RTSEF was set up by Bakhitah Akoth, who we have known since 2014 and has become a key contact in our scholarship programme. Bakhitah has identified children from the area around Kisumu, near to Lake Victoria, and been the key liaison with the families and schools, verifying a child’s background and suitability for a scholarship, then obtaining school fee letters and school reports, and helping sort out any problems affecting the child’s education. Without contacts like Bakhitah we simply couldn’t provide the number of scholarships that we’ve been able to.
In fact her support has been so important that she became our programme manager for two years, before recently completing her Masters in Community Development at SOAS here in London.
Having been the beneficiary of a scholarship herself, Bakhitah knows the value of a full education. She set up her own foundation so that other young Kenyans could enjoy the same opportunity and helps through scholarships and mentoring, plus promoting female empowerment. This includes training in sewing and IT, giving young women a means to earn income, whilst giving them access to loans through a savings scheme as part of a financial literacy programme.
And as if that wasn’t enough, RTSEF also runs programmes in Elegyo Marakwet county to educate the community to stop the practice of FGM for young girls which sadly remains part of everyday life in the area.
You can read more about their work at www.rtsef.org.
In addition to supporting our scholarships, RTSEF will also now be assisting with our Alumni programme. We remain in contact with most of the over 200 students who have now completed secondary school and we will offer whatever support we can to help them generate income to support their own family and community. So RTSEF will become our point of contact, checking in with our alumni students, identifying needs to help their on-going development.
And like all Kenyans Bakhitah and the team at RTSEF are used to overcoming significant challenges. The widespread flooding early in the year caused havoc in many communities leading to homes and crops being washed away. The RTSEF office and equipment was completely destroyed.
Undaunted Bakhitah set about raising funds for a permanent, more stable base. This will be away from the flood plain and be a two-story office with space for a training area and even secure accommodation for young women. It was incredible to see the progress made in such a short time and the base should be open before Christmas. It just shows what can be achieved – or as we say “Anything is Possible … if you put your mind to it”.
Their work will never be complete and RTSEF are raising funds to equip their new base with laptops for training programmes and other equipment.
