Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) Foundation has agreed to increase its involvement in offering scholarship to students in order to reach more deserving cases as well as supporting other socio-economic activities across the country.
Mrs Susan Omanga, KCB Foundation Chairperson said the Foundation has supported Education through limited scholarships and assistance with infrastructure and learning materials for needy schools during the annual KCB Community Week and on other occasions in the past seven years.
Said she: “KCB Foundation is a key player in community socio-economic empowerment providing support in the areas of Environment, Enterprise Development, Health and humanitarian Intervention.”
The KCB Foundation “was established in 2007 under the laws of Kenya as a charitable trust and is governable by a Board of Trustees Assisted by a secretariat,” she said, so far the Foundation has funded 70 students “to pursue secondary education with a number of them successfully progressing to various universities.”
And in partisanship with Palmhouse Foundation the KCB Foundation has “funded 24 students to join national schools from various counties in Kenya to a tune of KShs 4.8 million,” she pointed out.
Mrs Omanga was speaking when she was presenting Kshs 5.4 million to Starehe Boys Centre and Starehe Girls Centre, Kshs 2.8 million and Kshs 2.6 million, respectively to support the education of 10 students in each school.
It's noteworthy that Starehe Boys Centre (and latter, recently Starehe Girls Centre) was founded by the late Dr Geoffrey William Griffins, assisted by Mr Joseph Gitobu, and Mr Geoffrey Geturo to give hope and meaning to street children - 70 percent of the students are expected to be from disadvantaged background.
Mrs Omanga who has been Member of the Board of Directors in KCB Ltd since June 2004 told the congregation that the students were “identified for KCB and will join a special club of of KCB alumni with whom we shall keep close contact for many years to come.”
Additionally on education, Mrs Omanga who is a holder of a Degree in Business Management and Marketing said “the KCB Foundation has partnered with Computer For Schools Kenya to establish ICT laboratories at selected schools in various locations of the country.”
Last year they commissioned 8 laboratories at the cost of Kshs 2.9 million, this year the Foundation will finance another 18 laboratories in various counties at the cost of Kshs 7.53 million as they push more Kenyan youths towards computer literacy.
“We plan to achieve one laboratory per county by 2012 and will implement the balance of the schools in the course of next year,” the KCB Foundation Chairperson said, adding that the “Foundation will continue to focus on its other key thematic areas in order to continues to offer holistic support to our communities.”
The Foundation is looking forward to work with identified partners under the Friends of the KCB Foundation Partnership Programme to deliver high impact assistance to deserving cases.
“We will be working with acumen Fund, the World Wide Fund, Kenya Forest Services, Kenya Wildlife Services, Kenyatta national Hospital, Ahadi Trust, and Kenya Red Cross Society, among others to deliver value in the five thematic ares of our engagement,” she said.
She unveiled that the Foundation's budget for 2011 which is Kshs 120 million which will be deployed carefully to ensure it delivers much needed support for Kenyan communities.
“We will continue to work through our regional branch network to reach communities in all part of East Africa,” she said as the Foundation promise that they will engage their staff in tree planting during the KCB Community Day in the process of seeking to plant one million trees in 2011.
“We will also be supporting needy schools during the KCB Community Week with involvement of our staff at various locations,” she further pointed out, adding “during the festive seasons such as Idd ul fitri and Christmas our staff will lead the spread of the much yearned – for festive spirit to underprivileged members of ours society.”
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