Charity founder Ndungu Nyoro was touched to see many bright and needy students either dropping out of school or failing to join secondary education due to lack of fees.
"My experience with such cases when I was invited by a local bank to assist in the selection of scholarship beneficiaries was an eye-opener," he says.
Nyoro says what he saw in 2017 when he visited one of the homes to assess if the candidate could qualify touched him. He immediately thought of doing something.
His work then was to participate in shortlisting and selecting beneficiaries of the bank's scholarship programme.
It often involved making visits to the homes of potential beneficiaries to assess the real situation.
Nyoro says at one home, he saw parents really determined to get a chance.
Most of them were poor and could hardly afford basic needs, such as food. His work was to listen to the neediest.
However, every case he listened to deserved the opportunity, but slots were limited. This was because resources were scarce.
The heart-wrenching narrations pushed him beyond the limit.
If resources were enough, all those he had interacted with would have benefited.
But since resources were limited, he vowed to do something to help most of the cases he came across.
"As a strong believer in education as an important way to end the vicious cycle of poverty, I had to do something," he says.
In 2018, he registered Affecto Foundation as a not-for-profit charitable organisation.
It is profiled online as the "culmination of numerous and successful online campaigns on social media aimed at assisting the needy access healthcare, education as well as cater for social needs".
"However, we used to assist needy students way before the foundation," Nyoro says.
Affecto Foundation's target is to nurture talents with a view to producing all-rounded students through mentorships.
Nyoro says his organisation is dedicated to transforming the lives of orphaned, underprivileged and destitute vulnerable children.
A call for donations describes its core mission as rescuing students who come from poor and disadvantaged backgrounds but perform well in their primary school-leaving examinations.
These are children who have missed out on access to secondary education because there was no money for school fees or transport to school, or they faced irregularities within the education system.
Nyoro says through collaborative efforts with government officials, they have also rescued many underage girls from early forced marriages and female genital mutilation.
Affecto Foundation sponsors needy children’s education expenses, from the most basic primary school education, through secondary school education, to their tertiary or undergraduate education programmes.
"We provide them with food, clothing, shelter and medical care, and every other personal requirement that will enhance their basic living and support their academic excellence," he says.
Nyoro adds that they intend to play a critical part in producing leaders and innovators for the country.
He says so far, 110 students have joined various high schools across the country.
"We had the first cohort of six stars, five of whom have joined various public universities. They passed with impressive grades during this year's KCSE examination," he says.
Nyoro says his foundation seeks individual and corporate sponsors as well as crowdfunding.
"We have started organising fundraising events. We intend to do this more regularly."
"In the near future, we intend to start engaging in income-generating activities to complement the ongoing fundraising events."
Nyoro says beneficiaries have been performing well.
"Five of the students in our first cohort are now undertaking top-notch courses, such as engineering and economics, at public universities. Their discipline and leadership skills are equally admirable," he says.
Edited by T Jalio