Providing sustainable help for self-help is one of Dentists for Africa’s top priorities. Since 2015, the Educational Fund has been ensuring that this goal is achieved in the sponsorship project.
“Ever since first grade, I wanted to be a doctor or nurse,” says Nelly. “Helping people is simply my passion. But as an orphan, I would never have been able to afford the cost of training.” Nelly, 24, is the eldest of five siblings. Her father died of throat cancer when she had just finished elementary school. Her mother died of a combination of several illnesses when she was 17 years old. The children went to live with their grandmother, who, at over 70 years of age, took care of the younger siblings. She could not and cannot afford the cost of schooling for the five children.
Charles experienced a similarly harsh fate. As the youngest of three children, he had to leave school after fourth grade because his single mother could no longer afford to pay his school fees. His father had died earlier – of cancer, they said. It was only later that Charles learned the truth: his father had been HIV positive. The HIV rate in the Nyabondo region is around 20 percent, one of the highest in Kenya. However, such a diagnosis is still stigmatized today and is not talked about – even though the disease is treatable, even in remote areas such as Nyabondo, and medication is subsidized through programs such as UNAID. Charles found solace in poetry! Now 19, he expresses his feelings and thoughts in countless profound and emotional poems, which he usually shares with his friends.
Charles was accepted into the DfA sponsorship program and began an apprenticeship as a welder in 2023. Nelly is now training to be a nurse and, like Charles, is a recipient of the Educational Fund scholarship.
Sponsored children who have successfully completed their school and vocational training and are now earning their own money pay into the Educational Fund. They gradually repay ten percent of the support they received. This money can then be used to support other orphans in Kenya – like a snowball system.
Currently, 29 orphans are being supported by Kenyans!
In this way, graduates of the DfA sponsorship project give destitute children a future – sponsor children thus become sponsors themselves.
“The idea reflects the fundamental belief held by many Kenyans that they want to give something back when they have been given something,” explains Dr. Hans-Joachim Schinkel, founder and first chairman of Dentists for Africa.
“Through the Educational Fund, we offer DfA sponsored children the opportunity to become sponsors and mentors themselves for destitute, vulnerable children in Kenya after completing the project. They choose the sponsored child themselves, who can then attend school or receive training thanks to their contributions to the fund.”
To date, over €91,000 has been paid into the fund and around €46,000 has been spent on the scholarship holders’ school and vocational training.
Supporting a sponsored child therefore has a lasting effect that goes beyond the individual’s own development: the sponsored child will later finance other children, who in turn will be able to support further children. In this way, Dentists for Africa puts the sustainable support of several children and the transfer of responsibility to the Kenyans into practice.
“It’s just a wonderful feeling to know that I can help,” beams Nelly, who is thriving in her training at the hospital in Nyabondo. Charles reports: “I love making things with my own hands. I process my personal thoughts and feelings, but also thoughts about the political situation in Kenya, in my poems.”
„Dear me, keep dreaming big/ Let your aspirations soar, let your spirit dig. / Never settle for less than you deserve, / For you have the power to shape your own curve.“ Charles
Would you like to support an orphan through the DfA sponsorship program? You can find all the information you need here.
In an earlier article on the topic of the “Educational Fund,” you will learn about another sponsored child who benefits from this fund set up by Kenyans for Kenyans.