Compassion Beyond Borders' scholarships in Kenya are focused on girls who have been orphaned by AIDS. These girls have commonly lost their father and means of economic support, and often their mother as well. Other girls live with their mother who is ill with AIDS or with a grandmother who, more often than not, is penniless.
CBB's projects in Kenya are located in two rural regions, one outside the town of Kakamega in western Kenya and the other around Meru in central Kenya
Many of CBB's scholarships in Kakamega are administered by the Indangalasia HIV/AIDS resource center. Since receiving CBB's support, this facility was designated the best HIV/AIDS resource center in its district, in recognition of its achievements. Then it was named the best center in its province. And now, for the past two years, the Chairperson of Kenya's National AIDS Council has designated Indangalasia as the best local HIV/AIDS resource center in all of Kenya.
Joy World
In five rural communities outside the town of Meru, CBB sponsors the education of the daughters and grand-daughters of single mothers ill with AIDS and widowed grandmothers. These 295 scholarships are administered through the Joy World Foundation.
The girls living with their grandmothers, who are commonly widowed and penniless, are complete orphans. The girls who are half-orphans nearly always live with their mother who is ill with AIDS. (Most commonly, it is the father who becomes ill first and then dies, but not until he has infected his wife).
CBB's scholarships go to girls from nursery school (three years in Kenya) through primary school, high school and university studies. Even though it is required to enter primary school, girls must pay fees to attend nursery school.
CBB has provided a sewing shop for a cooperative of women from families with AIDS that is making school uniforms for its scholarship girls. The shop also makes uniforms and does other tailoring for the local community.
Primary school scholarships
Nearly half of the girls orphaned by AIDS in rural Kakamega are not in school. Some of these girls have never been to school, while others have started school, but were forced to leave by their poverty. To get these girls into primary school, CBB has begun two programs, funding scholarships for 140 orphan girls.
Primary school in Kenya is said to be free, but schools nonetheless charge miscellaneous fees and a girl needs her school uniform, shoes and school supplies, etc. For a very poor AIDS orphan, the difference between being able to go to primary school, or not going, is CBB's scholarship of $40 a year.
High school scholarships
Secondary school fees are so high in Kenya that only seven percent of older girls in the Kakamega district are in high school. Compassion Beyond Borders gives high school scholarships to girls orphaned by AIDS that pay their school fees and other school expenses. The annual cost of a high school scholarship is $120.
CBB's scholarships are focused on the Ikobero girls high school where 75% of the students are orphans or half-orphans with mothers ill with AIDS. Ikobero educates girls in a deeply impoverished community and is blessed with outstanding administrative leadership.
University scholarships
In Kenya, as elsewhere, Compassion Beyond Borders gives higher education scholarships for studies in teaching, nursing and social work.
Currently, six girls are studying in teachers' training colleges or in universities for a bachelor's degree in education. Scholarships are $800 for teachers' colleges and $1,000 annually for university studies. Another girl receives a scholarship to study nursing. She has committed herself to returning to serve her rural community when she finishes her studies.
One girl's story: Diane
Ikobero is a girls' high school in a very poor community, with an unimaginable 75% of its students being orphans from AIDS and other causes. One day, when CBB's Executive Director was talking with the school principal, Diane came into her office crying. Diane had been living with her grandmother, her only living relative. Her grandmother had just died, leaving Diane homeless, without food and with no one to care for her.
Diane is an amazing girl. Under these extremely difficult circumstances, she had been number one in her class of 63 girls. CBB gave Diane a scholarship to live in Ikobero's boarding school, which is now her only home. Diane continues to be number one in her class. CBB will care for Diane, providing her with a university scholarship when she completes her high school studies.
