NYAHURURU, KENYA – When the Pan African Christian Exchange (PACE) ministry was founded in partnership with International Teams Canada, one of the primary concerns they wanted to address was the issue of education for the orphans of Kenya and neighbouring countries.
Phillip Sheldon, Canadian Program Leader for Impact Kenya – PACE, explains that the government pays for education up to grade 8, but there are a limited number of positions available in high schools, most of which are boarding schools and all of which charge tuition. "What we were finding is that of the 2,000 children that live in the slum village of Maina, very few of them will ever get out of the slums simply because of the education level. It becomes a rotating, never-ending cycle, where the poverty just kind of builds on itself."
Every year, approximately 100 young children from Maina attend the Victory Nursery School run by Pastor Francis and his wife Beth, where they receive an excellent introduction to education and eventually go on to the local government-run public school full of knowledge and enthusiasm. According to Phillip, their situation then begins to go downhill due to the overcrowded classrooms in the government school. "Pastor Francis tells me that he cries when he graduates his children and sends them on to the public school because he knows that all the careful work he does will be for nothing. Few of these children will graduate from Grade 8 and even fewer will be able to go onto high school."
Wachira Ngamau, the Director of PACE, has begun to take some of those kids right out of the nursery school and put them into PACE Academy for Grades 1-8, maintaining and building upon the work done by Pastor Francis, and send some to the government-run high schools, with the rest attending the new PACE High School. The final hope is that after attending college, university or PACE Vocational College, these children will go back to Maina, start businesses, and begin to raise up and improve the local economy and give the children hope.
Phillip says that they are very encouraged by the improved outlook for the children of Maina, but asks for prayers and financial support from the International Teams community. "There are currently 100 kids at Victory, 145 in PACE’s public school, and 37 in the first year of the high school. We’re grateful for prayers for these kids and ask for supporters to come alongside PACE, to help pay for the tuition for these kids for the next 8-14 years until they have successfully graduated high school and can continue the new cycle of bringing hope to Maina."
