Education Bursary Fund

Using funds received from Thanksgiving collections, CRWRF established an endowment fund in 2020. The goal is to use the interest earnings from the fund to support access to secondary education for children in material poverty across the globe, which is then approved by the EBF Committee, a subcommittee of CRWRF.

An Education Bursary Project Agreement was signed in 2021 with AICCAD (Africa Inland Child and Community Agency for Development), CRWRF’s partner in Kenya. Kenya was prayerfully selected as the first country where endowments from this fund would be directed for a number of reasons, including our longstanding relationship with AICCAD, the faithful presence of the African Inland Church (AIC) in the community, and the fact that more than half of the children in rural Kenya live in poverty.

The COVID-19 pandemic significantly disrupted education for Kenyan children, and after a 9-month closure, schools finally reopened in July 2021. As a result, two school years were condensed into 18 months. During this time, Carolyne Vielezi, AICCAD’s Sponsorship Coordinator, guided the establishment of three local committees, one connected to each Rescue Centre supported by CRWRF (i.e., Achego, Mufu, and Tumaini).

Local committees include representatives from the centres, the local AIC congregation, and community leaders. Each semester, they propose a list of students who qualify for support through the EBF, which is then approved via the EBF subcommittee of CRWRF. The local committees work hard to ensure that all students who need support receive it, and they search out additional funding from numerous sources, ranging from local sponsors to the Kenyan President’s office.

Through the diligent work of the local committees and generous donor contributions to CRWRF, the EBF has been able to support 43 students to date!

We thank the Lord for blessing these initial efforts and pray for his continued provision moving forward.

Currently, the Education Bursary Fund supports children in Kenya, however the CRWRF Board is aiming for significant growth in the EBF so that we can use increased earnings on the fund to expand our assistance of students in Kenya, and also in other countries where we have existing development projects. (e.g., South Africa, Mali, Senegal, and West Timor.)

CRWRF aims to increase the Education Bursary Fund to a point where we can continue to increase the number of children helped just using the interest made on the fund.