Our featured School is Ngunyumu Primary School which is situated in Dandora, a few Metres from the Dandora dumpsite, one of Africa’s largest dumping and scavenging grounds.
The School has 930 students and 19 teachers. This makes student to teacher ratio of approximately 1 Teacher to 50 Students.All the students come from the neighbouring dandora slums where life is very tough. Their families live under unsanitary and hazardous conditions with many sharing tiny single-room dilapidated houses. Everywhere you go you see burst sewers, spewing drainage on the streets and overcrowded walkways. This is the scenery at dandora but the people have learnt to survive through it and so are the Kids at Ngunyumu Primary School.
The site was declared full in 2001 but it has never been closed. Everyday over 2000 tonnes of garbage is disposed on the site. Most students pass by the dumpsite on their way to school determined to study hard and go to a good Secondary school. Some of the children go to the site after school to scavenge in order to get money for School fees, books and Uniforms. They find limited study time to do their revision like their counter parts in other parts of Kenya because life to them is a matter of survival.
The dump site also posses health risks to the students. When the garbage is burned the smoke that comes out pollutes the area posing a risk to the residents. Late in the evening the visibility is distorted by the fumes and dust particles making the installed security lights almost ineffective.
Despite all the challenges they face in the harsh conditions the students are determined to excel in their studies. Ask the children at Ngunyumu and they will tell you they are ready to learn, they are inspired and they wake up everyday with a determined spirit knowing that one day the education they are getting here will make them live better lives and to change the lives of their families and the community at large. They know that their condition is just temporary and with the support of the community, friends and the government they sure will achieve their goal.
That is why MPrep has been working with the students since the beginning of this year. This is also one of the reasons why we started the MPrep Sponsor a school Program. The program enables you to help schools in need. All money contributed goes directly to sponsoring a school that cannot afford the MPrep resource subscription cost. A subscription includes:
- Access to detailed individual student data reports
- Access to full data reports by topic and subject for the school
- Access to aggregate data reports and Top 20 schools in Kenya
- Access to free resources provided on the MPrep porta
If you are interested in sponsoring Schools like Ngunyumu click on the link.
A Typical MPrep subscription costs are as follows:
$60: MPrep Subscription for 1 Term (4 months)
$150: MPrep Subscription for 1 Year
By Kosgei Isaac
Community Relations Director