Sponsor a child Kenya

Kenya has experienced an economic decline in the last 20 years. This has impacted negatively on the country’s Health, Education, Economy and other Social services. It has damaged infrastructure, food security and eroded traditional values and cultural coping mechanisms. According to the Government of Kenya and UNICEF mid-term Review Report on their country program of cooperation 2007-2010, the national economy has experienced persistent shocks as a result of declining world market prices. In 2000, the Kenyan economy recorded a negative 0.3% growth rate. An estimated 56%of the Kenyan population now live below the poverty line and are largely unable to afford basic services including education, health, food and shelter. Of this number there are an estimated 8.6 million children living in poverty. According to the same Report,14 million people are currently unemployed, with about 750,000 entering the job market every year. As the economy is only able to create 250,000-330,000 jobs annually, mostly in the jua-kali (informal) sector, employment opportunities shrink by the day. Many factories and businesses have also closed down or relocated to other countries due to the high cost of doing business in Kenya and competition from cheap imported products. The number of Kenyan children locked out of schools has reached 1.8 million. The figure remains high despite the introduction of free primary education in 2003.On the celebrated international literacy day, children who have never been to school,57% are girls. According to the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco), 75 million children worldwide are out of school. The rates can be linked to our country’s prevailing situation of lack of adequate food among others. Although the free primary education programme brought on board many boys and girls formerly locked out of education, the government’s inconsistency in disbursing the funds has hugely affected enrolment. Among the poor, parents have been forced to withdraw or delay sending their children to school. Currently, 8.4 million children are enrolled in the country’s more than 20,000 public primary schools while 6,000 secondary schools have 1.4 million students. But about two million primary school graduates have missed out on secondary school education. Despite the power of literacy to transform lives and patterns of social development, there is neither the political will nor the resources to make literacy a priority. Our country has very few facilities or services to address the issue of the less fortunate children. The resources that exist are in form of institutions. Not only can these institutions provide care for very few children but studies such as UNDP confirm that children raised in poverty are more vulnerable to common children diseases than those cared for in the community.