Shalom Academy provides Early Childhood Development and Primary Education in both kiSwahili and English to children from poor families in the village of Irovo, near Shinyalu in Kakamega county.
The school was founded in 2009 by Vitalis Tivis, a village pastor who became concerned about the growing number of children from Irovo not attending school. The reason for their non attendance was because their families could not afford the basic necessities of education, namely a school uniform and shoes, and educational supplies.
Consequently Vitalis found premises close to the village, hired a few teachers and started his own school. His philosophy – then and now – is that no child should be refused education because of their parents’ financial circumstances. All are welcome. Their parents pay what they can afford.
Before Strive for Excellence got involved, both children and teachers struggled with little or no educational, teaching and sports/play supplies. The school is now partially equipped, at least to a basic level, with pens, pencils, stationery, chalkboards, Key Stage workbooks, etc. Our resource room is quickly growing as we add curriculum text books and more sophisticated learning aids and teaching materials.
