Kisumu – Kenia

Broad-mindedness and development stand for the School of Hope, which sees education as help for self-help. As one of the few schools on the black continent here the disabled learn and work together with the other pupils. HelpAlliance supports the commitment of Markus Meyer-Nixdorf, a pilot with Lufthansa CityLine, by co-funding a vocational training center to be built at the school.

In 2001 the School of Hope was founded by two Australian ladies in Kajulu near Kisumu, the third largest city in Kenya. The Lufthansa CityLine pilot got involved with the school within his membership in Round Table Germany.
The aim is to enable children from this rural region to achieve a good education, to sustainably improve the situation within the families as well as the living conditions in the neighbourhood. This includes medical care and integration of the disabled.

The “School of Hope” is a privately organized school, where everything runs a little differently than in the rest of the country: Classes are limited to 40 pupils, the classrooms are solidly built and also have a solid roof, disabled children are integrated and all pupils are served a school dinner as part of the school’s own nutrition program.
Almost 40 percent of the people within the school district are infected with HIV/AIDS, the medical care is insufficient, school grades and the prospects of getting a qualified job are poor, the rate of unemployment is high and the disabled children are hidden from the public.

That is where the School of Hope starts off with its solutions: An education according to western standards, the integration of the disabled, a vocational training center and a high-school to qualify for university, scholarships for AIDS orphans, a nutrition program, a medical ward for outpatient treatment.
With the financial support to build the vocational training center HelpAlliance can contribute to enabling the children having learned a trade to maintain themselves and their families in later life.