A total of 141 orphaned and vulnerable children from Lugari Sub County are proud beneficiaries of a Ksh. 1.4M bursary donated by Nucleus Children’s Trust, a non-governmental organization based in Matete.
Speaking in Kabrengu, in Matete after a brief ceremony to handover bank notifications to the caregivers, the organization’s Director Mr. John Tharuba Kariuki said his organization was determined to ensure that OVCs in the area accessed education compared to other children by providing bursaries.
Kariuki revealed that among the beneficiaries were 68 boys and 73 girls from various high schools. He disclosed that since the bursary programme began in 2012, Nucleus Children’s Trust has so far spent a total of Ksh. 8, 969, 583 in paying fees for 946 orphans in secondary schools among them 436 males and 511 females and promised that it will continue enlisting into the programme more orphans and extremely vulnerable
children.
He said that through this move many orphans and vulnerable children who had lost hope of continuing with their education are now in school and that it was encouraging to note that these children were performing well.
Kariuki disclosed that the organization does not only target bright students but also those who score low marks in the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) but they are from poor families.
He said every child was capable of becoming bright if they are given everything they require ranging from health, education, shelter, food, security, protection, coordination of care, adding that any child who gets at least a minimum of three of the above requirements can do better in class.
“When a child is performing poorly in school it means if you go back to their household they don’t have good shelter, these children have no bedding, or their beddings are infested by lies, bedbugs and even some have jiggers. Instead of getting three meals a day they eat once or even go on an empty stomach, that child cannot be able to learn even if he wanted to,” said Kariuki.
He said currently there were 21 students in university after registering exemplary results in KCSE despite the fact that Nucleus Children’s Trust chose and funded their secondary education after scoring low marks in KCPE.
“My advice to the bursary committees, to the politicians, who are allocating these school fees to children who are doing very well, is that they need to have a look again into this. A child who is needy may be very bright but the health issues affect his performance. So support a child who is not doing well and that child will start performing very well,” said Kariuki adding that they should also support their families to start small micro-enterprise businesses, “Because if you just give a children school fees and their families can’t afford to get food they may not fully take charge of the opportunity because there are problems back at home,” he said.