We have been visiting beautiful Diani Beach, Kenya for the last few years. This used to be a thriving holiday area with high employment in tourism trades. Despite being a very safe area close to Tanzania, threats from Somalia have depleted the number of tourists visiting Kenya. Local families are facing long-term unemployment or vastly reduced working hours. Some fathers are working away from their wives and children in order to be able to give their children a better education than the Government run schools can give. They want their children to learn English and gain the skills required to become useful employees in the wider world. Private schools teach mostly in English.
We are personally funding the education of Trisha Kauchi at a cost of around £350 per year. The people of Ukunda have shown us nothing but generosity of spirit and time. They are hardworking. They show incredible depths of love and worry for their family. By birthplace and political circumstances beyond their control they are trapped in a cycle of poverty which can be erased for some by better education. Education of their children is the prime focus for the families we know. We would like to raise the funds to enable more children to attend a school which will allow them to break free of poverty.
When Eunice was informed her son Emmanuel's education would be funded she burst into tears saying: "thank you so so much. We wondered whether we would pay our rent or the school fee this month and now we can do both." Given their rent is approximately £66 per month and school fees £16 that is an incredible realisation for us in Britain. There is no help from the government in Kenya for anything - no NHS, no unemployment benefit, no housing benefit, nothing. The state schools are run down and poor with 50 to a class on average. Private education makes such a difference to these children and we can enable that to happen. Please give generously and bring these children out of their enforced poverty.