Educate a child from Kibagare Slum at St Martins

Greetings from St Martins school and the KIbagare community,

We hope that all is well and that the end of the year is off to a good start. All is well here at school, and we have had a good last quarter of the year.

This year marked the end of the famine that was with us for the last four years. We have had some rains in April- June and also in November. Even with the rains, we face a huge challenge of food insecurity due to rains, crop failure, and displacement in some areas.

The high cost of living and increased taxation, unemployment, and poverty are still major problems here, especially for the community and the children in KIbagare slums and many other slums in Nairobi.

Even with the much happening, we are grateful for your continued support. Below are some of our achievements.

Education:  the third term of the ear is a short term. It started on the 25th of August and to the 25th Of October 2023. November is the month for national exams for students joining Junior high, grade 8, and form 4 graduates. 80 students in Grade 6, 80 students in Grade 8, and 67 students in Form 4 sat their national exams in November. The results for grades 6 and grade 8 are out and the school has performed very well with two students getting above 400 marks. We are optimistic that the results for the High school will be even better. We will be sure to send an update.

St Martins Boys High School is open thanks to our partners and the Assumption Sisters. 14 boys from our primary school are currently admitted at St Martin Boys through the boys' outreach program. We have more boys that have graduated and they will need to be helped to get to secondary school. Help in the education of boys will go a long way in ensuring that children get the much-needed education.

We have 8 boys who have graduated from high school in the last two years and are back in the slum due to a lack of means to pursue further education. We have another 25 girls and 3 bos graduating in form 4 this year and, likely, they will not be able to pursue further education. We have been lucky thanks to our partners to secure a three-year college sponsorship for three boys to pursue Civil Engineering, software engineering, and accounting but there is still more to be done. Help for the graduating boys and girls will go a long way in ensuring that they do not all back into the slum after investing in them in the last four years

School Feeding and The Weekend Feeding Program:  We have continued with the Weekday school feeding program for the 800 children in Primary school. The long rains meant there would be a slight shift downwards in food prices and the availability of food though there are no guarantees due to high inflation, increased taxes, and a high unemployment rate.

We have also continued with the weekend feeding program for the children from the Kibagare Slum and other slums, A total of 32,342 meals were served during the period from Jul to December. The guarantee of. meal for the weekend helps reduce cases of children fending for themselves or being forced into the streets.

Counseling: Mental well-being is important and special in this community due to the many challenges, complex problems, and traumatic experiences that alter lives and families. Children are the most affected because they do not have options. Thanks to our school counselor

• 5 adults have been counselled 
• 239 pre-teens have sought counselling this year
• 110 female adults have been counselled
• 885 individuals have been taken through counseling

This has helped us understand the complex challenges faced by the community here and we look for ways to help them cope to the best of our ability.

2024 School Calendar year:  The schools closed for the long holiday on the 26th of October. We will start the New Calendar year on the 8th of January 2024. We have conducted the new year admission interviews for children joining Pre-primary 1. 138 parents and their children were interviewed. 

We are more than grateful for the support we have received this year and we take this opportunity to wish you all happy holidays. MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR.

Best,

Alfred Aswan.