In the heart of Kibera, Africa’s largest urban slum is the Chema Vision Children’s Centre, a school that is providing quality education to some of Kibera’s most vulnerable children.
With a population of more than 185,000 people according to the 2019 Kenya Population and Housing Census, Kibera suffers from inadequate housing, overcrowding, poor sanitation and poverty.
“Education is a major challenge for children born into the Kibera slum because quality education is costly,” says Mary Muthini, Director of Chema Vision Children’s Center and Co-Founder. For the past 10 years, Mary Muthini and her colleague Joseph Cheruiyot have been directing the Chema Vision Children Center.
Apart from being founders, they are both teachers. Mary is an English teacher while Joseph is a mathematics teacher who is in charge of academics. “Back in 2009, I was working at a local private school when I realized that so many children were missing out on school because they could not afford to pay tuition. Being a mother and teacher who had a soft spot for children in need, Mary wished to start her school where she would provide the kids with what the education they needed.
“I wanted every child to have an equal opportunity for education,” said Mary.
Mary sought the support of her colleague and fellow teacher Joseph Cheruiyot, who also shared the same sentiments. “I was very much happy to work with Mary because we came from the same professional background. Since quality education is costly, we decided to partner together to provide affordable education to those in need,” he says.
“Kibera also has an influx of street children. We also saw this as a chance to rehabilitate street children by getting them to school,” he adds. With the little savings they had, Mary and Joseph rented a building and bought some stationery to start them off. “That is how Chema Vision Children Center was born.
Our next step was moving from door to door looking for children in the slums who did not go to school. We were shocked to find children as old as 10 years who had never been to school,” recalls Mary. “The challenging bit was also convincing parents and guardians to let their children come to school,” says Joseph.
Mary and Joseph also knew they had to establish a feeding program for the school. “Food is a very important requirement because you cannot teach hungry children. A well-fed child will concentrate better in class,” saids Mary. Today Chema Vision Children Center has a total of 155 pupils ranging from Kindergarten to 8th grade. “Our biggest achievement is seeing all the children who have been to the Chema Vision Children Center make it through high school. We have also created employment opportunities for 11 teachers and one cook,” said Mary.
Also, one of the most important aspects of the school is guidance and counseling sessions especially to girls as well as sex education. Girls in slums, living in abject poverty, lack guidance and are sometimes pushed to early marriages and prostitution. “We have been attending seminars that enlighten us on how to guide them on such concerns. We walk them through the different stages of adolescence and teach them how to take control of their lives,” added Mary.
“Chema is a Swahili word meaning something good. Our goal is to educate and feed as many children in the slums because we want something good for the children of Kibera. Chema Vision Children’s Center is very important because it serves as a beacon of hope for our children. To some, the meals we offer at Chema is their only source of daily food.”
