THE ATEMO MIXED SECONDARY SCHOOL

The Atemo Mixed Secondary School is a day school serving the extremely poor community of Ringa in western Kenya. The school has grown steadily over the years from 37 pupils when it first opened in 2000 to currently 513 – 311 boys and 202 girls (summer 2014) – over half of whom are either semi or total orphans. In Kenya, secondary school fees apply and many headteachers will turn away a child who cannot pay. At Atemo, headteacher, Joseph Nyariaro  seeks out children with potential and is particularly committed to educating bright children  from the poorest families and he won’t turn any of them away even though, in many cases, they can’t afford the fees. It was this enlightened approach that drew KOFUP into collaboration with the school in 2005. 

IMPACT: KOFUP funds make up for the shortfall in fees by providing bursaries for the poorest children. Over the years KOFUP funding has enabled Atemo to develop steadily into a fine secondary school, now one of the most popular in the district, with a growing number of children each year gaining grades that make them eligible for university entrance.

 The Mama Always Programme was started at Atemo in 2009 in response to a request from Joseph regarding the needs of the girls who were missing a week of their education every month  because of their menstrual cycles. KOFUP funded the cost of sanitary wear and the absenteeism rate dropped dramatically in that first year. In the following year the top three students in the school were girls and the girls have continued to perform well with several achieving university standard grades each year since.

NEEDS: The greatest gift you can give a child is that of education. With continued funding we can give more children hope of being supported through secondary school to achieve grades that allow them to go onto further education. Headteacher Joseph Nyariaro hopes that within a decade there will be a growing number of professional people whose education at Atemo gave them the opportunity  to make a future for themselves and their families and who will give something back  by  supporting the next generation of children in the community.