Paul from Spurgeons

Spurgeons Academy, in the heart of Kibera slum in Nairobi, is a beautiful place of hope. The students who go there are some of the poorest in the area, and most can't afford to pay any fees. But that doesn't mean the door is closed to them - by faith, prayer and sacrificial giving, their costs are covered and the dream of an education becomes a reality.

Here is the story of one of the students who recently completed his final class at Spurgeons; a story that underlines the lengths to which the staff will go to make sure the students have their best chance. It is written by Kenyanito Dudi, the manager of the school.

'Paul was born in 1999 in Nairobi Kibera slums. He is the third born in a family of five children. Paul joined Spurgeons Academy in the year 2004 in Baby class and has been sponsored for the last eleven years! He comes from a very poor background and lives with his widowed mother who is HIV positive and struggles to earn a living through casual jobs by washing clothes for other people in the neighborhood. They live in a 10ft X 10ft shack in the Gatwekera area of Kibera slums.

Paul’s died in the year 2000. Among his siblings, he is the only one to have completed P8; the others, apart from one younger sister, who is still in Pre-Unit, hardly made it beyond P6. The elder sister eloped when she was in P5 at the age of 13 and his older brother dropped out at the age of 14. But, through Spurgeons Academy, Paul has stayed in education and is now a beacon of hope to his family!

Upon admission to Spurgeons, we noticed that he was struggling to see what was on the board. When he was taken for assessment, it was discovered that he was partially blind. We then took him to Kikuyu Hospital which is a missionary facility and specializes in vision problems. Here, further tests were done and he was given glasses. We also partnered with Kilimani Primary School which has a section for children with special needs.

Kilimani were able to help Paul, but without him having to join the school full-time. He was able to take part in sporting activities organized for children with special needs and last year Paul sat for his national primary certificate at the school. He passed with a total of 284 out of 500 marks which is above average.

We organized for him to do his exams at Kilimani Primary because of his vision problem, where he benefited from the large prints provided to the special school section. This was not a new environment for him since he used to go there and even had made friendships. We must admit that sitting exams at Kilimani helped Paul a great deal because there was remarkable improvement from the previous exams.

 Paul had this to say during the recent interview with me “Am indebted to Spurgeons, I don’t know what I could have done without your help courtesy of my sponsors. May God bless everybody who has contributed positively to my life’. Asked what his dream is, he responded that he dreams to be a professional actor; this was born out of his active participation in the school drama team through the program carried by Anos Africa teachers who are professionals.

If this story inspires you, then please read on. If you feel stirred to assist in any way, that would be wonderful. 

Areas of need.

The school has a lot of needs at the moment brought about by the dynamic economic situations and other academic needs.  Spurgeon’s Academy needs funds to continue providing breakfast for over 385 pupils every day. The pupils also need feeding during school holidays as they come to school for remedials. This project is almost coming to a halt since other partner that has been supporting it over the last one year has indicated that their funds are dwindling hence they may not be in a position to continue with it. 

The other area of need is purchase of text books. We had stocked enough books to warrant at least three pupils per text book (simply put, each desk of three pupils to have at least a text book)