Our Programs
Educational Assistance
We assist children in the form of school and exam fees, uniforms, shoes, books, school supplies, backpacks, transportation, and school lunches.
Tutorial Sessions
We run tutorial sessions for our students on Saturdays and during term breaks where the students use our library of textbooks and computer classrooms.
Help with Food
We give out food monthly and on holidays to the families of our students who are struggling with food insecurity. We do not want any families to go without meals.
Home Goods
We help our students and their families with beds, mattresses, sheets, pillows, cooking units, solar lamps and other needed household items.
Small Businesses
The job market is very tough in Kenya. In many cases, self-employment is the only means for our students to have careers and earn money.
Workshops
We run workshops for our students and their parents/guardians to help them develop life and career skills to face life’s challenges.
Home Repairs
We help the families of our students make improvements to the structures in which the live, many of which are in desparate need of repairs.
Medical & Counseling
We provide medical assistance, including eye glasses, to our students and their families. We also provide counseling and mentoring.
HAving Fun
Educational Assistance
We pay for all the academic needs of our students. This includes school and exam fees, uniforms, shoes, books, school supplies, backpacks, transportation, and school lunches. We also pay for extra in-school tutoring for our students as well as class trips. In special cases, we assist with school boarding costs. This includes students who attend schools for children with intellectual or physical challenges.
Our Students in School
Our students attend about one hundred different schools ranging from preprimary, primary, secondary, vocational school and college.
Uniforms and Shoes
Every students receives uniforms and shoes each year.
Books and School Supplies
We provide our students with all the books and school supplies they need for classes. This includes textbooks, notebooks, binders, paper, pens, pencils, erasers, and markers. Each students also receives dictionaries, calculators, and mathematical sets as specified by the school.
Vocational School and College
We give every student the opportunity to go to either vocational school or college in order to develop marketable job skills. Not only that, but we also pay for students to get on the job training in their field of study so that they can develop their practical skills to make themselves more attractive for employment.
Tutorial Sessions
We run full day tutorial session on Saturdays during school terms and during the week during term breaks. The students come to study and learn. They have access to our library of learning materials as well as our computer classroom. We teach and tutor the students in math, science and English. The students get a hot meal for lunch. We also provide the students with fare for transportation.
Our tutorial sessions not only help the students academically, but they also keep the students safe and out of trouble. The meal we provide also helps to keep the students fed as many don’t get enough food at home.
Library Books and Study Spaces
During tutorial sessions, the students have access to our library of books, which includes learning materials and over 200 revision books for all subjects and all grade levels – preprimary through high school. We provide tables and chairs for the students to use for studying. We also have two large screen TVs that we use for class and smaller group instruction. The TVs enable us to display videos and graphics to reinforce learning.
Computer Classrooms
We have two computer classrooms with 21 Windows computers for the students to use for learning their school material as well as helping them to learn basic computer skills. The computers give the students access to close to one thousand videos encompassing mathematics, chemistry, biology, physics, and English grammar. The students can view Khan Academy videos as well as videos from other digital learning platforms. The students particularly like the Amoeba Sisters biology videos. The students also have access to videos specific to the Kenyan curriculum. Besides the videos, the computers provide the students with access to hundreds of past exams and tests as well as a number of digital textbooks and audiobooks of novels and short stories.
The computers also enable the students to gain basic proficiency in using Microsoft Windows as well as Word, Excel, and Powerpoint. We teach classes on these topics as well as make tutorial videos available. Finally, we use the computers to introduce the students to computer programming.
Tutoring
We tutor the students in mathematics, chemistry, biology, and physics incorporating hands-on on activities so the students can see what they are learning in action. For those interested in electronics, we teach them basic concepts and have electronics kits for the students to build simple circuits.
HELP with Food
We give out food each month to about fifty needy families of our students. These families do not have enough food and often are forced to miss meals. We provide these families with wheat four, corn flour, oil, rice, beans, milk, soap, and other hygiene products. The food we provide is life saving for them. In addition to the monthly food, we also give out additional food to help families celebrate Christmas and Easter. The food we give out for Christmas and Easter includes a fresh whole chicken and desert.
Home Goods
In addition to helping our students succeed academically, we also help them and their families improve the quality of their lives at home. We do this through providing food, but also by providing these families with essential home goods such as beds, mattresses, cooking units and solar lanterns.
Most of our students and their families live in structures made out of stone, mud, and corrugated steel. As beds and mattresses are a luxury they cannot afford, they are forced to sleep on the ground or floor on blankets or flattened cardboard boxes. If they do have a mattress, it typically old, worn, ripped and dirty. We provide these families with beds, mattresses, sheets and pillows.
Most of our families do not have electricity, so we provide them with solar lanterns so that they have some light when it gets dark. These families cook on small cooking units fueled by propane, or more likely, fire wood. We provide families with cooking units that are safer, more economical and more environmentally friendly.
Small Businesses
Our focus is on assisting our students to not only obtain an education, but also to develop job skills. Education is very important, but without job skills, a student will not be able to have a good paying job. Without a job and career, a student cannot lift themselves and their families out of the cycle of poverty in which they live. This is why we give each of our students the opportunity to attend either vocational school or college. However, even with a certificate or diploma, many young people in Kenya are not able of find employment because of the bad job economy and corruption. Our solution is to help our students start a small business such as a tailoring shop, a hairdressing salon, or an automotive garage.
Workshops
Throughout the year, we run workshops for our students to help them develop life and career skills. These workshops cover such topics as drug and alcohol addiction, gender-based violence, personal finances, how to cope with stress, and improving communications and teamwork. We bring in facilitators to run the workshops and focus on making the workshops as hands-on as possible so that participants are engaged and using what they learn.
We regularly meet with the guardians of our students to update them, listen to concerns, and solicit their feedback. We also run self improvement seminars to assist and empower them through personal development. As the home life of our children is critical to their educational success and growth as persons, our program strives to enhance their home environments to enable our students to flourish.
Home Repairs
Most of our students and their families live in informal settlements and, in many cases, overcrowded slums. A whole family typically lives is a single small room. They sleep and cook on the floor or ground. There is usually a pit toilet that is shared by a number of families.
The structures are made out of stone, mud, and corrugated steel. Many of them are not structurally sound and some are collapsing. They have holes in the roof where rain can come in and gaps in the walls or uncovered windows were mosquitos and disease can enter.
We are working with the families of our students to repair the structures in which they live. This includes improvements such as pouring a cement floor, rebuilding walls, repairing or building a new roof, and covering windows.
Medical and Counseling
We help our students and their families with medical assistance, including eye glasses, when they have no other means to pay for these services (and there are no government programs to assist them). We assist with diagnostic tests and prescription medicine. We’ve helped several students with medical treatment for malaria, dengue fever, and cholera.
We also provide counseling to our students. Most of our students live with either a single parent or a relative who acts as their guardian. Many grow up without a father, or a male presence, in the house, others without a mother. These students often have nowhere to turn for guidance and advice. In all that we do, we strive to be a positive role model for the children we support.
Having Fun
The students put a lot of effort into their academic work, and we also get together a few times a year just to have fun and enjoy food together as a family. The students like to watch movies (as most of the students don’t have access to them), especially action movies. They also like to sing and dance, so we give them the “stage” and a mic and let them show their stuff. We also have sports days where football/soccer is the main event.
