Kisumu West Sub County development Fund has unveiled a special education kitty for needy learners and christened it Kisumu West Wings to Fly kitty to enable students from vulnerable backgrounds join Form One.
Kisumu West area MP and CDF chair Olago Aluoch joined by the learners, their teachers and educational experts flagged off the learners Tuesday in a ceremony held within the constituency.
The Kisumu West CDF fund manager Naftali Ojuma clarified that even though the CDF kitty is also christened Wings to Fly like that of Equity, they are however financed by different bodies but it was given the name because it was the bank that undertook the recruitment of the beneficiaries.
Ochuma noted that out of the 30 learners that they had picked, 15 of them would benefit from full scholarship while the rest would get partial scholarships up to the form four level.
“This programme is in two categories; that is the full scholarship and the partial scholarships where beneficiaries under the full scholarships will enjoy total scholarship with every cost met by the CDF kitty including boarding, uniform and shopping whereas the beneficiaries under the partial scholarship will just benefit with fees of up to 25,000 and school uniform,” divulged Ochuma.
The programme is under the national government affirmative action fund and Kisumu West has this financial year set aside funds totalling Sh10 million to support the programme that is currently in its seventh year since it commenced.
The programme kicked off by setting aside Sh2 million which has currently grown to Sh6 million with Sh10 million set aside to cater for the same this year.
The secretary of the Kisumu West CDF Mrs Hellen Sijenje said the beneficiaries under the programme were selected in a transparent and deserving manner devoid of any corruption and foul play.
“These beneficiaries are chosen only dependent on merit basis assessed by a sub-committee setup by our MP where even if you are the MP’s relative, that doesn’t qualify you to benefit because the sole discretion of selection lies with an independent committee known as the bursaries committee,” stated Sijenje
“The full scholarship are awarded to learners who have attained 350 and above but are needy and the application is first done by circulating the application forms to the would be beneficiaries upon which we call them for a face to face interview followed by home visits before we settle on the identified candidates,” clarified Sijenje
“The turmoil that most of the parents of these learners face especially those who get half scholarships is doing the admission because of the burden of the fee so we alleviate this for them also by procuring school uniforms for the beneficiary learners,” added Sijenje
The programme has also roped in those living with disabilities as noted by their representative Ayub Ouma saying,
“I work in the office of Hon. Olago Aluoch as in charge of the department dealing with those with disabilities and I want to thank the MP for taking into consideration also the plight of learners living with disability,” said Ouma.
Kisumu West Deputy County Commissioner Mr. Vincent Muchiri on his part hailed the programme as playing a critical role in accelerating access to education by the locals thus fostering faster development in the local communities and neighbourhoods and for the local residents.
Many of the beneficiaries including Jared Onyango, Joseph Odhiambo,, Garishon Ouma, Gabriel Ouma and Valery Akinyi and their parents hailed the MP thanking him for establishing the education kitty which they praised as timely and instrumental in grounding and shaping the destiny of the local constituency’s future generation.
