To support long-term community development in a Kenyan village by funding the construction and furnishing of eight one-classroom schools, construction of a community well, and implementation of a sustainable income program. The project will be undertaken in full partnership with the local community through Free The Children. Access to clean and safe water will help prevent debilitating disease. The provision of a sustainable source of income, such as the purchase of a goat or a sewing machine for each family, will strengthen family livelihoods and enable parents to send their children to school. The schools will hold over 300 students, and Free The Children will ensure that at least 50% of the students are female.
The Sanam Vaziri Quraishi Foundation's Commitment to Action will positively affect a total of approximately 2,100 to 2,800 lives during the two-year span of the project. Of these lives, roughly half are female, and 360 to 480 are children and youth.
In its first year, the Commitment to Action will benefit approximately 1,400 lives: 240 students are expected to enroll in the learning center's basic information technology classes, and an additional approximately 1,160 community members are expected to benefit directly and indirectly from the learning center through, for example, community access to technology at the school, family member access to the students' newly acquired skills, and the learning center's establishment of a local business such as an internet caf?.
In its second year, the Commitment to Action will benefit approximately 700 to 1,400 lives. Assuming that 50% of the first year's students continue their studies at more advanced levels, the school can enroll 120 new students in its entry-level course. If none of the first-year students chooses to continue with more advanced courses, the school can enroll 240 new students. An additional 600 to 1,160 City of God community members are expected to benefit directly and indirectly from the learning center.
The City of God community, in general, benefits from the alternatives and education provided by the learning center to at-risk youth in a community marked by poverty, unemployment, and violence.
The school will be located on the premises of an existing community center, originally established by a City of God inhabitant to provide after-school activities to local children, that has already developed a strong relationship with the community. Each quarter, 80 students will be trained in basic information technology skills, with some of the students continuing to more advanced courses. At the end of every quarter, students will have used technology to plan and implement a grassroots social advocacy project. Over the course of one year, 240 students will be trained in basic information technology skills and civic engagement, skills that will help them become agents of social change as well as find better jobs, open their own small businesses, or continue their education.
The school will operate on a grassroots level. The students as well as the educators, who will be trained to implement the CDI curriculum, are City of God inhabitants, and the school will be managed by community members. In the civic engagement portion of the curriculum, it is the community members themselves who will identify the problems facing their communities and who will decide how to resolve them. The school will develop a business plan contributing to its sustainability, which will strengthen local shared responsibility for the program.
Not only the students themselves will benefit from the school. Community members will have access to the technology at the school, and examples of other indirect beneficiaries include students' families, who will benefit from the students' new skills as well as from their improved economic and educational potential. Above all, it is the community itself that benefits as a whole from the provision of an alternative to the drug trade and from the students' efforts to mobilize and empower their communities to face the challenges confronting them.
Performance metrics include:
- Number of children expected to gain access to education (formal or non-formal school programs) or improved quality of educations: 360 to 480.
- Number of vulnerable children (i.e., street children, child soldiers, orphans, child laborers, etc.) expected to gain access to an education: 360 to 480.
- Number of people expected to gain skills that would enable them to improve their economic opportunities: 360 to 480.
- Number of small and medium enterprises expected to be supported with capital, technical assistance, or technology: 2.