June 2026

Dear Pharo Family and Friends,

As we find ourselves already in June, it is hard to believe that we are already so close to the halfway point of 2026. The Foundation has some great wins under its belt from the first five months of the year, and where we haven’t succeeded, our team continues to show a willingness to learn, adapt, and grow in the pursuit of becoming an even more effective organisation.

One of the privileges of my role is having visibility across the entire Foundation. I can see how our missions, countries, and functions fit together. Personally, the lesson I learnt this month was that the best decisions are rarely made in isolation. Rather, they emerge when different perspectives, experiences, and expertise are brought together around a common objective. I think all of us at Pharo can agree that the challenges we are tackling across education, water, and productivity are far too complex for any individual, team, or country office to solve alone. And in an organisation as geographically dispersed and operationally diverse as ours, success will, and must, depend on information flowing freely between colleagues, teams, countries, and leadership levels. We must be willing to listen, challenge assumptions, share context, and trust one another’s intentions. Sometimes we will disagree. That is healthy. Better decisions are made when different perspectives are heard and tested. If there is ever a barrier preventing this, please raise it with me; this is very important, as our success depends on our ability to operate as a team.

While we always challenge ourselves to improve, there have also been many reasons to celebrate. One that particularly stood out this month was the achievement of Saba Samson Gebresilasie from Pharo School Homosha, who was awarded the prestigious Karen McKellin International Leader of Tomorrow Award at the University of British Columbia in Canada. This fully funded scholarship is an extraordinary accomplishment and a reminder of what our work in education is ultimately about: creating opportunities for young people to fulfil their potential. There are also moments that remind us why persistence matters. Following the seasonal rains, water was recorded in the Shanshacade dam for the first time since its completion.

I am sure many of you have been asking yourselves when the CEO will bring up AI as an agenda item. Well, Guillaume did too—thankfully minutes after I had sent an email to our SLT and Spass! We have taken an important step forward in our journey to become a more productive and future-ready organisation through the activation of our AI Steering Committee. The pace of technological change is extraordinary, and the opportunity before us is significant. When our people are equipped with the right tools, the right training, and the right systems, AI has the potential to unlock substantial productivity gains across the Foundation.

Finally, May marked the departure of our Somaliland Country Director, Mohamed Moussa Elmi, following nine years of dedicated service to the Foundation. Mohamed has played an important role in shaping the organisation we are today, and I would like to thank him for his commitment, leadership, and contribution over the years. We wish him every success in the next chapter of his career and know that he will remain a strong ambassador for Pharo Foundation. As we recruit his successor, I have been encouraged by the calibre of both internal and external candidates and look forward to the next chapter of leadership in Somaliland.

As we approach the midpoint of the year, we still have a lot of work ahead of us, so if you need help or you find something standing in the way of our mission, please raise your hand and ask for help.

Onwards, Tom Mason CEO, Pharo Foundation