Thika-Penuel Transforming

Thika is 15 miles northeast of Nairobi and has the largest slum in Kenya outside of Nairobi. Four churches located in the Garissa Road slum have banded together in an effort to improve the lives of children living in this impoverished community. Penuel Transforming, a collaborative formed by these churches, identified specific needs of the children and set about to find remedies.

The first need was a Saturday feeding program. Children received breakfast at school daily, churches offered food on Sunday but on Saturday many children went without. With the help of KCEF a Saturday morning recreation program serves lunch to almost 500 children as well as providing organized recreational activities.

Since the children live in a predatory environment, it is crucial to provide positive healthy activity to keep them interested, occupied and out of harms way. A Running Club was created for older children to give direction and create goals for achievement.

On Saturday the running Club also receives a noontime meal.

Truancy was also a problem. Students would simply walk away from school after the morning meal. The local Government school, the Garissa Road School, is an underfunded school on the edge of the slum at the end of a government funding pipeline which has much of the funding siphoned off on the way to the great needs in Thika. The OLPC computers became a lure and an incentive for children to attend school.

Using volunteers from the churches who were given training by KCEF, computer education was introduced at the seventh grade at the Garissa Road School. Since no other schools in the area had computers the school gained a pride that was unknown before.

Students came to school and stayed because of a new sense of purpose. Attendance numbers have improved dramatically. Since its inception in February of 2014 the computer program has now expanded to an additional two public school and three private schools which also serve the community.

Through EFAC  (Education for All Children) and KCEF’s sponsorship, the highest achieving students living in the poorest conditions in Thika have scholarship opportunities through university.