Scholarship Process
Prospective scholarship recipients are students living in Mathare Valley Slum who have attended private, government, or non-formal primary school in the slum and who have completed Standard 8 with the minimum required score for high school in their final exams.
The Canada-Mathare Education Trust is focusing on Mathare Valley Slum because it is very large – over 600,000 people and the majority of the population are children. There are very few NGOs and other aid organizations currently working there, as most work in Kibera, Kenya’s biggest slum. The scholarships will be advertised to and only open to students from Mathare (children living and/or attending school in Mathare).
The process for each scholarship award is as follows:
1. Kenyan Agents and the Board of Trustees review current scholarship recipients’ progress reports and performance during the past year. Students performing satisfactorily will have their scholarship renewed for the coming year, before any new scholarships* are rewarded;
2. Our Kenyan Agents, in consultation with Mathare primary school principles and teachers, identify potential new scholarship recipients – those with great need, who show strong potential and a commitment to giving back to the Mathare community;
3. Candidates meeting the basic academic requirement (250/500 in their Kenyan Certificate of Primary Education examination) are interviewed by our Kenyan Agents to assess their suitability for a CMETrust scholarship – based on academic potential, commitment to giving back to the Mathare community, ability to live away from home in a boarding school environment, and financial need;
4. The results of these interviews and comments from our Kenyan Agents are forwarded to the Board of Trustees, who make the final selection based on the agents’ recommendations and the amount of money available for new scholarships that year.
*The number of new scholarships awarded annually is based on the amount of funding available after previously awarded scholarships are renewed.
