Eunice, aged 24, is one of the 300-plus vulnerable and orphaned children supported by the Nasio Trust in western, rural Kenya. Having lost both her parents in her childhood, she was relocated from relative to relative with no stability. She began being sponsored by Nasio at age 12 and started volunteering with the social work team at charity a few years later. Eunice became a young mother at 19 but the passion to learn did not leave her. She joined university and earned a diploma in Social Work and Community Development, while looking after her infant son. She is now working as the Project Manager for Social Work at Nasio and is an instrumental part of the team. Through Nasio’s support – both monetary sponsorship and mentorship, Eunice overcame severe odds to reach where she is now.
Poverty is often described in common parlance solely through the prism of low incomes. But it is a far more complex creature, and captures deprivation across multiple dimensions. Poverty is not only the lack of money but also the lack of access to basic public goods such as food, healthcare, sanitation, water, and education. Tackling this multidimensional poverty is incumbent on developing structures for the dissemination of basic needs.
To combat the exclusion that comes with poverty, a UK-based charity –The Nasio Trust—has made the provision of education, food, and healthcare the foundations of its poverty-alleviation programmes in rural Kenya. The Nasio Trust operates on a unique model of providing holistic opportunities to its beneficiaries – primarily vulnerable or orphaned children.
Based on the belief that institutionalisation of children in orphanages leads to detriments in their welfare, The Nasio Trust operates two Early Childhood Development Centres where children are provided with pre-primary education as well as free school supplies and uniforms. The two centres – Noah’s Ark and St Irene’s—currently educate 120 children. The ECD centres double as safe spaces for children to lead a normal childhood. They are also venues for a feeding programme to ensure that children receive at least one meal a day. The feeding programme is an example of how meeting a basic need improves school attendance and retention.
Education flattens inequalities that are constantly reinforced through the cycle of poverty, making school education decisive for poverty mitigation. Along with its ECD centres, The Nasio Trust’s thrust on education also promotes enrolment into primary, secondary, university, and vocational education. Of a total of 320 children sponsored by the charity, 75 are in primary school, 78 are in secondary school, while the rest are enrolled in tertiary education.
In the twenty years of its operations, The Nasio Trust has sponsored varying levels of education of over 1,000 children. Several of these have returned to give back to the community – having successfully broken the cycle of poverty.
Who is Nasio Trust?
The Nasio Trust is a UK-based charity that aims to break the cycle of poverty by empowering communities through education, healthcare, and income-generation in rural Kenya.
GIVE
Your support can mean the difference between impoverishment and a bright future for scores of young children!
ACT
To learn more about other projects run by the Nasio Trust, visit their website.
PRAY
Please pray to safeguard Noah's Ark - one of the Nasio Trust's daycare centres, which is under threat of closure through eviction. This has jeopardised the future of the 100 children who study there and depend on it for food.
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