By:Glory Mwagambo
Lafithi Primary School in Magarini Sub-County, Kilifi County, has received a major boost after Bandari Savings and Credit Cooperative Society donated Sh300,000 ($2,300) to help address its deteriorating infrastructure and support children facing barriers to education.
The school, which has 113 pupils, has been struggling with inadequate classrooms, hunger, long distances to school and reported encounters with wild animals, challenges that have contributed to rising cases of absenteeism and school dropout.
Head teacher Elizabeth Jumwa said some pupils walk long distances through dangerous terrain to reach school, while others remain at home because their families cannot provide enough food.
“Many children walk long distances to school and have to traverse dangerous terrain which is infested by wild animals, including lions. Some also stay away because of hunger,” Jumwa said.
The Sh300,000 donation will be used to kick-start the construction of four classrooms, while Bandari SACCO members have pledged to provide uniforms, books and shoes for the school’s 113 pupils.
Jumwa said the school urgently needs additional support to construct a boarding facility, which she believes would help protect pupils from risks along their routes to school and improve retention.
“If we can get someone to construct a dormitory for us, we can retain most of these children in school,” she said.
Bandari SACCO chairman Moses Sirgoi said the intervention was part of the cooperative’s community social responsibility programme and would continue until the school achieves the infrastructure needed to provide a safer learning environment.
Sirgoi, who visited the school alongside about 150 SACCO delegates, also urged individual members to contribute towards the initiative.
“My members have committed to buy uniforms, books and shoes for the pupils and we are going to deliver the items as soon as practicable,” he said.
The situation at Lafithi Primary School reflects a broader challenge facing children in remote communities, where poverty, inadequate school infrastructure, food insecurity and difficult journeys can prevent pupils from accessing and remaining in education.
With the first phase of classroom construction now supported, the school is appealing for more partners to help provide a boarding facility and other essential infrastructure that could keep more children safely in school.