The Activation Trust

Activation provides an environmentally focused education for children in Kenya who would otherwise be excluded from secondary school. 

We set into action with a group of 10 vulnerable children, both girls and boys, 7 years ago. Activation funds the children's education and week-long environmental workshops 3 times a year.  The children came into the programme when they were about 12 years old.  

We work with them consistently for 7 years, many of them are now in University.

Each workshop introduces a new topic of either local or global concern.  For example; we introduced the children to the need for wildlife conservation on a field trip to the Masaii Mara and we introduced them to the importance of recycling materials on a field trip to the recycling plant in their local town Kisumu. 

Like endangered species, vulnerable children need protection and nurturance to grow.

We want to foster an awareness of local and global environmental issues for the children as they go through school. 

How we work

We are a UK registered charity with no administrative expenses in the UK.  Our Kenyan manager Maurice Odiwa regularly visits the children and facilitates the workshops.  We have two other part-time staff who have been with us for the past 5 years coordinating the programme with the community at large.  We listen to and work closely with our Kenyan counterparts.  People who work with us ideally do so for the duration of the programme.  We have been blessed with their consistency and ability to deliver results over a 7 year period.

Maurice Odiwa

Seven years on most of them are in University programmes funded in part by themselves.

Academic Acheivement

All of the children's marks improved during secondary school.

Note: The dip in 2012 is a result of 2 children leaving to start University 

Watch our dance workshop on water

"Water Ways" we looked at access to clean drinking water in one of our last workshops

How we started

Ten years ago we visited a young man called Mark Nyangor in Kenya.  Mark's education had been sponsored by a relative of ours. He graduated from Starehe Boys school and wanted to start a school of his own.  Mark introduced us to the district of Migori and the surrounding villages.  A year later he died of AIDS.

Two years later we started Activation's programme.