There is no wealth like knowledge, no poverty like ignorance - Ali ibn Abi Tali
The Foundation for the Future A simple phrase, yet it means so much. Founded in 2006, and receiving charitable status in 2007, the Kennair Educational Foundation's focus is to provide programs for impoverished, at-risk and war-affected youth and young adults so that they have the opportunity to look at a future of being self-reliant.
Since founding director, Richard Kennair, first started volunteering in Uganda in 2002, he's been passionate about working with groups who are trying to help themselves and their members. He found youth groups floundering because they did not have the tools or access to funds; Vocational training centres focusing more on selling goods to raise operating expenses than on training their students; school-aged youth floundering as they could not afford the school fees to attend secondary school.
Founded as a tribute to his then terminally ill father, Edward Kennair, who passed away in January 2009, the Foundations goal is simple. Help individuals and groups become self-sufficient and no longer reliant on aid. To do this, we focus on 3 areas: Community-based Youth Groups; Vocational Training; and, Secondary Education.
The Foundation has partnered with community-based youth groups in a few different ways. With one group, we funded the development of fish ponds, with the harvest being split between re-stocking and helping members develop their own ponds, with some funds being used to assist in administrative expenses. We are looking into developing another piece of land with this group and starting a demonstration farm for the community. With a group of young women at risk of being on the streets, we have assisted them in developing a fund-raising project (beadwork that is sold through our partnership with Akonye Kena), and we will provide them with the equipment to commence training these young women in textiles once they find an appropriate trainer.
The Foundation has partnered with vocational training centres. Our goal with these partnerships are to expand the training from being simply skills-oriented to a holistic approach, covering life skills, small-business management, and topics such as backyard farming. The centres we have partnered with have been overwhelmingly female oriented, so we are actively looking for male-oriented training centres to partner with. We are in the process of establishing our own centre in Gulu, Uganda, to focus on textile design (the product of which will be sold through Akonye Kena). We target that this will be operational by January 2010.
The Foundation's ultimate goal is the establishment of the "KEF Academy". This will be a secondary school that offers a combined academic and vocational curriculum. There is a critical need for secondary schools in Uganda (in 2008 300,000 passed their Primary Leaving Exam, there were only 180,000 places in secondary schools). Given that less than 2% of youth get into university, an alternative has to be found. Discussions with many contractors in Uganda indicates that they need skilled workers, and currently most youth can only get jobs as labourers. Our goal is to combine the academic curriculum with an industry-developed curriculum. The KEF Academy is not a small task, we want to spend the time, and get the funds, to develop a benchmark institute. While we are developing the Academy, we will continue to sponsor youth at secondary schools.
We believe that our forward thinking and innovative approach makes us the Foundation of the Future. We want to break away from traditional development models which has seen $1 Trillion in aid given over 50 years - with the result of poverty rising from 11% to 66% in sub-Saharan Africa. Those models have not been successful.
We believe that our goals and actions help our beneficiaries develop Foundations for Their Own Future. That is our challenge, that is our commitment.
We cannot do this without your help. Please donate to Kennair Educational Foundation. Whether you are able to donate once, or are able to make monthly donations, you help is critically needed and appreciated.
On behalf of ourselves, our project partners, and their participants, THANK YOU. It is only through the generosity of others that we can truly help deserving youth become independent.
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