An estimated 150 high school students from Bondo sub-county, Siaya County, will benefit from the Sh1 million set aside by the Andiwo Obondo Foundation as a fee subsidy this calendar year.
Speaking during the launch of the programme in North Sakwa ward, the foundation Director, Thomas Andiwo, disclosed that fifteen students from each of the six wards will benefit from the school fee subsidy.
Andiwo further revealed that additional students will be picked from the township location, which was given special consideration because of a larger population.
He stated that the fee subsidy programme targets needy students in secondary schools and other tertiary institutions within Bondo sub-county.
” We will be reaching out to two wards in each term, and at the end of term three, we shall have reached and offered a fee subsidy to about 150 students in all the six wards,” revealed Andiwo.
The director stated that each of the 15 beneficiaries from the North Sakwa ward received five thousand shillings from the programme to support their education.
He observed that there is a high number of vulnerable households in Bondo, adding that most families struggle with school fees due to high poverty levels, thus threatening the education of many children within the locality.
Quinter Omondi, from Nyawita village and a beneficiary of the fees subsidy, thanked Andiwo for the noble initiative, adding that the grant will help her daughter, a student at Tar Tar Girls Secondary School, to continue with her studies uninterrupted.
Omondi said she has been struggling to raise a fee for her daughter in a national school, but the subsidy has come in handy when she needed it most.
John Okech, a resident of Sinyanya village, said the subsidy will enable his son studying at Got Matar Polytechnic to sit for the examination, which he was about to miss.
He thanked the Andowo Obondo Foundation for the kind gesture and challenged other leaders in the region to emulate the initiative in support of vulnerable children to give them opportunities in life in order to avert crime perpetuated by poverty and idleness.
By Brian Ondeng’