Education & Scholarships
Education opens doors. Relationships help young people walk through them.
Education opens doors. Relationships help young people walk through them.
Every child and young adult has potential, but opportunity is not equally available.
For some young people in Kenya, the difference between continuing their education and leaving school can come down to circumstances beyond their control—family income, school fees, instability at home, geography, or access to opportunity.
OneLife Africa helps bridge that gap. But we have learned something important along the way: Education alone is not enough.
A young person may need school fees, but they also need people who believe in them, listen to them, encourage them, challenge them, pray with them, and walk alongside them as they navigate life. That is why OneLife combines educational opportunity with relationships, mentorship, discipleship, and formation.
More Than a Scholarship
When OneLife invests in a student’s education, we are not simply paying a bill. We are investing in a person.
We want to know the young person behind the school report: Who are you? What are you discovering about yourself? What are your gifts? What challenges are you navigating? What do you hope to become? How might your life one day serve others?
Our goal is not simply to help students get through school. We want to walk with them as they grow.
What Educational Support Can Include
Depending on the student and stage of education, support may help provide access to:
- School fees and tuition: helping students remain in school and pursue educational opportunities.
- Learning materials: books, supplies, technology, and other resources needed for learning.
- Mentorship: trusted adults walking alongside students through important seasons of life.
- Discipleship: opportunities to explore faith, know Jesus, ask questions, and grow spiritually.
- Camps and community: spaces for friendship, formation, learning, reflection, and fun.
- Life and practical skills: helping young people prepare for the responsibilities and opportunities of adulthood.
- Career and vocational exposure: connecting emerging adults with professions, possibilities, mentors, and networks.
The exact support may look different for each young person because every story is different.
From Education to Purpose
What is education for? We want our students to excel. We want them to graduate, enter university and training programs, develop professions, build businesses, find meaningful work, and pursue the opportunities before them. But we hope for something more.
We want young people to ask not only: “What can I become?” but also: “What can I contribute?”
Education should not simply enable someone to rise. It should enlarge their capacity to serve. Our hope is that young people will use what they learn—their knowledge, skills, relationships, opportunities, and influence—to strengthen their families, serve their communities, create opportunities for others, and contribute to the transformation of Africa and the world.
The Journey Continues After School
Graduation is worth celebrating. But it is not the end of the story. As students move into emerging adulthood, OneLife continues to encourage formation, vocation, discipleship, service, and the transition into work and adult responsibility.
Some of those who were once supported by others are beginning to support, mentor, employ, encourage, and open doors for the generation coming behind them.
Someone invested in me. Now I can invest in someone else.
Come alongside a young person’s journey.
Across Kenya, there are young people with the ability, determination, and desire to learn, but whose educational opportunities are limited by circumstances beyond their control.
For some, school fees stand between them and the classroom. For others, the challenge extends beyond fees to books, supplies, transportation, encouragement, mentorship, or simply having someone who believes that their future is worth investing in.
OneLife Africa comes alongside students and their families to help make education possible—and to provide relationships and support that extend beyond the classroom.
Sponsorship is more than paying for school. It is investing in who a young person is becoming.
Sponsorship is about more than paying school fees. It is an opportunity to become part of a community surrounding a young person with education, encouragement, mentorship, discipleship, and hope. Your support helps open a door. OneLife walks alongside the student as they step through it.
The Need: Potential is everywhere. Opportunity is not.
Every year, OneLife encounters young people whose families are making extraordinary sacrifices to keep them in school.
Some come from communities where educational opportunity is difficult to access. Some have experienced significant family or economic challenges. Others have reached a critical transition in their education when continuing is simply beyond what their families can manage alone.
We cannot remove every challenge from a young person’s life. But together, we can help ensure that lack of financial opportunity does not unnecessarily close the door to their education.
Sometimes an open door is all someone needs to take the next step.
Beyond School Fees
A scholarship can help a young person enter a classroom. But flourishing requires more. Students are navigating friendships, family responsibilities, questions of identity and faith, academic pressures, decisions about their futures, and the transition toward adulthood. That is why OneLife seeks to surround students with relationships as well as resources.
Your sponsorship supports a journey, not simply a transaction.
What your sponsorship helps make possible
Depending on the student’s circumstances and educational level, this may include:
- Education: school fees or tuition and essential educational needs.
- Mentorship: relationships with people who listen, encourage, guide, and challenge.
- Discipleship: opportunities to explore faith and grow in relationship with Jesus.
- Community: camps, gatherings, friendships, and relationships that remind young people they are not walking alone.
- Formation: life skills, character development, vocational exploration, and preparation for adulthood.
- Opportunity: connections, exposure, and experiences that help young people imagine and pursue their next steps.
Who will I be sponsoring?
OneLife identifies students according to clearly defined criteria that consider educational opportunity, circumstances, potential, commitment, and the ability of OneLife to walk responsibly with the student and family.
Every young person is more than their circumstances. So when we introduce students to sponsors, we want you to meet the whole person—their interests, personality, gifts, aspirations, family and community, not simply the difficulties they face. Dignity comes before fundraising.
Sponsorship with dignity
Young people are people, not projects. We are grateful for every sponsor, but the dignity, safety, and wellbeing of our students come first. We share student stories carefully and with appropriate consent. Sponsorship does not give a donor ownership of, unrestricted access to, or control over a young person’s life.
OneLife helps facilitate communication in ways that are appropriate, safe, and respectful of students and their families. The relationship is one of partnership, encouragement, and shared hope. That is especially important where minors are involved.
Can I communicate with my student?
Yes, where appropriate, OneLife can help facilitate communication between sponsors and students. Rather than creating unmonitored private relationships, communication should flow through appropriate OneLife channels, particularly for children and minors. This protects students, families, sponsors, and the integrity of the relationship.
What happens after graduation?
The school fees may end. The story doesn’t.
We celebrate graduation, but graduation has never been our final destination. We hope young people move into adulthood with education, faith, character, relationships, skills, and a growing understanding that what they have received can become something they offer to others.
The student who was sponsored may one day sponsor someone. The student who had a mentor may become a mentor. The person for whom a door was opened may open a door for another. The person who was served may choose to serve.
Every life can bless another.
Open a Door
An educational opportunity can change the possibilities available to a young person. And you can become part of that journey.