About OSF
How we came to be...
The NGO Orphelins Sans Frontières was created in France in 1994 following the Rwandan genocide. In 2002, the East African section of OSF opened in Nairobi. However, OSF East Africa is financially independent from OSF France.
Since 2002, nearly 60 institutions and schools in different slums of the city have benefited from OSF’s actions and capacity building support, which represents approximately 300 teachers and more than 7000 children, but since 2006 the NGO has broadened its field of activities with the aim of making its actions more sustainable.
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OSF started gathering information from primary informal schools in Nairobi slums and surroundings in March 2006 to develop suitable, sustainable activities. The schools targeted in 2006 are located in congested areas without proper sanitation, access to water and electricity; such as Kangemi, Riruta, Uthiru, Mathare, Kawangware and Kibera. Public schools are very few in such areas and cannot accommodate all children, particularly the ones unable to pay the school fees.
The children attending informal schools face extreme poverty and some of them are orphans (20 to 30%°) or HIV positive (10 to 20%). Most of the centres, in addition to the education programme, try to have a basic feeding programme especially for the malnourished children.
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OSF EA was started in 2002 in Nairobi with the objectives
* to defend orphans or destitute children
* to train teachers from informal schools in the slums areas of Nairobi
* to support informal schools with material assistance
Since February 2006 OSF EA has broadened its field of activities. It has a permanent staff of 2 people: a Belgian Director (volunteer) and a Kenyan Field Officer. In 2006 it benefited from the work of 2 French volunteer trainees.
Our Involvement in the Education System of Kenya
During its field research in Kangemi, OSF EA discovered an association which brings together most of the local informal schools and provides to each other mutual assistance.
The Westland's Division Complementary Schools Association (WECOSA) is a non-political and a non-profit organisation of informal schools. It is a registered self-help organization whose sole objective is to support informal schools, which will in turn support the under-privileged children. This organisation already works efficiently but does not have resources to reach their goals. It is for this reason that OSF chose to develop and reinforce this organisation by the creation of a Resources Centre for informal schools that will meet the needs of teachers and the children and bring opportunities to the local community.
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OSF EA keeps close contacts with the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Culture and Social Service in order to follow their policies and regulations. Both institutions approve greatly the project as it implements their policies.
