Upendo Junior School, Kenya
We support a remarkable school in Kiminini, a remote village in Kenya, that is changing the lives of local children.
The Upendo Junior School was founded by Dr Peter Masibo Lumala when he returned to his home village of Kiminini in Kenya after completing his PhD at the University in 2007. He and his wife, Rose, converted their home into a charitable school after they were shocked to find their community vastly changed because of poverty, civil war and HIV/AIDS.
Some years on, the school - called Upendo after the Swahili word for ‘love’ - has expanded and now has eight teachers and more than 120 children, many of whom are orphans.
The new school house in progress, 2016
Annual fundraising
The School of English holds an annual fundraising event in December to help pay the cost of various building and resource projects at Upendo.
Each Christmas, we run a highly successful bake sale where staff and students are invited to bake sweet or savoury treats over a period of two weeks at the end of the autumn term. The baked goods are then sold in the School of English to the hungry occupants of the Trent Building!
Find out more about Upendo Junior School on their website
Alumni Laureate Award
In 2009 Masibo received an Alumni Laureate Award from the University to recognise his work and partnership with Wadsworth Fields Primary School, whose teaching staff visited Kenya in 2009. The two schools have embarked on a joint project to share information about their primary school curriculum.