Kenya School Project - Sharing the Excess

Our Approach

Our approach is three-pronged – Learning, Earning and Partnering. In Learning we supply schools with libraries, library books, and educational materials, uniforms for the very poor and occasionally school buildings. Something as simple as outdoor toilets improves school retention rates, especially for young girls.

Earning is our second approach. Sometimes it is called "self-sustaining philanthropy" or "social entrepreneurship". Whatever the term, the result is powerful and empowering. Single mothers in the slums of Kibera working through Transform A Person Africa (TAPA) and Kenya Works acquire a small income and job skills. Members of Karkuret Squatters Group in Naro Moru finally climb the economic ladder by owning and running a cereal mill. Small farmers sell their canola seeds at a fair market price to a processing plant in which they have a stake. An AIDS self-help group supports themselves with goats supplied by Kenya Works.

Partnering is our third approach. Kenya Works can provide the Learning and the Earning skills, but often poor people need a small loan to launch a business. With our Kenyan partner Help Self Help Centre [visit HSHC), we offer microloans. Eunice, a 23 year-old mother, starts a poultry business or Grace finally launches a sewing business, thanks to small loans. The world’s poorest people have the best loan repayment records. Success is their only option.