From tying a shoelace to changing a tire, lessons in practical life skills are essential to preparing students for success. At our Mawewa Primary Schools, we believe that hands-on lessons that build on one another and are designed to foster long term independence and competence amongst our students, are essential to providing a holistic educational experience.

Though a majority of our students are forced to grow up quickly, learning to fend for themselves at an early age, many have experienced neglect when it comes to hygiene and personal care. When our learners join our school, we share with them the importance of developing a sense of self-respect and dignity, taking pride in one's appearance and building a personal care regimen, which are important practical life skills that are not a guarantee to learn at home.

To this end, we recently engaged our 5th Graders in a practical lesson on how to do laundry. Due to the high cost of washing machines, which make them inaccessible to the majority of the population, and the lack of access to consistent running water or electricity, clothes in Kenya are still mostly hand washed.

For this practical lesson, one of our teachers, Mr. Chemiati, moved the classroom outside. Supplied with buckets, soap and water in our school courtyard, the children were divided into 2 groups, in which they individually hand-washed one of their white school shirts and hung them up to dry in the sun. Mr.Chemiati awarded grades to the two groups and to individual members of each group. Each learner’s grade will add up toward their final grade for the school-based assessment at the end of the term, which ends in late July.

At our eduKenya schools, we partner with our students' parents and caregivers, helping fill in the gaps that our students' families, many of whom have been living in generational cycles of poverty, may be unable to fill. When you give to eduKenya you help children grow in dignity and self-respect through personal transformation in big and little ways.

Would you give a gift today to continue to help the children of Mathare flourish?