The overwhelming lack of quality education in Kenya is devastating Kenyan children, paralyzing the economy, and hindering the nation’s general well-being.
Most schools do not have electricity, running water, or necessary supplies such as textbooks and teaching materials. It is quite rare to find computers or any other current technology within schools. Teacher to student ratios in Kenyan schools are incredibly unhealthy. In some instances, one teacher is responsible for a classroom of as many as 100 elementary-aged children. These troubling deficiencies make preparing students for university education nearly impossible.
A recent study by the United Nations showed that 1/3 of Kenyan sixth graders cannot read or write. Aside from the myriad of shortcomings listed above as reasons for this sobering statistic, there are still other negative forces involved in the Kenyan schoolchild’s reality. Families already financially strapped from tending to the basic necessities of life can ill afford school fees, causing children to be periodically suspended. Also, children are often kept home from school to babysit their younger siblings or to work to financially support their families.
Thus one can see that a true cycle of poverty exists which breeds hopelessness, apathy, and despair. After all, if poverty prevents the child’s education and that lack of education leads to poverty, where can a solution exist? And can a developing nation with a fragile economy progress on the fading futures of these little ones?
Something clearly can and must be done. Anointed Community Academy, founded on the principle that change starts within Kenya, will provide an excellent education to needy kids without charge to their families. In doing so, a nucleus of bright young leaders will be raised despite their background of poverty, and they will be encouraged to be part of the solution to their own country’s problems.
Simply put, we expect that education and empowerment of these youth, who carry a unique empathy borne of their own personal suffering, will lead them to be effective servants to the vast population living in poverty in Kenya one day.
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