Help 1,800 students get quality teachers in Kenya

Hello supporters!

It has been an incredible year. In fact, it’s been the best year in Hopeful Africa’s history. And the best way to top it all off is a trip to Kenya. From May 18th through June 1st, seven Hopeful Africa supporters traveled to Kenya. While there, they visited partner schools, funded programs, talked to community members, and met with students, teachers, and administrators. They also had the opportunity to go on a safari and visit a Maasai village. The team blogged everyday about their adventures and those blogs can be found at http://hopefulafrica.org/blog.

More to the point of this project report, however, is what they were able to do for and with the partner schools while they were there, the progress made because of your support. President and founder Moses Bomett announced in Kenya that the 19 teachers will be supported through the Teacher Support program, up from 11 teachers. That's a near doubling in impact and will fill vital needs at Hopeful Africa's partner schools. Here are some other, more general, highlights of the investments and announcements from the trip:

• $9000+ Invested at the schools, this brings our total program support to be $85,000 since we started.
• 62 students will receive high school scholarships through the Student Sponsorship program, up from 20 students.
• 1000+ textbooks and library books were provided to five schools through our School Investment program. Total books provided are 5000+
• 7 computers and a computer lab were installed at one of the schools bringing the total to 27 computers provided to date.
• 2000+ students at the seven partner schools will be benefiting from all the programs support.

If you want a better idea of where Hopeful Africa’s partner schools are located, where your donations are having such an awesome impact, please visit www.hopefulafrica.org/about-us/where-we-work/. But to get a real sense of the communities, we highly recommend you read the Kenya Summer ‘15 blog posts. You can read Arianna’s musings on the ceremony at Ogilgei Primary School during which they “all rejoiced in song and dance and had no other cares in the world or in Kenya in that very moment”. Or Anna talking about the time “The District Officer came in to talk with us about how beneficial the computer lab has been for not just the school, but the whole district. They have been working on training other teachers throughout the district in how to use the computers, and stressed how much of a difference Hopeful Africa has made.”

On the trip, the team collected piles of data from the schools to analyze the impact of Hopeful Africa and get an idea of how to move forward. We’re beyond excited to pour over that data and report the findings to you in our next project report. I know, data being exciting? Seems weird. But that information will give us invaluable insight into Hopeful Africa’s partner schools and communities. And that will lead to smarter and better impacts. We hope you’ll stay tuned to find out just how your support has made and will continue to make a difference.

Thanks,

Kyle Upchurch
Executive Director, Hopeful Africa

Hello Supporters,

In February, Sarah, a volunteer in Kenya, talked to Hopeful Africa's partner schools and reported back on the current state of the projects you've helped fund. Here's the short version: Because of your support, students in Kenya are receiving a better education. This project, funding additional teachers, has been particularly successful. All four schools that your funds have helped provide extra teachers report that the teachers are working hard and easing the work load. Across all seven of our partner schools, the student to teacher ratio averages 30:1. According to the World Bank, in 2010, the student-to-teacher ratio for primary school was 42.6:1. For secondary school, it was 25.2:1 (costs for secondary school drive down enrollment). There are several things to consider. The maximum ratio found at one of our partner schools is 43.2. So the status varies a lot from school to school. And, enrollment continues to increase at many of the schools. All that said, the current levels of 30:1 are unsustainable, especially given the limited amount of resources with which the teachers have to work. Much, much more needs to be done. If you want to continue supporting these partner schools, please consider another donation to this project. We suggest March 18th, as GlobalGiving will match each donation 30% on that day. For more information, sign up for our e-mailing list at http://eepurl.com/4GUIr.

All that being said, your support has helped us provide eight teachers to alleviate the classroom population at four of our partner schools. The impact of that is sometimes difficult to quantify, but is real. One of our partner schools, Ogilgei Primary School, recently moved from position three to position two in district rankings for Class 8 scores. That means that test scores are increasing across the board. Kirobon Primary School reports good test scores and secondary school placements for their students. Marishoni Nursery School, a new, community and parent run early education school, has increased their enrollment from the 30s to 120. One of their three teachers was provided by the funds you've given; without that teacher, the increased enrollment, which is already straining resources but is at least working, would not have been possible. That's a lot of kids getting an education because of your efforts. Ogilgei Secondary School, at a ratio of 27:1, report that the Hopeful Africa-funded teachers are highly motivated and hard working.

Motivation is another thing I wanted to discuss. A lot of the head teachers have said that the support given by Hopeful Africa, and driven by you, has motivated the staff and students to go above and beyond. With several schools reporting test score increases, that's not a difficult thing to believe. And it's very, very important.

So, thank you. We at Hopeful Africa will continue to report on this project as we get more information. A big time for data and story gathering will be in late May, when the volunteer team goes to Kenya. Until then, please follow us on our blog at hopefulafrica.org/blog. Additionally, we have Hope Night 2015, our fifth annual gala on Friday, April 24th, in West Des Moines, Iowa. This is the best opportunity to meet the organization and fellow supporters. Learn more here: hopefulafrica.org/hope-night. And again, thanks!

Kyle

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