Pioneer Insurance has set aside Sh10 million for a climate change mitigation programme and scholarships for poor students in 120 secondary schools countrywide.
The company will spend up to Sh3 million on education bursaries to 25 students in each of the 24 counties targeted in the Trees and Scholarships for Kenya programme.
The firm’s manager in charge of customer experience and marketing, Timothy Mutua, said the company aims to turn beneficiaries into climate change mitigation champions.
Mutua spoke last Thursday at Mbitini Girls’ Secondary School in Kitui Rural subcounty where he unveiled the five schools in Kitui, under the programme.
He said this was part of his firm’s Corporate Social Responsibility.
Mutua said the programme was aimed at increasing the forest cover in tandem with the government’s objective of 10 per cent.
He said 8,000 students in six counties have been looped into the programme and have been empowered to plant 6,000 trees.
“Responsible firms recognise they exist because of the society. Therefore, Pioneer Insurance has launched this programme where we are making our schools green and giving bursaries,” Mutua said.
He said tree planning has been incorporated in bursary dissemination because Pioneer Insurance was keen to make young people appreciate the environment.
“We want to touch lives in a special and ensure people enjoy the shade, get rain from this initiative and students can go to school,” he said.
School principal Bahati Getana and the Kisasi subcounty education director, Peter Emanman, were enthusiastic about the bursary support saying it will ensure students stay in school.
The duo called on other corporate organisations and people of goodwill to come out and support students from poor backgrounds.
Edited by Kiilu Damaris
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