nests are community-based and child-centered.

Each Nest is designed to encourage children to think critically, explore creatively, and work collaboratively.

Nest Los Angeles

California, particularly Los Angeles, has emerged as a prime sanctuary for migrants in the United States. However, families face significant barriers to entering the education system even if they successfully cross the U.S. border. Nest LA bridges the gap in education access for recently arrived families in Los Angeles by offering a free, flexible early childhood program for migrant children and their caregivers. Operated in partnership with Refugee Children Center, the Nest LA program invites young children to explore, collaborate, create, and play while caregivers access critical resources provided by RCC.

“Me recuerda a Pin Pon, un juguete de cuando yo estaba bebé.”

“It reminds me of Pin Pon, a toy from when I was a baby.”

The art program at Nest Los Angeles addresses the psychological and emotional needs of our young students, many of whom have endured unimaginable trauma. For children who might struggle to articulate their feelings or who speak another language, art experiences such as painting, drawing, clay work, and collage provide a secure and imaginative avenue for self-expression.

The Nest LA Meal Program

Nest Los Angeles responds to a pressing need for more food access by providing breakfast and lunch to participating families. Meals are prepared and served by community parents who receive compensation for their time and effort. They also engage in a weekly meal planning group to develop skills like budgeting and time management.

“For me, [the food program] has been a beautiful experience. I love cooking from the heart and with love for other people. My satisfaction comes from seeing the joy on their faces while they are eating or when they tell me ‘oooh, this food is delicious.’ For me, that is my true compensation.”

Nest Tijuana

Located 7 miles from the San Ysidro port of entry, Nest Tijuana provides free early childhood education to migrant children ages 3-6 sheltering at the US-Mexico border. The program provides a safe learning space to up to 150 children and their families daily.

CONAFE Certification

In 2023 Nest Tijuana became recognized as a nationally certified school through Consejo Nacional de Fomento Educativo, the National Council for Educational Development in Mexico. This certification enables Nest Tijuana to provide departing children with proof of education continuation that is critical once they enter the United States.

Welcoming Fulbright Scholar Dr. Xinshu She

In 2023, Nest Tijuana welcomed Dr. Xinshu She, a Stanford Global Health faculty member, who has begun a year-long visit funded by a Fulbright scholarship. During her stay, Dr. She is collaborating with our team and Universidad Iberoamericana Tijuana to develop additional mental health programming for refugee and migrant parents.

Goodbye Sculpture

Difficult goodbyes are a part of everyday life at Nest Tijuana. Students not only grapple with the loss of loved ones they’ve left behind, but they’re regularly forced to say goodbye to friends moving on from the shelter – often unexpectedly. At the Nest, teachers create space for students to process intense feelings of grief and separation. Through letter writing and artistic expression, they facilitate closure and honor absent companions. Recently, teachers supported Nest student Lucia in creating a beautiful tribute to her close friend, Melanie, who left the shelter for the United States earlier in the month. Working on this piece provided Lucia the opportunity to reflect on this important friendship and find solace amidst sorrow.

Mobile Nest Tijuana & The “Nidito”

The Mobile Nest, a traveling classroom inside a retrofitted school bus, serves migrant families at six shelters across Tijuana. The mobile classroom offers a space for caregivers and their babies to play alongside experienced parent educators and child development specialists. Located on the Nest Tijuana campus, the Nidito, or “Little Nest,” is an education program for children under 3 and their caregivers. Each Nidito session, which is facilitated by a trained parent educator, is centered around a key topic related to infant development.

Nest Norte

Nest Norte provides a safe, supportive environment for children while their parents receive essential legal counsel at Al Otro Lado, an NGO providing legal support to migrants at the US-Mexico border. The program eases the burden of childcare on parents while they meet with immigration lawyers and shields children from adult conversations in which past violence against them may be discussed.

Nest Tijuana Parenting Program

Mental health and social support for parents are key to helping young children thrive in difficult contexts. Our parenting program at the border bolsters the mental and physical health of Nest caregivers by providing a space for parents to build community and develop strategies for managing stress. The program, which is informed by best practices in trauma healing, emotional regulation techniques, and nonviolent communication, has served over 1,000 caregivers sheltering at the U.S.-Mexico border since launching in 2020.

Nest Congo

Located in Mumosho, Democratic Republic of Congo, Nest Congo provides safe, high quality preschool education to 84 children ages 4-6 daily. Located at the Congo Peace School, which integrates principles of nonviolence into its primary and secondary education, Nest Congo provides foundational early learning to children experiencing extreme poverty, who are often otherwise unattended while their caregivers work during the day.

Food insecurity is a significant concern for families who attend Nest Congo. Most students come to school hungry each day, inhibiting their ability to focus, learn, and play. In order to best support Nest families, the program has begun supplementing food for all 81 Nest Congo students. Through this program, Nest families can take home bags of food including rice, beans, oil, and salt from the school store so that children and their families can eat a meal at home in addition to what they are served at school.

Nest Congo Food Program

“Students who were part of Nest Congo express themselves more freely. Their school outcomes and scores are always higher. They are very good at problem solving, ask open questions, their level of imagination is higher. All these together show how the preschool program is important. A very strong foundation is being laid for a bright future for our children.”

Pascaline Aganze Banywesize, 3rd grade teacher

Nest Zimbabwe

Serving 60 preschool-aged children daily, Nest Zimbabwe provides early education to a population experiencing a multitude of hardships including food insecurity, unsafe living conditions, untreated medical conditions, and political violence. The Nest provides a safe haven where children can engage in healing learning and play in the presence of supportive, nurturing teachers.

Each week, Nest children have the opportunity to take dance lessons from Zimbabwe Dance Trust through a new partnership. This outdoor experience gives children time to exercise while fostering confidence and encouraging freedom of expression. Nest Zimbabwe Dance Program

“I find great joy working with the children at the Nest. It’s mostly their stories that touch my heart, making this a worthwhile experience that I look forward to everyday. Having come from a poor background, I really appreciate the opportunity that these kids have been given by Nest Global. Knowing that all of the children at the Nest would have never been able to afford such a service but can now stand proudly shoulder to shoulder with the other privileged children in the community makes me happy and grateful.”

Margaret Yalad, Nest Zimbabwe teacher

Nest Athens

In 2018-2019, Nest Global opened its first three Nests in Lesvos, Samos and Athens, Greece to provide critical education to the thousands of children and families seeking asylum from turmoil in the Middle East. Due to shifts in migration and government policies, our last remaining Nest in Athens closed its doors in April of 2023.

We are proud of the impact Nest has had on the refugee community throughout Greece and are grateful to our partners, volunteers, staff members and donors who have sustained our programming in Greece since 2018.

The need for education for families on the move is only growing.

Nest Global provides education and professional training to nonprofit leaders, service providers, and future educators. We seek to broaden access to our model so that it can be scaled to support the ever-growing need.

Nest Global + UCLA Global Educators Program

In partnership with the Education and Social Transformation undergraduate major at UCLA’s School of Education and Information Studies, Nest Global trains the next generation of educators in the real-world application of community engagement principles and humanizing pedagogies.

Since 2019 Nest Global has hosted undergraduate students in the UCLA Applied Developmental Psychology Minor in a community-engaged internship. These interns are essential to our programs in Tijuana and Los Angeles, conducting research interviews, offering childcare, enhancing training materials and providing child development information to parents.

In 2023 we launched our course, Pedagogies of Global Citizenship Education, with a cohort of junior and senior education majors who learned about our pedagogy, operations, leaders and partners.

Stanford University Global Health Partnership

This ongoing institutional partnership facilitates research by Dr. Xinshu She at Nest Tijuana. The aim is to further develop a parenting program curriculum for migrant caregivers. This curriculum can then be scaled and adapted for contexts around the world.

Nest Global Hub

This fall we launched the Nest Global Hub, a virtual forum for educators and service providers to exchange resources and access our online training tools, including our Nest Approach Handbook.

The Role of Early Childhood Education in Healing Trauma

90%

of brain development happens between the ages of 0 to 5.

Early childhood is a critical developmental period that sets the foundation for future learning and growth. Exposure to trauma during this time can significantly impact a child’s mental, physical and social development with adverse effects lasting well into adulthood.

Research shows that the impact of trauma can be mitigated by the right physical, emotional, and social factors – those typically associated with high-quality, child-centered early education programs. Nurturing learning environments with consistent routines help children experiencing adverse childhood experiences build feelings of physical and psychological safety, hope, and trust. Positive social and emotional support, through the development of healthy peer and teacher relationships, builds children’s self-confidence and agency and provides critical modeling of appropriate adult relationships.1 Early childhood programs with a strong parental engagement component have been shown to additionally magnify their impact, strengthen parent-child relationships, and promote overall family wellbeing.2

Despite clear evidence that high quality early education can be transformative, there are still 175 million children around the world who are not enrolled in pre-primary education. In fact, access to early childhood education is most limited for children living in countries experiencing conflict or disaster, with over two thirds of preschool-aged children in these regions not enrolled in early childhood programs.3

Nest Global partners with communities around the world to co-create high-quality early childhood, parenting and caregiver & me programs where they are needed most.

Forced migration is at its highest level on record.

million people are displaced worldwide

43.3

million children were displaced by the end of 2022 108+

Over half of all refugee children are not enrolled in school.

There are more than 100 million displaced people worldwide due to war, political and economic instability, and climate crises. Children account for 41 percent of all forcibly displaced people.

For millions of refugee and displaced children, education is not available. As a result, many of these children are bound to cycles of poverty and instability.

Nest Global provides refugee and displaced children access to quality education by establishing Nests, programs which offer culturally responsive early learning in refugee camps, migrant shelters, and immigrant communities.

1 Jennings, P. A. (2019). The trauma-sensitive classroom: Building resilience with compassionate teaching. W.W. Norton & Company.

2 Champions for early learning. Start Early. (2024, March 8). http://www.startearly.org/

3 Press Release. UNICEF For Every Child. (2019, April 8). https://www.unicef.org/pressreleases/175-million-children-are-not-enrolled-pre-primary-education-unicef

In the last ten years, Nest Global has emerged as a leading provider of high-quality early education for children and families on the move.

children and parents enrolled in our Nest education programs worldwide

100,000

10,000 hours of education provided to children

participants in Nest parenting programs 1,000+

Funding & Spending

Individuals & Corporations

$784,025

WHERE FUNDS COME FROM HOW FUNDS ARE USED

Total Total

$549,871

Administration & Operating Costs

Foundations

Programs

Leadership Team

Lindsay Weissert Co-Chief Executive Officer

Vanessa Esquivel Director of Border Programs

Cristina Barvo Pedagogical Mentor

Kristina Brittenham Co-Chief Executive Officer

Dr. Xinshu She, MD, MPH Director of Research & Public Health

Rachel Roberts Director of Global Operations

Kaitie O’Brien Director of Pedagogy

Community Partners

Collaboration is critical to our work at Nest Global. We co-create education and parenting programs with our community partners who provide on-the-ground support, local knowledge, and valuable resources.

Amani Mataboro

Nest Congo Partner

Founding Director, Action Kivu

Jason Nunzio Dorio

UCLA & Nest Global Educator

Training Program Partner

Associate Director of Undergraduate Programs for Community Engagement, UCLA

Edward Tsango

Nest Zimbabwe Partner

Founder and Executive Director, I am Zimbabwe Trust

Elisheva Gross

UCLA & Nest Global Educator Training Program Partner

Director and Lecturer, Applied Developmental Psychology Minor, UCLA

Mayra Medina-Núñez

Nest LA Partner

Executive Director, Refugee Children Center

Soraya Vasquez

Border Programs Partner

Deputy Director of Mexico Programming, Al Otro Lado

Lourdes Medrano

Border Programs Partner

Operations Director, Centro 32

Board of Directors

Board Chair

Thérèse O’Neill

Kaitie O’Brien

Lindsay Weissert

Maria-Elena Kolovos

Karl Thurmond

Kristina Brittenham

Jessica Chase

Partners & Funders

Nest Global is generously supported by a community of foundations, institutions and individuals.

Art + Practice

Nest Global’s collaboration with Art + Practice focuses on the long-term sustainability of our programs and a shared commitment to providing high quality education to children and families experiencing forced migration and poverty. Art + Practice funds teachers’ salaries and supports outreach efforts, brand awareness, and fundraising.

Choose Love

Since 2021, Choose Love has generously supported operations at Nest Tijuana, providing vital resources and visibility that have allowed us to keep our doors open to children and parents sheltering at the U.S.-Mexico border.

Hauser & Wirth

Nest Global’s collaboration with LA-based artist Mark Bradford and Manuela Wirth, President of Hauser & Wirth Gallery, enables arts education at Nest programs around the world. In addition to funding art instructors, materials and facilities, Hauser & Wirth supports Nest Tijuana through an annual volunteer trip for graduates of their Education Lab program.

Carry the Future

Carry the Future’s support allows us to offer Nest students nutritious snacks and meals that keep bellies full throughout the school day so that children can focus on the important work of childhood: play. Food plays an important community-building role at our Nests as children, teachers and parents come together to prepare dishes, set tables, and enjoy shared meals together.

Thank You to Our Partners & Funders

Carmen & Jim Ward

Judith & Bruce Stern

Patricia Finkel

Myrna & Stephen Greenberg

Maria-Elena Kolovos

Meghana Mudiyam

Susan Ochshorn

Linda Smith & Joe Edmonds