Many schools in Kenya still lack water resources, sanitation facilities, habitable classrooms, even desks and teaching materials.

Our projects help schools:

• Build toilets to meet government sanitation standards.
• Construct classrooms, repair roofs and dilapidated blackboards.
• Install rain water harvesting systems.
• Construct playgrounds with swings and slides where kids can be kids.

Here's how it works

• We accept a new candidate school based on the amount of transparency, ownership and hard work the school and community is willing to put forward.
• We work with the schools to develop a three-phase grant model which is a series of projects that are designed to create a holistic improvement in the lives of the child students, then…
• We surround the schools in a flurry of projects that leave the learning environment dramatically improved, with childrens' lives made happier and easier.

About Kisumu, Kenya

Kisumu is a port city situated on the shores of Lake Victoria in Eastern Africa. With over 500,000 people, it is the third largest city in Kenya, and serves as the capitol of the Nyanza province. Kisumu is by far Kenyan’s poorest major city. Over 50% of its population lives below the food poverty line, compared with Nairobi’s 8% and Mombasa’s 39%. Despite its abundant natural resources, historical factors such as government corruption, social and ethnic conflict, and an abused ecosystem have caused the Kenyan people to suffer a great deal / have all led to an unacceptable humanitarian crisis. Nearly 25% of the population is HIV positive.

In 2002 the Kenyan government announced dramatic education reforms such as free primary education. These reforms have finally offered those who live in sever poverty the chance at a free education (the next generations a chance to live outside of poverty), but they are dramatically underfunded. This is why Emerge focuses its efforts on building infrastructure and providing training for schools, so that the quality of the learning environment can be improved to acceptable levels.