About 10 metres from the ‘door’ to her home, Martha (not her real name) burst into tears. This was a home visit as part of the school admission process, to make sure we support the most underprivileged children in this poverty- stricken suburb of Mombasa. Reluctant to let us see her home, eventually we were allowed in.
Her elderly mother was away, when the hunger gets too much, she visits relatives in the hope of getting just a little food. But they’re just as poor. Most of the time, she is at home with her elderly father.
They can’t afford proper healthcare, so when they are sick, father collects herbs from the forest to boil for medicine.
But dad is encouraging and he’s determined she should get an education. She went to a local public primary school with a pupil to teacher ratio of 52 to 1. Her school reports say she works hard and her exam results were encouraging, especially given her home background.
Her ambition is to qualify as a doctor, to come back and bring healthcare to the slums of Bombolulu.
Martha’s story broke our hearts, but it’s typical. Orphans and single parent family children make up around half of our first class. Several of the parents are crippled with polio and are employed in the local Bombolulu Workshop For The Disabled. Many parents have to work on a casual basis or are unemployed, with full-time jobs hard to come by.
What’s most common is they can’t send their children to school because they can’t afford the annual state school fees of around £150, even if they can find a school that has space. And even if they can, the nearest state school means the children have to walk 6 kilometers a day to get there and back.
Recent changes were made to the education system in Kenya to allow for the teaching of more work-based skills, and our school caters for the first three years after primary education. At the same time as the structure and curriculum were changed, the basic requirements for a school licence were increased. As a result there are nowhere near enough schools to provide places for many of the children in the most deprived areas across the country.
There still won’t be enough lower secondary schools for the children in the poorest areas after these changes have had time to take proper effect, that’s just how it is for schools in many parts of Kenya.
But even the poorest parents and guardians of our students have been fiercely determined to get them the chance that education provides. Bombolulu Educational Centre charges no fees, provides uniforms and free meals. We carefully select hard-working pupils from the poorest backgrounds and sadly we have to turn many away, we just don’t have the places. For the 2024 intake we had over 100 children apply but we can only accept 35 children into each year group.
The name of the school has changed As you’ll know, the school was formerly called Bombolulu Secondary School. The name was agreed and registered with the Kenyan Department of Education according to the rules in place at the time when…
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Trade Aid provides sewing machines and practical tools With the relatively recent changes in the Kenyan secondary school syllabus, experiential learning and practical work related education are two themes that are central to the new system. That means an emphasis…
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There’s lots going on The very short answer to what has been going on at the school is loads! There have been several developments around the building and as a sneaky preview we can tell you it’s two new floors…
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Even small donations make a huge difference. You can help give a child the gift of education and two meals a day from just £20 per month.
With a very low cost of living and with over 90p of every pound raised going on education and food for the children, your donations will make a real difference to our students. Just £20 a month to sponsor a child will help them change their life and provide for their basic education and food.
When we add in the cost of uniforms, text books, government registration fees, exam fees and facilities, each child needs 6 sponsors at £20 per month to cover all the costs of running and developing this exceptional school.
Of course it’s up to you how you donate, it can be monthly or annually. You may share the sponsorship of a child with family, friends or work colleagues too.
You will receive communications from your sponsored child every term and also updates from the school general.
It’s simple – they have no choice, if we don’t help them they’re likely to have no secondary education. It almost inevitably means life will always be hard for them, starting by having to work from age 11.
It’s not just an education. Our ethos “creating great people” is about giving some extremely disadvantaged kids a chance for a happy and successful life, but it’s more than that. Nelson Mandela’s famous maxim “Education is the most powerful weapon we can use to change the world” underlies our philosophy. We believe by giving these children the best opportunity to build a worthwhile career they can set an example, inspire others that come behind them, and over time change the local economy, if not the wider economy.
