Educate a girl, educate a family
The Vanessa Grant Girls’ School is our most ambitious project to date – to build a brand-new girls’ secondary school.
Educational opportunities in Kenya tend to favour boys. Many girls, on completing primary education, are forced to drop out and are expected to return home to help on the farm until a suitable husband is found and a wedding arranged. Even if girls are keen to continue with their education, a lack of funds will limit their chances of doing so. The result is that fewer girls proceed to secondary education.
With the full support of the Ministry of Education, the Vanessa Grant Trusts are sponsoring the development of a leading secondary boarding school for girls situated about 2kms from Rongai on some 15 acres of flat land donated by Gogar Farm Ltd. The School will eventually cater for about 360 girls, with each year group having three classes of about 30 children for the four years of Kenyan secondary education.
The aim of the School is to provide a facility second-to-none in Kenya, delivering the Kenyan curriculum with particular emphasis on excellent IT and science facilities and quality teaching standards throughout. This will be delivered within a strong and secure Christian community.
The School will cost around £500,000 (US$750,000) to build and equip. The first phase is complete and the School opened as planned, in January 2010. Further buildings and equipment will be needed as the School expands to its full size.
Many donors have sponsored particular aspects of the school: funding a science laboratory, contributing the cost of one or more computers, or paying for the furniture for a classroom. More funds are now needed to complete the building programme and, importantly, to fund bursaries.
More information about the Vanessa Grant Girls’ School can be found on the School’s own website.