Nairobi News

News

Starehe targets to raise Sh600m for needy students


Starehe Boys and Girls Centres are seeking over Sh600 million to finance the education of about 1,000 bright but needy students amid funding struggles in one of the country’s elite institutions.

Raymond Rono, the chairman of the Old Starehian Society (OSS), the alumni body, said that the funds will foot the education, food, accommodation and health costs of at least 70 per cent of the students who rely on the school sponsorship.

The funds will be mobilised under the Griffin Memorial Endowment Trust (GMET), which was formed in 2009 in honour of the school’s late founder Dr Geoffrey Griffin (right).

FUNDING CHALLENGES

The move comes a year after the institution admitted to funding challenges that left the education of about 600 bright but needy students at stake.

Currently the fund has Sh200 million in its coffers which is invested with the interest earned being used for the sponsorship of children from deprived backgrounds.

“With 2,000 endowments of Sh1 million each, totalling Sh2 billion, the GMET fund will guarantee free places in both the Starehe (boys and girls) Schools, forever or for as long as both GMET and the schools are in existence,” Mr Rono said.

Starehe Boys Centre last May said that it had raised Sh24 million out of a target of Sh150 million needed to fund the needy students’ education last year.

NEEDY BUT BRIGHT

The institution awards the bursary to needy but bright boys and girls it admits every year based on their performance in the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) examination.

Starehe Boys Centre was founded in 1959 by the late Dr Griffin, the late Geoffrey Geturo and the late Joseph Gikubu.

It provides care and education for students in needy but bright students alongside its sister school, Starehe Girls that was founded in 2004.