Our History
For almost a decade, we have built a sustainable educational environment for children in the Kibagare informal settlement, Nairobi Kenya.
After nearly a decade of building sustainable, technology-enabled, educational, and basic needs programs for primary and secondary students in the informal settlement of Kibagare in Nairobi, Kenya, Kuumba co-founders recognized the need to open and expand higher education and professional growth opportunities for the secondary school graduates they met at the St. Martin's School in Kibagare. Only 8% of students are enrolled in tertiary education in Sub-Saharan Africa. In 2018, the Kuumba University Scholarship Program was founded, aimed at creating a developmental space for the spectacular students we have had the pleasure of meeting and working with while in secondary school. The growing collaboration, and the team’s desire to impact more students and further support the scholarship recipients, led to the birth of Kuumba Education — a broader effort to promote learning, growth, and wellbeing support for secondary school students and scholarship recipients.
Kuumba Education’s initiatives include not only the Kuumba University Scholarships, but also sustainable development projects where vulnerable students live and study. Such as, creating internship opportunities for university scholars, launching a secondary school business and technology club, and sponsoring personal growth mentorships for girls.
Kuumba initiatives require innovation, time, and economic resources, as we aim to close the digital divide and provide equal opportunity to quality education for our students.
We humbly ask for your collaboration. If you or anyone you know would like to get involved please reach out to info@kuumbaeducation.org.
St Martin’s School, Kibagare Settlement and the Kuumba Founders.
Today, over 150 families around the globe make up the Friends of St Martins proving renewed, sustainable, individualized sponsorship to more than 400 students who would otherwise likely not be attending school. The model rests on these important principles, also shared by Kuumba Education:
Sustainability
Sustainability - renewable sponsorship and close sponsor-sponsee relationship using advanced Salesforce solutions. Direct engagement for crating much bigger impact.
Empowerment instead of aid
Empowerment instead of aid - creating the space for the exceptional educators and staff of St Martins to do what they do well rather than trying to collect school fees.
Local sourcing or value-added initiatives
Local sourcing for any projects or value-added initiatives - funded based on their ability to be locally sourced and leveraged. Local partners include Camara Education, SunTransfer Kenya, and many individual parents, teachers, and local businesses.
Less than zero administrative cost
We count on volunteers from Salesforce and other organizations who kindly dedicate their time and expertise, as well as product to support initiatives. Each sponsor sends their sponsorship directly to the school or in the case of university students, directly to the scholarship recipients mobile phone. No middle-person, no waste.
Powered by regular visits and ongoing communication, the Friends of St Martins and Kuumba Education partnership with the school has grown and expanded well beyond tuition to help bring technology and sustainability to the school and the Kibagare community. Some notable projects include:
Solar-powered, clean, sustainable energy for the entire school.
Providing access to clean water and food with the construction of an on-site borehole
Two computer labs, e-learning software and nearly 75 student stations as well as laptops for all teachers
Community empowerment programs including parents empowerment group seed funding and support for orphaned students
Ongoing mentorship and club engagements including the secondary school journalism club
Supplemental pay for teachers and staff
Onboarding of a sponsor management system run on Salesforce at school, and including training and support tools for staff and some scholarship recipients
COVID prevention and relief efforts, community meal passouts and facility preparation project development and funding
St. Martin’s School is located in the heart of the informal settlement (slum) of Kibagare, in Nairobi, Kenya. This informal community was created when the workers of a local coffee plantation were displaced after Kenya won its independence. Here, families live without access to public services, often with many family members in a small, clay floor, aluminum shanty on salaries that are less than 2 dollars per day.
St. Martin's mission is to educate as many of the community's children as possible, providing a safe environment where they can play, learn, and receive regular meals. The school began partnering with Salesforce in 2006, when the tech company supported the first internet line into the slum. After a period of deteriorating conditions and economic barriers, a renewed effort was made by friends and family from salesforce.org, including Kuumba founders, to build a more sustainable empowerment program. The idea was to empower the school where almost 1000 of the most vulnerable children from the Kibagare slum could thrive through a personalized sponsorship program, helping students meet basic needs such as food, water, and shoes, as well as a high-quality education and access to modern technology.
Engagement culminates in an annual trip for the group to visit the school and community in order to build interpersonal relationships, meet their sponsored student and understand further opportunities for impact. If you would like to learn more about St. Martin’s or sponsoring a child, please click here.
It is not beyond our power to create a world in which all children have access to a good education. Those who do not believe this have small imaginations.
