The Souter Charitable Trust to donate £30,000 to Seed of Hope!

We are delighted to announce that The Souter Charitable Trust has recently agreed to support our Seed of Hope vocational training centres in Kitui and Kariti with a donation of £30,000 which we will receive over three years. The Trust has supported our work since 2011 and has enabled us to grow the number of graduates in our Seed of Hope programme from 172 in 2015 to 214 in 2017.

What is Seed of Hope?

Youth unemployment and poverty are critical challenges to development in Kenya.  Young people aged 18-34 make up more than one third of the Kenyan population and around 80% of Kenyans are under the age of 35. Rapid economic growth in the country has not been matched by creation of decent jobs for all leaving a whole generation left behind.

With an estimated unemployment rate of 40% for the total working population, the high number of young Kenyan people facing unemployment causes social and economic problems. They are often exposed to high-risk situations including early marriage, prostitution, criminal activity and extreme poverty. 34% of the female population is married before reaching the legal age of 18 years.

Seed of Hope works with destitute young people from rural areas and urban slums at three centres located in Kangweni (in Kitui), Kariti (in Murang’a) and Nairobi.  Over a period of one or two years, students receive training in life skills, business skills and vocations including fashion design, hair and beauty therapy, motor vehicle mechanics, carpentry and joinery and homecare management.

What will this funding pay for?

We are delighted to have received funding to further increase enrolment at our two rural Seed of Hope centres, Kariti and Kitui (Kangweni) and to upgrade facilities and equipment used for training. Both of these centres are in need of new sewing machines (for fashion design), hair dryers (for hair and beauty therapy) and computers (for business training), our Kitui centre is also in need of a rainwater storage tank to provide clean water for drinking, cooking and hand washing.

We would like to sincerely thank The Souter Charitable Trust for their continued support and look forward to keeping them, and you, up to date as we progress with this project.