We’d like to tell you more about our partner charity Operation Imprezza and how the pandemic has been affecting their work. They are, like us, a small UK based charity that has supported the establishment of, and now the operation of Imprezza Academy in Western Kenya. The school provides education to children of all ages who would not otherwise go to school and there are currently around 320 students with a waiting list over 200! The school is co-ed and students include HIV/AIDS victims, orphans and is open to all religious and ethnic groups.
The charity has been working for over 15 years and over 2,000 students have passed through Imprezza Academy, progressing on to almost 50 career paths. Their huge fund-raising efforts have helped to set up the Academy, build dormitories, pay for teachers, feed the children, build a borehole for clean water and generally allow the education of the students to run very successfully.
We’ve started to work with the school, by providing funding to buy fabric that is being used to make and sell reusable pads, that will help local girls and keep them in education.
However, COVID has had a dramatic impact on the operation of the Academy as all schools, colleges and universities have been closed with the vast majority of the Academy students (well over 300) either back with their families or placed in the community. Teachers have been personally preparing and distributing schoolwork, often by motorbike taxis, two days a week and picking up completed work. But the government’s rules are changing rapidly and it is now hoped that schools will be allowed back this year and the successful operation of the Academy can start again.
We’re looking forward to continuing our partnership through the pandemic and beyond.