TIIGO SCHOOL
THE TIIGO SCHOOL: The School Raising Stars to Light up the North and indeed Kenya
The best anti-poverty programme, Barack Obama said, is world-class education. But what happens to children from poor backgrounds who can’t access this prized ticket? This can only be answered when you put yourself in their shoes. Imagine where you would be today if you didn’t have the privilege of quality formal education?
For children living in Kenya’s arid and semi-arid lands, education remains a far-fetched dream. Schools are as scarce as the water in the desert they live in. Marsabit County, the largest county in Kenya, paints this grim picture. The county exhibits the poorest education indicators in Kenya, with literacy levels as low as 20%.
Keen to give these children a fighting chance in life, in partnership with the local community, PACIDA established The Tiigo School in 2016. Referred by many as ‘The School in the Middle of Nowhere,’ Tiigo School (www.thetiigoschool.sc.ke) is literally ‘nowhere’. It is the only primary school in a radius of 50 kilometres in one harsh, larva rubble, dry and poor place.
The Tiigo School imparts pupils from poor nomadic communities with quality holistic education. The school currently has 344 pupils. Working with its partners who gave it the ‘seed funds’ enough to just establish it, the school attracts pupils from Marsabit County as well as the neighbouring counties.
Being the only school in the region, the demand for admission at this school is very high. Yet it is severely limited in terms of infrastructure. Hundreds of pupils from underprivileged backgrounds needing admission are turned back every year. The school needs to increase its facilities so that it accommodate more pupils. For instance, its current dormitory capacity is already overstretched and pupils end up sharing beds. Others are forced to sleep on the floor which causes congestion and an unsafe living environment that negatively affects the health of these young children.
The school depends on well-wishers support to supplement the little fee that parents from the neighbouring communities afford. The pupils therefore end up paying drastically subsidised fees – which they still struggle to pay within the term.
The school is also located in an area known for very harsh weather, sporadic inter-ethnic clashes. Many girls go through dehumanising female genital mutilation and end up married off early. Being a boarding school, The Tiigo School is also a rescue centre and refuge of hope to such girls.
Help us Raise the next Generation of Stars to Light Up the North and Kenya
Tiigo School is designed as a centre of excellence. The school targets to raise outstanding pupils (stars) that are brilliant, mentored and all-rounded to light up the northern region and indeed Kenya.
To realise this, we need to raise resources for these priority areas:
- Infrastructure: We target to build the urgent amenities needed at the school e.g. dormitories, classrooms, sanitation facilities, health clinic, computer lab, teachers’ houses, water infrastructure, school bus
- Bursaries while at The Tiigo School: We shall sponsor some bright pupils from underprivileged backgrounds through primary school
- Bursaries for Secondary Schools and Tertiary Schools: We shall set up an endowment fund with part of the support so that we can sponsor promising and bright pupils not to drop out school but transit to the high school.
Buy Stars to Raise Stars
To raise stars, we need to buy stars literally. One star is going for Ksh 1,000 (10 USD). You can buy as many stars as possible. To buy stars, please talk to us through the contacts below:
The Target:
Infrastructure development = Ksh 75m (750,000USD).
Tiigo School Bursary Endowment Fund = Ksh 50m (500,000 USD)
High School and Tertiary Education Endowment Fund (Nyota za Jamii Fund) = Ksh 75m
(750,000 USD).
Ibrahim Adam
Programmes Director
PACIDA
+254722614196
i.adan@pacida.org
www.pacida.org
www.thetiigoschool.sc.ke