karat school project

KSP Programs in Ivory Coast

Featured

The Karat School campus is a thriving space of joy and learning that promotes academic excellence, practical skills, and overall wellbeing. Our holistic, hands-on, inquiry-based learning approach integrates modern technology and local culture. The curriculum is child-centered, loving, and attuned to the local environment.

Enrollment is free, and each student enjoys two warm meals daily. The center is also a community hub where we welcome students and their families and host events and gatherings.

Girls’ Education Incentive Farming Program

Many Ivorian girls are kept out of school because girls’ education isn’t valued and girls’ labor provides needed family income. Meanwhile, mothers lack the education and skills to improve their financial situation.

The Girls' Education Incentive Farming Program directly addresses these concerns. Girls attend the Karat School full-time while their mothers receive a stipend to participate in a 6-month hands-on training program that covers literacy, financial basics, and climate-resilient farming practices. The program boosts girls’ enrollment, produces food for the school and community, and helps mothers improve their economic status.

Period Poverty & Girls’ Empowerment

Each year, thousands of girls who fought hard to have access to education miss school because they lack period supplies. In Cote d’Ivoire, 65% of women and girls reported being unable to afford these essential products. In partnership with a sustainable hygiene products company, we supply middle school girls living near our school campus with sustainable period products that empower them to stay in school during their monthly cycles.

The Vision - A New Legacy Campus

The Karat School campus is a transformative center for education and community engagement. But we’re limited at the current location by space, rent increases, and vulnerability to eviction at any time.

It’s clear - we need a new campus of our own! The work has already begun. We’ve secured the land and have architectural plans for a new campus that will accommodate up to 500 students. We invite you to be part of creating this new Legacy Campus, which will ensure a stable and empowering educational environment for the next generation of Karat School children.

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Our full time education center opened on October 3rd, 2018. It was built to accommodate 60 students for our first year. Every student receives free uniforms, shoes, school supplies, and 2 meals and 2 snacks a day.

We know that education is the most sustainable way out of poverty. We are creating culture-sensitive, skill-based eclectic curriculums to advance academic and social-emotional learning for all children. We engage our students in hands-on and inquiry-based learning that includes modern technology and value culture to enable them to acquire skills that can be leveraged to build human capacity in their communities.

Our center has three early childhood education classrooms, after school education programs that include basic computer skills for children, a reading and writing program for school-aged children who are not enrolled in school, and skill learning programs for mothers. In addition to that, because learning doesn’t have to be boring! Our curriculum also incorporate a handful of extra-curricular activities, to keep our student engaged inside and outside the classroom.

Our Theory of Change

We believe in education as the most sustainable way to break the cycle of poverty and help fight many of the issues that plague our world today. Our founder, Evelyne Keomian’s, life story serves as the ultimate example of this belief.

To help break the cycle of poverty we:

Create access to a quality education that is culturally sensitive and globally relevant for children, especially girls
We invest in women and girls to help uplift communities now and in the future
We take a holistic approach to solve pressing daily issues such as meals, access to clean water, access to life-saving, preventative information.

Outcomes:

Improve a child’s daily life and give her a chance to be a child while she still can
Build a self-sustainable community by equipping mothers with knowledge and life skills to empower their leadership and income-earning activities
Improve the literacy rate of girls in the Ivory Coast

The Children

For the first time in their lives, we give children the opportunity to receive a full-time education. Currently, the children we schooled are all from a poverty- stricken background such as window washer, charcoal maker, farm laborer, orphanage etc. We provide an eclectic education, with a foundation in academic skills while developing strong social bonds and emotional support.

Our Curriculum

We implement the national curriculum of the Ministry of Education. We use new teaching philosophies that are child-centered and take into account the environment, cultures, and other relevant components of the communities.

Through practical skills such as gardening, basic computer skills, building, cooking, and so on, we ensure that our children can walk away after a six-year program with trade skills that can be used to improve their quality of life and the living standards of their community.

When they continue with their education after attending the KSP, our children will be equipped with basic skills that they can build on and use to fully contribute to today’s world.

AMANDINE’S STORY

You have changed a life! Thanks to your support, we are able to support Amandine and her mother who happened to be one of the recipients of our Women's Health Education and Screening Day.