Education

As our work developed we learned about the overwhelming needs of orphaned children for education.  

Problem Statement:  The orphan child living with extended family is neglected in many instances, especially when considering school fees and other costs that are required for primary and secondary education.  These children do not have the same priority as the biological children within the family unit and are oftentimes not enrolled in school due to a lack of resources within the household.

We believe that one of the key elements to breaking the cycle of poverty is education.  Shouldn't every child have the opportunity to attend school to learn to read and to write?

Project Deliverables:  We are partnering with local schools in Kenya and Zambia to give orphan children the opportunity to begin or continue in their education. The children enrolled in our Education Initiative receive a GO! Scholarship or the school they attend is provided assistance to support their attendance. If not for this aid many of these children would not have the opportunity to attend school.

The only ongoing qualification for the child is to progress in their studies.  Children that apply the time and effort needed to move to the next grade level remain in the program from year to year. Scholastically, progression is the only requirement. The GO! Scholarship recipients, or school aid, is based on need only. The beneficiaries are of course the children, but benefit extends to their extended families, their communities, and their country.

KENYA- Currently we support 194 students that attend school in Kenya. 

We launched a partnership in 2020 for 30 orphaned children to attend Fortune Community Centre, located in the slum of Kayole just outside of Nairobi. Due to limited resources, this school is in jeopardy of discontinuing the enrollment of these orphaned children. The number of children that we project to support with GO! Scholarships to attend FLC in 2024 is 154.

Also in Kenya, in the village of Ulutya, we support 40 orphan children on scholarship to attend secondary schools. These are orphan children that would not otherwise be able to attend school.

ZAMBIA- We serve 316 orphan children in fourteen schools in Zambia through our Education Initiative. Six of these schools are in the Southern Province, with this effort is coordinated by our partner Noah Ministries.  

Our scholarship effort also includes 10 children in Jerome Fleischer Day School in Lusaka.

In 2022, we launched an effort to enroll orphan children in school in the North-Western Province targeting up to 35,000 orphan children. We are supporting 125 children in seven schools in 2024.

Education has always been of paramount importance for our work in the field.  We first started with facility upgrades to the Silembe Community School. This is the school that is near the House of Faith Orphanage in the Sourthern Province of Zambia.

We work with schools and our field partners to determine orphan children that are in jeopardy of continuing their education based on resources.  Our scholarships are initially awarded based on need. We partner with the local schools, typically through our field partner relationships, and provide funding for each location.

For a student to continue to maintain their GO! Scholarship status they need to demonstrate advancement in their studies. Their merit is based on grades and test scores at the conclusion of the school year.

Typically, a student's status concludes when they successfully pass the last grade available at their participating school.  There have been some exceptions to this guideline, but our focus and commitment is with the student at the school in which they are initially awarded their scholarship.

By working with our partners in each location we strive to provide a basic education; to include the required school supplies and uniforms.  The level of care and services we can provide is based on funding available through the Education Initiative.

An average cost of just $15 per month, students are enrolled in one of our participating schools, provided supplies, receives a uniform when a school requires, participates in classroom instruction, and is provided a meal each day.

For the 2024 Education Initiative plan, we will enroll 510 orphan children in school in January. This will be a 4% increase in scholarships provided this year over last year, and our budget for this initiative is $ 77,588.

The costs continue monthly though the first four month of 2024 requires 60% of this budgeted amount.

Movement of FAITH | Voice of HOPE | Act of LOVE