Telegraph Christmas Charity Appeal: the school that opens doors for Kenya's brightest, but poorest, children
Telegraph.co.uk
By Andrew Alderson in Nairobi
November 21, 2009
Elvis Juma has not had an easy life. His mother died giving birth to his young brother when Elvis was two, his father, a farm worker, died when he was 14. Brought up in a mud hut in the Nyanza province in western Kenya, he seemed destined for a dead-end job and a life of poverty.
Starehe: This year Starehe, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary, is one of four charities chosen by Telegraph Media Group to benefit from our readers' Christmas appeal. Photo: MARTIN POPE
Yet now, thanks to winning a place at one of Kenya's most prestigious schools, Elvis, 17, now has career opportunities beyond his wildest imagination. "I want to be a doctor - a General Practitioner. I want to help other people," he said, with quiet determination last week.
Elvis, who is now looked after by his 20-year-old elder brother, is one of 300 orphans attending Starehe Boys' Centre and School in Nairobi, the country's capital. He was recommended for a place at Starehe by a teacher at his primary school who thought he was academically gifted and who admired his determination to succeed despite a difficult family background.
Without a place at Starehe, where he has studied for three years, Elvis would not have had a secondary education beyond 13. "This school has given me the best education. I am very lucky to have an opportunity to come here. But I work hard and I am determined to do well in life. I am very proud of what I have achieved," he said.
Last year Starehe Boys had more than 23,000 applicants from all over Kenya for just 200 places. Since 2005, Starehe has also had a separate girls' school, set up on the same principles as its boys' counterpart, which it hopes to expand over the coming years.
This year Starehe, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary, is one of four charities chosen by Telegraph Media Group to benefit from our readers' Christmas appeal.
Starehe Boys has 860 pupils aged from 14 to 20: all but 20 are boarders. The girls' school has a further 320 pupils aged 14 to 19.
No more than 30 per cent of all pupils are ever fee paying. The current fees are just over £1,000 a year, which includes boarding, uniform and text books. The criteria needed for entry to Starehe on a sponsorship scheme is academic achievement and need. If two pupils are considered to be equally clever but there is only one place, it will always go to the one from the more troubled background.
Year after year, Starehe has been one of the top two schools in the exam "league tables" for Kenya. Incredibly, no less than one third of all trainee doctors in Kenyan universities are from Starehe.
The school, now set in 48 acres, has come a long way from when it was founded in 1959 - as a refuge during the Mau Mau insurgency - with just two tin huts. Seventeen pupils attended on the first day after its three founding fathers, led by Geoffrey Griffin, a young white Kenyan, attempted to provide shelter, and later an education, for homeless and needy youngsters.
Rickos Achuka, 15 from Kenya's Rift Valley, has also risen above adversity in order to come to the school nine months ago. His mother died when he was ten and he never knew his father. Yet, even before his mother's death, he and his younger sister were being brought up by their grandmother in a mud hut.
"It was my greatest ambition, ever since I was 11, to come to this school. I was really excited when I learnt I had got a place here," said Rickos, who also hopes to become a neuro-surgeon when he leaves school.
In Kenya, in theory pupils aged from about six to 14 receive a free "primary" education, but in practice many youngsters from poor families, particularly girls, receive no education. Secondary education - beyond the age of 14 - is usually only available for those who can afford to pay for it.
Paul Mugo, the principal of the boys' school and himself an old boy, says that Starehe pupils are usually highly motivated and those from difficult backgrounds are often the most determined to rise above their humble origins.
Mr Mugo was sponsored to attend Starehe after his mother died from childbirth complications when he was ten and his father died from tuberculosis when he was 12. After his death of his father - a peasant farmer from central Kenya - Mr Mugo and his four sisters were brought up by an uncle, a civil servant who had heard about Starehe.
Mr Mugo, 43, a married man with three children, has been teaching at Starehe since 1992 and has been the principal for the past three years. The school has 67 government-employed teachers. "This is a school which really does make a different to its pupils' lives," he said.
"We are a school but first and foremost we are a home that is meant to provide shelter - and an education - for those in need. A school is something that comes and passes but a home is something you will always go back to."
The school's motto is "Natulenge Juu" - which is Swahili for "Let Us Aim High" - while each class averages 36 pupils. There are 12 houses each with around 80 students.
Pupils wears a distinctive uniform of a red shirt and dark blue shorts with a black tie, sleeveless sweater and shoes, but they can change into casual clothes out of school hours. The majority of the pupils are Protestant or Catholic, but some 50 are Muslim and there is a mosque, as well as a chapel, at the school for worship.
The school has charity status and, apart from some fees and some government staffing, it is funded by companies, groups and individuals. Shell (UK) is currently among its sponsors.
Alumni of the school have gone on to be government ministers, MPs, senior civil servants, business high-flyers and the chief executive of the respected Kenyan Wildlife Service.
Many sponsored old boys who have gone on to do well in life admit they owe their success to their education at Starehe. Francis Kamoni, 47, an old boy and a teacher at Starehe for the last 19 years, came from a Nairobi slum. His mother, who had six children, was a single mother after separating from her husband, but she encouraged him to go to primary school, where he did well and was nominated for a place at Starehe. "I won a place here because of my need. If I had not come here, I am sure that today I would have been a layabout in the slum - if I had lived that long," he said.
Mr Kamoni, who is married with four children, says that back in 1972, when he was 10, he saw the Starehe marching school band perform in the presence of President Jomo Kenyatta at an international trade fair and he dreamt of one day going there. Four years later, and while living with his family in a mud hut, he achieved his ambition. "Coming here has been a life-changing experience," he said. After qualifying as a teacher, he originally taught at another school for three years, before successfully applying for a job at Starehe. "Ever since I decided to become a teacher my greatest wish and desire was that I would work at Starehe." he said.
Mr Kamoni, who is vice-chairman of the 600-member Old Starehian Society, said: "This is a truly inspirational school. My mother [who still lives in the slum] is very proud of me and what I have achieved."
Joseph Gikubu, 74, the only surviving founding father, said: "Twelve thousand young people have now passed through Starehe in 50 years. I am very proud to have been behind something that has done so much good."
