Working in partnership with Green Olive Foundation Kenya to fund education for young people in poverty in rural Kenya

The first and ongoing priority of the Green Olive Trust is to help young people access high school, college and university education through our Bursary Scheme.

We are proud of our two recent projects helping to rebuild a local primary school, and training young farmers by setting up the Greenhouse Project. Trustees are now concentrating our efforts on raising funds to help deserving young people to access an education with the support of a bursary.  

The educational bursary scheme all began when founding trustees visiting Kakamega responded to a plea from local community leaders. They believed that educating the young would help lift the whole community out of poverty, which would in turn help to improve health and community relations. These local people had already been supporting some young people through their education. However, the need was great, and accessing funding was very difficult, so they sought help from friends from the UK to continue and expand their work.

As a small organisation, Green Olive Trust UK can be confident that we know the people we are working with. We are able to see how the money that we raise goes to fund students who have been selected on criteria agreed with Green Olive Foundation, our partner organisation in Kenya.

The young people we support financially are from very poor backgrounds. Our high school students have often attended primary schools lacking even basic facilities such as electricity, desks and books. Because our local contacts work closely with the schools, they have proved very good at identifying young people who show potential and who cannot afford to continue their education without financial assistance. Board members at Green Olive Foundation Kenya keep in contact with bursary students and their educational institutions throughout their studies. 

Our bursaries are not the same as many charities who offer a "Sponsor a Child" scheme. We feel that it is important to maintain the privacy and dignity of our funded students, whilst trustees receive updates on how they are getting on as they progress through their various courses of study. 

We love to hear the students' stories of their lives after they have completed their studies. You can find out about some of the past students, and hear their wonderful success stories on our Meet the Graduates section on the About Us page.

All of the students featured on this website have given their permission (or we have received parental permission) for their images and stories to appear on this site to promote the work of the Trust and the Foundation.