A quality education for 150 kids in Kibera, Kenya

Lydia, a dedicated mother, had always yearned for her son, Dante, to have a good education. Lydia and her husband struggled to make ends meet and therefore had to discontinue Dante from school in order to provide shelter and food for their family. 

When Lydia heard about Turning Point’s education programmes that support out-of-school children to return to school, she knew that the perfect opportunity had just come up for Dante. She brought Dante, who was 10 years old at the time, to the Fountains of Hope school. He was accepted and enrolled into Grade 3 at the School.

Finally, Dante was back in school, but there was not much improvement in his bad behaviour because of a negative influence from his friends during the time he was out of school. His parents tried the best they could to bring him back into line, but they made things worse. They were running out of ways to manage and improve their son’s behaviour.

Later in the year, Lydia got an invitation from the school to attend the annual parenting course. This is an 8-week course whose objective is to build the capacity of the parents in positive parenting. Parents are taken through topics on behavior management, children’s rights and protection, self-awareness, trauma and healing, addictions and abuses, economic empowerment etc. Lydia religiously participated in all the 8 sessions anxiously waiting for the next session to come.

Lydia speaks highly of how the parenting course has been of help to her as an individual, wife and mother. “Not only have I improved my parenting skills, but I am also more aware of myself and my surroundings, and how I speak to people, my husband, and my children. I am now a better version of myself because I can manage stress and navigate the ups and downs of life with a lot more resilience. Most importantly, I have learned how to support Dante as he navigates peer pressure from his friends. I have shared with my husband some of the learning from the course and we are now working together to manage Dante’s behavior and to see him change into a better person,” says Lydia, who attests that her favourite topics were self-awareness and children’s rights and protection. 

It is through such unique holistic programmes and activities within the primary school that we provide opportunities for the vulnerable children and families to reach their full potential. Just like Lydia, many parents have benefited from our annual parental support programme which is tailor-made to equip parents with good parental skills to help them support their children as they grow holistically and positively contributing to their well-being and learning outcomes in the long term.

Eliud Kipchoge, Kipchoge Keino, Cathrine Ndereba, David Rudish; these are just some of the Kenyan athletes known and admired for their prowess on the tracks. Their victories on track have never been just an individual victory but one shared with every Kenyan. The raising of the Kenyan flag and the playing of our anthem on international arenas never cease to be a special moment for Kenyans.

At the Fountains of Hope primary school, we have had similar moments of pride and joy in the past month of April when 6 of our students participated in athletics activities during the annual Kenya Primary Schools Sports Associationevent. The team selection process begun, at the Fountains of Hope school with fun interclass competitions where all children had an opportunity to compete for a spot in the school team. 85 students managed to join the team.

The students participated in track events such as relay, marathons, field events such as shot put, javelin, long jump and high jump.

The school was able to proceed to the second last stage known as the regional stage where 6 students represented Kibera Sub-county in the Nairobi County games. This was the first time in the history of our school that our students have achieved such a milestone in athletics and their victory was proudly shared by every staff member.

It is moments like these that affirm our belief that educating the whole child provides them with opportunities to explore their potential. Eliud Kipchoge’s mantra of “No human is limited” was meant to inspire people to do great thing and challenge themselves in new ways. It is our hope that by continuing to provide our students with such opportunities, they will dare to break the limitations set by their economic and social backgrounds.