Every support counts!
Mathare is a slum of over 1 million people located in the heart of Nairobi in Kenya. It is a place where hundreds of thousands of parents raise their children, most of the time without access to quality education and proper sanitation facilities. Guardian Shining Stars Academy’s purpose is to provide children in Mathare a chance to quality education. Most families in Mathare do their best to provide for their children, but many face financial hardships day to day.
GSSA operates independently and is financed through the fees collected from students and rent collected from other educational organizations for use of specific classrooms. GSSA is continuously looking for financial support to improve the well-being of students and teachers and asks for your support through sponsorship and other forms of donation.
Mathare
The big number of people, houses, animals, and a range of other living things call the urban community home. If you considered its land area alone, it would be unimaginable how over 1 million people could call this small space home, but in Nairobi, it is possible. Though the conditions may not be ideal, the sense of community is strong. Many of the residents living in the slum areas grapple with insecure residential status, poor structural quality of housing, insufficient living areas, inadequate access to safe water and inadequate access to sanitation. Illiteracy and drug abuse are also high in the slums.
Schools in Mathare often pop up out of pure necessity. They are scarce, under-resourced, and teachers are often untrained, but the children’s education remains the priority and driving force of all involved. Families can’t afford public institutions, let alone private schools, so community driven schools are created to fill the need. Underprivileged children lose their ability to have a normal childhood. They aren’t capable of developing emotionally, physically, and socially. Moreover, research has shown that they are more likely to be depressed, have low self-esteem, not receive an education, and suffer from a lack of sleep and bad nutrition. As these children grow up, they are less likely to positively contribute to society since they might not be able to hold a stable and well-paying job. Instead of working, they are more likely to partake in crime and fall victim to the criminal justice system.
Our Story, Our Solution
Guardian Shining Stars Academy (GSSA) is a community-based school domiciled at the heart of the Mathare Slums. Children here are full of life. GSSA quenches their thirst for basic education and provides them with a safe haven of sorts to dream again for a better future.
GSSA gives some of the world’s most vulnerable, high-potential students a chance to rise above extreme poverty through education, talent nurturing, and mentorship to achieve their goals, earn a meaningful living, and build better lives — for themselves, their families, and their communities. By choosing to support GSSA Pupils through sponsorships to their education programs, you can help provide impoverished children with the opportunity to escape the cycle of poverty and build a better future. The amount of your contribution can be little but the change you bring will be monumental.
Meet Merily and listen to her story.
Merily studies in Grade 7. Together with her siblings, they have school fees in arrears since 2022, and has to be sent home from time to time until she shared her story with the founder Joshua. GSSA currently sponsors her uniform and books, whilst a friend of GSSA supports her meals.
Sponsorship Packages
Our sponsorship packages that we ask for are all-inclusive for a child to receive education at GSSA – the amount includes school fees, exam fees, supplies, meals, hygiene products for girls, and other operating costs such as utilities. Below are recommended amounts to sponsor a child’s education at different academic stages, and every bit helps.
Our Priority
Our priority for sponsorship goes to support students based on needs and merits based on the following:
1. Students showing high academic achievement and/or potential and an urgent financial need
2. Students showing an urgent financial need
3. Students showing high academic achievement and/or potential (this becomes a form of scholarship)
We also welcome sponsorship specifically for our teachers (e.g. a fund for merit-based bonus) and a general fund for school operations and improvement of our facilities.
Our Commitment
We endeavour to use the sponsorship funds for the purposes indicated by the sponsor and utilise the funds only for GSSA.
Please reach out to Joshua Nyulia, our Founder and Director, for more details! You can find our contact information on our home page.
Additional Ways to Support
You don’t need a lot to make a difference. You can donate anything from money to old books and even used clothes. If you want to donate, but you’re not sure what your options are, here are some things you can do:
1. Volunteer at GSSA (donate your time)
2. Donate food or other supplies
3. Offer your skills like tutoring
4. Spread the word about the children’s needs and GSSA
Frequently Asked Questions
1. I want to sponsor a child. How do I pay?
For individuals and organizations | General
We accept direct payments to our school’s bank account with KCB Bank Kenya Limited, a financial services provider headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya. It is licensed as a commercial bank, by the Central Bank of Kenya, the national banking regulator. Please contact us for the full bank details.
For security purposes, please ensure payments are directed to the school’s official bank account with Kenya Commercial Bank.
– Account Holder: Guardian Shining Stars Academy Ltd.
– Account Number: xxxx1315xxxx34 (partially displayed for verification of authenticity; no other account should be used)
Visit the KCB Bank Kenya HERE
For individuals | Local payments
We also accept payments to our school’s M-PESA account.
For individuals | International payments
We are working towards adding an option to accept international payments more easily. At this point, we kindly ask that you do a direct wire transfer to the school’s bank account.
2. do i have to sponsor the amounts recommended in the packages above?
No. Every child benefits from the support you give. We welcome sponsorship of any amounts, but recommend this be at least for 1 term of an academic year to ensure some continuity in the learning.
Coming soon…