The problem

Nearly 40% of people in Kenya live below the international poverty line of $2.15 per day (World Bank, 2022), making it difficult for them to meet basic needs. The World Bank projects that by 2030, Africa could account for 90% of the world's poor. Latest Oxfam International Statistics (© 2020) https://www.oxfam.org/en/tags/kenya paint even a grimmer picture; the Kenyan government lags in implementing economic policies or putting measures in place that could curb extreme inequalities and lift millions of Kenyans out of poverty. Kenyan rural women are, of course, the hardest-hit segment of the population. Women represent a significant percentage of this disenfranchised population due to gender inequality challenges in Kenya. This disenfranchised group can’t get government or local private sector support. This unsupportive environment easily drives them to hopelessness. To survive and subsist, more than 96% of these women are forced to scavenge for the already scarce work, which is generally unfulfilling menial jobs that do not provide any avenues for self-esteem and the dignity of work but, more importantly, do not help them build equity to power self-sufficient growth.  The government provides a small subsidy to families to pay for Secondary School education. This leaves the bulk of the burden of funding for Secondary School education on financially challenged women. This is often a burden that far too many of these disadvantaged women cannot afford, rendering their children hopeless without an education

The solution

Since our founding in 2014, our projects have been breaking Kenya's poverty cycle with inspiring results. Collectively, our educational projects leverage education to empower Kenyans to escape the poverty trap. Our foundation embraces Nelson Mandela’s philosophy on the power of education: “Education is the most powerful weapon with which you can change the world.”  In May 2022, an MIT News article highlighted the results of a study on escaping the poverty trap (https://news.mit.edu/2022/poverty-trap-bangladesh-0510). This MIT study validated the Kosgei Foundation’s strategy for helping Kenyans break the cycle of poverty with education.