Education support for Slum Children in Mathare Nairobi
One World Network 

A community organisation registered and operates in Mathare, an informal settlement in Ruaraka sub county of Nairobi we depend on the Peter Bachnann Foundation for all our activities in Kenya.

This is a densely populated area on the banks of Nairobi River. Many people moved here from the rural areas all over Kenya with the hope of getting jobs and other social amenities like schools and hospitals that are lacking in their villages. The reality they face when they arrive in the city is unemployment, lack of housing, forcing them to construct shanty shelters where they live in abject poverty.

Our main focus here is access to education. There are not enough public schools to take children in this area and therefore they are forced to enroll their children in informal schools without basic infrastructures and qualified teachers. These schools charge the parents a monthly fee for tuition and feeding. Many of these parents can hardly raise the approximate $ 10 dollars to keep their children in these schools. Many children roam in the streets picking plastic, wood and metal for sale to recycling industries for their daily survival. They prefer to live and work in the streets than going to school, which their parents cannot afford to pay.

One World Network through our volunteer local social workers identify such children who need education and enroll them in the informal schools where they are lucky to get at least one meal a day and some basic literacy classes provided by volunteers untrained teachers.

Currently we have a list of 50 primary school level children whom we have not been able to support. We also have 15 college level students who are stuck and cannot join the various University and tertiary courses that they have qualified for.

Many of these children and young adults are from single parent families or total orphans living with relatives or well-wishers.

The ideal situation would be to trace their families and put them in boarding institutions for better education in a safe environment away from the harsh and crime-infested slum life they find themselves in. The best option would be to trace their rural villages and put them up with their relatives to be able to get education in the rural schools which are safer compared to the slum schools.

We try our best with minimal funds from our only donor in the past 10 years the Peter Bachnann Foundation to at least keep them in local schools. We therefore appeal to individuals, charitable organizations as well as corporate bodies to support our local initiative with whatever they can both financial, infrastructural or whichever way because the situation for these children worsens continually

Dan Amolo. PBF Kenya