Mercy Children's Centre's school in the Kawangware slum of Nairobi Kenya, has 12 orphans who have finished 8th grade with us. Now this eager learners need to continue their education into secondary school so we are looking for sponsorship for them to go to boarding schools around Kenya.
MCC Kawangware provides schooling and a safe haven for 200 orphans in a Nairobi slum. This year our funding has been sufficient to cover teachers' salaries, rent obligations, dormitory provisions for some students and a daily meal for most students. A global giving drive in August, 2011 supplied new desks and uniforms as well as text books, and a gas cooker for the school. But we have graduates who need to continue their education into secondary school and we can't manage to teach them ourselves
If we can find sponsors for individual students we can ensure a good quality secondary education for MCC's 8th grade leavers through 2012. These older children would go to boarding school, as is the tradition in Kenya and be integrated with non-orphans, they would be cared for and educated for a few more precious years. Some of our target scholars need homes to go to during their month long midterm breaks but the Mercy Centre should be able to provide that, to those with no other options.
Each year of continuing education gives these teenagers a greater chance of success in their adult life as they learn more life and economic skills. Staying in school is also a significant way to let the kids grow up more slowly as they postpone their own parenthood and added responsibility. As one of MCC's founding members said 'we are teaching these children to grow up and be good loving, responsible adults'. We have 13 graduates and other AIDS orphans who Mercy Centre still supervises.
This project has provided additional documentation in a Microsoft Word file (projdoc.doc).
