Education
Our Goals
Transforming livelihoods, protecting wild spaces through education
While primary school is free in Kenya, secondary school is not. Many families are unable to pay the tuition for their children to attend secondary school. As a result, boys are sent to look after the family’s livestock, and girls are often married young. $550 will pay for one year (3 terms) of secondary school tuition. We currently give out about 30 bursaries every term. We aim to increase this to 100.
Education is the key to conservation, as it equips the children with the knowledge to protect wild spaces, ensuring future revenue streams from tourism, instead of overgrazing the land for a quick, but unsustainable return.
The Foundation was able to supply 2000 school meals, to 12 schools daily for 6 months, thanks to several generous grants. This resulted in enrolment going up +31%, especially for girls, as parents realised that their children would get a hot meal at school. $1250 pays for meals for 1 week for 2000 children. Our aim is to provide school meals for 2000 children year round, at a total cost of $45,000 annually.
Schools in our area are woefully under-equipped, with students of different grades often having to share a classroom for a lesson, and some children sitting on the ground under an acacia tree for a lesson. Bathrooms are often non-existent or inadequate. Classrooms cost between $6000 and $8000 to build, ablutions blocks around $8000.
Finding and retaining teachers in our remote area is a huge challenge, as the nearest town is at least an hour away, with no public transport and bad roads. The solution is to house teachers at/near the school. A small one-room house for a teacher costs $6000 to $8000.
