Our Programmes
The 2026 Grassroots Internships
Twelve young people in Tanzania and Pakistan spent four weeks running community experiments with no budget, and reported the findings that went against them.
Three teams, chosen by application, each took one experiment from the Grassroots Playbook and ran it in their own community between 28 July and 24 August 2026. They are paid a stipend on completion, after the public showcase. They were held to written integrity conditions agreed before they started. Five reviewers scored the work against a published scoring guide, and the founders took no part in that scoring.
The programme in three figures
What it cost and what it bought
Two teams in Karachi, one in Bangata Village near Arusha.
28 July to 24 August 2026, alongside school, exams or work.
Each team is paid a stipend on completion; the fieldwork itself ran on no budget.
The internships are funded personally by the founders. Peace Through Prosperity takes no grants. Its other programmes are paid for by the founders, friends of the organisation, the team and a small number of corporate sponsors; this one has no corporate sponsor and no institutional money.
Where you come in
What the Grassroots Internships mean for you
You lead a university or school
Teams of two to five young people, four weeks, no budget, all alongside school, exams or work. Under-18s took part with guardian permission and adult supervision. Want a group in a future cohort, or to observe on 23 October? Tell us.
You hire or develop young people
The work is scored on what CVs rarely show: honest evidence, consent in practice, and owning what did not work. Mentor a team or host an experiment in a future cohort. We are not asking for sponsorship.
You want to run this where you are
Kubair Shirazee’s Grassroots Playbook is free and in six languages. The Bangata team ran it near Arusha with Savannah Vision Tanzania. We will share the terms, the scoring guide and what we are changing next time.
You work in government or a public body
No grant, no sponsor. Five reviewers, four of them from outside the programme, and the founders do not score. Under-18s had guardian permission and adult supervision. We are not seeking funding or endorsement.
The teams
Three experiments, three communities
Bangata Knowledge Connectors
Five students mapped what twelve households knew and lacked, predicted in writing who should meet, made the introductions, then returned to test. They obtained the Village Executive Officer’s written authorisation unasked. Delivered with Savannah Vision Tanzania.
Scene Makers
Two young people tested whether an hour a week together, phones away, changed how young people felt about focus and loneliness. Challenged on who a private racquet club excluded, they moved it to free public parks and a home for older people.
Beyond Differences
Five students worked on inherited assumptions between students from different community backgrounds, measured comfort across those lines in two sessions, and reported the check showing how much of the result rested on one participant.
The method is not ours to keep. Every experiment comes from the Grassroots Playbook, seventeen validated projects for crews of three to five, free in six languages. The Playbook is Kubair Shirazee’s, produced in partnership with Peace Through Prosperity, and sits alongside our other open material under Steal Our Stuff. Where the approach came from is set out under past programmes.
The claim
What we claim, and what we do not
Capability
Twelve young people ran a four week method and their handling of evidence measurably improved. That is fully documented for one team and partially for the other two.
Community impact
Two of the three teams took no baseline and cannot now produce one. Where a team did measure, it reports the number it got, including when the number got worse.
Capability is the aim, not a consolation prize for missing impact. A programme that leaves a result behind leaves nothing; one that leaves a method behind leaves people who can run it again without us. That is the difference between helping and enabling, and it is why fifty of the hundred marks in the guide reward how a team behaves rather than what its numbers say.
The evidence
The result got smaller every time the method got better
Beyond Differences measured comfort discussing ethnicity in two sessions. The measured gain was smaller in the second session, after the team tightened its method. The team then tested how much of that gain rested on a single participant, and reported the check beside its headline number, which is the right way round.
Each team presents what it measured, and what its own checks showed, on 23 October.
Governance
How the programme holds itself to account
Terms accepted before starting
Fresh work only, consent held for every named person and face, anything written after the fact marked as such, and verification rights including direct contact with participants. Under-18s took part with guardian permission and adult supervision.
A published scoring guide
Six criteria and one hundred marks, of which thirty go to how honestly a team handles its own evidence and twenty to whether what was published matches what was permitted. Read the scoring guide.
Outside reviewers with a licence to attack
Five reviewers scored the work in a closed session on 18 September 2026 against that guide. Four are from outside the programme; the fifth is ChangeCraft’s engagement director, declared as such. The founders took no part in the scoring.
Scored on evidence, not on a good story
A team that measured nothing and says so scores better here than a team with a large number it cannot account for.
Why the programme is built this way is set out under our approach. The internships are the youngest of our capability programmes; Numu is the sibling that works with young community leaders over twelve weeks.
Public showcase
Friday 23 October 2026, online
06:30 Chicago · 12:30 London (BST) · 12:30 Luanda · 13:30 Lilongwe · 14:30 Arusha · 16:30 Karachi
Sixty minutes. Each team presents what it did, what changed in its community and what changed in the team itself, then takes questions. Open to guests.
To ask about a future cohort, or to run this where you are, get in touch. If you coach teams for a living and would rather give time than money, you can volunteer your Agile skills to mentor a team through its project. The rest of our work is under our programmes.