Our Programs
Community-Driven Education (CDE)
Facts
Education in East Africa
Over one-fifth of children between the ages of 6 and 11 in Sub-Saharan Africa are out of school, followed by one-third of youth between the ages of about 12 and 14
Across sub-Saharan Africa, 9 million girls between the ages of about 6 and 11 will never go to school at all
47% of schools in East Africa lack basic sanitation services (toilets)
People with low literacy skills are more than twice as likely to be unemployed, and illiterate workers earn 30-42% less than literate workers
Featured Project
Kaswanga Primary School, Kenya
Kaswanga Primary School is located in Suba North, Kenya, serves 389 students and has 10 teachers. The community consists of approximately 2,000 households, and most people earn a living by fishing in Lake Victoria. Due to restrictions on public gatherings due to COVID-19, the GPFD-Kenya team met with small groups of school and local leaders who helped disseminate information and solicit input from the larger community. The school’s latrines (toilets) were identified as the greatest need as they presented a significant danger to the students. The girls’ latrine had collapsed, and the teacher’s latrine block was almost full and likewise showing warning signs of collapse.
The soil at the school is clay, and there is a very high water table. To make the toilets at the school safe and sustainable, our engineering team designed four blocks of SanPlat latrines for girls, boys, teachers, and ECD (preschool) students. The SanPlat latrines use trapezoidal blocks to line the pits, which help guard against the latrines collapsing in the future. The local community also contributed to the success of this project by digging the latrine pits, providing timber, and transporting water for the project using donkey carts.
