Ummah Foundation has for the past two decades given bursary opportunities to very bright poor and needy students all over Kenya at the secondary school level. Due to inflation and the high cost of living, many students cannot afford the requisite fees. There are very rampant stories of many brilliant, willing yet very poor students who have to quit learning without completing high or secondary education and vocational or tertiary & college education, because of inadequate funds or lack of funds. This Bursary Program has an immediate and vital impact on the lives of children in Kenya. Education provides essential security and support to children who often grow up in very uncertain environments.
Ummah Foundation has taken upon itself the onus to see to it that Education makes a change in many lives among the less fortunate.
More than 300 students who are currently being provided with the educational support through this bursary program are very exemplary of the type of students Ummah Foundation strives to support. They are selected due to their vulnerable situations, their level of achievement in school, and their desire to
continue with their education. The program is assiduously managed by a committee of experts who are educationalists in nature and carry a lot of veracity in their careers. They go through the applications dexterously and finally hand over a list of the more deserving to the Secretariat which has the obligation of executing and disbursing the funds to the selected students. The whole process is very transparent and the Muslim community in Kenya is very supportive of our efforts.
Currently, Ummah Foundation is struggling to raise funds for the new lot of applicants and those that are within our system and are continuing in their studies. Each year we receive a new influx of more than 500 deserving students who apply seeking our fiscal support. Due to limited resources from our side, we are forced to limit these numbers to specific qualifications and levels of the applicant’s social status by ascertaining their family incomes, whether orphans or not and whether they originate from marginalized areas where the poverty indicators are too high.
Since its inception in 2006; approximately six thousand five hundred brothers and sisters have benefited from the Ummah Foundation Bursary Scheme. Currently many are usefully and gainfully employed in various sectors. The need to sponsor more deserving students is immense and Ummah Foundation relies on philanthropic well-wishers and donors to service the Scheme. The numbers of applicants are increasing each day and the supply of funds is quite limited that we can’t meet the incessant demand. Due to our limited resources, we have limited the beneficiaries to a very minimum number and emphasis given to the secondary school level. It is our earnest appeal to all well-wishers to support us wholeheartedly to bring the change that we all desire.
