Our only Kenyan partner school, Ilmissigiyio Primary School, is particularly poor and poorly equipped. However, the biggest problem was the lack of qualified teachers. Well-trained teachers are the key to good teaching and successful learning for pupils. One method that has proven effective in East Africa for retaining good teachers at a school in the long term is teacher housing: Teachers save themselves long walks to school and living conditions are often better than in the villages, especially if the schools have water and electricity.

Since Ilmissigiyio Primary School is located in a very isolated, sparsely populated rural steppe region, teacher housing is particularly important here. Thanks to the commitment of the German partner school, the Anna Schmidt School in Frankfurt, and funding from the TOOLS FOR LIFE Foundation, PROBONO was able to build a new house for up to seven teachers at Imisigiyio Primary School.

Success was not long in coming: as soon as the building was completed, the Kenyan government sent two new teachers to the school!