From Sponsorees to Scholars

Got some pleasant news this morning that I thought was worth sharing.

First Hamomi graduating class of 2009 together with staff members -
the 'Guinea Pigs' of sorts.
Michael Mwenje (talked about in bottom of article)
is in the green sweater on the far left of the bottom row.

Last week we completed the section of our audit that focused on the Support-a-Graduate Program. This program was thrust upon us in many ways. Basically, we had students that were graduating from the Hamomi Primary School, (which we fund and staff and manage), and we all knew it was unthinkable to stop there. We couldn’t say “You’re welcome for the 8th grade education. We’ll see ya around. Best of luck!” If anything, that would have been worse than not giving these kids an education at all. It would be building them up to a level of understanding of the world without giving them the necessary tools to participate in it. A Pygmalion situation of sorts. So without much discussion, we just knew we had to find schools for those graduates, and we had to find sponsors for those school fees, and we had to do it all very fast.

Fast forward, it is two and a half years later. We have had our third class of graduates, our KCPE National Exam passing rates are at 70% - very high in Kenya – and 97% of our graduates have continued their educations in one form or another, (some through technical school, some through repeating class 8, some through scholarships to join secondary without having passed the KCPE). (And, the truth is, that 97% just means all but 1 out of 29 graduates thus far – and we are working to get her back in school.)

Overall, the program is something to be proud of, but it has also been a completely disorganized scramble. Sponsors have not been in contact with their students as much as we hoped, graduates have not been doing as well in secondary school as we hoped, and our analytics of the program have been slim to none (granted, we were dealing with a very brief time period in a very small sample size).

Some of the boys from our second graduating class of 2010.

However, in auditing our ‘Support-a-Graduate Program’ last week, we did a complete overhaul and facelift giving the whole thing much more structure and detail. First of all, we’re getting rid of the name ‘Support-a-Graduate Program’, which is, to be frank, too donor-centric for my taste. And we’re installing the Hamomi Secondary School Scholarship Program. Something the students feel they must earn, they can feel proud of it and have ownership over it, and feel some pressure to live up to its standards.

After Class 8 students have sat for their KCPE exam in November, they will immediately begin working on their applications for their Hamomi Secondary School Scholarship (HSSS). These will be assessed and scholarships will be announced along with KCPE results to determine who will be continuing on to secondary school and what alternatives will be worked out for any remaining. HSSS Recipients will sign a contract with Hamomi laying out all the parameters and agreeing to the terms of the scholarship.

They will still have personal connections with their scholarship sponsors who they will write to three times a year (as per their contract). I know that sounds like we’re turning this nice connection into a chore, but the truth is they love to write to their sponsors, they just don’t do it in an organized fashion. Now we’ve got three specific dates that their letters are due and it will make organizing the whole thing way more straight forward.

Visitation forms have been designed so during the 5 visits per year (when a Hamomi staff person travels to visit each student personally at school) they will fill out the visitation form and we will have records of how they’re doing (in a logistical grades & health kind of way, but also in a personalized well-being & mental health kind of way). These forms will go in their files at Hamomi which can be easily reviewed by staff members to ensure that we are better tracking each student’s progress and situation.

Third Hamomi graduating class of 2011.

Whenever HSSS Recipients are home (in Nairobi) it is in their contract that they must come to Hamomi and volunteer. Some of this will be running workshops and seminars with Class 8 students to prepare them for their KCPE and secondary school adventure. Some of this will be workshops among fellow HSSS Recipients to discuss how they are doing and share stories and ideas. Some of this will be study groups. Some of this will just be helping out around Hamomi wherever help is needed, (serving lunch, cleaning classrooms, being a teacher’s aid, offering tutoring to younger students, etc). Again, these are things they already do informally, but now we have formalized this process so we can track it and reward participation and use their time in Nairobi more efficiently.

They will also be given a small Hamomi Secondary Student Account (HSSA) each year. It is a small amount of money, but gives them a bit more responsibility over their things and activities. If they lose their toothbrush or trousers or spoon, they can replace it by taking money from their HSSA. In the end of the school year, they can have the remaining amount, or they can choose to roll the money over to their next school year’s HSSA. They will also be permitted to help each other out by transferring money from their own HSSA’s to another student’s HSSA. I’m curious if they’ll use this loophole much… We’re hoping this will teach some money management skills and also give some perspective on weighing costs.

This may all sound simple, (and probably sounds like it’s taken all the fun out of this program), but it has taken years to get to a point where we even knew what we needed to do. Then even more time to get all the forms and contracts and applications drafted and agreed on by all of us.

Michael Mwenje goofing around back in 2010

And so, on to where I began when, with our thoughts organized and finally able to focus student-by-student, I got lovely news about one of our Scholarship Recipients. Michael Mwenje, a member of our first graduating class of 2009, requested to repeat Form 1 (freshman year) in 2011 after not doing very well his first time around. In 2011, he still averaged a D+. This is still passing in Kenya, as A’s are hard to come by between 12 very rigorous subjects, but a D+ was still disappointing from a young man who we all know is bright and talented and clever.

He just traveled home last week for Easter holiday and reported at Hamomi with his end of term report for Term 1 of Form 2 (sophomore year) from Igembe Boys Secondary School. Along with a shining Certificate of Merit from the Igembe South District for his rugby playing, his report card boasted a B+ average, putting him 11th in his class and 37th overall in his school. This is no small feat and simply put: I feel very, very proud of him. No eloquent language to explain how difficult this must have been or how hard he must have worked to get his marks up, just basic beaming with pride.

Now we need him to lead some workshops for the rest of the students to explain how he did this.

I can’t wait to watch this program develop.

If you are interested in funding a Hamomi Secondary School Scholarship, let us know! You can email me (Susie) at Susie@Hamomi.org with any and all questions. It takes $85 a month (or $1,000 a year). Some scholarship sponsors take on this cost as a group, so you can get creative if this is intriguing to you!