Nestlé has today commissioned 14 beneficiaries into its Coffee Aroma Scholarship that targets Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) top five percentile orphans or vulnerable students from families that deliver coffee in eight coffee farming communities in Central and Eastern Kenya.
This is the first group of beneficiaries of the US$33,500 (Ksh3.3 million) scholarship programme that was launched in 2015 in a long-term partnership between Nestlé and Coffee Management Services Ltd (CMS).
“The Coffee Aroma Scholarship will cater for secondary school tuition fees for the selected students who were selected from some of top students in the 2015 Kenya Certificate of Primary Education,” said Ms. Ciru Miring’u, the Managing Director of Nestlé East Africa.
Some of the commissioned beneficiaries include Wawira Brenda who scored a total of 386 marks at Kianjeru Primary School in Meru County and Wanjiru Wachera of Nyakianga Primary school who scored 385 marks.
Other beneficiaries hail from Nyeri, Muranga, Kirinyaga, Kiambu and from Embu Counties.
“The Coffee Aroma Scholarship will ensure the needy pupils who would have otherwise missed high school education get a chance to study and raise their family and future prospects. Through our partnership with Nestlé, farmers under the Nescafé Plan initiative will have the assurance that their children will receive the best education irrespective of their parents’ circumstances,” said Mr. Kamau Kuria, the Managing Director, Coffee Management Services Limited.
According to Ms. Miring’u, the more quality coffee the farmers deliver to their Farmers’ Cooperative Societies, the more money Nestlé will continue to set aside for the Aroma scholarship meaning the number of students benefitting from the scholarship can increase in future.
“The scholarship benefits children who have lost one or both parents and have no guardian or sponsor to provide for their education. Also considered, are those children whose parents are physically or mentally disabled and are not in a position to educate them,” said Ms. Miring’u.
In addition, children whose parents are living with HIV/AIDS or other chronic debilitating illness and are unable to educate their children and others who live under extreme poverty are also eligible for the scholarships.
Nestlé hopes that the programme will enable the students to have an improved lifestyle, providing brighter prospects and opportunities for employment and family dynamics for the future.
The Coffee Aroma Scholarship programme is implemented under The Nescafé Plan initiative which was started in 2011. Nestlé launched the second phase of The Nescafé Plan in 2015 and will be working with 41,000 farmers by 2017 assisting them to become more self-sufficient and more successful in their holistic farming practices.
Since 2011, Nestlé and CMS have created improved farming practices, which have resulted in better yield and quality through the provision of technical advice to farmers in various parts of the country. This has resulted in improved income and better access to farm inputs that are relevant to the soil conditions.