Spurgeon's Academy

Spurgeon’s is a K-9 school for orphans and vulnerable children (many of whom have been highly impacted by HIV/AIDS) in Kibera, Nairobi – with 1.5 million people concentrated in one square mile, the largest slum in Africa, and one of its most destitute. Spurgeon's was founded in 1999 by a Kenyan NGO, Spurgeon Child Care Kenya.

Spurgeon’s now has an enrollment of about 600 students. They use the funds given biannually for buying textbooks, building much needed infrastructure on their property, some of which has been reclaimed from the railroad which took it, for staff salaries and other pressing needs.

The school now includes not only a social worker to help with finding foster families and other student-related issues and the link with a next door clinic that treats students who are AIDS-positive, and also a childcare facility for the younger siblings (age 3 and over) of some students. Their annual budget, largely from UK charities, is about $66,000, so the $6500 we provided in 2017 added about a tenth to it, an important supplement. In 2019 visit about $8000 was given. During the worst of COVID we could not visit Spurgeon’s. Each gift is preceded by receipt of a proposal from Spurgeon’s headmaster detailing what funds are needed to accomplish goals.  In 2023, we’ll go and provide approximately $20,000, made possible because IOTF now helps only Spurgeon’s. Kenya is well known to be rife with corruption, which affected the other projects to the point that we could not continue our support for them, especially while our fundraising efforts were strongly diminished during COVID.

Distribution of donated clothes at Spurgeon’s Academy