Kenya Education Fund Program, Wings to Fly Grant Scholarships to Needy Students
One thousand learners from disadvantaged homes who sat their KCPE exams last year would benefit from comprehensive secondary school scholarships.
The Wings to Fly program, administered by Equity Bank and other partners, targets students with a grade point average of at least 350.
Together with the German Development Bank (KfW), the World Bank, the MasterCard Foundation, USAid, UKAid, commercial institutions, and individuals, the programme has reached 39,009 beneficiaries since its beginning twelve years ago.
The scholarship covers tuition, shopping, leadership training, and mentoring for the recipient. Jennifer Mudeizi, a 16-year-old orphan who lives with her disabled grandmother in Nairobi’s Lenana Kijiji slums, is among those selected.
Mudeizi could not contain her pleasure after overcoming slum-related obstacles such as teen pregnancy, criminality, and drug addiction to earn 365 marks at St. Joseph’s of Tarbes Primary School.
“My performance might have been better if not for the circumstances at home. "I want to leave and help my family,” she stated, attributing her achievement to her grandma.
Charles Otieno ranked first in his class at Agai Primary School in Kisumu with 392 marks.
Otieno, a native of the rural community of Kabong’o in Nyakach, lost his mother a few years ago and now resides with his father and six siblings in a two-roomed mud hut.
“With the Wings to Fly scholarship, I will put God first, be disciplined and work hard in my studies. I know one day I will be a pilot,” said Otieno, the third born in a family of seven.
It was a great relief for his father, who encouraged him to seek for assistance, and he hopes his son would flourish in his education.
“I have no means to educate him yet he is bright. I still have other children in school,” said his father, a vendor.
Dagoretti North MP Beatrice Elachi welcomed the programme, calling upon other organisations and charities to help educate the destitute.
Sheikh Hamza Habib, the Imam of the Makongeni Mosque and a member of the Kibera Community Scholarship Selection Committee, stated that the programme had a significant positive impact on the community.
In the coming days, the class of 2023 will participate in a centralized orientation program prior to being sent to high school.
James Mwangi, executive chairman of the Equity Foundation, stated that education remained a powerful tool for altering society.
Kenya Education Fund program
Approximately 160 students will benefit from the Kenya Education Fund Program.
The fund was created in 2007 to support and provide educational resources to economically disadvantaged students in Kenya through the provision of scholarships and support.
This is in an effort to assist them in bettering their lives and the communities from which they come.
According to Executive Director Dominic Muasya, the program offers disadvantaged students in 47 counties access to leadership with the support of other partners.
“The program offers comprehensive support for the scholars for their four years of secondary education and one-year bridge scholarship through the supply of tuition costs, housing, books, uniforms, and transportation reimbursement for special events such as career seminars,” Muasya added.
The fund subsidizes the secondary education of high-achieving youngsters from economically disadvantaged households.
Muasya stated that some of the fund’s donors are American charities.
Locally, the organization has collaborated with Prudential Life Assurance, which will provide funding for 85 of the 160 students who will support in the program this year.
The support will consist of funding for one phase of the scholarship.
Since its foundation, KEF has funded the secondary education of nearly 4,000 gifted but disadvantaged students.
Kenya Education Fund Program, Wings to Fly Grant Scholarships to Needy Students
