Inaugurated in 2002, the aim of the OXFORD KENYA PARTNERSHIP is to improve secondary education for young people in rural Kenya by working in direct partnership with schools and developing their capacity for self led growth. This is primarily achieved through equipping schools with a solid resource base, and also through supporting a wider, more holistic programme.

The children in the target schools are mostly underprivileged. Volunteer students from Oxford and Cambridge Universities contribute every year by working with a school, but within a cohesive long term strategy. The students work in pairs for two months, and each pair raises funds in the UK to invest in sustainable educational resources for their Kenyan school. Once there, they work with teachers, governors, children and parents to create a memorandum of understanding with the school, including a three-to-five year action plan to form the framework of a development programme, a document unique to each school.

The students then train the teachers and children in the use and maintenance of the resources that have been purchased, so that they can undertake responsibility for them when the volunteers return home. The BWCF was pleased to fully support one student’s work in the Kisii region of Kenya.