Most of our students live in an environment we can only imagine. In Mathare, shantys line up from road to horizon, where roughly 600,000 people live in just 3.5 square miles. They make their homes in small shacks built with tin and scrap wood, or low income highrise apartment buildings. The streets are filled with sewage and trash. Home isn't always a safe place for our students. Gangs are widespread, and children wander unsupervised in the streets. Many parents are unable to care for their children due to alcohol addiction.

‍

This is the reality of life in Mathare. However, we don't tell you this to make you feel sorry for our students, but to illustrate the oasis that school is for them. We give our students the safe, nurturing environment they need to learn and just be kids. Because when children are safe, loved, and fed, they thrive.

‍

We talked to some of our high schoolers after they returned from school, and we heard the same thing from all of them: they prefer to be at Chelezo boarding school, where meals are three times a day and their teachers care about their well-being.

Isn't that what we want for all our kids?