Dear Reader,

Welcome to the first official Newsletter of the Geno Project. As many of you will probably know the Geno Project is a charity based in Scotland and its main focus is on providing scholarships for students to attend secondary school and state University in Kenya, primarily for students from the village of Osika, Homa Bay. Although primary school education is free in Kenya, secondary school is not and can be very costly. Through scholarships we enable Kenyan students to fulfil their academic ambitions.

Many of our students have indicated: "I wouldn’t be in this good school without the financial and moral support of Geno."

Although the Geno project was not officially started until early 2015, its two founders Paul Macdonald from Scotland and Solomon Ariko from Osika, Kenya have been working together on numerous projects since 2005. In 2015 Paul and his two daughters Iona and Seonaid Macdonald registered a charity in Scotland (SC045720) with the help of fellow trustees Murray Mathieson and Leonard O’Brien. Shortly after Roselyne Oloo joined the Kenyan side of the team. She is one of Paul’s first sponsored student to graduate from university. Today the Geno project is supporting 66 students at secondary school and in September the project will support a further 13 students at university.

This newsletter will introduce you to our first University graduate Jacob and the struggles he has faced to get to where he is. This is a remarkable life story. Jacob demonstrated what is achievable even though many obstacles were placed in front of him. Furthermore Solomon reports about a seminar which was held in May this year for the students of the Geno project. Solomon acts as a mentor and adviser to the students. Occasionally he is also a guardian.

Find out more about the Geno Project please visit our website at www.genoproject.co.uk. Here you can read up on what we do, donate and find out how else to get involved. Alternatively you can get in touch by email at info@genoproject.co.uk.

Your Geno Team
SC045720

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Jacob

Hallo Everyone!

I am Jacob, 27 years old. I am a Kenyatta University graduate with Bachelors degree in Medical Laboratory Science. I am working as a volunteer at Homa Bay County Referral Hospital in the Laboratory Department where we are doing various diagnoses of tropical diseases and screening of blood.

I am the last born in the family of 7 namely; Keziah who died at 2 years old, Hellen, Sospeter who died in 2012, Janet who died in 2008, Daniel and Esther, my twin sister, died when she was 9 months old. So now we are Hellen, Daniel and I. My father died in March 1990 when I was 8 months old. After his death the family disintegrated since my mother could not provide for us so we were sent to relatives who took care of us.

I was taken to stay with my grandmother, from my mother’s side. I stayed there for 10 years and I attended Class 1 to Class 6. Then my mother came back and settled and I moved from my grandmother’s place to my home in Osika where I continued my schooling at Ongalo primary school in Class 7. I sat my final primary exams in 2001 and scored 312 marks out of 500. But there was no financing to take me to secondary school so I decided to repeat class 8 in 2002 where I scored 348 marks out of 500. Still there was no financing to proceed to high school. Therefore I stayed at home in 2003 and 2004 but in 2005 I joined a high school which was started for orphans. There I did my form one but in form two I transferred to a high school nearer to home as I was walking a distance of 12 km each day.

In 2006 I joined Ongalo secondary school in form 2 but since the school fee was unaffordable to my relatives I spent most of the time at home not learning. I managed to complete my form two and in 2007 I proceeded to form 3. This is when my mother also fell sick so since I was the only one available I had to take some time off to nurse her. But unfortunately my mother passed away on 5/8/2007. From there my life took another turn when the principal of Ongalo secondary school by then Mr. Gideon Mwanda decided that I will board but pay the fee for day school since I was the school captain/Head boy. I successfully completed my fourth form in the year 2008 and when the result came out in 2009 March, I scored an A-, the second highest grade in Kenya.

The Geno Project came into my life when I least expected and desperate since I was at risk of losing my University admission at Kenyatta University. I did not have enough finance to see me through my education. Geno sponsored me in the University and I was well taken care of in all aspects throughout my University education and I am grateful to the Project. I obtained my Bachelor degree in 2015.

Geno has enabled me to be a medical professional; it enabled me to interact with various people from different parts of our country Kenya. It has changed my life from being desperate and hopeless to being optimistic, positive and future oriented. It can provide others with the same opportunity.

Therefore my appeal to you is to support the Geno Project with any means possible. You will then help the orphaned, less fortunate and needy but bright students like me through their high school and university. Consequently their lives will change for the positive forever.

Thank you and God bless you for your support.

Students Seminar

On the 1th May 2015 Solomon and Roselyne held a seminar for the students of the Geno Project in Osika, Homa Bay. All attendees can be seen in the photo below. As some students were still attending school or university not all could attend. They talked about personal discipline and how they must respect their parents. They were inspired to dream big about themselves, the community, the Geno project, and the world at large.

We shall keep on inspiring our students to be the best they can be.

Solomon and Roselyne asked our students what they think of the program. A common response was: “I wouldn’t be in this good school without the financial, moral and spiritual support of Geno.”