Education & Childcare
Noah’s Ark
Noah’s Ark Day Care Centre was the first project set up by The Nasio Trust. It began as a road-side kiosk in Mumias where it catered for the needs of 16 disadvantaged children, before being rebuilt elsewhere in 2005. As of 2017, Noah’s Ark supports 110 children.
The preschool children who come here each day are taught to a high standard and are provided with a nutritious meal, something they do not always receive at home. Importantly, time is set aside for play, so these children are actually given the opportunity to act like children, again something that tends to escape home life.
Primary school children often visit Noah’s Ark Day Care Centre to receive a meal which constitutes ugali or rice, with meat or vegetables
Primary school children often visit Noah’s Ark Day Care Centre to receive a meal which constitutes ugali or rice, with meat or vegetables. We keep a watchful eye on the health of all of our children here, particularly those who are HIV positive.
What makes The Nasio Trust model unique is the fact we don’t support orphanages. The orphaned children cared for by The Nasio Trust are able to live a normal life in a home environment, alongside their grandparents, older siblings or guardians employed by our charity. The reason we as an organisation don’t support orphanages is there is evidence that this level of institutionalisation can undermine a child’s social development and make them feel alienated in wider society.
St Irene’s
Whilst Noahs’s Ark has been catering for the needs of orphans in Mumias since 2001, Irene Mudenyo who set up the initial centre was concerned about the wellbeing of children who had lost their parents in her home village Musanda. When Irene sadly passed away in 2007, a second day care centre ‘St Irene’s‘ was built in her memory. It officially open in 2009, and is now the larger of the two centres, hosting 134 children.
Education in Kenya
Although education in Kenya is supposedly state-funded, children are not allowed to attend unless they have a uniform, which is something your money and donations can provide along with classroom equipment and school lunches.
Government expenditure on school supplies like paper and pencils is limited, and it is the responsibility of a child’s parents led by the respective school’s Parent Teacher Association (PTA) to finance these materials. The construction and maintenance of schools and staff housing is the responsibility of parents, or, in the case of most of the children we support, The Nasio Trust.
