Education For All Children

Our focus is to provide access to secondary education, support transitions to tertiary education, and position our students for successful employment upon graduation. Along the way, we develop soft-skills, digital literacy, critical thinking, and career-readiness for our students. EFAC graduates are Kenya's future professionals, leaders and social change makers.

Access to Education

EFAC provides scholarships to Kenya's top secondary schools and universities for over 600 students. Our model covers tuition, uniform, books, transportation, and living stipends for each student. To date, 99% of our scholars have graduated from high school, vs. 11% of vulnerable Kenyan children. 98% of those graduates have qualified for tertiary programs vs. only 28% of Kenyan students nationwide.

Mentoring

EFAC students lack role models and support networks at home – many are orphans from the streets of
Nairobi’s slums, or hail from rural communities that promote harmful gender norms and customs. We
have a multi-layered mentoring approach for our students, including teachers, staff, peer-to-peer
mentoring, university mentoring chapters, and over 50 Kenyan career professionals. We know that our
strong focus on mentoring drives our students’ academic, personal and professional success.

Community Service

100% EFAC scholars give back to their communities. We weave an ethos of giving back into every layer
of our 8+ year program. There is a direct correlation between community service participation and
student success; through volunteering, our students are building confidence, poise, professional skills,
and a sense of self-efficacy. The time our scholars spend doing unpaid work is significantly impacting
their ability to access paid work upon college graduation.

Career Development Program

Through a series of workshops, intensive mentoring, and online training, EFAC’s Career Development
Program provides a pathway from education into careers for our students. Our four annual Bridge
Workshops are the key components of this work and are the single most important aspect of our
program outside of scholarships.

EFAC was co-founded by Dr. Leah Marangu of Kenya, and Nancy and Rod Van Sciver of the U.S. Our organization has always had dynamic leadership, staff, and Boards of Trustees on both continents. Now 12 years into operations, we have 7 full-time Kenyan staff in our Nairobi office, along with 1-3 alumni interns. Our U.S. office consists of 3 full-time and 3 part-time staff. These teams are led jointly by our Kenya Country Director and U.S. Executive Director. We have a 14-member U.S. Board, an 8-member Kenya Board, and a 10-member Kenya Business Advisory Board. All boards meet 4-6 times per year, and meet jointly at least 3 times.

The Kenya team facilitates all aspects of our program: student intake and supervision; school partnerships and tuition; data collection and metrics; Bridge Workshops and community events; and internships and career placement. The US staff is responsible for financial monitoring; partner and foundation relations; data collection and interpretation (MM&E); fundraising; donor relations; and communications.

EFAC has strong partnerships throughout the education and employment sectors in Kenya. Our program is a leading provider of secondary and post-secondary scholarships in Kenya, as well as a respected comprehensive mentoring and career development organization. We harness the talent and expertise of Kenya's top educators and career professionals who fill our leadership and advisory positions across staff and Board.

EFAC has come a long way, but we are just getting started! In 2009, our first class of 43 secondary scholars joined Form 1 in high school, and we have since grown to support over 600 students, making us one of the most significant scholarship programs in Kenya. We have expanded our model to encompass a whole child approach, providing layers of support and guidance at every level along a student's 8-year journey in our program. From professional mentoring, mental health counseling, peer mentoring/tutoring networks, teacher liaisons, and residential Bridge workshops, EFAC is paying attention to every aspect of a child's experience as she/he navigates the path out of poverty.

As a key player in Kenya's education sector, EFAC has developed strong partnerships with primary school NGO's to provide a path forward for their talented 8th grade graduates (including Shining Hope for Communities, UNHCR and the Kakuma refugee camp). We have partnerships as well with over 20 of Kenya's top high schools, who accept our students and provide oversight from teacher liaisons. We now take 100 Form 1 (9th grade) scholars per year into our program, placing them all at Kenyan single-sex boarding schools to provide a high quality education. At the post-secondary level, our students attend over 60 university and diploma programs across the country. Over 80% graduate within four years. Amongst Kenya's most vulnerable populations, only about 1% will ever earn a bachelor's degree. EFAC students are defying the odds at every level.

Since inception, EFAC has grown its career development component to include digital literacy, soft skills training, internship and job shadowing placements, and partnerships with numerous Kenyan corporations and multinationals. All post-secondary scholars complete internships during their college years, and attend our employability workshops to prepare for successful job entry. Included in our post-secondary scholarship is a laptop for each student, so they can build their digital skills during their college years. These are critical for successful workforce entry in Kenya as across the globe. We are proud that 88% of EFAC graduates are employed in a job or internship within 12 months of graduation: the average job placement for a graduate in Kenya is 3-5 years.

Overall, EFAC is on a growth trajectory and is poised to catalyze further impact across the education and employment sectors in Kenya. We have our sights set on greater numbers of students, stronger employment outcomes, and a growing Alumni Association to serve as mentors, networkers and ultimately sponsors for new EFAC scholars. We have strong, diverse, and sustainability fundraising sources that are driving our growth forward, but it is the leadership and talent of our Founders, staff and most of all, our students, that make up the heart and soul of EFAC.