elimu sanifu

 

 Elimu Sanifu is a group of progressive educators who are looking to increase access to quality, multi-directional secondary and post-secondary education for Kenyan youth from poor urban settlements. 

We aim to assist the young people from these areas to discern and foster their talents, and realize this potential through an empowering afro-centric approach.

 

Overview (Frustration, Barriers, Needs)

  1. School fee restrictions to attending secondary and post-secondary institutions leave many young people in these settlements without choice but to stop schooling at the primary level
  2. Children and youth in the slums are forced to take on adult roles in order to help their family bear the burden of poverty, making it difficult for them to prioritize schooling
  3. Limited access to quality, multi-directional schools, offering a range of extra-curricular activities and equipped with academic and non-academic infrastructure
  4. The Kenya National Curriculum is embedded in a Euro Centric perspective and fails to adequately teach African history and culture, resulting in a loss of indigenous knowledge and identity around what it means to be African and having pride in one’s heritage

 

 

Purpose (Reasons for doing it)

  1. To make quality education accessible to youth from poor urban settlements)
  2. To enable youth to find and explore their talents
  3. To nurture a sense of pride in being African
  4. To foster a generation of open minded and socially responsible, critical and engaging young Kenyans
  5. To encourage young people to use their knowledge for the benefit of their communities

 

Activities (How we get to those goals)

  1. Provide full scholarships to the Starehe Boys and Girls Centers in Nairobi, which are boarding schools and charitable institutions with a long history of sponsoring marginalized youth to attend their school, through a system of meritocracy.  The Starehe Centers despite following the National Curriculum, offer a wide range of subjects in the arts, sciences, sports and applied subjects, are equipped with a good infrastructure for both academic and non-academic activities, and place a strong emphasis on community service, student leadership and partake in international student exchanges through “Round Square”
  2. Develop a supplementary curriculum related to African history and culture
  3. Empower young people to discover dynamic tools that can be used to reduce poverty in their communities
  4. Ensuring that all youth are involved in community based development initiatives in their communities

 

Outcome (The change)

  1. Increased knowledge and self confidence that would permit for greater social , academic and economic possibilities in the lives of these urban youth
  2. Young leaders emerging with an interest to make a positive impact on their communities
  3. Young educated Kenyans with a strong sense of African identity and pride
  4. Helping to nurture a sense of cohesion between Kenyans from different ethnic backgrounds
  5. A generation of Kenyans that is socially responsible, engaged and cognizant of the interconnectedness of peoples and knowledges in the world

 

Rationales (Why?)

1)    Because the development of a society is based on the access to information of its young people

2)    Because we acknowledge the multiple barriers young people in poverty face to accessing education

3)    Because the future of our country depends on the critical rereading of its written history

 

Deliverables (What we are producing/ making)

1)    Secondary school graduates with the opportunity to pursue post-secondary education

2)    Emerging young leaders

3)    Afro-centric programming

4)    Mentorship/support

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