STATEMENT OF INTENT

To build, staff and equip a school to provide highest quality elementary education (the equivalent of American Pre-K through Grade 8), with food, housing and spiritual nurture for children orphaned by AIDS, in  the town of Nambale, Busia District, in the Western Province of Kenya. While the founding mission of the school is to educate destitute students, it will also enroll students from families with the economic resources to pay tuition, ensuring a more diverse – and thus, less stigmatizing – student body. This is consistent with Kenyan educational policies for orphaned and vulnerable children (OVCs).[1]  

The school will eventually accommodate 350 children, at least 50 percent of them orphaned by AIDS and otherwise vulnerable. Two tracks, preparation for university, and artisan training in farming or trades, will be available beginning in fourth grade. All children will be equipped with skills to support themselves and their families according to their individual abilities.

The goal is to have the school become self-sustaining. This will be accomplished in three ways:

1.      Tuition paid by families able to afford private education for their children;

2.      Revenues from a retreat/conference center to be built on nearby land (to be purchased);

3.      The sale of goods produced through a vocational/technical program.

The Need        

Increasing numbers of children in Africa have no home because their parents and extended families have died from HIV/AIDS and related diseases. UNAIDS.org reports that, “Some 15 million children under age 15 have lost one or both parents to AIDS…  Countless children become responsible for the care of their siblings and other family members when parents are debilitated by poor health.” A loss of this magnitude “puts an enormous strain on the traditional family safety net.” The report continues,

In addition to psychological trauma, evidence shows that orphans living with extended families or in foster care are frequently subject to discrimination and are less likely to receive health, education and other needed services. The situation is yet more desperate for those living in child-headed households or on their own on the streets. The vulnerability of these children represents part of a vicious cycle: their circumstances put them at high risk for exploitation and abuse, and therefore exposing  themselves to HIV, and lack of access to health care, education and social support perpetuates the conditions of poverty.

Despite advances in HIV treatment and access to antiretroviral drugs, the number of AIDS orphans is projected to exceed 25 million by the end of the decade, and the need for programs that address this crisis—already in short supply—will only increase. [2]

According to the UNICEF report, Children on the Brink 2004, the number of children orphaned by AIDS will continue to rise for at least the next decade. In a Kenyan population of some 40 million, [3] approximately 1.3 million are living with AIDS, and an estimated 1.1 million children ages 1-17 are orphaned by AIDS. [4]  UNICEF reports,

 “After losing parents and caregivers, children have an even greater need for stability, care, and protection. Family capacity – whether the head of household is a widowed parent, an elderly grandparent, or a young person – represents the single most important factor in building a protective environment for children who have lost their parents to AIDS and other causes. There is also an urgent need to develop…community-based care opportunities for the small but highly vulnerable proportion of boys and girls who are living outside of family care.”[5]

The Nambale Magnet School is located in the Busia District, one of the poorest parts of Kenya. In Nambale itself, some 10,000 children had been orphaned by the AIDS crisis by 2006.  While Nairobi and some of Kenya’s central provinces have some support services in place to care for and educate children orphaned by AIDS, there are no such facilities in the impoverished western portion of the country.

Charles Kesa, a Kenyan educational consultant, is excited about the magnet school concept; he feels this approach might provide a new model for overcoming the class barriers to education which are so common in Kenya.  In keeping with Kenyan guidelines and established educational norms, the student body will include fee-paying students with families, so that orphaned children are not isolated from their peers. 

Western Kenya has a need for such high-quality education. In Busia District, there has been not a single first-rank primary school accessible to any student, let alone destitute students. (There is one good school for sugar company families.)  The only access to primary education is in over-crowded public classrooms with a 100:1 student/teacher ratio, in schools without roofs, desks or enough chairs, with few books, insufficient paper and pencils, without the necessary tools and resources for effective learning. District officials and educators have told board members that there are many prospective students who would pay fees to attend a school like this. One former district principal noted that a number of children walk as far as four to six miles per day to nearby towns in order to access quality education.

As Evalyn Wakhusama further remarked at the groundbreaking ceremony, “We wished to build a school that would allow our beneficiaries to compete with other students nationally. Statistics in education will bear witness for the need of such an institution. We also wish to provide a safe environment for our learners, so that we would mold them while with us and prepare them for higher learning and the world at large.”

Beyond the clear needs articulated above, the reasons for promoting such a residential school so far away from our own lives and children are both moral and pragmatic. We have a moral imperative to provide humanitarian assistance to countries facing the enormous tragedy of AIDS; to help the generation orphaned by AIDS and other diseases; to promote health, education and growth in the face of this scourge.  It also of strategic benefit to the U.S. – and to Kenya’s neighbors – to promote stability, pros-perity and democracy in Kenya. It is one of the most stable democracies in Africa – and yet, as we saw in the 2008 post-election violence, even its society can be vulnerable to violent conflict and tribal divisions.

Education is key to stability and growth; an educated person is more likely to seek creative solutions to problems, and to seek further education to begin to make systemic changes. Similarly, a home environment in which children are nurtured by a trained and loving staff, given clear behavioral guidelines, and empowered to learn and lead will promote more than stability – it will help transform a whole society.

There is also a spiritual dimension to this project – a worldview that acknowledges the fundamental dignity of each person and the inter-connectedness of all people. The Nambale Magnet School will have a chaplain and include a spiritual aspect intended to give the children a religious foundation on which they can build. It seeks to serve the whole child, not just body and mind, but also spirit. As the Rev. Wakhusama has said, “We will teach the head, the heart and the hands.”

Support in Kenya

The Nambale Magnet School is a project conceived by Kenyans, developed, designed, built and operated by Kenyans, and will be sustained by Kenyans, with the support of American partners.  Kenyan support comes chiefly from three sources:

¨  Volunteers with “WIKS,” a Kenyan non-governmental organization, the School’s sponsoring non-profit;

¨  Governmental approval and enthusiasm, both at District and local levels;

¨  The local educational community.

WIKS  (Women’s Initiative on Knowledge and Survival) is a licensed Kenyan non-profit group founded by the Rev. Evalyn Wakhusama when she returned to Kenya after three years of study at Yale Divinity School. She wanted the education and experiences she had received to benefit her own people, especially the women of her country in need of empowerment. WIKS began with AIDS education, feeding programs and assistance with school fees for young men and women, but its vision has now expanded:

¨  To see a world where all people harness their potential and live in dignity;

¨  To empower society through access to information by providing a solid basic education;

¨  To transform society and bring about meaningful change using Christian principles;

¨  To generate long term opportunities for self-sufficiency by developing initiatives to restore self-confidence and teach survival skills.

The Kenyan members of the board of WIKS are highly competent professional women – doctors, educators, scientists – who possess a well-developed vision of the project. Most of them are from Western Kenya and have a passion to serve the children of this extremely impoverished region. They are scrupulous in recordkeeping, careful with the stewardship of their resources, and diligent in ensuring their compliance with all Kenyan governmental regulations for the various projects that they undertake. They have also provided thorough accounts to American donors. WIKS is a licensed non-profit organization, the Kenyan equivalent of a U.S. 501(c)3 charitable corporation, and is eligible to receive charitable donations for its endeavors.

The Nambale Magnet School has been heartily endorsed by Kenyan governmental officials, most prominently by John Ole Kepas, then the District Commissioner of Busia (the functional equivalent of a U.S. state governor) at the August 2007 groundbreaking, and again when he visited on the first anniversary of that occasion and remarked favorably on the impressive progress made. Many supporters have particular expertise in construction, or school development, student selection and marketing, and all these people are eager to help develop this school. The board is employing educational professionals to run the school, and recruit a board of advisors who will help set up the school and also aid in the student selection process. 

The Nambale Magnet School already is a symbol of development and economic stimulus in the region, as well as a source of pride and positive self-identity for an historically impoverished and disenfranchised community. Ultimately, it will provide a conference/retreat center for the region, employment opportunities for local residents, and a showcase for quality animal and plant husbandry for replication by community members. Its most significant impact on the local economy, however, is in increasing the knowledge base. The community believes that the education these children will receive, including the training in best agricultural practices and trades, will dramatically increase the ability of inhabitants of this poverty-stricken district to feed, house, and care for themselves. Even the brick-layers working on the project are invested in the project, and speak with pride about the use to which the building will be put. This school is viewed by the community as the light on the hill that illuminates all around it.

Implementation

The Nambale Magnet School will develop in three phases:   

Phase I – initial school building for Pre-K - 3, with facilities for 120 residential students and 60 day students, starting with 60 and adding a grade per year.  This was launched January 12, 2009.

Phase II – expansion to provide additional facilities, upgrading existing buildings and converting classroom space into additional dormitories to accommodate grades 4-8. Artisan training will be offered beginning in the fourth grade.

Phase III – Acquisition of land and construction of a conference center to help make the school self-sustaining, with space for an eventual secondary school.

Phase IV – Construction of secondary school.

Student Selection

Students will be selected in a number of different ways.  Students who can pay their own educational costs will be accepted on a first-come basis. Students who are destitute and vulnerable will be identified by the local community leaders, often village chiefs. These students will be children who have been orphaned or otherwise rendered bereft by the AIDS crisis. Because student selection in Kenya historically has been by family connection, the board considers the potential for bias in the selection of students to be very real.  It has concluded that the best way to select students, once candidates have been identified by local leadership as destitute and needy, will be by lottery. 

Sustainability

The plan is for the Nambale Magnet School ultimately to include income-generating programs:

¨     A guest-house and conference facility for businesspeople and travelers – there are currently no facilities in the area with safe and comfortable accommodations. This facility will also dovetail with the mission of the school, providing not only financial support, but work for older students, and contact for the students with businesspeople and foreign traveler.

¨     Light farming and mechanics – both for income and as training in trades for children who do not excel at academics.

In addition, American supporters are seeking pledges of roughly $1,000 per year over a 9-10-year period for each orphaned or vulnerable student, to cover expenses such as clothing, supplies and medical care that normally a family would provide.

We believe that with these resources in place, the school will be able to thrive and expand without constant need of fundraising.