The story behind the project
This is the story of Mohammed*.
He is a Kenyan boy living in Lamu, a beautiful island on the east coast of Kenya.
He used to live in Mombasa (mainland of Kenya), but after his father died many years ago, his mom decided to come with his brothers and sisters back to their family home. His grandparents are very old and are not working anymore.
The school is a boarding school located in mainland. Mohammed already found a sponsor for the past school term to pay for the school fees. Last week the new payment deadline has come and he was chased away from school again.
The headmaster of the school is not willing to teach him until he or his family will be able to pay the school fees.
Mohammed now was sent back home to his family. He would love to go back to school and is willing to learn, but his family cannot afford the school fees on their own.
Everyday he wakes up, knowing he does not have anything to do but just waiting for someone to tell him the time has come to go back to school. He feels very sad about this situation.
The aim of the project
The aim is to send Mohammed back to his school as soon as possible so that he will not miss any important subject matter.
The school fee is KES 10,000 per term (half a year).
The situation in Lamu
In Kenya, the public schools are not free. Children can only learn if their families have money to pay the school fees. People on the island are facing many struggles. It is very hard to earn money and most people are unskilled workers. Around 90% of the people do not have a fixed income or a job, instead the try to earn a living through occasional jobs). It is a visious circle - people do not earn enough money cause they did not have the chance to go to school and learn cause of unavailability of money.
Even harder is the situation for Mohammed's family now cause the main earner of the family passed away. For women it is unusual to work according to the Swahili culture. Most people on the island don't have access to education because they cannot afford the school fees.
His family is trying to save and collect money for the school, but their focus is in the first place on having enough to eat.
The team
The team behind the project consists of (Omar), the uncle of Mohammed, who is responsible for the management on-site and me (Helene) who is responsible for collecting the funds.
All of us, we met during my 6-month stay on the island.
Both of us would love to futher invest in Mohammed's education also, but we do not have the capacity. That is why we ask for you help at this point.
How you can help
Donate now to the project by selecting a rewards from the list. The team and especially Mohammed is so much grateful for your support! He cannot wait to go back to school very soon to learn!
Use of funds
If the first goal (10,000 KES) is met, these funds will be directly transferred to the headmaster of the school.
If the second goal (20,000 KES) is also met, these funds will be stored and used to pay the fees for the following school term.
*name changed
