project details

Providing educational subsidies and enrichment to under-represented children and young people in marginalized in Kenya.

More than 120 million children worldwide still fail to complete primary school, leaving them without even very basic skills. In the areas where we work thousands of children are denied the opportunity to go to school, find a decent job and lift their families out of poverty. We see that education is key for development, raising people’s productivity and creativity, promoting entrepreneurship and reducing poverty by increasing opportunities for employment and regeneration.

We registered around 8,000 orphans between 2006-12 in Kenya and estimate that over 3,000 have now completed their secondary education and over 3,000 have graduated with college or university qualifications and are employed in a wide range of professions. Learning & Skills for Life in Kenya provides a range of educational projects and activities for our registered orphans, as well as other disadvantaged children and young people living in the rural areas of Homabay County. It includes means-tested educational bursaries, extra-curricular enrichment activities, extra tuition, homework clubs, and library services and careers advice. A comprehensive residential holiday tuition programme is also delivered in The Mango Tree Kenya’s Education Training Centre, run during the school holidays, offering a range of extra academic classes alongside sports, drama, art and music.

After being sponsored through secondary school, those students who we have supported join our community service mentoring programme. They work as volunteers for one year as a way of ‘giving back’ to the community and building a culture of community social responsibility. It also gives young people practical work experience in local schools, farms, community centres, foster care homes and at the Mango Tree Kenya offices and model farms.