Empower, Engage, Educate in Rural Kenya!

Being able to read and do math are essential for academic achievement and life. Just imagine what your life would be like if you couldn't read. It's not just about learning in school. Reading opens doors to jobs and makes day-to-day living easier. Recently, we did a literacy assessment at six of our partner schools and discovered that only 3% of students in grades three through seven could read fluently and able to comprehend what they are reading. We were stunned and discouraged. As a result, we are training teachers at those schools on how to provide remedial programs to help struggling learners to become readers. The assessment tool gives us data on where the children are stumped. Is it letter recognition, reading a simple word or comprehending a full sentence?

Thanks to donors like you, we have offered two trainings on "teaching at the right level" and providing the teachers with new tools and materials to help the learners. In addition, we are purchasing more early readers for our library and conducting school break reading camps. After a recent training, teacher Veronicah shared, "We have light at the end of the tunnel. This is what we needed. One struggling reader in grade 4 approached me and asked, 'teacher, are you sure that one day I will read?' It truly touched my heart and I began a foundational literacy club for struggling learners with the support of Kenya Connect" 

Meanwhile, teachers have reported that children are also challenged with math. As a result, we have partnered with an NGO providing a math enrichment program that the students can access on a computer tablet. Once a week, we bring the tablets to a school and the students do a variety of math games including patterns, geometry, addition, substraction, multiplication and division. It's fun, colorful and engaging. We are measuring their progress and asking teachers what difference they are seeing when they do math in class.

These two programs are supporting teachers with new strategies for foundational literacy and numeracy. We are truly grateful to donors like you who are supporting children to be readers and competent in math. Thank you!