Return vulnerable children from Kibera to School

Esau had fallen about three years behind his schoolmates academically but teacher Collins saw Esau’s determination to catch up and committed to walk the journey with him. Teacher Collins became his mentor and is working with him to set goals and problem solve. Since Esau joined the transition programme, he has made huge progress, he still has a lot of catching up to do but he has come out of his skin, made friends and grown in confidence.

In our last update we shared that we have adopted a new approach by running the Transition programme inside the school rather than in a separate centre. Overall, this has been a great success. Like Esau, the 21 new students have found their place in the school community with help from student buddies and mentor teachers.

We still have work to do to improve the remedial support for the students, finding ways to assess each child’s learning needs and condense the curriculum in a way that helps kids catch up faster are all big challenges. But we are learning and making progress each term.

Thank you so much for your support to enable children in Kibera to return to school and complete their education. 

Beatrice had been out of school for two terms and was nervous about going back to school, she didn’t know any of the other kids at the school. Would she make friends?

Jeff was looking forward to being a student again, wearing the uniform, walking to school with the other kids but he was not looking forward to meeting the teachers. He was sure he would get into trouble a lot, he always did at his old school and the punishments were harsh.

On Makau’s first day back in school he looked for a seat right at the back of the class, he did not want to be picked to read, he would rather do anything than be called to read in front of the class.

Returning to school after a long time can be a nerve-racking experience. Our School Transition Programme aims to make the journey back to school a smooth one. Over the past few months, we have been listening to children who have gone through the Transition Programme and their teachers to understand what is working well and what needs to improve. We’ve also been learning new skills from other organisations.

As a team, we’ve developed a new design for our Transition Programme and we’re rolling it out this new school year. The main change is that instead of the Transition Programme students learning in a separate centre, they will join the Fountains of Hope School directly while getting extra support to settle in.

When Beatrice joins the Fountains of Hope School she will be paired up with a student buddy, a student who has been in the school for a while who can show her around and introduce her to some new friends.

Jeff will meet regularly with a mentor teacher who will help him to set goals for the term and work towards those goals. Jeff’s mentor will be a safe person he can talk to, together they can get to the bottom of why Jeff tends to get into trouble and what changes he can make to see an improvement.

Makau will have extra classes before or after school to help him catch up on his foundational reading, writing and maths skills as well as extra help on any subject he’s fallen behind in. The teachers will help him to grow confident in reading.