Supporting vulnerable children in rural Kenya.

LINK: https://agapeacademykenya.com/support-our-school/

Agape Mitaboni School is located in rural Kenya, Mitaboni, Machakos County in Kenya. In Kenya, there are fewer public schools than the number of children.

You will find a class of 80 children [boys and girls] managed by one teacher and so the quality of education goes down. The government does not have enough schools and the few schools around are scattered and yet children have to buy many items such as desks before they are admitted.

It is for this reason that we founded Agape Mitaboni School in 2015 to help children go to school and obtain high-quality education, food and healthcare. Agape Mitaboni School was founded to help children who cannot attend private schools. Public schools are overcrowded and therefore there are no extra rooms available to accommodate children in these public schools. The government is not even able to pay enough teachers. Poor quality education is found in public [government] schools. The Kenyan government allows non-formal schools to operate within the country and has licensed anyone willing to operate such schools. Non-formal schools are never funded by the government with anything. The government provides training to all teachers across the country and the trainers are assisted by the teachers. Non-formal schools mostly cater for vulnerable and orphaned children. They all have the same curriculum as every other school across the nation.

Agape offers nursery, primary and lower secondary school education. We have a school feeding program where we provide breakfast and lunch because many children eat one meal a day at home. There has been poverty in this area and much worse during and after the COVID season with continued hunger and drought in Kenya for many years.

Many children's guardians and parents have lost their jobs and closed businesses, while some Agape children are completely orphaned and some have only one parent. Public schools are far from each other and therefore many children cannot travel these kilometers to go to school.

It is for this reason that Barnabas Mutua (Project Coordinator) saw this need and was able to start the Agape Mitaboni school in 2015 with 4 volunteer teachers. Agape was started with 8 children but now the numbers are growing. Agape operates on a rented land with rooms and so it has been a challenge to raise the rent every year and even the land is small, there is not enough space for the field, library and dining room. To support the school, we admitted children who did not get places in public schools and the schools are far away, but they can pay a small amount as school fees. This sum is spent to pay teachers. We are open to receiving volunteers to come and interact with the children and help the children by working with our local teachers.

In March 2022, 1 hectare of land was purchased for the school.

We plan to start building this project once we get the funding. We already have the project structure and timing.