The Education Program

After initially focusing on the recreational needs of the schoolchildren, Hearts for Kenya has turned its focus to nutritional needs, instructional materials and vocational training. Its response to the nutritional needs, as described in Appendix D, has been to extend the agriculture program into the schools. Its contribution of instructional materials has been on-going, often in the form of suitcases full of school supplies being transported to Oyugis on the annual Hearts for Kenya group trips.

Hearts for Kenya’s assistance in the vocational area has been concentrated in areas that help meet the necessities of food, clothing and shelter. In the farming program, students are learning to grow the food that will sustain them. In the sewing program, students are learning not only how to keep themselves and their families clothed, but they are also learning tailoring skills that will be marketable. In the carpentry program, students are learning building trades that enable them not only to take care of their own homes, but to earn wages on various construction projects.

Hearts for Kenya’s assistance to the vocational programs have helped provide the tools of the trade: farm implements and tools, carpentry tools and sewing machines.

Although one tenet of Hearts for Kenya’s philosophy is to abstain from providing any direct assistance to individuals, it has made two educational exceptions to this. The first is in the case of Robinson Ogulgia, a pharmacist who works part-time at the Wire Clinic. When he was in pharmacy school, Hearts for Kenya assisted him with his tuition and books expenses. The second case is Jacob Tindi Oongo, a native of Oyugis who is now a nursing student at Kampala International University in Uganda. Hearts for Kenya assists Jacob with his tuition and books expenses. As other students from Oyugis progress to the university level in a degree program that would enable them to empower the Oyugis community, Hearts for Kenya may offer additional tuition assistance as well.

The eleven schools in the community are now better able to teach marketable skills to their students in farming, tailoring and carpentry because of implements, tools and training that Hearts for Kenya has provided. They are also somewhat better stocked with books and supplies, and five with playground equipment. They still lack adequate desks.

Because the education program overlaps considerably with the other programs, its goals overlap as well. The primary goals of the education program are (1) to ensure a continuing supply of tools and materials necessary for instruction, and (2) to establish a farming curriculum that will enable the schools to adequately feed all the students. In the eleven schools that it now serves, Hearts for Kenya estimates that it has achieved about 80% of those goals.