Village Project Africa

Our goal is to equip women and children with the knowledge and skills they need to provide for themselves and transform their lives and communities. We provide humanitarian services such as food, clothing, education, medical care and life skills training primarily in the village of Makutano, Kenya and its surrounding communities. We do this through various ways: Heritage Academy is Kenyan-run and staffed and serves children age 3 through class 8, and currently is at the maximum capacity of 650 children. Many of our children are sponsored so that they can attend school without fees. We still need more sponsors for children from families who struggle to pay fees every month. We have excellent teachers and some of our students have consistently high rankings on national tests. Much of this education has taken place without electricity, which we were able to install in 2013. Our first two classes of eighth graders tested in the top 20% in the country for high school placement in November, 2015 and 2016. We now have 90 high school students in Classes 9 and 10 (Form 1 and 2.) We will continue to grow our enrollment to 200 high school students as we add a class each of the next two years. Our dance team has placed number 1 or 2 at the Kenyan national competition the last four years. Heritage College educates mostly women to be pre-school teachers. Many of our students receive a sponsorship so that they can attend college. Our graduates, who come from various communities, are sought to fill positions at schools around the country. Over the last few years, we have graduated more than 100 students from our two year program. Women in the area meet weekly to have time together to build community. We teach them life skills such as sewing (some have become tailors) bead-making, crocheting, and farming. Many have learned skills that provides for better lives for their families. Grace House Clinic is a well-equipped clinic that serves the community. Free healthcare is provided for the women in our programs and all of our students. We have medical teams from the US and other countries come from time to time to provide large-scale clinics. Nutrition is improved through our farming that has gardens, cows and chickens. We have a very deep well that provides clean water for the community and water for irrigation during the dry season. We feed more than 850 students and staff lunch each day with these resources. As Village Project Africa continues to expand and grow, our hope is that this small spark will kindle a movement of change for an entire nation and continent.