My name is Salome Ondego. I come from Usire Village, Bondo Sub-County ,Siaya County in Kenya. I am married with six children.

I am a teacher by profession and is self employed. I am involved in education of children and community development projects in the rural village to improve livelihoods and poverty alleviation.

I am also a farmer. I plant crops like maize, beans , vegetables fruits and sugarcane. I keep livestock too. I love planting trees as a way of conserving the environment.

I am the Director of Ebenezer Usire Academy, a low cost private primary school established in the rural village to provide quality education to vulnerable children, especially the girl child.

The school was started in 2014 and has a population of 258 pupils from ECDE to Grade 8.

The funds generated from fees payments is used to pay staff salaries and for lunch preparation. The school makes a profit of roughly 25,000 kes. The school bakery project has increased our profits. Thanks to the Zidisha Family. Some of this money usually is used for maintenance of the school buildings, and sponsoring some of the children who have difficulty in paying their school fees.

In order to increase our income, the school is planning to establish a dairy farming project. Our target is to purchase three female grade cows for milk production. This will be accomplished in 3 phases. Through Zidisha family, we have purchased the 1st cow and we are in the process of buying the second cow. The first cow will give birth around December 2024.

The milk produced will be used for breakfast and the rest sold out to the community. At the moment we purchase milk to add to the porridge prepared for the pupils.

We expect the milk production to be 12 litres daily. One litre is sold at kes 100. So in a month we expect an income of kes 36,000.

I will use the funds to continue with the renovation of our classrooms. I managed to renovate four classrooms with the last two project fundings I received from the Zidisha community.

When school opened in January after the long holidays , the other nine classrooms were in very bad state due to termites infestation. This forced me to start the renovation for the whole school. Children must learn in a clean and safe environment.

We also had to close down the school temporarily for safety purposes. The children were transferred to nearby public schools.

Ebenezer Academy is a low cost private school that provides quality education to children from the rural community.

The funds generated from the school and the income generating projects (courtesy of Zidisha community) help to operate the school and support my family. Thanks to the Zidisha community.