Our Maasai Kids

"Empower children lives and they will be able to change the world" - Timothy Pina

Save Our Maasai Kids

The Education Fund

KWITU got involved with this project due to the messages sent to lilly by Mrs. Anna Sakaya requesting her to intervene in a situation where two poor students were in the verge of being kicked out of school.

Lilly mobilized KWITU to intervene through crowd funding and paid for the two children to stay in school.

In June of 2018, Lilly met these students and verified that they were desperate and needed continued support through high school.

KWITU INC adopted three Children from Kone Primary School and are currently attending Olpokut Secondary School where KWITU is paying for all their academic needs.

KWITU intends to take in two more students who have performed well but cannot afford to go to High school.

KWITU Learned that Kone primary school had over ten repeaters who are children that already did their KCPE but do not have funds for high school, hence they opted to repeat and since they cannot repeat standard 8, they go back to standard 7. The headmaster explained that this option is better than these kids going to the village and being idol. Being a repeater keeps them out of trouble.

KWITU currently takes care of

School fees.
Uniforms.
Books.
School trips and tours.
Examinations.
Pocket Money.

Save Our Maasai Kids

Kone Primary School In Loita Narok County

Kone Primary School has had pupils progress to secondary school, however, the majority of pupils from the school do not proceed to secondary school and some especially girls drop out during primary studies. The main factors that make pupils dropout of school as explained by the head teacher are:

Female Genital Mutilation (FGM).
Early pregnancy.
Early marriages.
Pastoralism.
Famine.
Marginalization.
Bad Roads.
Classes in poor conditions.
Shortage of Teachers.
Marginalization.

Female Genital Mutilation

The Maasai community practices female genital mutilation which causes a big interruption of the girl’s education due to:

The psychological effects.
Chronic pain.
Vaginal infections.

In many instances when the girl’s education is interrupted due to FGM, they never resume their education.

Early Pregnancy

Most of the Maasai girls are vulnerable due to the Maasai culture that allows girls to be married off at a very young age. When girls become pregnant, they are forced to marry hence they drop out of school.

Early Marriages

The Maasai community believes in arranged marriages and marriages are also seen as of wealth since it comes with dowry to the girl’s home in form of cows or livestock in general. For this reason, girls are literally dragged out of class to be married off.

Pastrolism

Due to the Maasai way of moving from place to place in search of greener pastures for their livestock, many Maasai kids are forced to abandon their education.

Bad Roads

Bad roads hinder accessibility to the interior of Loita hence the villagers have to walk or travel so far for household items and food, making it difficult for the school going children to be consistent with school.

Classes In Poor Conduction

Kone Primary school does not have modern type of classes and the number of the desks are insufficient. Most of the class do not have proper floors making the classrooms a hub for giggers.

Shortage Of Teachers

The Kone Primary school has a total of four teachers teaching the entire school and this number includes the Head Master. This is a clear indication that the quality of education in this school is clearly affected by the fact that there are no enough teachers to teach.

KWITU offered to hire a teacher at the rate of ksh., 10,000 per month for 6 months and later extended that to 1 year and hopefully we will extend that to another year if we have available funding.

KWITU has committed to helping Kone Primary School by adopting some projects that will help keep the girls in school.

KWITU understands that the boarding facilities go a long way into ensuring that the girls are not at risk of early pregnancies, FGM, forced marriages or even partialism since these children remain in school throughout. For this reason, WKITU Bought thirty new mattresses and promised to replace them as needed. This is because the boarding facilities lacked proper beddings for the pupils.
KWITU offered to help buy food for the boarders. KWITU will continue working with Kone primary school for the next four years during which KWITU will be donating part of the food required by the school to offset the burden from parents and to encourage more pupils to become boarders.
TEACHERS, KWITU committed to paying a teacher for six months but later extended to one year at the rate of ksh. 10,000 per month as advised by the head master.
SCHOOL GARDEN, The school also has a garden which has the potential of growing all the food needed by the boarding school for the entire year. The school however does not have enough funding to cultivate the land hence KWITU will work with the school to make sure that the land is cultivated every year for the next 4 years.

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