Cotton On Foundation: We Don’t Just Build Schools

22nd January, 2026

At Cotton On Foundation, supporting school builds is only the beginning. Since 2007, we have been focused on creating real and lasting change for students in our supported communities around the world.

From early childhood through to adulthood, independence and opportunity, our Child’s Journey model ensures we are giving students the chance to thrive, every step of the way.

Providing Basic Necessities

Before learning can begin, basic needs must be met. Access to nutritious food, clean water, adequate health care (including vaccinations, STD testing and sanitary care) and safe facilities removes immediate barriers that prevent children from attending and engaging in school.

Across Uganda, Thailand and South Africa, this has included supporting school meal programs, helping provide more than 40 million meals to students in the schools we partner with, along with water tank storage of 11 million litres.

By addressing these fundamentals, we help create stable environments where children can show up, participate and focus on learning.

Receiving a Quality Education

With foundational needs in place, the focus turns to learning. We work alongside communities to support quality education, from building and refurbishing classrooms, to strengthening teaching and creating inclusive, engaging learning environments.

This stage is about more than enrolment. It’s about ensuring children and teachers feel supported, confident and equipped to grow together.

In Uganda and Thailand, centralised teacher training is helping educators implement reading programs, play-based learning and collaborative teaching approaches. In South Africa, our Beyond Words reading partnership is expanding learning opportunities through improved infrastructure and library training.

Pathways Beyond the Classroom

As children grow, we support pathways that help students stay in school and transition into secondary education, further study or skills development.

Through mentoring, transition support and exposure to real-world opportunities, we help young people see what’s possible, and help them to take meaningful steps towards it. This includes Careers Fairs, our Retail Academy programs in the USA and South Africa, and more than 1,000 tertiary and trade scholarships that support students to continue learning beyond school.

Meaningful Employment

Education should lead to opportunity. Through vocational training, skills development and employment pathways, we support young people to move into meaningful work that offers stability, independence and dignity.

In Australia, our support for Community-Based Aboriginal Teacher Education (C-BATE) in North-East Arnhem land supports Yolŋu teachers to develop skills while remaining connected to their families, communities, and elders ultimately ensuring they can maintain a strong sense of culture and identity.

This is where learning translates into real-world outcomes, empowering young people to build sustainable futures for themselves and their families.

Contributing Citizens

When young people are supported to thrive, the impact extends far beyond the individual. Educated, employed and confident adults return to their communities — some as teachers passing on knowledge to the next generation, others bringing new skills and trades that strengthen local economies.

In this way, families, schools and communities all benefit, creating a ripple effect that extends opportunities, knowledge and resources far beyond the classroom. It’s a powerful outcome of long-term investment in children and young people.

Breaking the Poverty Cycle

By supporting children across every stage of their journey — from basic necessities through to employment and community contribution — we help break intergenerational poverty.

Everything we do starts and ends with wellbeing. When students feel safe, healthy and supported, they’re able to learn, grow and imagine what’s possible. That belief underpins our Child’s Journey model, a long-term approach that supports students as they move through education and into their futures; with wellbeing threaded through every stage to ensure they feel supported, confident and able to thrive.

This is why we don’t focus on one-off projects. We take a connected, long-term approach designed to create change that lasts.

We don’t just build schools. We invest in children, work alongside communities and take a long-term approach to change, so every child has the opportunity to reach their potential and shape their own future.