Kenyan Schoolhouse

The Kenyan Schoolhouse Program

The Beneficiary:

The Kenyan Schoolhouse Program focuses on providing secondary education to child laborers, orphans, and street children — 600,000 in Nairobi alone. The life conditions facing Kenyan children are brutal. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, there are currently an estimated 3.6 million children working instead of attending school in Kenya. They are engaged in child labor that threatens their health, safety and violates their human dignity. That includes work in mining, fishing, sugarcane, and agriculture. In-country trafficking of girls for prostitution is widespread. Female genital mutilation and early marriage are cultural practices that affect girls. Our work with families and Masai communities seeks to enroll these girls in school.

Relevant facts about the Kenyan Schoolhouse include:

~Rural girls – a special focus – have only a 25% chance of completing secondary school

~ DirectGrace has helped the Kenyan Schoolhouse educate over 300 children over the past 8 years

~ DirectGrace provides secondary school expenses including room, board, tuition, personal needs, health care and travel home to visit family

~ Thirty students have used DirectGrace funds to go on to college based on high test scores and government scholarships

~ Kenyan School House graduates have degrees in engineering, chemistry, business, architecture and nursing, among others.

Established in 2002, the Schoolhouse has provided primary education to over 1000 students during a 16-year partnership with ANPPCAN.  Also, they have educated an additional 500 children in secondary school. Once a child enrolls in our program, we support their efforts until they graduate. In some cases, we'll provide vocational training for those children who are not suited to academics.