By a Correspondent
A Kibera-based school has consistently produced top performers for the past four years who have joined high schools in Kenya and United States of America.
Shining Hope for Communities’ (SHOFCO) Kibera School for Girls (KSG) has put a little known Gatwekera village in the middle of the slums to the limelight for the past four years, having registered 100 per cent transition to secondary schools and coming among the top schools in Nairobi County.
The school was started by SHOFCO CEO Dr. Kennedy Odede in 2009 in a small mud-walled classroom with a handful of students.
“We started the school to provide education to the neediest students in this area. KSG was started as model for a leadership academy where future leaders are nurtured from the poorest families who know what hardship is.
“We are now producing giants and the future leadership of this country will come from this community (Kibera),” Dr. Odede said.
The school posted a means score of 361 in the just released Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCPE) 2021, emerging as number nine in Nairobi County.
Lubembe Cendrine Khasoya topped the 2021 class with 403 marks followed by Mohamed Saada Musa and Ali Mariam Ibrahim who scored 402 and 400 respectively.
In a class of 21 students, 18 scored between 300-399 of the possible 500 marks.
“I want to thank SHOFCO for giving me an opportunity to study at KSG free of charge. I come from a family of seven children and my parents cannot afford to pay schools. My dream to become a neurosurgeon has started and I will work harder when I join high school,” Cendrine, whose dream school is Kenya High, said.
KSG first sat KCPE in 2017 and posted a mean score of 354, producing five girls who joined various high schools in the United States.
“We have consistently beaten established schools in Nairobi. Our girls have shown that the only thing children from underprivileged communities lack is an opportunity,” Hecky Odera, SHOFCO Education Director, said.
He added: “Once a student is admitted here, we give them full scholarship that include free tuition, school uniforms, meals, mentorship and medical cover. The only thing they need to do, is to come and study.”
The school has also established a boarding facility where students, who may have been abused at home or their parents have relocated to far-flung areas, are accommodated.
Idah Mwongeli, who has been a student at Stoneleigh-Burnham; Greenfield in Massachusetts, United States, lauded SHOFCO for moulding the best future generation of leaders.
“If it was not of SHOFCO, I would not be in the US today. I will forever be grateful to the organization for enabling those of us from underprivileged families to get an opportunity to study and change our lives and the community for the better,” Mwongeli said.
Mwongeli will join Connecticut College in Southern New England in the US later this year.
The 2017 candidates who went to study in the US are now ready to join various universities in the country.
Eunice Akoth is set to join Columbia University and Beldine Atieno will join Skidmore University both in New York.
“I want to thank Dr. Odede specifically for giving us full scholarship at KSG. We did not have to worry about school fees. We only needed to concentrate on studies. I am now studying in the US and when I come back home, I will also change my community and help others like Dr. Odede is doing,” Beldine, the best student at KSG in 2017 KCPE with 420 marks, said.
Beldine comes from a family of eight children and her mother is a groceries seller at Gatwekera village in Kibera slums.
In Kenya, KSG alumnus have joined top schools including Alliance Girls, Kenya High and State House Girls among others.
“KSG provided a safe environment for me. I didn’t have to worry about what next but rather focused on excelling in my studies. After I passed by KCPE I joined my dream school, State House Girls,” Sheila Amina, who is sitting her KCSE exam at the moment, said.
KSG has a student population of 357.
In a bid to extend free education to needy students, SHOFCO has built another girls’ school in Mathare slums where 269 students have been enrolled from Pre-school to Standard Seven.
Dr. Odede’s vision was to use education to eliminate poverty within the slums and the hope is that once done, these girls will return and sit at the policy making table where decisions about their community are being made.
“Look at the level of change Kennedy has brought here. What if we had just three Kennedys?” Poses Odera, before concluding, “Whether that happens or not, if a girl is able to change their family, that would be enough.”
