A US-based NGO, Amara, has constructed two dormitories worth Sh14 million at Empakasi Secondary School in Athi River, Machakos county.
The dorms are to ensure girls remain in school to avoid early marriage and female genital mutilation.
The school’s infrastructure committee chairman Jeremiah Kaloi said the dormitories are for boys and girls, one each.
He said the NGO also constructed a Sh5 million kitchen and a dining hall.
Kaloi addressed the press during the commissioning of the projects in the school on Monday.
The dormitories have capacities of 100 students each.
He said the school located in Mavoko, in the borders of Machakos and Kajiado counties mostly serve children from the Maasai community.
Established in 2007 by Mavoko Constituency Development Fund, the school currently has 258 students.
“The school has helped in the fight against retrogressive Maa cultures such as FGM. After the school was established, parents embraced educating both their girls and boy child,” Kaloi said.
The chairman said there was no other public school nearby hence the institution’s importance to the community.
He said the school had helped children especially from the Maa community access education just like their fellow children from other parts of the country.
“The existence of dormitories will help protect the girl child from dangers of FGM. They will be kept away from the community where such cultures are forcibly conducted on them.
“Long ago the Maa community used to heard cattle. Children who sat KCPE examinations didn’t have opportunities to continue with their education. Most parents had no reasonable sources of income to enrol their children to secondary schools,” Kaloi said.
He said the constructed dormitories will also help in promoting the government’s policy on 100 per cent transition from primary to secondary schools.
Kaloi said there were no public boarding schools around and the few available ones were private and expensive. Empakasi Secondary operates as both day and boarding.
He said the school had relieved most families through feeding programmes as the region had been affected by drought, forcing residents to relocate with their cattle.
“There is drought, no cattle, hence lack of milk. Most families relocated their cattle to other regions including Sultan Hammud and Kyulu Hills in search of pasture and water," Kaloi said.
The school, he says, was already changing lives through education hence needed more support from other well wishers and development partners.
“In past years, if a boy or girl child cleared Class 8, they used to join their families in herding cattle.
"Girls without school fees to proceed with their education sought marriages. Things are different apparently with the school’s existence,” Kaloi said.
He said this year, over 100 children from the school will benefit from bursaries.
The chairman said the NGO had also constructed toilets in the school in partnership with Mavoko NGCDF.
(Edited by Bilha Makokha)
