After nearly 20 years it’s time for a new chapter in the story of African Promise.
Effective from the end of June, we are ceasing our day-to-day activities and operations in Kasigau and transitioning to a model of providing financial support directly to our partner schools from the UK.
At the same time, I have personally decided, having given the entirety of my adult life to date to Kasigau and to the charity’s partner schools, that it is time to seek new challenges and embark on new adventures. Whilst it has been a privilege to be in a position to have done so and whilst immensely proud of what has been achieved, the pressure and responsibility that comes with running AP and being the loyal and responsive partner that the charity is, and with needing to raise tens of thousands of pounds each year, has, at times, been an overwhelming burden to carry.
Consequently, we will be significantly scaling back the extent of our support for our partner schools over the course of the rest of this year and from 2026 onwards it is likely our support will be limited only to modest ad-hoc donations, primarily towards the upkeep of facilities and infrastructure and for other small-scale projects.
After this year we will no longer provide food for a daily lunchtime meal for each pupil at every school nor will we donate as much, if any, funding towards the salaries of extra teachers and support staff as we do now. It had already been decided a long time ago that there would be no ninth partner school.
This news has, of course, been difficult to break to the headteachers and administrators of our partner schools and with all those who work alongside the charity and have helped us achieve what we have. There have been some very honest and, at times, emotional conversations over the last few weeks.
For better or worse, our partner schools have come to rely on the charity in many different ways over the years and this decision will, of course, impact them, their staff and their pupils significantly. That is absolutely not lost on us and we are doing and will continue to do whatever we can over the remainder of this year and beyond to soften that blow. Whilst the extent and nature of our support will change, we will remain a friend to our partner schools; we are absolutely *not* abandoning them completely. We have invested too much time, money and, frankly, love (not to mention blood, sweat and tears) over the last two decades to do that!
Even with this decision having been made, – in fact, largely *because* of it – there has been a huge amount of activity in our partner schools with our support over the last few months. Nearly 250,000 litres of (rain)water storage capacity has been added across six schools – around 30% of the total capacity we have added historically – whilst work has also commenced on kitchen gardens at the two remaining schools where we had yet to support this initiative. Other small projects which we have supported with funds given directly to schools have also been completed or are in the pipeline – a model for how we intend to support the schools in the future.
We fully appreciate that this development might come as something of a surprise but we hope it will not be cause for any disappointment.
We will continue to be in touch as normal with updates over the weeks and months ahead and there may be a time in the not too distant future when it is appropriate to come together to reflect on and celebrate all that the charity has accomplished; with the help of so many of you we have already helped transform eight schools beyond recognition and left a legacy that will positively impact children in this part of Kenya for many more years to come.
Thank you.
Charles