Education
Realizing the Dream To Educate Girls for a New Kenya
Read: Mother of Mercy Center Newsletter Jul 2024 PDF
Sitting atop a mountainous region in the rural Rift Valley, The Mother of Mercy Girls Secondary School opened its first classroom in 2011. Today, over three hundred girls are enrolled for the 2024 school year. The school provides room and board, and a strong education foundation for those ages 14-18. Many of the students receive support for their tuition and board at this time (USD 700/yr.) but the school has initiated a basic tuition requirement which families are working towards paying in full. Until then, the Mercy Center Foundation, USA is raising funds to support those most vulnerable to attend school through partial scholarships. We are working to cover the students needing the most help with school fees.
Many of the girls who arrive at the school are at-risk youth and seek safety, shelter, and a nourishing environment. Early child marriages are a problem when girls are not given full opportunities to gain an education. As a result of your efforts to help, students are thriving emotionally, intellectually, and physically at the Mother of Mercy Girls Secondary School.
The teaching staff, administrators, and volunteers associated with the school's building have begun the journey to transform lives and develop the potential of girls from Lare and other parts of Kenya. In recent years, a computer lab for students learning new technology now is part of their core curriculum. In addition, science labs for chemistry, agriculture, biology, and physics have been completed in 2019. We have also added a home science class and a school library. These provide excellent infrastructure for ensuring that the school will provide the best science education foundation needed to help girls to graduate and go on to college/university levels.
The dormitories were also completed in 2017-2018 and now house more than 350 students. Complete with showers and baths, the dorms have provided students with one beautiful place to rest from their studies and grow strong bonds of friendships and understanding between one another.
A beautiful track and field was recently completed in 2024, supporting all of the School’s physical education and training programs. The track and field teams are excited to have a high-quality track for competitions and the field will be used for soccer and other sports teams. The Mercy Secondary School’s track team has had numerous runners who have been offered scholarships to different colleges and universities in Europe and the USA.
The Mercy Project partnered with Commissioned by Christ (CBC) a non-profit organization in the Arlington Diocese, which has led seven mission trips to Kenya with over 100 participants. Students, families, teachers, and clergy are invited to join these two-week missions to Kenya. The missionaries work on focused projects like painting, patios, gardening, and building small school improvement projects on campus. Many of those who participate find the trip to be an extraordinary and special experience getting to know the girls and sharing together in prayer with the students. These bonds of friendship serve to strengthen the ties of civic education and faith between the people of the United States and Kenya.
n recent summers, Mercy board members have visited Kenya to monitor the development of the school and Mercy's input to programs on the ground. They established connections to the girls, the Mercy Secondary School Staff and the local community. With proceeds from our annual races, the Georgetown Half Marathon and foundations, corporate grants, and individual donors, we hope to fully fund the construction and completion of an exemplary secondary school complex to support girls’ education. Sr. Rose is very excited about the prospect of the real Mercy Project legacy and said, “I have great hopes that these young girls will change the life and culture of their families and Kenya for generations to come.”
Today, many graduates of the Mercy School are going on to college and a good number of them have also received full scholarships based on their talents. They are also going on to vocational training schools. The girls are attending universities in various countries through athletic and academic scholarships including the USA, Italy, and other countries.
“Education is the great equalizer for our girls and will help them transform our society for progress in so many fields,” said Sr. Rose.
Please join us in this most worthy undertaking. Visit with the girls of the Mercy Secondary School by viewing their recent interviews on our Youtube video and help us by making a donation to achieve the dream! Thank you to the many benefactors who are helping to make the dream a reality!
Celebrating education trophies during zonal price giving day.
"Limited access to educational opportunities and healthcare perpetuate a cycle of poverty and disease."
