In December 2021 and January 2022, 312 young people, 221 of them girls and young women graduated from the 2021 Seed of Hope cohort. Students from three centres across Kenya came together to celebrate our most successful year yet in terms of student numbers at Seed of Hope. Seed of Hope staff, family and friends attended the ceremonies and alumni joined us to share their stories and inspire recent graduates. There was a real air of celebration with dancing, singing and smiles all around and young people with a sense of pride and hope for the future – thank you for helping make this happen.

 

One of the newer elements of the Seed of Hope programme is the introduction of childcare vouchers for any students (mostly girls and young women) with dependents. This was introduced when we heard that many young women struggled to attend classes due to caring responsibilities. Every student with children now receives a voucher that they can use towards the cost of childcare. One of the young women who received the vouchers told us “I have never imagined someone giving me money for taking care of my child as I learn for free without paying a single cent. I feel like crying, for the first time in my life I feel love”.

 

Our team has worked hard in the early weeks and months of the year to recruit the first cohort of 2021 with 215 students in total enrolled, 114 of which are girls and young women. With our new shorter courses this is just one of the multiple cohorts that will pass through the Seed of Hope training centres in 2022.

 

For our Nairobi students, this will be the final year that they are learning from makeshift classrooms and old shipping containers – with our plans to build a brand new, accessible and purpose built centre on our Nairobi site taking shape and with around 15% of our budget left to fundraise for. You can find out more about this by checking out our GlobalGiving project ‘Skills training centre for 14-25 yr olds – Nairobi’.

 

We are as always so grateful for your continued support and can’t wait to update you again soon.