Education &
OVCs - Child Support
Supporting orphans and vulnerable needy children to access basic education, healthcare and a stable home environment: while building guardian livelihoods to sustain improved school attendance and performance for their children.
The Challenge
In Machakos County, poverty and the impact of HIV/AIDS have left a significant proportion of children growing up without one or both parents. Guardians; often elderly grandparents or older siblings, struggle to afford school fees, uniforms, books and health costs. Many children drop out, not because they lack ability or desire, but because of material barriers that can be resolved by initiating income generating activities for the needy households. For girls, the barriers are often greater, with menstrual health concerns and early marriages. Boys are also negatively affected by the rising drugs and substance abuse in the region.
Our Approach
NACODEV's education programme addresses the beneficiaries at household level; not just the child. The concept of the program is to ensure that a child has uniterrupted learning in school through provision of basic learning items, while equiping the guardians with entrepreneurial skills through training in preparatiojn to starting income generating activities for increased household income.
OVCs receive school bags, uniforms, exercise books and stationery; removing the material barriers that cause children to be sent home or feel excluded. Regular health check-ups / health, hygeine and sanitation trainings are also provided, ensuring children's physical wellbeing does not become a barrier to attendance.
Guardians of OVCs are trained in entrepreneurship such as small-scale poultry keeping, micro entreprises and sustainable agriculture inorder to establish income-generating activities to cater for school fees and other costs. This empowerment approach ensures the programme's beneficiaries are sustained long beyond direct NACODEV support.
NACODEV has initiated four secondary schools: Bishop Paul Mutua High School in Kinyaata, Ting'ang'a High School, Good Hope High School in Kilaatu, and Emmanuel Secondary School in Muusini. The four public senior schools are currently supporting an average of 1200+ learners per year. Before these schools existed, needy children within the area could not access affordable basic secondary education since secondary schools were few and distant apart in the area.
The establishment of Ebecosma Academy at Ngangani RGC provides an early childhood and primary education option within the community, ensuring the youngest learners have access to quality affordable basic foundational education for all.
In partnership with international supporters, NACODEV distributes school bags and christmas gifts with with children friendly items; providing joy, dignity and practical materials that communicate to children that they are valued and loved.
"For the first time, my children went to school with uniforms and books; I could hold my head up."
— OVC Guardian, Ikombe WardImpact
Since 2002, NACODEV has supported over 2,600 OVCs to access basic primary education in Yatta Sub-County. The four secondary schools initiated by NACODEV have transformed the education landscape in communities where the nearest secondary school was previously a prohibitively long and costly journey. Guardians trained in poultry and horticulture have sustained children's schooling through their own income, breaking the cycle of aid dependency and building household economic security that outlasts the programme.
