Help from Beijing’s diplomatic mission, Chinese businesses enable a school in Kenya’s capital to offer the gift of education to poor shantytown kids
A student carries exercise books to a classroom at the MCEDO Beijing School in the Mathare slum in Nairobi, Kenya. (XIE SONGXIN / CHINA DAILY)
To walk to Faith Adhiambo’s house, one has to cross little streams of wastewater flowing between closely packed tin shanties.
Faith is a sixth-grade student at the Mathare Community Education and Development Organization Beijing School in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya. Her home is in the Mathare slum, which has a population of more than 500,000 disadvantaged people and sprawls over 155 hectares.
Her entire family lives in a dimly lit one-room house with a mud floor. The humble dwelling is divided by a curtain, which separates the parents’ bedroom from the living room where the rest of the family sleeps. This common area also serves as the kitchen. Other amenities such as bathrooms and toilets are shared with more than 10 other families in the neighborhood.
Despite its vast expanse, the Mathare slum only has two government schools, even though it is the second biggest slum in Nairobi. With most parents in the slum unable to afford to enroll their children in the few available private schools, informal schools such as the MCEDO Beijing School are providing much-needed education for children in the area.
Brenda Achieng, Faith’s older sister, said education in the slum is hard to come by, especially for girls like Faith.
Most parents cannot afford basic necessities like food and, as a consequence, education is usually put on the back-burner, said Brenda, who also attended the MCEDO Beijing School.
Students enjoy lunch at the school, which provides two free meals a day. (XIE SONGXIN / CHINA DAILY)
Schools like her sister’s, which offer free education, are seen as a godsend to help lift poor people out of poverty.
“After my sister was admitted to MCEDO, my family did not worry about school fees anymore because they are paid for by the school. Otherwise, both my sister and I would never have stepped in a classroom,” Brenda said.
A key feature of the school is the provision of free meals, a bonus that encourages slum students to continue their education.
“There are days when we do not have enough food, but we are assured that my sister had something to eat at school and will not go hungry,” Brenda said. “We also believe that after my sister attains her education, she will use her knowledge and skills to lift the family out of poverty.”
According to UNICEF, despite the substantial progress that has been made in Africa in terms of access, quality, and completion of basic education, disparities persist for children from the poorest backgrounds, children with disabilities, and those who are forced to move.
In 2019, when the World Bank introduced the concept of “learning poverty” as the inability to read and understand simple text by the age of 10, it was discovered that 87 percent of children in sub-Saharan Africa are “learning poor”, and the bulk of these children come from slum areas or informal settlements.
Due to a lack of government-funded schools, many informal schools have sprung up in the majority of informal settlements across Africa. UNICEF says informal schools in African slums not only facilitate access to education but also offer a safe space for young people. Many of these schools also offer basic services and amenities such as meals and toilets, which are not available in slums.
In 2001, then known only as MCEDO, the school opened with the simple premise of offering basic education and safe spaces for children. It only had three classrooms.
Pupils raise their hands to answer a question during class. (XIE SONGXIN / CHINA DAILY)
The original school bordered a police shooting range, and students and teachers could hear gunshots ringing out when police officers did their shooting practice, said Gladys Achieng Oginga, MCEDO’s head teacher who joined the school in 2009.
However, what began as a simple education project more than 20 years ago has grown in leaps and bounds and today the school can boast of giving thousands of slum children an education.
The approach to the school premises is a single-lane tarmac road that snakes through a sea of tin shacks that seem to stretch to the horizon. To the right of the road, the waters of the Mathare River carry a steady flow of garbage discarded by slum residents who have nowhere else to dispose of their waste.
The two-story school buildings stand out as some of the few solid structures in the vicinity. Beside the school is a dirt field where the students play during their breaks. The field also doubles as a soccer pitch for the local community after school.
Oginga, the head teacher, is a living testament to how education can transform a slum child’s life. She grew up in Mathare but was lucky to get a basic education, study at college, and become a teacher. With her knowledge of the challenges facing slum children, she decided to pay her community back by taking a teaching job at the school.
“I am lucky my parents understood the importance of education and sent me to school because most of my peers did not get an education and cannot get gainful employment,” Oginga said.
“I decided to come back and teach at MCEDO Beijing School because I know how instrumental education is in transforming the slum, and I wanted to make a difference in my own community,” she said.
Students wait to brush their teeth in clean water. (XIE SONGXIN / CHINA DAILY)
Benedict Kiage, the school’s director and longest-serving member of staff, said one of the early aims of the school was to keep the Mathare slum children in class.
“When we started MCEDO School back in 2001, education was an issue in Mathare, children were not going to school and a large number of people were illiterate. This need to see children in the slum acquire basic education is what motivated us to set up the school,” Kiage said.
Despite their good intentions, the school founders were faced with financial hardships and found it difficult to maintain school operations.
Kiage said luck smiled on them in 2007 when they were introduced to officials from the Chinese embassy in Kenya, leading to a partnership of growth, collaboration, and mutual exchanges.
After staff members from the Chinese embassy visited the school, the then ambassador Zhang Ming promised to help the school move to a bigger space and build 11 classrooms. The school changed its name to MCEDO Beijing School to reflect its appreciation of the newfound partnership with China.
Before the school moved to its current location, it was operating out of temporary and makeshift structures, Kiage said. “Since the school did not have a permanent location, we could not acquire items like furniture and textbooks. Getting dedicated teachers at a time when the school was shifting was also a problem,” he said.
In 2012, the Chinese embassy in Kenya introduced the Kenya China Economic and Trade Association, or KCETA, to the school as a development partner. As a result, KCETA organized its Chinese member companies and other Chinese-funded institutions in Kenya to raise more than $430,000 for the expansion of the school. After the school found a permanent home, student enrollments increased from 200 to 526. The 11 classrooms promised by the Chinese embassy in 2007 were completed by 2014.
Pupils perform traditional dances during a break between classes. (XIE SONGXIN / CHINA DAILY)
Oginga, who grew up at a time when investing in slum areas was unheard of, said she appreciates the help from the Chinese embassy. As a former slum child, she can see the positive impact the school has on students’ lives.
“We are here today because the Chinese community has walked with us along the way, and held our hand as a big brother from 2007 up to now. Since the partnership started, they have done renovations at the school by constructing toilets and more classrooms, installing drainage, and installing solar power, since the slum does not have an electricity connection,” Oginga said.
In 2022, KCETA through one of its member companies, commissioned the design, supply, and installation of a solar mini-grid system at the school with a battery energy storage capacity of 20 kilowatt-hours. The installation included the wiring and lighting of all rooms, security lights, and one year of operation and maintenance services.
“It is such facilities that have enabled us to expand and enroll more students and we currently have a capacity of more than 500 students with 22 teachers,” Oginga said.
“During my time as a student, getting such facilities in the slum was a challenge.”
Through KCETA, a meal program has also been introduced at the school, which has played a big role in encouraging students to continue their education.
“Through the school meals program, we offer each student two meals per day. For breakfast, the students are assured of porridge and for lunch, we offer starch and protein. This helps the students with nutrition because some of them only have one meal per day at home and some of them go hungry the whole day,” Oginga said.
Students play games during the morning break at the playground outside the MCEDO Beijing School. (XIE SONGXIN / CHINA DAILY)
Sarah Atieno is a recent graduate who works at the school as a part-time mentor. Oginga said girls from the slum would, in the past, rarely complete their schooling due to lack of access. Sarah, who gained her elementary school education at MCEDO Beijing School in 2014, was lucky to get a soccer scholarship and complete her secondary school studies.
Having been brought up in the slum in a polygamous family, Sarah’s prospects for an education were bleak. With two wives and 15 children, her father could not afford to pay school fees for all the children.
“Having grown up in Mathare slum, I have witnessed a number of my peers drop out of school for various reasons including lack of fees or teenage pregnancies,” Sarah said. “The boys who grow up in this area are also prone to gang activities because of the prevalence of violence in the slums, which is why MCEDO Beijing School is a blessing for the younger generation in this area.”
On June 23, MCEDO Beijing School hosted staff from the Chinese embassy in Kenya along with members of KCETA and the local Chinese community to celebrate 16 years since their collaboration began. The Chinese business community marked the day by donating sports kits and an additional $22,000 to the school.
During the ceremony, Zhou Pingjian, the Chinese ambassador to Kenya, noted that since the partnership began, the Chinese business community in Kenya has spent more than $700,000 on various programs relating to the school. He also added that students from MCEDO Beijing School will be considered for scholarships to pursue tertiary education in China.
Li Chen, who has served as the secretary-general to KCETA since 2017, said the Chinese business community is proud to have been part of the remarkable growth and development witnessed at MCEDO Beijing School, and expressed the association’s commitment to keeping up the good work.
“The main reason we started supporting MCEDO Beijing School is to let people within Mathare slum appreciate the importance of education. Like other children, students from the slum have potential and talent that can be tapped into. The situation … may pose a challenge but it does not diminish their inherent abilities and potential,” Li said.
