Milele means forever in Swahili, but what does that really mean to Milele? That is a question that our Trustees have been pondering over the last few months. Whilst we have a wide variety of ages across our 19 sponsored young people, we are now being faced with our first batch of graduates from the sponsorship programme.

As I am sure you will have seen, Emmanuel graduated from University of Nairobi in December 2018 and if you have not seen this then please check out our blog post all about his journey here. Charo has completed some operational courses in driving heavy machinary and is on the cusp of joining the world of work and Josephine is hot on his heels and will be completing her secretarial studies in the coming few months.

Obviously, sponsorship cannot continue forever and to do so would be counterintuitive. We are supporting these young people to equip themselves with the skills they need to build a sustainable life independently.  Having said that, part of the ethos of our charity is that all the children and young people have a sense of community and family together. Which leaves us with a conundrum that sponsorship must come to an end, but we also don’t want to oust our young people from the community and support they have access to.

We are also very aware that building financially independent young adults does not mean that they will never again need extra money or support. Sometimes we are all faced with unexpected costs or perhaps we want to do some further learning or training and this all comes with a price tag.

After many discussions and head scratching, the Trustees of Milele are pleased to introduce our “Graduate Program”. The program has two primary functions.

Firstly, it is committed to maintaining support for our young adult’s emotional wellbeing and family. This means that they will continue to be a part of the Milele family and invited to any group gatherings. Perhaps being a role model for the other children in our programme, as ultimately it is their hard work and dedication that has led to their success and not the sponsorship. Most importantly we wanted to ensure the continued access to the support offered by Rieder and the comfort that they will always be part of the Milele family.

Secondly, using a portion of the incredible amount raised at our ball, we have set up a “Graduate Grant Fund”. This Grant is open to all the graduates of the sponsorship programme. In order to receive funds from the Grant they will need to complete a short application form which sets out what the need the money for, such as training course or living costs for an unpaid internship, and also how much they will need from the fund. The application is a way for our graduates to practice their skills, learn about the process of applications as well as financial planning.

As always Rieder’s Kenyan knowledge and experience is invaluable to Milele and our decision making, with the Graduate Grant being no exception to this. Rieder will be integral in not only supporting with the graduate with their application but also the evaluation of the  application in terms of assessing the viability and sustainability of the proposal in Kenya.

As Trustees we recognise that our strengths lie in the administration of the fund’s resources and the importance of local knowledge in this process cannot be understated. For example, an application to purchase solar phone chargers with a view to operating a business generating income from charging people’s phone may not make any sense when we live in a country with ready access to electricity in every home. However, when looked at from a Kenyan perspective where access to electricity and phone charging facilities can be very limited, it actually presents as an astute business plan.

Although the Graduate Grant is a new mechanism for Milele, we have already been supporting our young people with the type of activities we envisage will be perfect for the grant. For example, with obtaining their driving licence or completing some further education courses.

We are absolutely thrilled to be sharing this new plan with you all and we hope you will agree that it fits with perfectly with our vision of forever.

Congratulations to Steven and Saidi, who both graduated from Kindergarten in December! This week they will start in their new primary classes. They won't be changing schools as Mtwapa Elite goes right through, but they do get a posh different coloured PE uniform!! Very grown up! They are very excited - lets wish them luck in their new classes and all have a little nostalgic moment remembering how much they have grown!!

CONGRATULATIONS TO THEM!