We’ve got a new year started in January 2025, that’s 35 new year 7 students selected from the 143 who took the basic entry exams. Selection is based on how they got on with those exams plus checks on their sad home backgrounds. We make sure we’re taking in kids who come from a background of extreme poverty, so their parents or guardians couldn’t even afford the most basic school fees.
We’ve now completed the first floor building, so we have sufficient classrooms for our current three years. We also have the framework in place for the second floor, but there’s still much more to do to make that suitable for next year’s intake when we add the upper secondary first year, year 10.
There’s lot’s more going on at the school that you can read about below, or you can read below, especially about our children. In their equivalent to the UK summer break we had the students in for remedial classes for the first two weeks, that’s their choice. We’ve got two new teachers, we’ve got a trip for our supporters to Kenya to visit the school in August 2025 (would you like to come?) , and we’re looking for donations of useful materials (see below) to be delivered to the school in July. Finally, in the run up to International Women’s Day on 8 March, our school manager Nancy has written, talking from the heart, about her perspective of the position of women in Kenyan society.
At the start of January 18 girls and 17 boys joined Bombolulu Educational Centre, having passed our basic entry examination and following a home visit to make sure we are helping those children who come from the poorest backgrounds and who could not otherwise afford an education. As the reputation of the school grows, so do the number of kids applying to join. This year there were 143 applicants.
We always ask what their goal is for their career, this year we had 17 students looking to go into healthcare. We also had 3 would be journalists (that’s unusual), a ship’s captain and one of the next presidents of Kenya. We encourage our students to dream big, who’s to say they won’t hit the heights?
You can read far more about the background of some of our new students in the detailed newsletter. The home visits are hard for our team, even given their long experience of the extreme levels of poverty locally, it’s tough to see at first hand the conditions the kids come from. Their parents work hard to provide the very basics for their families, but in UK terms they are hardly scraping a living.
As an example, let’s meet Lydia. A lovely girl with a super smile, she lives with her disabled granny at the nearby Bombolulu Workshop – a centre and home for the disabled. Her aunt does casual jobs to help feed the family. Granny has been ill for a while and had to rely on well-wishers and goes out on the streets to beg. That’s more than difficult because most of the time she gets nothing to bring home. Lydia is determined to become a doctor so she can come back, support her granny and help the disabled community.
Then as examples, we have Christian whose father is disabled, his parents have separated, now he lives with his mother and elderly grandmother. Mum cooks and sells snacks for a small income that means they can eat. Juma’s mum left him and his two siblings when they were very young, dad had no education and works as a cobbler. He stuggles to make a living but still finds time to volunteer as a cleaner at a local mosque. Alice lost her father at a young age, her mother could never attend school, so has to take on casual work as and when it’s available. Faith is this year’s would be politician, who fled home to live with her guardian, a housewife, and her husband who is a casual labourer, so she could go to school.
Rina is a Maasai, who are pastorlalists, deeply connected to their cattle, known for their rich culture and a unique dress code. As the culture dictates, Maasai girls are not supposed to go to school, a few do, but once they reach puberty stage they are circumcised and married off to a man who is older in exchange for cattle or cash. This happens at the age of 10 to 13. There’s a high level of poverty for Maasai as they are affected by drought year in year out. Schools are very few where they come from, children have to walk miles through the wild to get to schools which have no basic facilities or food. The classrooms are old, with no proper walls and floors, and very few well-trained teachers. Rina’s now in our safehouse, where she loves her new home and welcoming family.
We’re so grateful to all of our kind supporters who have enabled the next stage of our building project. Starting in November 2024 and almost finished at the end of January 2025, we’ve been able to complete the first floor of the school and put up the structure for the second floor. That’s all we can do with the funds we have available, the next project is to finish some basic work to help with security and some much needed facilities that are vital for the next stage of the school licence.
Then we need to finish the second floor in time for the next intake of children in January 2026. The new classrooms do look very smart, it’s amazing what can be achieved in Kenya for modest investments. But even modest investments are hard to raise as all charities come under pressure due largely to the squeeze on the cost of living.
There are so many good news stories around as our students benefit from the dedicated help and support of our teachers and support staff. The team all work long hours out of choice, beyond their contractual obligations, and it shows in the educational results of our students and their all-round development as very young people. Our newsletter focuses on two super examples.
Travis joined us last year, at which time he was very shy and lacked self-esteem. Neither of his parents have ever been to school, and his mother and younger sister have both lost arms due to a rare disease. Some local people view the disabilitiesas maybe a curse, and for any young boy it can be difficult to understand and overcome such things. There were times when he was very low, which had a huge impact on both his academic and co-curricular activities performance. The guiding and counselling teacher stepped in, and by the end of last year he came in at position eight for the end of term exams, and he continues to thrive.
Pressy has found a new home in our safehouse after her granny, who has brought her up, decided it was time to relocate back to their rural village. With no money available, that would have taken Pressy out of school, so she came to our school manager. begging for a place in the safehouse, which was already at full capacity. She’s a very bright and disciplined girl, so with help from the Rotary Club of Bedford and Rotary District 1260, plus the Rotakids Club of Sheerhatch Primary School in Cople, we were able to expand the safehouse and find her a place
At the Bombolulu Educational Centre the 2024 academic year ended on 25 October, after which the students had a long break of two months. For our kids the holidays can be quite difficult, most come from homes with just one room and often no food. So they’d rather come into school and learn, and that’s what the school often does, they provide half-day remedial schooling with breakfast and lunch provided.
What’s very special is the teachers are quite happy to help the children, there’s no extra payment for them missing part of their holidays. This time around we could only provide tuition for the first two weeks of November because of the extensive building work that was about to start. What did happen was the children were allowed to borrow books for the rest of the holidays so they could study, or read at home in groups, if they chose to.
With the expansion of the school, Milka and Moses have joined the teaching team to complete the range of staff needed for our more academic students. They specialise in the teaching of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Later this year we plan to augment the team with teachers to support the less academic in subjects like art, drama, music, sport and work-related skills. We recognise that we have students who have talents outside the purely academic subjects, and they deserve the opportunity to develop their potential.
Nancy, our school manager, has her own very personal experiences about the meaning of gender in Kenya. You can read in full her very moving and poignant view of what it means to be a poor woman in this part of the world.
In short, Nancy’s experience in education (she came from a very poor background) was that boys were prioritised, leading to more opportunities and better jobs. Girls typically left education at the end of the primary years, which often led to early pregnancies and/or marriage to older men in exchange for dowries. African culture dictates that women must stay in a marriage even if they are physically abused.
Although girls and women have learned to stand up for what is right, leading to better education and job prospects, many women still suffer from gender based violence and discrimination, and femicide is all too common in Kenya. Healthcare access is poor, making childbirth a serious risk for mother and child. In our local community many girls have dropped out of education early. We intend to expand our education services over time to empower them and provide work-based skills to help them escape poverty.
At the Bombolulu Educational Centre we aim to uplift our children, women, young girls and boys, the youth and men all together, recognising that women are the pillars of our society.
There’s just no substitute for seeing at first hand how much your support helps these kids, and they just love visitors.
Our charity head, Sally, and a group of our supporters are visiting the school in August this year (2025). They’ll see first hand what their support is doing for the children, meet the teachers and the local trustees. Several of them have practical skills or experience that they’ll look to pass on to the children while they are there. If you wish it’s also a chance to extend your visit and see some of Kenya, maybe go on safari while you’re there?
If you are already supporting the charity, thank you so much for your help.
If you would like to sponsor a child, the rate per year is £240 or £20 per month – but any amount per month or as a one-off donation would be amazing, please use this link to pay by debit/credit card:
https://empoweringkidsinkenya.enthuse.com/cp/52edc/fundraiser#!/
Or you could pay by BACS to Empowering Kids in Kenya – Santander – sort code 09-01-28 – account number 49379650. Or a cheque made payable to Empowering Kids in Kenya and sent to 117 Willington Road, Cople, Bedford MK44 3TN.
Please, please do consider helping us to complete what we have started. Any donation toward our goals of empowering kids through education will help enormously. THANK YOU
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