GSP Kenyan Schools

Schools in Kenya opened as usual in early January this year, but in March as COVID started to take hold the Kenyan Government closed all schools and imposed restrictions and a curfew on the whole country.

Schools were told they would re-open in June, then September and now will re-open in January 2021. The whole year has gone and students will be repeating the entire year.
Except primary Year 8 students (final year of primary school) who will now return to school in mid-October 2020 and go through to March 2021. They will then sit their Kenyan Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) exams which determine what secondary school they will be able to attend.

This year from March very little learning has been possible for the majority of students. Some lessons were broadcast via radio but most GSP families do not have a radio, have no electricity and cannot afford batteries. GSP was able to distribute some subject lessons and schools photocopied the sheets to distribute to families, but again the costs were prohibitive and we were unable to do this effectively across all schools.

No students has meant no school fees, which has inevitably lead to teachers not being paid. Some of our school Directors have been unable to raise other money and we anticipate that up to three of our schools may no longer be in existence by January, as the properties have had to be sold to ensure the directors and their families could themselves survive.

GSP did provide limited financial support to schools in this time which enabled some teachers’ wages to be paid, but we in Australia (as have all charities) have seen a reduction in donations and giving following the bush fires and COVID. In addition we have been unable to hold some of our usual fund raising event like the annual dinner and trivia nights, but we do have a raffle underway now - read more about the raffle.

Scholarship students’ families given money for food

Scholarship money was paid in term one in January with schools all open as usual, but with the closure of schools, the COVID restrictions in Kenya and the food scarcity due to floods, drought and locusts (read more) we have for the first time provided our scholarship/sponsored students’ families with money directly for food.

“I always get a lot of requests from Kenya, but this year has seen a huge rise in pleas for food and given the conditions in Kenya I totally understand why. This is why our Board made the decision to give assistance where help was most needed - to families for food, to help them simply survive - our Home Keeper Package” states CEO Simon Carroll.

GSP’s Home Keeper Package has seen scholarship students’ families receive two payments over the past few months.

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