By MN Reporter
Community attached to Petals of Africa School in Ngochoni area which borders Suna West and Kuria West constituencies have benefited from Sh1.69million full scholarship bursaries.
Ben Migore, the academy’s chairman of board of directors distributed the cheques which will cover the entire fee in the new academic calendar for 51 students in high school.
Migore said they started the academy started in 1986 at Ngochoni area which was an epicenter of cattle rustling and tribal clashes between the Luo and Kuria community.
“Ever since we started the academy we have been working to uplift it at the community level through donation of food stuff and volunteers throughout,” Migore said.
The academy has over 75 per cent of students as orphans and the rest as being vulnerable not only from the area, but across the county.
“Our students here don’t pay any fees and we have managed to push them through the entire primary school education system, we saw a gap in continuing with their education at secondary level which saw the need for bursary,” Migore said.
Speaking to Migori News at the institution on Tuesday when offering the cheques as schools re-open, Migore said the donation was facilitated by friends from United States of America.
“We appreciate the effort given by our donors and friends, we are sure the beneficiaries will be in different schools across the country with most being national schools,” Migore said.
The academy headteacher Emily Akirapa said the school has over 500 students and have been performing well in national examinations with the top student getting 407 marks out of 500 marks, and the last student getting 357 marks.
The school had a mean score of 381,42 placing it not only among the top schools in Nyanza region, but across the country.
“We have been able to get best results in the area, before getting a student from primary school getting a calling letter to a national secondary school was hard in this region, we have completely eradicated that,” Ekirapa said.
Ekirapa and Migore said they hope to build a clique of elites from the area which will ensure development is brought through education and peaceful co-existence between the Luo and Kuria community.
“Through the school we have been able to have members of both communities to come and sit together which has greatly ended hostilities,” Migore said.