Scholarships

The East Africa Partnership has founded or is currently supporting four different orphanages, with 350 children enrolled and another 85 to be added by the end of 2009.  These children are selected based on need and 90% of them are orphans.  The education of these children is a primary concern. They are sent to local schools and then tutored for several hours and assisted with homework when they return.  On the weekends the tutor returns to give the children more attention, and members of the local community also volunteer to help the students with their English requirement for school.   Because these destitute children have never attended school before, they are academically behind when they arrive.  With all of the extra attention they receive, all of our students are now at the top of their classes.  The older students are now testing for entrance into secondary school (high school) and appear to have an excellent chance of entering the top schools in the country. 

Unfortunately, secondary school must still be financed by the students and their families.  Despite promises from the Kenyan government, they have not yet made secondary school free.  The East Africa Partnership is dedicated to allowing all the children in the orphanages to complete at least secondary school, and for qualified students to enter universities.  We have asked the Kenya government to waive or reduce fees for these students in secondary school.  Now we are seeking to provide scholarships to these needy children.  While these schools are extremely inexpensive compared to their counterparts in the United States, there are still out of reach for the orphans living in the homes.  The East Africa Partnership is seeking outside scholarships for these students to allow them to continue their educations.  A year of secondary school costs approximately $1,200 dollars, a year at university costs $3,000, and a year at graduate school costs $3,500.  Assuming no government scholarships, paying for four years of high school, four years of college, and four years of graduate school to get a PhD would cost a total of $30,800—approximately ¾ of what one year of undergraduate study cost in the United States. This year about 30 of our students will be graduating from primary school and anticipating secondary school.  At $1,200 per student per year, the scholarship program needs to raise about $36,000 dollars for this next school year.  These costs will rise in the following years as more students qualify to enter secondary school while the older students are still enrolled.

The scholarship program is vital to the success of the orphanage program.  We are not addressing our mission to provide for the needs of destitute children if we merely give them a roof, clothes and food for a few years and then release them onto the streets without education.  While we train them in job skills such as sewing, computer technology and farming, they have a potential for much better jobs with an education and the ability to make a living and life for themselves.  Education is critical to improving the lives of these children and the country in which they live.  Our objective is to allow these children to fulfill their potential and reach their goals.  When you talk with these children, they tell you what they aspire to be—doctors, scientists, lawyers, nurses, teachers, government officials.  The scholarship program is essential to allow these children to gain the education they need to follow their dreams.  We hold the future of these children in our hands. We want to give them the opportunity to be educated, which has been denied to so many past generations in Kenya.

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