Education can be termed as the process of transferring knowledge, abilities, values and skills from one person to another. It is essentially a social activity which helps to develop the personality of a person and it is through it that an individual is able to find the right direction in life.
Education has the ability to change one’s life for the better, this is more so for those who live in the impoverished areas of the country. For the children who live in these areas, it is usually a ticket to a better life. According to a report by the Global Partnership for Education, about 420 million people would be lifted out of poverty due to secondary education thus reducing the number of poor people worldwide by half. The report also states that an extra year in school increases a person’s earnings by 10%. Children of educated mothers are more likely to be vaccinated and less likely to be stunted due to malnutrition. Also, it can help save a child’s life because data indicates that a child born to a literate mother is 50% more likely to live past age 5. Education also fosters peace because, where the enrollment rate for high school is 10% higher than average, the risk of war is reduced by 3%. Each year of secondary education reduces the likelihood of child marriage by 5%. Education also boosts economic growth in that each year of schooling raises average GDP growth by 0.37%.
Given all these benefits of education, it is easy to see why our parents emphasized the need to work hard and get good grades in school. Education however does not necessarily guarantee one a job especially in this economy but opens up opportunities to utilize your skills to better your life. This is why you find that a majority of the people do not practice what they studied in school but the fact that they are educated has enabled them to use their skills and talents to make a living.
In as much as education in public school is for the most part free, there are those who are still not able to go to school. In some cases, one finds that due to poverty, some kids are made to work by their parents so as to assist in fending for their families. In other cases, the parents are not able to afford to buy the uniforms or books as such the kids have no option but to stay at home till such a time when the parents can afford. Such situations are what make would be doctors, teachers, civil servants waste away in the villages due to the lack of the opportunity to pursue a formal education.
This was the case in Erandi Village in Nyamira where Evans Nyanwere often used to see otherwise bright kids waste away due to lack of fund to pursue education. Having the knowledge that education can be able to change the lives of these kids as well as the community. Evans together with other community members decided to form the Obarabu Engome Welfare with the aim of assisting the less privileged children in their community to go to school. Initially, they used to use their own funds, but they felt that there was a need to make the project self-sustaining. As such they came up with the idea of purchasing tents and chairs that they could rent out to community members and earn an income which could go towards funding the education of the kids in their community.
The project has been a success so far, but they felt that there was a need to increase their capacity in order to increase their income. This was due to the fact that the need was still great, but they could not meet it with their current income. As such they came up with the idea of purchasing a 100 seater tent and 66 plastic seats that they could rent out but they didn’t have the money. Fortunately, Evans got to hear about the Ndoto Zetu initiative by Safaricom where he promptly applied for funding towards the project. To his surprise his application was successful, and they were funded to the tune of Ksh. 150,000 which enabled them to purchase the tent and chairs.
The added capacity due to the extra tent and chairs means that they will be able to increase their income and as a result increase the number of children that that can be able to assist. This means more lives impacted and changed for the better. However, all this would not have been possible without the help of the Safaricom Ndoto Zetu initiative. The initiative is aimed at transforming the lives of communities across the country for the better. They do this by supporting Kenyans who are doing extra ordinary things for their communities. In this case it was the Obarabu Engome Welfare.