St. Martins Girls Secondary School

St. Martins Girls Secondary School is a High School dedicated to poor and disadvantaged girls in Kenya. St. Martins grew from a one room corrugated tin shack to a school that now offers a future of hope to 187 girls spread across ninth, tenth, eleventh and twelfth grade. Forty girls from St. Martins are in the GGBC

St. Martins Girls Secondary School is a department of the Kibagare Good News Centre, which was founded in 1980 by the late Sr. Martin Wanjiru, a member of the Assumption Sisters of Nairobi. The Good News Centre started as a food program for fifty children, suffering from malnutrition in the Kibagare slum.

After a short while, a Nursery School and a Primary School started operation in the same compound. Soon, there surfaced a need for a High School for the girls graduating Primary School. St. Martins Girls School was started in 1992, as a solution to a common problem in many developing countries the absence of High School opportunities for girls in general, and disadvantaged girls particularly. Because of the nature of St. Martins Girls, the School Motto came is: Caring, Sharing and Daring.

St. Martin’s is funded by individual sponsors, organizations, foundations and family members who can afford to pay some or all of the fees.

To provide adolescent girls with a well-rounded, faith-based education that will provide them with the confidence, knowledge, and skills needed to pursue productive and independent lives.

Education is the basis of life at St. Martin’s. Particular emphasis is placed on doing one’s personal best on a critical series of exams taken just prior to graduation. Performance on these exams determines eligibility for any and all forms of tertiary education. Sr. Florentina, Head Mistress, lives for the days when she can tell graduates they made scores that will award them a Government Scholarship to University.

Many of the girls admitted are from the neighbouring Kibagare Slum, while others come from poor areas along the outskirts of Nairobi. In recent years, to help offset costs, the school has also opened its doors to girls whose parents are able to pay the necessary school fees.

These two photos were taken 100 yards away from each others. One, inside the Good News Centre and in the St. Martin's Girls Secondary School