Kenya: Concern Worldwide Organization praised for Developing Education
By MAURICE ALAL reporting from Kisumu Kenya

Concern Worldwide, a charitable organization has been praised for funding development of essential facilities in primary schools in Migori and Ndhiwa districts of Nyanza region.

The Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) supports the building of classrooms and equipping them with furniture, VIP toilets and changing room for girls, water supplies, health services to children and training of teachers.

It has so far assisted over 58 primary schools at a cost of Shs. 18 million, including Giribe Integrated Primary Schools among others in the region.

The projects which included rehabilitation of classrooms, construction of VIP toilets and installation of water tanks are meant to address some of the challenges that the most vulnerable children are experiencing in schools.

Concern Worldwide also targets schools in the marginalized areas that bear high poverty index. The area District Education Officer (DEO), Joseph Olepardia, hailed the NGO for striving to promote quality learning for the pupils in Migori County.

“Kudos for the sacrifice in giving the disadvantaged children access to improved learning conditions,” the DEO told the representatives, for the two new classrooms and 5 VIP toilets it put up at Giribe Integrated Primary School where the handing over ceremony was being held.

Speaking during the handing over ceremony of the projects, Country Director of the Concern Worldwide, Anne O’Mahony said infrastructure improvement will impact positively on the most vulnerable children in Migori and Ndhiwa districts as well as Nyanza region.

“Concern is a non-governmental , international humanitarian organization dedicated to the reduction of suffering and working towards the ultimate elimination of extreme poverty in the world’s poorest countries,” said O’Mahony.

The director revealed that the organization have been involved in schools infrastructure improvement projects in hundreds of schools since 2004.
“In 2010, we moved to Migori and Ndhiwa districts and we have since constructed 21 door VIP toilets, installed over 16 water tanks, constructed numerous classrooms and rehabilitated 26,” she said.

O’Mahony further said Concern also engage the communities to participate, dialogue and address poor education outcomes in their districts. She said the involvement of communities has enabled the residents to appreciate developments and embrace child protection initiatives.

The organization has so far managed to train 208 teachers on curriculum delivery, social support, monitoring and evaluation, 78 teachers and School Management Committees (SMCs) have been trained on child protection, 132 SMCs and head teachers have been taught on resource mobilization and management.

A total of 100 facilitators have also been enlightened on children rights and approximately 15,000 community members have been sensitized on child protection through community engagement in a bid to improve child education especially girls.

O’Mahony revealed that the infrastructure development is done in collaboration with the area residents that oversee the implementation of the projects while local community mobilized resources such as sand, ballast and unskilled labour as part of cost sharing arrangement.

The Concern director praised Nyanza communities for their involvement in mobilizing the local available resources and labour which she said contributed to the success of the projects implementation.
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