In November 2025, the Trustees agreed a grant of £4,500 a year for two years to Gap Kenya, with a possible third year to be considered at the end of that period, to pay the salaries of two teachers at the Joseph Centre in Mwakirunge, on the edge of Mombasa. The first payment was made in December 2025. This is a salary grant rather than a capital project: we are funding people, not bricks, and the aim is to give the centre the staffing it needs to open more days each week.
Gap Kenya has now sent us its first-year report. Here is what our support has made possible.
Four days a week instead of two
The Joseph Centre serves children growing up around the Mwakirunge garbage site, many of whom have never been to school or have dropped out because their families could not pay fees. Our grant pays for two teachers, Nancy and Jofrey, and contributes towards one support worker. Together with Gap Kenya’s wider running costs, that has allowed the centre to open four days a week throughout 2026, up from two.
As Gap Kenya puts it, “opening four days each week has given children more consistency to practise and build on their learning.”
21 children into formal schooling
The headline result is that during 2026, 21 children transitioned from the Joseph Centre into formal schooling. Ten are fully supported by Gap Kenya, and others have received help with uniforms. The children still come back to the centre for breakfast and lunch, and in the school holidays they continue to receive teaching up to Grade 3.
A further six children are ready to start school in January 2027. One will join pre-primary, four have learnt enough at the centre to skip the first pre-primary year, and one is able to go straight into Grade 1.
Saumu, Rebecca and Esther
Three stories from the report show what consistent, individual teaching can do.
Saumu, aged eleven, was sent home from school for fees her parents, who depend on scavenging, could not afford. She arrived at the centre two years ago well behind in reading. Paying her fees alone would not have fixed that; she needed to learn letter sounds first. She returned to school in 2026.
Rebecca’s education ended in Grade 1 when the government closed her school. Two years of literacy and numeracy at the centre gave her the confidence to go back, and she rejoined school this year in Grade 3.
Esther is thirteen and uses a wheelchair. When she joined last year she could not speak, read or write. She is now learning her first letter sounds. Gap Kenya is looking for a specialist school that can offer her education alongside physiotherapy.
A challenge from the Children’s Department
Earlier this year the local Children’s Department directed that the Joseph Centre should only provide for children up to five years old, with older children expected to be in school. That leaves no route for children who are now too old to join pre-primary or Grade 1. Gap Kenya is waiting to meet the department’s new manager to find a way forward for these children.
Looking ahead
Gap Kenya’s aim is to open five days a week in 2027. An extra day means more than teaching salaries, as food and transport costs rise too, so the team is seeking food donations from Kenyan wholesalers and more regular donors in Kenya and the UK.
We look forward to the second year of this grant, and to hearing how the January 2027 intake get on.
