Fundi Bots promotes improved, practical science education in African schools and communities through the provision of hands-on skills and project-based training, with a strong focus on rural and underprivileged regions and a push for equitable inclusion for girls.
Our 10-Year Mission is to accelerate science learning and provide skills training for 1 million African youth by 2030.
Fundi Bots works through two main learning experiences which provide practical, hands-on training for students in everything from building robots and coding to project-based learning experiences built on top of the official government curriculum. These learning experiences utilize a well-rounded and engaging methodology to increase students’ performance in classrooms and provide career training and technical skills through custom STEM programs and curriculum.
Our flagship learning model provides practical learning tools, teaching aids, and manuals that plug directly into the national curriculum to augment and amplify science lessons in classrooms for improved learning outcomes (intra-curricular).
Our experiential learning model, which provides hands-on immersive training in and out-of-school. This approach deepens science learning, fosters innovation, and equips students with crucial skills to thrive in tomorrow’s workplace (extra-curricular).
In 2011, Solomon King Benge wasn’t trying to build an organization — he was just trying to make science fun. He turned his home garage into a workshop where curious young minds could tinker with electronics, wires, and computers, discovering through robotics what textbooks alone couldn’t teach them. It was a passion project, born from a simple belief: science comes alive when you can hold it in your hands.
That belief found new momentum when Solomon met Betty Kituyi Mukhalu at a STEM education conference, where he shared what he’d been building — something far outside the scope of typical classroom science. What began as a garage experiment soon found its way into real classrooms, through presentations, talks, and hands-on robotics demonstrations that showed students a different side of science.
By 2014, that momentum had a name and a future. Solomon’s recognition as an Echoing Green and Ashoka Fellow gave the work its first real infrastructure, allowing Fundi Bots to formally register and grow into full-time operations. What followed was a period of rapid expansion — between 2015 and 2019, Fundi Bots expanded its offices beyond Uganda’s Central region to the North, East, and West regions, and our programming grew alongside it: holiday robotics camps, school outreach, integrated school programs, science project support, and an internship pipeline for young talent.
But as we grew, so did our ambition. We began asking a harder question: how do we move beyond extracurricular excitement and into the heart of the classroom itself? In 2022, that question became the Enhanced Science Curriculum (ESC) — practical tools, teaching aids, and manuals designed to plug directly into Uganda’s national curriculum. By 2023, ESC had reached 51 schools, with support tailored to each school’s needs, from hands-on learning tools to full teacher training delivered by our Teaching Associates.
In 2024, we took ESC further still, piloting a Virtual Fundi Program that digitized the curriculum entirely — replacing paper manuals with instructional videos, interactive guides, and digital lesson plans across all 51 schools. 2025 marked the close of a four-year pilot journey, and the emergence of what we believe is our strongest model yet for lasting, scalable impact.
