The Mathare Community Education Development Organization (MCEDO) works in the center of the Mathare slum in the east of Nairobi, the oldest and second largest slum/substandard residential area in Kenya.
The core of the organization is a school founded in 2000 and officially registered by the Kenyan education authority in 2001, the construction of which was made possible by the Chinese embassy. The school has a secular orientation and is a non-profit organization. Through the successful implementation of various community education and development programs, the institution has since created educational opportunities for many economically and socially disadvantaged children and youth from Mathare Valley. The school is currently attended by 505 children and young people between the ages of 6 and 18. It provides education and learning opportunities in a Preschool, Primary and Secondary School to ensure competitive human capital development supported by quality education, knowledge and other programs that promote social skills in particular.
The goal is to reduce poverty, hunger and wasted potential. Thus, the result of the education and training process will be the empowerment of young people on their way into the country's economy and society. The MCEDO School is therefore an ideal center for the promotion and development of children and young people from the Mathare Valley.
In addition to imparting knowledge and promoting talent, the programs implemented primarily include HIV and sex education, the provision of hygiene articles (especially for girls and young women) and the nutrition program. More than half a million people live in the Mathare slum; most of them are women and children - the orphan rate is up to 50% in some cases due to the high mortality rate of adults, mainly as a result of infectious diseases (e.g. HIV). The birth rate is high, early pregnancies among teenage girls are common, the crime rate is high (to name but a few) - factors that hinder or make impossible the development of children and young people in Mathare.
Most people in Mathare slum live on less than a dollar a day, making it difficult to meet the basic needs of the people, especially the children. This leads to a large number of school-age children whose parents cannot afford education and who have to make an important contribution with their own work (child labor) to support the families' food and income situation.
MCEDO
The MCEDO School is a center for the promotion and development of children and young people from Mathare Valley.
Nutrition program
The provision of food for the children (pre-school and school children) by the MCEDO School helps them to find their way to school and thus have the opportunity to learn - true to the motto that a hungry child cannot learn.
Until last year, the MCEDO School received financial support from the UN World Food Program (WFP), which was used to buy food for the children and young people's daily meals and prepare them on site. In September 2018, the WFP withdrew its funding and left the school management to continue organizing the food supply; this has been patchy ever since, as donations flow irregularly and there is no compensation from the state. With the help of the donation from proWIN, the children can be provided with food for a whole year.
Until last year, the MCEDO School received financial support from the UN World Food Program (WFP), which was used to buy food for the children and young people's daily meals and prepare them on site. In September 2018, the WFP withdrew its funding and left the school management to continue organizing the food supply; this has been patchy ever since, as donations flow irregularly and there is no compensation from the state. With the help of the donation from proWIN, the children can be provided with food for a whole year.
