Sponsorship Scheme
We are currently sponsoring 75 children. Our sponsorship enables them to receive a good education at a local school. We cover everything from getting to school, eating at school, uniforms, school trips, exam fees and stationery. Many of these children would not typically be able to attend a school, or if they did, it would be at a local government school.
Whilst Kenya is pumping large amounts of money into education, there are still many problems within the majority of government schools. Two specific issues are class sizes, having a child-to-teacher ratio as high as 77-1, and poor-quality teaching. Within communities like Kwa Murugi there is not always a high value placed on schooling. Parental issues, such as providing uniforms, transportation to school and the correct equipment, lead to high dropout rates. For girls there is a lack of understanding in regard to menstrual hygiene, and access to sanitary products, meaning that in Kenya the average girl can miss four days a month, or 20% of their schooling per year, due to this issue. Before COVID-19, only 53% of eligible children attended secondary school.
All of the above issues show us that helping children from our struggling community get into government schools is often not an option we are happy to pursue. By sending our students to privately run schools we have greater insight and a more active role in their schooling. However, our team in Kenya is constantly reviewing the children’s education and should we find an adequate local government school, we will certainly look to partner with them.
Kim, from our Kenya team, is the responsible Guardian for every one of our 75 children, which means that any school issues come directly to us to deal with. The result is that the issues mentioned above do not apply or hinder the education of these precious children within our community.
We have developed a great relationship over the years with two local schools - Nakuru Education Center which is on the edge of Kwa Murugi, and Grace Baptist School which is a short bus ride to the other side of the highway. The majority of our children now attend Grace Baptist. We intend to continue to make this the preferred school, primarily due to the facilities and education it offers our children.
Nelson Mandela once said, “Education is the most powerful weapon that you can use to change the world.” This is certainly a strong inspiration behind why we do what we do.
The Community Development Centre (CDC)
Giving children the opportunity to attend school by financing their education has always been central to what we do as The Doxa Project. We also recognise the need to support students beyond secondary education, whether this is higher education or helping them find a way to make a living. Beyond this, we daily come into contact with the children’s parents and other adults within the community who we long to be able to support further.
For the last few years, we have been looking for a site that will allow us to build a Community Development Centre, CDC. A CDC would enable us to run workshops, holiday clubs, leadership training and more. With the purchase of a new plot of land in 2022 we knew the CDC could become a reality. At the end of 2022, we began the construction of this new building. As of April 2023 we are finished off the main building work with the majority of the interiors to be completed over the next few months.
It is a multi-purpose building that we hope will become a community hub for the people of Kwa Murugi. Having our own building will enable us to move out of our current rented office around the corner. It will also give us additional space and the opportunity to develop our current programmes. This plan is truly building for the future, and we look forward to seeing how the CDC becomes central in all we do.
The Farm
For the last few years, the two small plots we grandly refer to as ‘The Farm’ have been a valuable resource for our work within the wider Kwa Murugi community.
The Farm allows us to grow a small number of crops each week. These crops provide our families with fresh, organically grown vegetables that they would not otherwise have. The chickens have also provided eggs on a semi-regular basis. These provisions are part of our plan to serve the families in as many ways as possible, and in so doing we help break the cycle of poverty surrounding them. We have a young man called Steve who looks after the plots ensuring the land is ready to sew and maintaining crops during the growing seasons.
Our biggest frustration with The Farm is the fact that we are only able to use it for six months of the year. This is because there is not enough rain to fill our tanks or sprinkle the land during the dry season of October to March. We hope to address this during 2023 with the addition of a borehole.
The Borehole
Our solution to the lack of water, both in the community and at the farm, is in the form of a borehole.
We have been working with a local company run by two Americans who have spent the last 30 years in Africa installing boreholes. They have now surveyed our land and provided us with a quotation to install a borehole.
The instant availability of water would radically change the productivity of The Farm and enable us to rent additional plots to increase the amount we can produce. It would also significantly impact the community of Kwa Murugi. Although The Farm is a short drive or cycle from the community, there are ways we can get water to Kwa Murugi. Currently the water supply within Kwa Murugi is highly inadequate; you never know when or how long the taps will be on. A borehole would mean we can provide the community with constant access to clean water.
We are thankful that so far, funds have already been donated for stage one and two of the borehole, the drilling and the pumping. We are awaiting the necessary certification to begin drilling, and then we plan to start as soon as possible. In the meantime, we will look to secure the funds for the final stage which is a water storage system.
Water Filters
Over the last five years, we have purchased and given out over 150 water filters within the local community. This means that families are able to use and drink water that is safe and clean. Providing water filters has led to far fewer stomachaches for children in particular. It is common for families to share a water filter, meaning that many families within one compound of homes are able to access clean water.
We will continue to invest in water filters because they are a basic need for the community and they significantly impact their overall health. One of the team members in Kenya, David, maintains around 120 of these filters, visiting homes on a two-week cycle to ensure they are well-maintained and in working order.
Clean water is something that we take for granted in many places across the world and it is hard to imagine an environment where clean water is not even a consideration. Giving a family a water filter is one of the first things we try to do because the impact on the wellbeing of a family is almost immediate. For around £35, a family within our community can have access to clean water for many many years.
Family Support
Our desire is to support the whole family in breaking the cycle of poverty within their lives. Supporting children and families through our child sponsorship scheme is always the first step in working with families but as we build relationships, we often have other opportunities to come alongside them.
This looks different for many families and is dependent on their needs and circumstances. For a few families we support them with monthly payments to help them with their rent. We have one family where the single mother is unwell and therefore unable to work, paying their house rent means they can stay together as a family and the children can stay within the area and within our sponsorship scheme.
For other families, we support them with basic weekly food supplies. Every Friday, our team heads out into the community to deliver small food parcels to about 30 families.
For many families, the best support our team can offer is simply being there for them, visiting them in their homes and listening to their stories. For them to know that there are people who care deeply about their situation and individual stories is incredibly important for developing the kind of community we long to see.
There are also specific groups within the community that our team works with. One such group are the ladies with HIV. Often these ladies have become ostracized within the community and don’t have the emotional and physical support they desperately need. Our team works hard to come alongside these women and show them love and care.
We’re passionate about serving the people of Kwa Murugi, passionate about making sure that every single person within the community is loved and cared for. Ultimately we do this because we love Jesus, we see the way he cared for people and our hearts long to offer that same love and care within Kwa Murigi.