Africa as a continent has never failed to grip the traveller. Kenya on the East, straddling the Equator, is a country of enormous diversity, not only in its scenery that ranges from snow-capped mountains to a desert to white palm-treed beaches, but also in its people and culture - poverty and wealth, problems and successes.

In 1963 the population was 8 million, and after 45 years of Uhuru (freedom) there are currently around 32 million Kenyans, the birth rate being the second highest in the world (3.4% per annum). All of these people are concentrated in a third of the country's area, in the central Highlands, between 5500 and 9000 feet, around the shores of Lake Victoria and along the coastal strip from just south of Mombasa to Lamu. The rest of the country remains the unspoilt Africa that the early explorers saw, and is home to as yet the most varied and plentiful game in Africa.

All our schools are based on the edge of the Highlands overlooking the vast savannah of the Great Rift Valley, views made famous by the film "Out of Africa". The nearest town is Gilgil, a typical one-street town which grew up at the intersection of road and railway.

Education in Kenya

The education system is largely based on English schooling, although it follows the 8-4-4 system: eight years in primary school leading to the KCPE (Kenyan Certificate of Primary Education), a nationally marked and recognised exam, four years in secondary school leading to the KCSE, and four years at university. Around two-thirds of Kenyan children complete primary education; very few make it to secondary school or beyond.

There is a huge variety of schools, some of them very good and well funded, and others diabolically poor, under-resourced and under-staffed. It is these schools that we try to help.

The Kenyan government pays teachers’ salaries; however, there are not enough teachers adequately to staff many rural schools. Parents are expected to provide everything else from books to blackboards, from uniforms to classrooms, and to maintain the infrastructure of the school. This is impossible for rural Kenyans, most of whom are subsistence farmers. For those in work, one week's salary is less than the price of one textbook. The result is that teachers will not go to such schools, the level of schooling drops and all those children consequently suffer for the rest of their lives, caught in a vicious circle.