About Our
Organization
Who Are WE?
Primary Foundation has been set up to work with public sector schools in places which share our vision to (re) create schools as places of beauty, joy, inspiration, and dignity for our children, their teachers and the rest of the school community.
No house can stand without a solid foundation. The challenge before us is immense – so many schools need so much.
Primary Foundation is the expression of our belief in community and our mission is to help improve the environment and the physical infrastructure of primary schools in Watamu district, Kilifi County, Kenya, for all our children.
Why Are WE?
Sustainable Development Goal 4, which strives, by 2030, to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all. Read on to find out what the particular challenges in Kilifi are:
1. Building Blocks
All 12 public primary schools in the Watamu area in Kilifi County have class sizes above the maximum ratio suitable to deliver optimal learning for children – 25:1 child to teacher ratio.
2. Room to breathe
The most congested school has a ratio of 102:1 children to teacher per classroom. Overcrowding in a hot part of the country makes classrooms hot and uncomfortable places for both teachers and children. We want to give everyone room to breathe.
3. A Place to Pee
The lack of adequate toilet facilities further limits comfortable presence at school during the 6-8 hour school day, and poses a significant health risk for soil transmitted and other infectious diseases. It's hard for kids to hold it in for hours on end, and for everyone to have to use smelly overfilled facilities. It gets worse as kids approach puberty. We want everyone to sit on the throne with dignity. We will build a lot of toilets.
4. Yikes, the Bikes!
Boda-boda motorbike riders, with a deserved reputation for general unruliness and disregard for rules, noisily ride right across the school compound during lessons, stirring up dust that gets into windowless and screen-less classrooms, causing distractions and potential danger to members of the school community. We'll keep the cross-country traffic out.
5. Room to play
Children are endlessly creative and can make a lot out of a little to play with. Still, the spaces in which they play should be safe and stimulating. Our schools lack appropriate outdoor facilities for children to exercise and play, which puts a damper on their access to all resources needed for their optimal development we'll get on the ball with, the kids. Let's play!