Kenyan couple in RAK dig deep for aspiring teachers back home

Jane Ndungu says she was compelled to act after seeing a young Kenyan neighbour quit school to become a maid. Satish Kumar / The National

RAS AL KHAIMAH // Teacher Jane Ndungu and her husband Robert Noah have been setting aside money to pay for the education of impoverished, but academically promising pupils in their home country of Kenya.

“I think the most important thing for us is just having a life transformed,” Ms Ndungu said. “For us, it’s the satisfaction that they have been empowered. Their lives have been changed.”

Ms Ndungu began helping the less fortunate when she was living in Kenya. After seeing her neighbour, an academically gifted young woman, quit school to become a housemaid, she was compelled to act.

“She was getting so little money but I knew she was brilliant,” said Ms Ndungu, 49. “I wasn’t earning a lot of money at the time but with what I was receiving, I could be able to pay for her course, so long as I was paying in instalments.”

Although there were challenges along the way – including the need to force the girl, Purity Karimi, to take a term off because of unexpected financial strains – the sponsorship was a success.

Ms Karimi graduated with a bachelor’s degree in education and secured a job teaching in a public school.

Ms Ndungu and her husband established the Bridge Soma Centre to help other promising young Kenyans break the cycle of poverty through education. Soma is a Swahili word for empowering oneself through literacy.

The couple have spent between Dh162,000 and Dh252,000 financing the cost of a four-year degree programme for nine students in their home country. Three others are in the programme and three are on a waiting list.

“Having come here, that totally changed everything because the salary that we receive here is quite substantial compared to what we get back home,” said Ms Ndungu, who has been teaching at the Ras Al Khaimah Academy for the past six years. Her husband also teaches there.

“My husband said it’s like we’re helping them to cross a bridge from one side that’s really difficult to another side that’s more promising.”

About two years ago, Ms Ndungu was forced to choose between financing her own master’s degree in education or paying for another young Kenyan’s education. It was a choice she would rather have not had.

She applied to the Sheikh Saud bin Saqr Al Qasimi Foundation for Policy Research Teacher Scholarship programme, which offers qualifying RAK teachers financial grants that cover up to 50 per cent of the cost of the tuition for a master’s degree or other course related to education.

Since its launch in 2011, the programme has awarded 47 scholarships to distinguished Emirati and expatriate teachers.

Jessica Andrews, community engagement associate at the Al Qasimi Foundation, said the programme was meant to support “people like Jane, who are really invested in their profession and in this community”.

“There’s a lot more interest in it than we are able to provide support for, so we really are careful to choose teachers that are invested in the community and have the staying power and the right goals.”

With help from the foundation, Ms Ndungu earned her master’s in education from the American University of RAK this year.

“The foundation’s sponsorship enabled me to comfortably continue supporting those students as well as pursue my studies,” Ms Ndungu said.

Dr Natasha Ridge, executive director of the foundation, said: “Developing people requires understanding their individual needs and cultivating meaningful support networks. Jane’s commitment to education embodies this belief.”