Increase sponsorship to help needy students achieve goals

URIRI, KENYA: The youthful population presents both opportunities and challenges to achieving the targets of the Millenium Development Goals and other socioeconomic objectives.

However majority of the youth in Uriri miss the opportunity to further their education as a result of poverty, being orphaned or vulnerable. Looking at the recent results 20 students who sat for the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education examination at Light School for instance, majority of them qualified to join good secondary schools, but they will not be able to, since their parents and families cannot afford to pay for their secondary education.

Through sponsorship programme we are revolutionising socio economic development in rural Kenya by supporting needy, but bright students every year to access quality education which is a basic right.

Yet again with the help of our supporters, we strive to keep poor but bright students in school.  This year we have given both our students and those joining secondary schools support.  These students from needy families would be offered a life-changing opportunity through the provision of education scholarship.

Light Uriri and associated supporters believe that, education offers learners an opportunity to uplift the quality of life and increases economic opportunities. Any support small or big is especially crucial for children from poor backgrounds and remotest parts of rural Uriri.

While access to education is a constitutional right, the national and local institutions have not been able to guarantee every child decent education, nutrition and accommodation. Indeed even after the introduction of free primary and secondary education, thousands of pupils are still out of school and others still drop out of school because they lack fees or nutrition.

That is why under this programme, we target poor and marginalised orphans and vulnerable children from rural Kenya, it is expected students who graduate from our school and home will be able to give back to society by uplifting their local families from poverty and deprivation.

Ester Adhiambo, a beneficiary of Light School sponsorship programme (Pho: File)

Together with like-minded partners we are determined to help as many bright needy students as we can. The number of beneficiaries may appear small today, but the implication of this partnerships support will be felt in the years to come as these students take up leadership roles in the community. We appeal to other well-wishers, sponsors, individuals and companies to emulate our model and help poor students’ access quality education. This is not only a moral duty; it is the decent thing to do.

To complement these efforts, sponsor must up their game and increase the amount of sponsorship allocations. It is self-defeating to have needy but bright students failing to progress their education because they cannot raise school fees.

School heads where the students we sponsor attend should highlight cases where such students are at risk of missing class and alert us in good time. Let us give children an opportunity to access education nutrition and shelter and prepare them to become productive citizens.