| About Our School
St. Martin’s is at the heart of change in the Kibagare slum in Nairobi, a place where poverty, substance abuse and sickness are an everyday occurrence.
Our schools
We offer a safe environment where more than 1000 of the most vulnerable children from the Kibagare slum can thrive through education and be empowered to change the futures of their communities. We also serve breakfast and lunch 5 days a week for those being educated in the school and up to 800 who aren’t due to unfortunate financial constraints.
We are running both a primary school and a secondary all girls school.
The foundation of the Primary School
What we do all started when the late Sr.Martin Wanjiru founded the Kibagare Good News Center in 1980, building it from locally sourced materials to house a hugely needed feeding program for destitute children. Expanding on this with funds from kind local and international sources, a hostel was built in 1990 to accommodate 100 children, but Sr.Martin quickly realised that education was the key to sustainably changing the lives of these street children, most of whom had been surviving incredibly harsh living conditions.
Primary School
The Primary School serves the local community of slum children aged 4-12 and is a place where they can get food, clean water, clothes and even basic medical care and emergency assistance.
Secondary School
The Secondary School started in 1992 with the goal of educating 180 girls who had graduated from the primary school but who had no hope of continuing with education.
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The foundation of the Secondary School
As a result of support from amazing well wishers and individual sponsors from the USA, United kingdom, Ireland, Spain and other local donors, St Martins secondary school started in 1992 with the goal of educating the most vulnerable local girls who had graduated from the primary school but who had no hope of continuing with education. The Secondary School is an all-girls boarding school for ages 13-18. Most of our students come from poor rural communities who rely on St. Martins for a an excellent education at accessible cost, in fact our grades are well-above average, making it very competitive against other private schools in the country. Many girls at St Martins Secondary School get access to education even if they cannot sustain the fees via the sponsorship of generous people all over the world.
COVID-19 is threatening the existence of our school
Due to the COVID crisis, the school was closed from March until October 2020. St. Martin's has only recently reopened, however only with a capacity of 20% of students with the plan to fully reopen in early 2021, depending on the development of the current situation. We have observed that the long layoff has had a negative impact on the children. With no access to the safe space of the school, children are not guaranteed a meal and are more exposed to child abuse and domestic violence.
We need your support to get ready to reopen the school for all its pupils. Find out how you can help and donate here.
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