This spring Hope 4 Africa @ ISU will be hosting a 12 hour event from Friday April 2nd 7:00pm to Saturday April 3rd 7:00am. The goal of the event is to stay without eating any food or drink any drinks but water, to fundraise for our Books 4 Hope program. Participants will be required to raise $30 to take part in this event, which is equal to providing 6 textbooks to our partner schools in Kenya and a FREE t-shirt for you. The all-night event will be parked full of group activities/games, sport related games, video games, board games and movies just to name a few. The event will take place at Ames E-free : The Plex address 5510 George Washington Carver Ave, Ames, IA 50014.

If you would like to participate in this event please sign up at:
http://hope4africa.info/events/upcoming-events/

Once you sign up you will receive more information about the event via email.

Remember the more people we get the more fun it will be, so invite your friends on facebook to sign up for the event too.

FREE! Open Mic Nite to attend. We will be accepting donations, which go to Hope 4 Africa @ ISU, helping to provide books and computers for schools in Kenya that wouldn’t otherwise be able to have them.

Come and enjoy the hidden talent of people you may know, awesome entertainment, and of course great company!

FREE drinks and snacks will be provided
We will be selling some awesome African Artifacts too.

See you there!! Bring a friend!

RSVP on facebook

So we came across this great amazing idea not to long ago.

It’s simple you search anything online like you would on google and 1 cent gets donated to Hope 4 Africa, isn’t that awesome or what? And the 1 cent adds up once we have many people doing it and searching frequently and consistently.

Want to help?

Ok go to GoodSearch.com at the part that says “Who do you GoodSearch for?” search “Hope 4 Africa” select the one that says “Hope 4 Africa (West Des Moines, IA) then click “Verify”…That’s it. Now search away!

Also a better way to not forget about it, make it your homepage so everytime you go online you GoodSearch and help bring HOPE to Africa.

What will the money do?

Ok so if we get 100 people to search 2 times a day for an year we raise $730 that is enough to sponsor 4 students for 1 year. If we get 1000 that will be 40 students who will receive quality Education in Kenya, so you see it adds up really quick.

What are you waiting for? Good Search for Hope 4 Africa!

Published on Jan 12 2010 by Wachira Kigotho

Forget about the 241,121 pupils whose hopes of further education were shattered for not getting enough marks to enable them gain admission to secondary schools and think of the 485,933 who are now celebrating together with their parents for a job well done.

“These are hard times but have a beer, you know my son Kiragu missed national school by a whisker. He was number two in his class”, a friend told me over the weekend. But when later I called the primary school where Kiragu was attending, the headmistress told me, the best student had 352 marks while Kiragu had 349 marks. This would be enough to have him selected to join Form One in a district public school.

Celebrating Parents

Kiragu will be among 353,000 candidates that last year sat KCPE who will be joining district public and low cost private schools across the country. But very few of those children or their celebrating parents are aware that most public and low-cost secondary schools are nothing but academic slums.

Over the years little has been done to improve learning facilities in those schools. Classrooms are in a state of disrepair, laboratories are ill equipped and core-textbooks are shared among students. The situation of students’ access to core textbooks and other learning resources is critical in low-cost secondary schools, which are some of the worst ranked schools in performance in the KCSE.

Education wastage

Dr Maurice Amutabi, an assistant professor at Central Washington University, says low-cost private secondary schools are merchants of education wastage. “Low-cost private secondary schools are perhaps the worst and saddest thing ever to happen to the education sector, says Dr Amutabi. Most of the schools lack the necessary learning facilities and quite often are located in backstreets in urban areas. “Learners are crammed and squeezed in poorly ventilated and poor lit rooms in the name of schools,” says Dr Amutabi, a former educational researcher at Moi University. Above all, they are rarely inspected by the Ministry of Education.

These schools are scheduled to admit about 150,000 students. Most of those pupils will be graduates of public primary schools and urban slums. But this has nothing to do with discrimination or social profiling by education officials but admission to the national and public provincial secondary schools favours children attending high-cost private schools.

Since the introduction of free primary education seven years ago, education gap between rich and poor and even between rural and urban areas has been increasing rapidly. Evidence indicates teacher absenteeism is chronic because of declining inspection of schools. Studies by the World Bank indicate on average teacher absenteeism at any time ranges between 20 and 25 per cent.

Crack down

Although last week Education Minister Sam Ongeri promised to crack down on private schools that used unethical methods in order to post good results in KCPE, there was total silence on what to be done to uplift performance in public primary schools. Granted some private schools have been using ‘unethical practices’, the Government is to blame for failing children in public primary schools.

Those households that are celebrating admission of their children to some secondary schools are doing so prematurely. Few are aware that some of those schools have never had any of their students scoring a minimum grade of C in KCSE.

Expectations

Although Ongeri said many students in public primary schools did very well in KCPE, he did not give figures as to how many of the 3,296 pupils admitted to Form One in 19 national schools were from public schools. Scrutiny of last year’s performance in KCPE showed about 90 per cent of the top 3,500 pupils were from private schools.

In one year or two most of those students are going to find out that their expectations of becoming cardiologists, surgeons, engineers, actuarial scientist and whatever other careers their parents wished them to undertake will be just a dream. Some parents will have to wait for four years to realise their children will not be candidates for top careers.

Article from The Standard | Online Edition

Published on Friday January 8th 2010

By Sam Otieno

Thousands of pupils to miss Form One as boys take the bulk of available places

Almost a quarter-million students who sat last year’s Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) examinations will not join secondary school this year.

Specifically, a total of 241,121 pupils out of the 727,054 candidates who sat the examinations will miss Form One places in public and private secondary schools. The Minister for Education Sam Ongeri terms this a major challenge to the country’s education system, promising that the Government is looking into the matter urgently. “This remains a major challenge to all of us, thus we must continue to support each other and in particular, the expansion of secondary schools with less than three streams to ensure that they increase the number of streams to accommodate more [students],” said Prof Ongeri.

Education Minister Prof Sam Ongeri (centre) is escorted to the Kenya Institute of Education boardroom by (from left to right) the Institute’s Director Mrs Lydia Nzomo, Assistant Minister for Education Mr Calist Mwatela, Permanent Secretary Prof Karega Mutahi and the Chairman of the Education Parliamentary Commitee Mr David Koech where he launched the selection of this year’s Form One process Friday

He said the Government might consider learning in shifts, electronic-learning (e-learning) and even distance learning as ways of addressing Form One vacancy shortfalls.

The few prestigious national schools will only admit 3,296 students out of whom 1,866 will be boys and 1,430 girls.

Provincial secondary schools will accommodate 129,287 pupils comprising 69,517 boys and 60,130 girls. District schools will accommodate the bulk of the students, as they will open their doors to 301, 682 comprising 149, 986 boys and 151, 696 girls.

Private schools on the other hand will admit 51,308 students, 23,179 of them boys and 28,129 girls.

The candidates are expected to report to school between February 1 and February 5.

While launching the selection exercise yesterday, Ongeri said the quota system of admission was utilised instead of the normal cut-off point system that favoured candidates with top marks only.

This year, students were not only picked based on their performance but also based on the districts where they come from in a bid to give the national schools a national face.

National Schools

This means that each district is represented in national schools. For instance, the best student from a marginalised area, even with 200 marks, will be guaranteed a place in a national school. In the past, a cut-off point was placed to determine those who join national, provincial and district secondary schools. The minister asked secondary principals not to reject students with low marks, arguing they are capable of improving given the difficult conditions in which they sat the examinations.

“The old system of admission could have locked out students from North Eastern and Coast if it were to be used this year,” said Ongeri.

The chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Education Mr David Koech said it is worrying that between 80 to 90 per cent of pupils admitted to public secondary schools come from private primary schools. “We must correct this anomaly and correct it now,” he said.

He claimed the Ministry of Education had failed to address staffing issues, a factor contributing to poor performance in public primary schools.

“I wish you [Ongeri] could announce here that the Sh1.7 billion frozen be sent to TSC for it to employ teachers quickly,” he told the minister. The funds had not been disbursed due to legal issues. They were apparently needed last September to hire more teachers.

The chairman of the Kenya Secondary Schools Heads Association Cleophas Tirop said the Ministry should check the dwindling standards in public primary schools since the trend may soon spread to public secondary schools.

FPE Millions

Ongeri launched the exercise amidst vociferous calls from stakeholders that top ministry officials step aside for thorough investigations into missing billions meant for free primary education (FPE).

Latest documents show that although the Government disbursed Sh47.4 billion between 2003 and 2007 under the FPE, billions of shillings remain missing or unaccounted for.

The Secretary General of the Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) Lawrence Majali said the minister and the PS should step aside and pave way for investigations.

Koech promised his committee will sweep clean the Ministry of Education and restore its image. “Our position as a committee is clear that all those giving the ministry a bad name should step aside,” said Koech.

But Ongeri again defended himself against the accusations, saying he was not in charge when the scandal took place. “I was not even an MP, so you now want to come and load it up on me, it is not fair. Do not ask me anything about 2003 to 2007,” said Ongeri.

Article from The Standard | Online Edition

Today is new day and just not any other day but its the new year’s day. We look back to 2009 and see what Hope 4 Africa has accomplished so far and we wouldn’t have done it without your support:

1. We funded a water catchment system project through our H20 4 Hope program for one of our partner schools

2. We funded over 20 full scholarships to students in need who are bright and gifted but come from poor families

3. We have launched new partnerships with 3 other schools in Kenya, two primary school and one high school

5. We expanded here in America to  Iowa State university

6. We raised over $10,000

Thank you for bringing Hope to Africa with us!

Hope 4 Students

Africa greatest need is to have long-term solutions for its problems. One of the main solutions is Quality Education for all Africans regardless of their backgrounds, nationality, economic status, tribe, gender or religion. However, this is not the case for millions of Africans. To elevate these barriers we have launched a program that will make the dreams of the African children a reality. Through our Hope 4 Students program, we are providing scholarships to students who are performing very well in school and have no means of paying the necessary tuition fees. Moreover, to make sure that they continue with their studies and other aspects in life well, each student is mentored by our mentors in Kenya.

About the program

- Currently 2 schools in Kenya benefit from this program.

- Currently, we are providing 17 full scholarships.

- It cost $25 a month to sponsor a student.

- It cost $20 a month to support a mentor

………………………………Sponsor a child today!

An initiative that rescues girls from early marriage has boosted enrolment at Narok's Naikarra Primary School

Published on 23/12/2009

By Harold Ayodo

If it were not for the intervention of her head teacher, Evelyne Nekapi, 12, would be married.

Having resigned herself to the inevitable, the Standard Three pupil was going through the motions at a dowry ceremony at her soon to be marital home when her head teacher came to her rescue.

Nekapi, 12 is among 29 girls who have been rescued from early marriage at Naikarra Primary School.

“My father accepted cattle from an old, polygamous man as dowry for me,” she says

The prefect, who has topped end of term examinations since returning to class at the beginning of the year, says being married off was the lowest point in her life.

“I am happy to be back in class and chasing my dream of becoming a doctor,” she says. But Nekapi wishes things were different and she was not estranged from her family.

Janet Kandiru too escaped early marriage.

“I wanted to become a doctor but my father had other plans for me. He forced me out of school and married me off,” says the Standard Six student.

The girls live in fear that their parents or husbands may snatch them from school.

Five girls

Head teacher Lontubu Koileken has rescued five girls from early marriage over the past three months. “Most of the girls are married off immediately after they undergo Female Genital Mutilation,” Koileken says.

The rescue missions have increased enrolment of girls in the school, which had seen only a handful of students sit KCPE since it was established in 1973. “We have 678 male and 409 female students. Six girls sat the just concluded KCPE examination,” Koileken says.

The best girl in KCPE last year scored 298 of 500 marks and joined a provincial institution in Rift Valley.

The school supports the girls who have been branded as outcasts. “They cannot go back home because their fathers who had already accepted dowry of cattle and blankets would return them to their husbands,” Koileken says. One being rescued the girls are taken for medical check-ups and counselling before being admitted to the boarding school. “We have counsel other pupils to welcome them, says.

During school holidays they stay at Tasaru (rescue) centre in Narok town during vacations. “There they undergo more counselling,” Koileken says.

The headmaster says he has received both support and hostility for her efforts.

“Villagers scoop soil from my footpaths to bewitch me for breaking a young marriage,” he says. The headmaster seeks support from the provincial administration when her rescue efforts are in thwarted by armed men.

Narok South District quality assurance and standards officer Jackson Shunet says urges more schools to re-admit such pupils.

“We encourage headmasters to report instances of early marriages to the District Commissioner or the District Education Office,” Shunet says.

He says cases of early marriages are rampant in Naikarra and Oldekeresi locations in Narok. “We have started sensitising parents that it is their responsibility to educate their daughters for a better future,” Shunet says.

From time to time students here in America complain of having too many textbooks to carry from class to class. While this is a problem it does not compare at all to having no textbooks.

Back in Kenya, Africa our four partner schools are lacking with sufficient textbooks. In addition a school of about 200 students has only about 30-40 library books. If we really believe in providing quality education to bring hope to the continent of Africa this has to change.

Five students share one textbook at one of our partner schools

And the change starts with YOU.

Starting January 2010 to March 2010 we are kicking a fundraiser for Books 4 Hope where we need 300 people to donate $20 for 3 months consecutively. $20 too much, don’t sweat it we have 3 donor levels $20, $10 and $5. Each month’s donations will fund the three parts of the program: textbooks, library books and computers.

Will you be 1 of the 300!

How far will you $20 go…

• 4 Schools in Kenya will be benefiting form this program.
• Each school will receive 400 textbooks, a total of 1600 textbooks.
• Each school will receive over 500 library books, a total of over 2000 library books
• Each school will receive 5 computers, total of 20 computers.

By Maina Muiruri

From the gate of the primary school, one can see a herd of wildebeests grazing close to the Sekenani gate of the Masai Mara game reserve. Braying zebras sometimes interrupt voices of children playing in the fenced school field.

Sekenani Primary School, built at the last inhabited point to the busy gate into the wildlife sanctuary, stands out with rare, colourful branding that attracts the attention of visitors.

Break time at Sekenani Primary School

On the side of some of its classrooms and dormitories are colourful paintings of aircrafts that give the impression that there could be an airstrip nearby.

But the aircraft drawings are an illustration of the generosity of Virgin Atlantic mogul, Sir Richard Branson who toured the Masai Mara last year and made a donation to put up dormitories in the school.

Education Gem

While primary schools elsewhere could be taken as a common feature, Sekenani is a valued education gem in this Narok South region where it is the only primary school for about 30 square kilometres.

Branson was drawn into supporting the project by the nearby Sarova Mara Game Camp, where he stayed during his trip. The hotel had been the main sponsor of the school for the past 12 years.

The school has over 700 children, some who walk for over 10km to and fro every day from the underlying plains. Donations by staff of the Sarova Mara had put up two dormitories to accommodate pupils who could not make it on a daily basis, but they were not enough.

When Branson visited, the hotel, which makes it a point to tell its guests about the needs of the local Maasai community, took him to the school. “He had been very jovial during his visit but when he was told tales of pupils who walk to school before dawn, he was moved,” says Marcos Mugo of Sarova Mara. “He entered one of the dormitories and when he came out pledged to build two more,” Mugo said.

Branson wanted to see the logo of Virgin Atlantic on the dormitories and that was how the branding came up in the rural school.

About Sekenani Primary School

It has over 700 students, well-stocked library, a solar panel system and a borehole.

About 250 of the pupils board in the four dormitories put up by the hotel and Virgin Atlantic mogul Branson.

School headmaster Mr Simon Sopia says the school was started in 1997 through a World Bank grant then taken over by Sarova Mara which has been its main sponsor since then.