Poverty & Education

If you have been to Europe in the last 10 years there is something very strange that you will notice. There are no children. This is due to a few cultural reasons that I do not need to rant about now. But it has made me think a lot this week because I have experienced the exact opposite here in Kenya.

There are children, and babies, EVERYWHERE!

It’s beautiful, obviously, because it is life. But unfortunately these young children and babies are not being cared for properly. The reasons for having babies varies, but the overwhelming majority are not able to provide for their children in the poverty stricken areas, that is the biggest poverty.

When I walk through the Mathare Slum in order to get to school I cannot help but notice the huge number of children that are roaming the slum and not in school. So I did a data collection and study in Mathare this week on why children are not in school to try and see what is necessary to get the children to go to school. I studied 2 major neighborhoods, and interviewed children themselves and parents of children who are not in school. The result was an overwhelming answer that I could have guessed: POVERTY.

Well, obviously, poverty does affect every aspect of life. But to be more specific the 2 major reasons that I found children were not in school were,
1. Young girls, as young as 5th grade, become pregnant and they are forced to stay at home and care for their baby. In our school alone, we have 6 girls that are mothers, and were able to come back to school after their baby grew a bit, 5 girls who left school because they couldn’t find anyone to care for their baby, and we have 2 girls that we know of who are pregnant now. This is huge. In the areas that I collected data from I interviewed 5 other young girls, 6th-10th grade who left school after having a baby and have not returned. Now many of them think they are too old to return to the class where they left, and probably will not return.

The 2nd reason is that mothers cannot afford to send their children to school. This results in keeping the children home to run the local business, watch over other children while the mothers go to work, or simply having children roam the street for scraps to sell. This happens way more often than I could get realistic stats for. The teachers in my school said that in the 4th grade and below they know of at least 15 students that this happens to. And they said as the children get older they begin to cover up what they are doing and won’t tell the truth so they have no real idea of knowing how often it happens. But as I walk around the slum, I can tell you it happens VERY often.

I was very frustrated with these results because Kenya has issued FREE government education for all primary students in order to encourage children to go to school. However, it is not really free! The government schools add on small fees, books, uniforms etc that add up to nearly $45 a month for 1 student. This may not seem much for us westerners, but for a family of 6, living on $1 a day, that is unreasonable.

I believe education is absolutely the key for these children to escape poverty. However, when education has not been valued in their families, and poverty is ruling the family, the cycle of uneducated children will continue.

But, with all things, there is hope! I am very excited to report on one of the families I visit. It was a single mother of 3 children, she is HIV +, and I suspect the youngest 2 yr old child is as well. The 2 oldest children, ages 9 and 6 just received a sponsor from the UK in order to attend school for the FIRST time, ever. They were admitted to our school on Friday, in the nursery class (with 3 yr olds) since they have never been exposed to structure, discipline or education. We are hoping they will be bright, quick learners so we can pass them on through the lower grades and hopefully catch up with their proper age mates. I am just excited that we got 2 children off the streets and into the classroom. Hooraayy!

You may only be a drop in the ocean, but without your drop, the ocean would be less. Mother Teresa