History

In May 2005, I visited a school in the middle of the Mukuru slum just on the outskirts of downtown Nairobi. The school was an oasis of calm and learning in the midst of pretty shocking poverty. Barclays Bank in Kenya supported the school and as part of this community project, myself and my management team from Barclaycard International were there to paint a mural on the side of a container, which had recently been donated by the Barclaycard Centre in Kenya.

Strange gift?, well no. The World Food Programme and the Kenyan Government had pledged to provide two meals a day and provide free primary education to those children up to the age of 13 who attended school. As a result the school population exploded as this lifted a huge burden on the families living in Kenya’s slums where the average annual income is around $250. The food donation caused a storage problem and two much needed classrooms were converted into grain and bean stores – hence the container the Bank provided was to be used as a store thus freeing up the classrooms that would have been used by the youngest children.

Whilst we were waiting for the painting equipment to come, I wandered off to the classrooms and found myself sharing a room with around 80 13-year-old girls. I never got out to help with the painting and sat transfixed as these bright and lively girls received sex and what I can only describe as social responsibility education. I was hugely impressed by their enthusiasm for school and learning, in fact they considered it to be a privilege to be at school – what a contrast to the UK!

The sex education was frank and to the point, and necessary. The “social responsibility” sessions were shocking. The opening lines from the health worker were “what do we know about HIV and AIDS?”, no reply offered…”well its something you need to know about because statistically 50% of you will not see your 25th birthdays”. Did he really just say that! And why are these girls sitting here so calmly?

My emotions went into overload.

He then went on to explain that the men in the slums produce rough drugs and brew a really strong alcohol from a local plant and when fuelled up on this stuff, take to raping young girls in the slums. As almost all of these men are already HIV it is almost inevitable that the victims of rape themselves contract AIDS.

I was in a state of shock, maybe an association to Geldof and Live Aid, I had the line from “I don’t like Mondays” running through my head “…and the lesson today is how to die” and I was very close to tears.

At the end of the session I asked the girls what I would need to promise them in order that they would promise me that they would avoid all situations that could lead to rape or unprotected sex.

Clipboards was the answer that came back. Clipboards, why? Well evidently the clipboards and the rulers and geometry sets they went on to request were the essential equipment required for them to take their exams.

Great I thought, I can solve Africa’s problems with a quick shopping trip to W H Smith!

That’s no problem I said but what do you REALLY want? One little girl named Emily put her hand up and asked “could you pay for us to go to secondary school?” I should explain here that the free education in Kenya stops at 13 and all further education is private. By UK standards the fees are small, about £300 per year, but in context that is the gross income of most of these families for two years!

Having established the above facts I thought I can raise the money to do that and agreed that I would fund this for the top girls. Emily’s hand was up again…”we could only accept this if you do the same for the boys”. OK I’m on a roll now and within the next few minutes I am standing in front of 80 13 year old boys having the same set of conversations and agreeing the same mutual pledges.

Back to the girls ….“Girls, the boys agree and I will undertake raising the money to send the top 5 boys and the top 5 girls to senior school.”

To get them out of the slums I wanted to get them into full board schools. However, I was worried that my kids would suffer from not having the same equipment as others and as they were going to have to deal with a major culture shock they would be immediately disadvantaged. So this pledge had to include uniforms and even the little things like a wash bag and its contents that alone are beyond the financial reach of the families. To facilitate this the local Nairobi Barclaycard management agreed that they would raise the necessary funds.

And so the fundraising began as soon as I returned to the UK and as a result, in January 2006 I was able to return to the school and present the symbolic cheque for the first years fees for the first ten children who are:-

Petronilla Nzillani
Meshack Otieno
Tabitha Bahati
Emily Nyambura
Linky Janabi
Tom Mutuku
Alphine Ochieng
Daniel Ochieng
Fatuma Adan
Claire Ongoli

I am delighted by the fact that the list includes Emily

These Children are now role models; they have been back to the school in their new uniforms proof positive that the opportunity is there for others to follow. The school reports that the competition for the next ten places is high and they are already seeing a significant improvement in standards. In fact it is highly likely that the grades achieved by the first group would not be good enough to secure a place this time around.