Equity Wings to Fly has awarded 32 needy students who scored 350 marks and above in last year’s Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) in Machakos County with a sponsorship program.
The Machakos Equity Branch Manager Hellen Muthoki, while speaking to the media on Thursday at Machakos Equity Bank branch, said that the 32 beneficiaries were selected from several sub-counties after a vigorous selection process.
Muthoki said they have had a transparent process and the 32 scholars were found to be most deserving by the Wings to Fly Community Scholarship Selection Board, which involves one-on-one panel interviews with the students and their parents followed by home verification visits.
“We congratulate the scholars for emerging winners in the selection process and appreciate the Community Scholarship Selection Board for authenticating this process,” said the Equity branch manager.
She noted that Wings to Fly is a comprehensive scholarship that takes care of all the needs of the scholar from Form 1 to Form 4, such as tuition, books, uniforms, transport costs and pocket money for the four-year period they are in school.
Madam Muthoki also hailed the ministry of education and the county government for chairing the community selection board for many years and for validating the process for the benefit of the needy pupils to pursue their education.
She noted that the scholars have been flagged off to Pangani Girls High School for an induction process with other students across the country.
Muthoki affirmed that so far, 1143 scholars from Machakos county have benefited from wings to fly since its inception.
On his part Machakos Sub County Director of Education Simon Mutemi who is also the chair of the Wings to Fly Community Scholarship Selection Board, said that they have sieved through several applications and picked the neediest who had a minimum of 350 marks in their KCPE.
Mutemi added that the selection committee was very committed and sacrificed their time by visiting each home so as to award the most deserving and needy pupils in Machakos County to further their secondary education smoothly.
He pointed out that those who had not benefited from the wings to fly programme should not give up and apply to be considered in the ongoing Elimu scholarship programme which is administered by the Ministry of education.
By Anne Kangero
