Restore Humanity began its Outreach Program in Sirembe, Kenya in 2008, two years before we opened our Children's Home. Our Outreach Program assists families in need by paying school fees for their children. It is one of the simplest ways to help people and move towards alleviating poverty one family at a time. Many of the families in Sirembe need some form of assistance to send their children to secondary school (high school) and while there is some help available, it's not nearly enough. That is where we (well, actually YOU) come in.
In our Restore Humanity Outreach Program we usually pay a partial scholarship for each student, but will provide a full scholarship for those in the most dire of circumstances. We tend to pay partial scholarships because we have found that encouraging the families to pitch in makes this a real investment for everyone involved. However, there are cases where the family literally has nothing to give. In such cases we cover more, if not all of their fees. School fees in Kenya fluctuate quite a bit from year to year and so we raise $250 per student, then if the costs have decreased we just get to educate more kids! So everyone wins! For example, last year we raised money to educate only 60 kids, but we were able to stretch that cover 73 kids! How awesome is that?
We began by giving the partial scholarships only to girls in the community. Historically they have had less support both from their families and their society to attend school. Thankfully, all of that is changing! We still have work to do, but in the community of Sirembe the school leadership made it their mission to increase the attendance of girls and now the school is around 50% female. While boys traditionally get more support from their families, there are still many families that cannot afford to send their boys to school either. We all rise together and that means we also need educated young men. Providing help for boys was also what young men, teachers, and parents asked of us, and so we listened and adjusted our program accordingly. While we will always lean towards uplifting more girls—since they historically have had much further to climb—we are also really thrilled to help these awesome young men who, without assistance, would not have the opportunity to be educated either.
For the 2020 school year (which starts in January) we hope to be able to assist 60 Kenyan students! Our goal this year is to raise $15,000. Our campaign starts NOW and will run through December 31st. We are excited to announce that we had some early donors and we already have 3 students covered! Only 57 more to go! Please join us in providing education to some amazing young people who, if given the opportunity, can change their community, their country, and possibly the world!