Give Hope to Kisumu's Underprivileged Children

Dear GlobalGiving Family,

As we step into the final week of the year, we do so with full hearts and deep gratitude. Christmas is a season rooted in warmth, generosity, and care and because of you, these values are being felt daily by children and families across Kisumu.

Your support throughout the year has ensured that children are fed, girls are empowered, and young students are learning to care for the world around them. In communities where uncertainty is a daily reality, your generosity is turning survival into stability, and hope into action.

Meals Program Update

Since our last report, we have served an additional 20,000 meals, bringing the total to 273,417 meals served since January 2025. This year, those meals have reached communities facing repeated disruption and loss.

Much of our work has been alongside families affected by climate-related disasters, particularly floods that have displaced households, damaged homes, and left many without a stable place to live. In these conditions, access to food is difficult, and hunger is often a daily reality.

Through the School Meals Program, regular meals have become a dependable source of nourishment for many children from vulnerable families. And beyond schools, our Meal Kits continue to support households directly, helping ensure that children keep eating even as families navigate ongoing uncertainties.

Naomi, a widowed mother of five, is one such parent. After floods destroyed her home, she survives on irregular work cleaning omena by the lake, earning about 50 Kenyan shillings (USD 0.35) on some days—and nothing on others.

She shared, “Sometimes, if I don’t earn anything, we all sleep on empty stomachs.” This holiday season, because of your giving, her children will not.

“God bless you. My children will be so happy today.”, she shared after receiving a Meal Kit. These kits do more than fill stomachs, they bring relief to parents carrying the weight of circumstances beyond their control, and moments of joy to families who rarely get to pause and feel it.

This is the power of your giving.

Girls Empowerment Project 

Alongside nourishing students and their families, your support is helping girls remain in school and grow in confidence.

In 2025, our Girls’ Empowerment Program reached 773 girls and their mothers across five communities in Kisumu County, creating safe spaces for learning, trust, and open conversation.

Through culturally grounded workshops, mothers and daughters came together to talk openly about menstrual & sexual reproductive health, safety, confidence. For many attending the workshop, this was the first time they could ask questions and share their stories and feel heard.

Each attending girl received a Sanitary Kit inclusive of 5 re-usable pads (lasting 12–18 months) 2 panties, soap and a Girl Talk Booklet, helping her attend school consistently and easing the daily financial pressure on households led largely by single mothers. 

More importantly, girls left with renewed confidence knowing their bodies are not barriers to education. By strengthening the bond between mothers and daughters, this program helps girls stay in school, believe in themselves, and continue learning with confidence and hope.

Climate Action Project 

The Climate Action project reached 280 students through 18 workshops on sustainability and environmental stewardship. Each student received a seedling, a living reminder of their responsibility toward the planet.

For students facing the realities of flooding, crop loss, and extreme weather, climate education is vital. Their reflections, shared through songs and poems, captured this urgency, with one student reminding us: “We don’t have a Planet B.”

At Korwana Primary School, 120 trees were planted with students, teachers, and community members, building a lasting sense of care and ownership. A community-inspired mural at Central Primary School now brings life to the surrounding, blending creativity, identity, and environmental action.

Through these activities, students are developing environmental awareness, repsonsibility and pride in protecting the communities they call home.

ASANTE ASANTE ASANTE!

Thank you for standing with our community this year and for making this impact possible.

Links:

• Donate Now: Invest in community futures in 2026
• Art for Climate and Community

Dear Donor,

As we enter this season of celebration, we’re reminded that every quiet moment of progress this year has been made possible because of you. In the communities you uplift, even a single nutritious meal brings comfort, stability, and the chance for a child to learn with dignity.

Thank you for your trust, your compassion, and your belief that every child deserves a fair chance.

What Your Support Made Possible: Impact at a Glance

This year, we expanded our School Meals Program to four new schools: Odienya, Korwana, Nduru and Bwanda. After mobilisation and pilot phases, each school smoothly transitioned into full implementation, ensuring every student receives two nutritious meals daily. 

A warm cup of uji in the morning… a wholesome, filling lunch each afternoon. For thousands of children, this simple routine has become a lifeline.

So far, 253,417 meals have been served this year, bringing our cumulative total to 1,256,438 meals since 2016. School meals are one of Kenya’s most proven education interventions, consistently improving attendance, learning outcomes, and school retention. Your support places our students firmly on this same pathway of success. 

But behind these numbers are communities carrying more weight than many of us will ever see. Many families here live in flood-prone areas, forced to leave their homes year after year and rebuild their lives in temporary rescue camps. With a harsh economy tightening its grip, parents spend long days in the rice fields just to make ends meet. One parent shared, “We work in the farms all day, and there’s often nothing to eat at home. These meals at school… it’s a blessing.” 

Children walk long distances to school, most without a single meal to start their day. For them, the School Meals Program isn’t just nourishment, it is the one dependable source of stability in a life shaped by uncertainty. It is what keeps them in class, safe, focused, and dreaming beyond their circumstances. 

These meals keep children awake to possibility, present in their lessons, and hopeful for a future shaped by learning, not limitation. They ease the burden on parents navigating a harsh economy. This year alone, it has created jobs for 15 single mothers and widows, supported local farmers and vendors, and offered internships to 7 youth, strengthening entire communities from within. Every dollar invested in school feeding generates ripple effects: better health, stronger learning and greater future earnings, especially for children facing economic hardship. The World Food Programme reports that for every dollar invested in school feeding programs, a return of US$9 is generated in economic benefits. The World Bank places the return for broader nutrition programs even higher, at $23 for every $1 invested.

A school meal does more than fill a stomach. It keeps a child learning. It supports a family striving. It binds a community together. And with every dollar invested multiplying into real, lasting change, it becomes one of the most powerful tools we have to break cycles of poverty.

We Invite You to Uplift More Communities 

This GivingTuesday, you can stand with the children and families who rely on the assurance of two daily meals to stay in school and thrive. For 36 HOURS ONLY; 

• Dec 2, 8:00 a.m. – Dec 3, 8:00 p.m. (EAT)
• Dec 2, 5:00 a.m. – Dec 3, 5:00 p.m. (GMT)
• Dec 2, 12:00 a.m. – Dec 3, 12:00 p.m. (EST)

Every unique donation up to $2,500 will be matched proportionally through GlobalGiving’s $500,000 incentive fund, amplifying your impact on children’s nutrition and learning.

A Giving Tuesday gift of USD $100 (Kshs. 13,000) will:

• Provide 800 nutritious meals, enough to feed a classroom of 40 students for two weeks.
• Keep students focused, present, and protected from hunger-related absenteeism.
• Ease the burden on families facing economic uncertainty.
• Strengthen local communities by supporting employment and local suppliers.

Additionally, you have the power to change the course of an entire community. A GivingTuesday gift of USD $2,500 or Kshs. 323,750 (the highest amount eligible for matching) will:

• Place 20,000 meals into the hands of 400 students who rely on school as their only steady source of food, or
• Co-fund a climate-smart school kitchen that will support meal provision for years to come.

This is the most impactful moment of the year to give. Your generosity in these 36 hours can change a child’s entire school experience.

Make your GivingTuesday pledge today! Email us at info@therahulkotakfoundation.org or call +254 777 733 443 for more information.

Links:

• Make A Pledge
• Save The Date
• Impact in Focus