Grant Status $957 needed

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Expected Usage of Funding
Supplies, Furniture:
$3792
Labor and Salaries:
$0
Transportation:
$0
Raw Materials:
$0
Research:
$0
Administrative:
$0
Other:
$0

Profile

This project aims to provide resources to a new primary school in Kibera, which hopes to offer high quality and affordable education to the most vulnerable members of our region. Education is the key for children in Kibera, a vast slum in Kenya's capital Nairobi, to break out of the cycle of poverty.

The primary school is run by Turning Point Trust, which has 10 years experience working on education programs with vulnerable children in Kibera. The three main objectives of the school are to:
1) Get children in school
2) Keep children in school
3) See children achieve their best

Many Children in Kibera are forced to drop-out of school when their parents cannot afford school fees, as a result children fall behind and, in some cases, children head to the street. However, when children spend too long out of school and get acquainted with street life it can be really hard to reintroduce them to formal education. This is the issue that Turning Point has been addressing for the last ten years.

The Fountains of Hope School is different from many schools in that it offers parents non-traditional methods of paying school fees such as washing dishes, fetching water or cleaning classrooms, or other tasks within the school. This makes education attainable to the poorest families.

The school offers a unique program that includes non-core subjects such as art, drama and music that aim to develop the whole child. Social workers and Pastors also get alongside the children to support them in difficult home situations, doing all they can to ensure that the children are safe, healthy and staying in school.

"Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world"--Nelson Mandela.

History

The Turning Point Trust has been working on education programs for vulnerable children in Kibera for the last 10 years. They have established a School Transition Class to rehabilitate street children in a one year program that helps them to catch-up academically to rejoin primary school. Similarly, they have established a School Preparation Class that works with out-of-school children who have never been to primary school to prepare them to join formal education to teach the material they may have missed. Children in both of these classes also benefit from a feeding program, which offers them breakfast and a nutritious meal every school day to keep them alert and engaged in the classroom.

In the past, Turning Point Trust has helped students graduating from these two programs to enter into local government run primary schools. However, Turning Point Trust noticed that some students who performed well in these transition programs were regressing, in terms of behavior, attendance and academic achievements, while attending these public primary schools. They believe that these children, from very difficult backgrounds, have specific needs that are not being met by the public school system. Turning Point Trust, therefore, hopes to use the knowledge that they have gained, from working with vulnerable children over the past 10 years, to run a full primary school that caters specifically to their needs.

Impact

This project aims to increase enrollment and retention in primary education and improve learning outcomes amongst vulnerable children in Kibera.

The school will initially serve 30 children, however the class size will increase as the school develops. They hope to enroll 70 children in 2014 and 100 children in 2015.

Team Credentials

The Foundatins of Hope School is staffed by an amazing team of trained and committed teachers. These teachers all live in Kibera, themselves, and understand and relate to the children and families connected to the school--which allows them to appreciate their pupil's specific needs and struggles, as well as to better adapt to accommodate them. The teachers are supported by trained social workers, who are also members of the local community, and who can follow up on family issues that go beyond the teacher's reach. These social workers are trained and experienced in counseling children.

The school's development is overseen by a committee involving teachers, social workers, managers and youth workers. Each committee member has at least five years experience working in Kibera in their respective field. This diverse team is working together to creatively develop a school that will be able to provide education in the slum environment of Kibera.
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Updates

  • 09 SEP 2018

    Fountains of Hope Primary School Update

    This is a formal primary school that was started in 2014 to cater to the children who have successfully graduated from Preparation and Transition classes. The school offers quality and holistic education to improve children's learning outcomes and better prepare them for future employment. The school offers extra subjects like Art, Computer and Music that are not offered in most schools. This year the school has 140 children, 80 boys and 60 girls. This year the Fountains of Hope School became a complete school with standard 1-8. It is the first time since we started the school that our senior class will be doing their national examinations before transitioning to secondary school. It is therefore a huge milestone for us. The students and the staff are very busy preparing for the examinations that will take place in October.
  • 04 OCT 2015

    Update from Fountain of Hope School!

    The Fountains of Hope School launched in January 2014, offering primary education to students. We enrolled fewer children than desired in year one but we learned a lot during the course of the year and made adjustments along the way. We were very pleased to see enrollment jump from 25 students in 2014 to 70 students in 2015. We are adding an additional class each year so we now offer education for years 1 through 5 and in January we will add classes for year 6. One of the best-performing students in the school, Jane, had never attended school before she joined Turning Point. She lives with both her parents in Kibera but, being unemployed, they were unable to afford school fees. Jane joined Turning Point's children's centre in Kianda and started to catch up on the education she had missed. She is incredibly bright and has caught up very quickly. In fact, at the beginning of the year she joined Class 3 at the Fountains of Hope School but mid-way through the year she was bumped...
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Donors

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