FITCHBURG, United States — In Kenya, education is highly valued. Education can provide children with access to opportunities that challenge generational poverty and change the shape of their future. In 2016, the primary school completion rate for both boys and girls in Kenya was close to 100%. However, economic and social barriers often cut off educational opportunities when they become most crucial. The Borgen Project spoke with Sara Conzemius-Kiti, executive director of the Japhet Family Foundation, who has witnessed these challenges through the organization’s work in Kilifi County and Samburu, Kenya.
The Cost of Education
Primary school is widely affordable and accessible, but the financial barriers become steeper once students go on to secondary education. For families living in rural communities, those costs can create difficult tensions about whether a child can continue their education.
“I think education is highly valued in Kenya across all folks,” Conzemius-Kiti said. “People really want to be able to send their kids to school through high school.”
But wanting an education and being able to afford one are not always the same.
“So the number one is a cost barrier,” Conzemius-Kiti said. “For a lot of kids in rural parts of the country.” In Samburu, where many families live nomadic lifestyles, some children contribute to their family’s livelihood by caring for livestock. Conzemius-Kiti said those responsibilities are often connected directly to economic hardship.
“They need to bring more income into the family,” she said. “So kids end up working.” For children living in poverty, education is more than a question of academic merit. It is a question of whether a family can afford to let a child spend their time in school instead of helping support the household.
Education and Gender
In Samburu, 49% of women have no educational background compared to 20% nationally, and girls face higher rates of early marriage and pregnancy. Keeping girls in school can have consequences that reach far beyond academia.
“If you can get a girl through high school, it reduces the number of children she will have,” Conzemius-Kiti said. “And it delays marriage even farther.” Samburu County holds the highest teen pregnancy rate in Kenya; 50% of all girls aged 15 to 19 have been pregnant at least once.
The effects can continue into the next generation. Children whose mothers receive more education are more likely to receive an education themselves, creating what Conzemius-Kiti described as a “generational effect.”
The Japhet Family Foundation has seen that determination firsthand. One of their first scholarship recipients in Samburu was a girl whose father had spent two years saving enough money to send her to school. She was older than other students in her grade because of the time she had spent out of school, but she had extremely strong test scores and was determined to continue her education.
Even when families address tuition costs, other practical barriers can still keep girls out of school. Without necessities like sanitary pads, girls may miss school and fall behind academically.
“Girls do not go to school these days because they do not have access to sanitary pads. You might have girls that, over four, five, six years, fall behind if they are continuously missing school.”
Today, more than two-thirds of the foundation’s scholars are girls. Conzemius-Kiti said that figure is only partially intentional; schools and community members bring many of the girls who receive scholarships to the foundation because of their academic performance and financial need.
The Japhet Family Foundation
The foundation’s commitment to education is rooted in the belief that opportunity can change not only an individual’s future, but the future of an entire community. Ambassador Japhet Kiti embodied that belief, and his family created the Japhet Family Foundation to honor his legacy.
Ambassador Kiti grew up in Kilifi County, Kenya, where educational opportunity was limited. After attending Alliance High School, one of Kenya’s most prestigious secondary schools, he pursued a career in public service, eventually becoming a Kenyan diplomat. His journey shaped his belief that education could irrevocably change the course of a person’s life. For Ambassador Kiti, the opportunity to receive an education was not a selfish endeavor; rather, it was something that could be used to serve others.
This commitment to giving back became part of the legacy his family sought to preserve. His eldest son, Catul, established the Japhet Family Foundation, with education at the center of its work, particularly for children in Kilifi County.
Today, the foundation works to provide students with opportunities that can help them overcome some of the same barriers that once made education difficult to access. In doing this, they carry forward Kiti’s belief that the right investment can change the lives of more than just the individual.
Reducing the Financial Risk
The Japhet Family Foundation helps reduce the financial burden through scholarships for students who demonstrate academic potential and financial need. The foundation selects scholarship recipients based on a combination of academic merit, financial circumstances and recommendations from community members. The recommendation could be from a teacher, community activist, religious leader, or anyone else who interacts with children on a personal level.
Over the past four years, the foundation has invested more than $65,000 in education and community development, including more than $30,000 in scholarships and student support. The foundation currently supports 18 secondary school students and five university students through scholarships.
But the foundation’s investment in education extends beyond individual students. More than $35,000 has gone toward school and community development projects over that same period, including classrooms, desks, water infrastructure, laptops and library resources.
One example is the foundation’s work in Vitengeni, where a community well now provides fresh water to residents who previously lacked reliable access. The foundation also supports agricultural education, helping provide training to local farmers and young people.
Together, these investments demonstrate the foundation’s broader approach to education: reducing the financial burden on individual families while also strengthening the schools and communities that students depend on.
Community-Led Development
The people who know these communities best shape the foundation’s approach. Rather than trying to spread its resources across too many communities, the foundation works through local relationships and focuses its investments where they know they can have the greatest impact.
This means working closely with school administrators and relying on recommendations from the communities themselves to identify students and schools that need support. The foundation also has a Kenyan director, Paul Misati, who helps guide its work on the ground and understand local priorities.
“We do not need to be the direct doers of things,” Conzemius-Kiti explained. “Do not do what you are not good at. Find who is good at it and let them do it.”
The foundation functions to minimize dependency syndrome, a behavioral theory in which communities may become chronically reliant on outsider aid instead of growing long-term self-sustainability, and works to combat it through collaboration. The foundation develops many non-scholarship projects because schools and community leaders identify local need.
“We just did a library for a school. So we provided the books and tables and lockers for the books. […] [We are] to do things like that in schools where we might be doing some scholarships, but then also try to do something that benefits all the kids in the school.”
Moving beyond simple charity, the foundation empowers students, restores their dignity and helps them build a self-reliant future.
Conzemius-Kiti emphasized, “If you can start with dignity for all the kids, everything else is easier.”
Building a Sustainable Future
For families living in poverty, the desire to provide an education is there. The Japhet Family Foundation works to close that gap, allowing students to remain in school and pursue futures that might otherwise be out of reach.
This impact extends beyond the individual. A scholarship can give a student the chance to stay in school. A library, classroom, or reliable water source can strengthen the environment in which students learn. And when communities help identify their own needs, those investments can extend beyond individual students to benefit entire schools and families.
For the foundation, that is the lasting power of education: when one child gets the chance to succeed, the possibilities can extend far beyond that individual.
– Julia Sanders
Julia is based in Fitchburg, WI, USA and focuses on Good News and Global Health for The Borgen Project.
Photo: Flickr