KYAITHANI EMPOWERMENT SOCIETY

The primary purpose of the charity is to gift scholarships to secondary and vocational school students from poor families in the Kyaithani and Wamunyu areas of Kenya. During the past fiscal year volunteers have raised funds by targeted contact to past and potential donors and through a presence on the Canada Helps website. Volunteers have worked with the administrators at schools in the Kyaithani and Wamunyu areas of Kenya to determine the potential recipients of scholarships based on their graduation from one of the six primary schools within the 'Kyaithani Cluster' of schools. Specifically these are: Ndandini Primary Kyaithani Primary Muusini Primary Ndunguni Primary Nthilani Primary and Ilovi Primary schools. We receive considerable assistance with this work 'on the ground' in Kenya through our working partner Kenyan NGO Kenya Connect. The charity also provides bursaries for some secondary school graduates to encourage students to take vocational training to help them obtain a career in construction trades In December 2020 the charity received CRA approval to expand our charitable purposes to be able to provide assistance to schools in the Kyaithani and Wamunyu areas of Kenya in additional ways besides providing scholarships to the students. These are generally to help improve the provision of education or improve sanitation & hygiene and increase food security in these areas. During 2020 2021 2022 and early 2023 the charity's volunteers have been working with the Rotary Club Port Moody (BC) to develop a project and secure funding for a project that would improve sanitation and hygiene at 8 schools in the Kyaithani area of Kenya through the provision of potable water handwashing stations and improved toilet blocks. The project will also provide drip-irrigation gardens at the 8 schools so that the parent groups at the schools can grow vegetables for the school meal program and generate income to help support the provision of water at the schools on an ongoing basis. This new program has already received donor and Rotary Foundation Global Grant funding and began its activities in the third quarter of 2022. So far this project has provided handwashing stations at all 6 Primary schools and 2 secondary schools within the Kyaithani Cluster of schools. Construction of new improved toilet blocks has completed at 6 primary schools. The aging diesel generator at the Ndandini well site has been replaced with solar panels