Education should always be within reach of all children.

However, children from poor communities generally face hardships when it comes to topics such as school access and access to quality education. This situation creates a vicious circle, as the lack of education makes it impossible to get out of poverty later in life.

Primary schooling in Kenya is mandatory and officially free. Nevertheless, families of pupils have to pay for several school-related services, such as daily meals, uniforms, security, books etc. The financial instability of the families brings children in a situation where their school attendance is an on and off story. For teenage girls the challenge is even more serious, as school attendance might be affected during their menstruation period, due to lack of access to basic hygiene materials.

Education should be a pleasant experience for all children. Motivated teachers and well equipped schools play a key role in making learning an extraordinary ride. However, lack of funds often makes these goals hard to be attained.

YOUng Steps Kenya has partnered up with Madago Primary School and proposes to tackle these issues for their pupils and their families, teachers and school staff. For this we have jointly tailored projects to fit their specific needs. We believe in the voice of every person, so we are directly involving locals in our projects, focusing on their recommendations, needs and wishes, taking into account their perspective to meet local reality, strengthen local involvement, encourage local responsibility and enable the acting of the persons targeted.

You can support any of our causes and know that you have supported children to shape a better future for themselves.

Madago Primary School was started in 1988 in Biga Village, Kinondo in Diani zone, the Msambweni sub-county of Kwale county.

It started with mud structural buildings thatched with Makuti. It had four classrooms with 36 students at that time (19 boys and 17 girls) in four classes, grade one to grade four, with two teachers employed by the Teachers Service Commission. It grew year after year to grade eight in 1992, with candidates who sat for their Kenya Certificate of Education (KCPE) examination as the first lot.

The school was built by the indigenous parents and community, both female and male, who called themselves together and contributed with the building materials and labor.

The school was aimed to tackle very important issues. The community was economically dependent on fishing and small scale farming, which resulted in poverty and high illiteracy levels. This in turn led to lack of exposure, which ended up in high school drop-out rates, poor school attendance and poor performance. In those early years it even went to an extent of early pregnancies and marriages.

Currently the community depends much on fishing, business, beach operations. Very few community members have known the importance of education. However, we are constantly working and succeeding in changing this. The school performance improves with lots of exposure and visits, motivation talks and awareness-raising activities from the government and well wishers.