There are over 3 million kids in slums in Kenya who cannot go to a government or donor supported school. So residents of slums have started their own “low cost” “non-formal” schools. With no help from the government, they pay for teachers, rent, textbooks, toilets, and lunches with fees from their extremely poor families. These fees are very low, about $6USD/month, and teacher pay is minimal – averaging $3 USD/day. But with typical income of less than $40 USD/month, most families still can’t afford to keep their children in school regularly, with maybe a third of them successfully completing primary school.

And with such low income, the schools can’t afford to give their students the learning environment they need. The cost of training teachers is out of reach, at more than 2 years of a full salary. A set of textbooks for one student costs the equivalent of an entire year’s of tuition. And they could almost pay for an extra teacher for nearly a year for the cost of adding one toilet. Technology of any sort, necessary to be prepared for a twenty first century workplace, is non-existent.

If these schools could meet government minimum standards, they would get permanent government assistance. With this, the goal of every child in the slums going to school, staying in school, and getting a decent basic education could be met. But the schools can’t reach minimum standards on their own.

They need our help.