ABOUT BAHATI

Bahati is a Swahili word that means 'good fortune'. The name was chosen by the founders in 2003 to mean that children who come to Bahati are fortunate because they fall into caring hands. Bahati Community Centre Secondary School is one of the most successful projects of Bahati Community Centre.

Bahati Community Centre Secondary School is made up of bright children who see education as the way to a better future for them and their community. Parents of these children do not have enough to pay for their children's secondary education. Therefore, a group of young people in the community, who counted themselves fortunate for having been able to complete their secondary education, decided that their calling was to make this possible for others too. They were some of the youngest people ever to found a new school in Kenya, and they are grateful that their idea took off, and that the community has been prepared to contribute in terms of human resources, skills, material and finances to make the centre run.

VISION
Make education affordable, community-based and accessible to all children and youth, to empower them economically, socially, spiritually and intellectually for a holistic life.

MISSION
Educate, empower and impart orphaned and needy children with life-long social, spiritual, economic, practical and technical skills that will make them self-reliant.

OBJECTIVES

• Provide quality and affordable secondary and technical education to students from poor or orphaned families.
• Create an educational centre where OVCs (Orphaned and Vulnerable Children) can be cared for, and rehabilitated through guidance and counselling to make them successful, acceptable and productive members of the community.
• Provide after-care programmes aimed at equipping the youth with practical and technical skills, e.g. tailoring, carpentry, masonry, dressmaking, knitting, hairdressing and technical and electrical courses that will provide students with self-employment.
• Enlighten and train youth in matters pertaining to personal hygiene, e.g. basic health care and environmental cleanliness.

BAHATI'S ACHIEVEMENTS
In its six years' experience, the school and centre have achieved the following:

a) Created Forms 1 to 4 (age groups approximately 14 to 18), right up to the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE).

b) Enabled students to sit for their KCSE examinations from 2005 onwards and achieved good results.

c) Feeding Programme: The Centre also cares for the children by providing them with a hot lunch at low cost. Each child gets one meal a day to give them energy to study.

d) The Centre has recently established two simple hostels in the community to house the homeless. The homeless children fall into three main categories:

• Vulnerable Children: Those who live under difficult circumstances such as child abuse, neglect or abandonment.
• Orphaned Children: These are children rendered orphans either by HIV/AIDS or natural causes and have no relative to take care of them.
• Displaced Children: These are children who were affected by the post-election violence. They were displaced from the Rift Valley, Kibera, Mathare and Kariobangi slums where the violence was extreme. Some have gone through very traumatic experiences and require specialized attention to return to normal. Some of these traumatic experiences include witnessing murder, loss of parents and family, being attacked or insulted on ethnic lines, loss of property and being completely displaced from home and school.

e) Bahati has recently installed electricity: See the video below.