Kensington Cares: Supporting Educational & Health Initiatives in Masai Mara

Kensington Cares is currently funding the construction of a girls’ dorm in the Mara community near our Mara West Camp. This dorm will allow the 7^th and 8^th graders who currently live too far from the school to walk both ways every day and continue their education at the high school level. Without this opportunity most of these girls would not complete high school and have no hope of furthering their education.

A nearby school district recently completed a series of dorm rooms and students residing there are now testing at the top of their class. This success is being attributed to the fact that these students, who no longer need to walk for hours to and from school, have more time to study. Kensington Cares is committed to using student test scores, graduation rates and continuation of studies at a higher level as a benchmark for success of the project and further investment.  As in most places – we are confident that we’ll find that students who succeed at the high school level are also more likely to continue their studies beyond it. Kensington is also funding a new kindergarten in the same area – the current one is much too small and overcrowded and is not a suitable environment for learning. Construction on that begins in the next few weeks.

These two projects in Masai Mara are being undertaken in collaboration with AMS (African Mission Services) who are actively involved in this community. (Above left) Picture of the foundation – walls and roof will be completed next with the assistance of volunteer groups working with AMS.

More good news! We recently purchased an incubator for the medical clinic serving this same community in the Mara (seen above right). The clinic is lucky to have a Kenyan doctor working there who is very skilled in obstetrics. However, over the last year there have been several premature births and most of these children pass away on the long journey to the nearest hospital. In these instances the greatest requirement for survival is as simple as a stable, warm environment. The incubator will give the local clinic the chance to save these lives.