Letters: Introduction, Life in Kenya
by Dominic Muasya, KEF Kenya Country Director

Kenya is very unique. Despite being surrounded by warring nations on all sides, it has managed to remain peaceful. With 42 different tribes with different cultures and ways of life, it’s a wonder how they co-exist harmoniously. Kenyans also work hard. Although their labours are not in most cases fairly rewarded, they keep on. Hoping that things will turn out well.

Like many African countries, Kenya is faced with a multitude of problems. These range from political, social, economic to environmental. Resources are scarce and finite and lack of proper planning, allocation or prioritisation compounds all these problems.

Traditional Practices

Some of our socio-cultural practices are a hindrance to development. In some communities, for example, the education of the girl child is not a priority. It is assumed that they will be married off and hence no need wasting resources on them. In others, especially the pastoralist cultures, only the boys who cannot look after cattle are sent to school. Again, some pastoralists like the Maasai, Samburu, Turkana and Pokots are nomads. They have no permanent homestead. Some of the communities take their girl children from school to marry them to old men. A girl as young as 13 years is married to an old man (mzee) of 60 years or more.

Poverty

Unemployment is on the increase and consequently poverty is rising. At present, 56% of Kenyans live below the poverty line. They earn less than a dollar a day and can hardly afford basic needs like food, health care, shelter and in some cases even water. Many people, especially those living in the rural areas, spend most of their time looking for these necessities. This leaves them with no time for other economic activities, hence sinking them deeper into poverty.

Natural Calamities

Kenya is also not spared by natural calamities. Our country is an agricultural country and most of our economy stems from Agriculture. It should be noted however that small-scale farmers control 80% of all agriculture. They practice and use traditional farming methods and totally depend on rainfall and good weather. They are either not knowledgeable on modern farming methods and cash crop farming, or cannot afford them. So it is always catastrophic when the rains fail. There lacks also financial institutions to support the farmers and probably market their farm produce for them. Currently, there are some areas in Kenya that have not received any rainfall for the last two years. People in these areas depend on relief food from the government.

HIV/AIDS

Kenya has a new enemy, in addition to all the above problems; The AIDS pandemic. Like most of the sub-Saharan countries Kenya is really feeling the effects of this scourge. Over 2 million people are infected and 200,000 have already died. Almost every family unit is affected. A member has been lost or is infected. This has greatly destabilised or weakened the family set ups since those mostly infected are bread winners or the active members of their families. Consequently, the number of orphans and dependants is on the increase. This further weakens the already weak economic status. ARVs and health care systems are not readily available. These would prolong the lives of those infected in order to delay orphanhood and allow these people to provide for their people for longer.

Casualties

It is painfully worth noting that those mostly affected by all these compounded problems are the children, especially the school going ones. When the families are displaced for whatever reason, their school is interrupted. When the rains fail, they cannot go to school since they would not learn when they are hungry. Others drop out of school to take care of their siblings when their parent(s) die. When the family income drops, the school expense is the first to do away with.

Free Education

For some years before the year 2003, school was a big burden to many parents. Actually many children of school-going age were out of school. That is why president Kibaki’s NARC party swept itself to power by promising to make primary education free. True to their promise (the only one they kept) primary education was made free. But nothing else was put in place. This gave rise to other problems that the government had not anticipated. First, over 2 million children joined the primary schools. The schools were overwhelmed since the classrooms were not expanded or added. Teachers were few and there were no desks or chairs for the newly enrolled students. Basically all limits were stretched. Some classes still have over 100 pupils. The teacher-student ratio was too big it did not make sense. The crisis lasted for a few weeks but finally the dust settled. The problems have never been solved to date. Then after realising that the quality offered in the public schools was low, some parents transferred their children to private schools. As of now these private schools have more children than they did before the free education. This is where people can find uncompromised quality education for their children. In the public schools, pupils still sit on the floor or learn under trees. In other schools the teacher cannot master all their faces due to their great numbers. Maybe the situation will come to improve when the government expands the facilities and employs more teachers, though as to when is highly debatable. Most likely not in the near future.

The secondary schools are by far much fewer than the primary schools. Many parents wonder where they will take their children after primary school. Others highly question the quality of education offered in these public schools. As they say, even dirty water can quench your thirst, any education is better than more. They let their children continue in the public schools due to lack of options. They make do with what they are provided.

How We Started

In August 2004, one such parent, mama Amina, approached Mr. Bradley Broder who at the time was visiting his old neighbours in Loitokitok for the first time in three years. Bradley was in the company of Dominic Muasya. Both worked in Loitokitok when Bradley was Peace Corps Volunteer and Dominic was a Public Health Technician with the Ministry of Health. Mama Amina wanted her last-born daughter transferred from DEB primary, which is a public school, to Kilimanjaro Junior, a private school in the village. Brad was touched and gave mama Amina 8,000 Kenya shillings ($100) that a friend, Richard Sirlin, had given him with instructions to put it to good use in Kenya. Amina was transferred to the private school and immediately became a changed girl.

Later, the two friends talked about it. Brad was willing to look for possible sponsors once he went back home. Dominic on the other hand was willing to do what was needed on the Kenyan side. These included; money transfer, school transfers, purchasing of uniforms and shoes and any other thing that was required. Three weeks upon his return to the US, Brad sent an email to Dominic saying that he had managed to get sponsorship for seven children. Dominic had to make a trip to Loitokitok to arrange for the transfers and make some purchases. These were for Amina’s brothers and three of their neighbours. That is how KEF was started.

Project Areas

Currently, our children are concentrated in two areas; Loitokitoc and Tala. Loitokitok is 248km South East of Nairobi, the capital, in the slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro, next to the Tanzanian boarder. Although it is a small border town, this is predominantly Maasai country. Basically, Maasai are herdsmen and nomads. The other tribes practice farming. Tourism is also an important activity. Poverty levels here are very high.

It is in this town that Brad and Dominic worked for over two and three years respectively. They got to know many people. Among others, their main duties were to move from home to home health educating the local communities. Health talks were also done in schools with the aim of preventing communicable diseases including HIV/AIDS.

Tala is about 1hour drive from Nairobi, the capital city. This is Dominic’s rural home. It is also easier to reach and convenient for KEF activities.

Success

To date we have a total of 31 children. 4 are AIDS orphans, 3 have lost their fathers to AIDS and are left with their HIV mothers, the rest have only one parent and/or have very poor background.

One is in the university, 5 in high school while the rest are in primary schools. All those in high school are boarders while only two in the primary schools are boarders. One of them is an AIDS orphan while the other one’s mother has full blown AIDS.

KEF tries to link up sponsors with deserving children. The sponsor caters for all educational requirements of the child. These include school fees, uniform and shoes. A commitment is made by the sponsor to support till they finish high school. Unlike other organisations KEF sponsors are encouraged to establish a relation with ‘their’ children so that they may get to know one another better. Children are encouraged to write directly to their sponsors. Their close relatives assist those who cannot write.

Challenges

KEF is faced with many challenges. Volunteers run it. Brad in the U.S and Dominic in Kenya. Brad is currently a MA student while Dominic works for the government with the Ministry of Health. He runs a very busy office. He actually volunteers almost all his spare time to ensure the success of the Kenya Education Fund. He has set a small table in his small bedroom to use as an office. On it lays a printer and a laptop. He takes a six-hour journey every six weeks to Loitokitok to check on the children, or when more children are to be enrolled. Once there, his success highly depends on interpersonal relationships and good public relations. Sometimes he makes use of a borrowed motorbike but has to fuel it. This is because we run on a minimal budget and sometimes ends up using his money on the project. But the biggest challenge would be lack of more sponsors so that we can take in more children. Word has spread about our project and how we have changed lives. Whenever Dominic visits our project areas, more people show up wanting their kids to be assisted. The waiting list is very long. Sometimes it is painful turning them away.

KEF has been in existence for slightly over nine (9) months. The lives of 31 children and their families have been touched in a way they could only dream of several months ago. Hope has been restored where there was none. Our children walk to school in new uniform and shoes with lots of confidence and enthusiasm in life just like the other children well placed in the society.