The government of Kenya and Tanzania introduced free universal primary education in January 2003. This helped reduce our burden to a large extent. However, this offer is for Government schools and not private schools where most of our children are enrolled. This means that we are still paying school fees for those in secondary and primary schools. As much as education is said to be free, there are other many hidden costs. Stationery, textbooks and uniforms are some of these costs that we have to provide for all our students.

The primary aim of the Sponsorship Desk is to obtain assistance to help the financially poorer young people of our Institutions and beyond to access education through provision of school fees, clothing, medical care, rehabilitation and vocational training and other basic needs. This is in great regard of the Don Bosco Principles of education which are:

v  Youth are the protagonists of their own personal development through education.

v  Education is oriented towards social transformation as it enhances people’s ability to dialogue, seek and promote social justice.

v  Education is based on the preventative system.

v  Education is a fundamental human right and is not limited to the intellectual development and professional qualities of children and young people: It enhances the development of the individual as a whole.

Sponsorship process:

The Salesian communities of the province identify needy students and propose them to the office for sponsorship.

The office approves them and acts as a link between the communities and the sponsoring agency. It collects reports, submits them to the sponsoring agency, receives and makes payments and keeps records connected with the sponsorship and follow up the whole process.

The Sponsorship Desk is able to monitor their performance and progress by working hand in hand with their respective communities i.e. by collecting the student report forms and forwarding them to the Sponsorship Desk. This enables the Sponsorship Desk to make future considerations for sponsoring the bright students.

In Kenya, we have students from: Bosco Boys Kuwinda, Boys’ Town Karen, Don Dosco Embu, Provincial House, Upperhill Shrine office, Nzaikoni, Kakuma, Don Bosco Utume, Korr, Don Bosco Youth Empowerment Services- Karen, Don Bosco Makuyu and Development Office.
Similarly, in Tanzania our communities of Didia, Dodoma Technical school, Dodoma Salesian Seminary, Mafinga Seminary, Mafinga Parish,  Oysterbay, Makalala, Iringa, Morogoro and Upanga have students sponsored through this program.


After completion of their studies, the students are referred to the Job Placement Desk in the Planning and Development Office, which finds jobs for them. Thus the students become self reliant and are able to support their families from the job incomes they get.

HIGHLIGHTS OF ACHIEVEMENTS:

The Sponsorship Desk has been able to achieve its goal of empowering the young marginalized and underprivileged youth through education hence this programme has been able to ensure that needy students get quality education and training enabling them to improve their lives individually as well as that of their families.

In summary, some of the achievements made so far include:

• Providing the youth with skills from the vocational training centres which in turn has enabled them to get employment in various industries as well as be self –employed. This has greatly improved their lives as well as their families standards of living.
• Provision of primary, secondary, college education, vocational training to needy students of all ages and communities which has improved their lives and made them to be productive citizens in the society.

·         Most of the students have participated in various events like sports tournaments, music and drama competitions which have assisted them to nature their talents and socialize with other students from different communities

 This has been made possible through the kind donations from our donors and well wishers.
  GOALS AND EXPECTATIONS:

1. We look forward to getting more donors and well wishers to assist us in our mission of empowering the young in East Africa through education and training for a better society.
2.  We also hope to expand the Sponsorship Programme to accommodate more needy students to enable them achieve their dreams , goals and be self reliant through education and professional skills.
3. Empowerment of sponsored students to excel in their academic work as well as equipping of sponsored students in life skills so they can successfully wade through their disadvantages in society making them successful individuals who have crossed tall barriers to their excellence!

 We appreciate and encourage the continued support from all our well- wishers in support of education in Eastern Africa which is the core facet in any human as well as economic development.

Our partners in this programme are from:

• Missiones Salesianas – Madrid, Spain sponsoring secondary education.
• Kindermissionswerk - Aachen, Germany sponsoring informal and formal primary education.
• Procura Missionari Don Bosco – Turin, Italy sponsoring vocational training.

God Bless all our benefactors!!