Kageno's Nursery School Programs

In 2002, a U.S. Peace Corps volunteer and a local community organizer opened what would later become the Kageno Nursery School as part of a community development effort for the devastatingly impoverished community of Kolunga Beach. The original school was housed in an open open-air building with a thatched roof and dirt floor, and classes often had to be cancelled during rainy season. Two volunteer teachers were on staff to teach the thirty orphaned children who attended each day. The school’s founders leveraged what resources they could to obtain minimal school supplies and provide at least some food for the children.

As the Kageno organization grew, it gradually worked with the community to grow the school into what is now a beautifully landscaped facility with three modern classrooms, a library, and a three-door latrine. Four salaried teachers educate the two hundred children who attend daily. Each child receives one nutritious meal per day, and a school nurse is on staff to care for them when they are sick.

As part of Kageno’s web of interdependent programs, the nursery school has created opportunities for new jobs. Three women from the HIV/AIDS post-test group are employed to prepare the two hundred daily meals for the school children. The porridge (or “uji” as it is called in Swahili), is cooked daily using briquettes made by community members as part of Kageno’s recycling program. A seamstress is also employed to make uniforms for all Kageno school children and staff.

Kageno opened a similarly modeled nursery school at Mfangano Island, Kenya in 2007, and construction of a third nursery school has just been completed at Kageno Rwanda.

Kageno Kids
The Kageno Kids Art and Cultural Exchange is a multifaceted program connecting children in Kageno project areas with those in U.S. schools. By exchanging art and ideas, this program projects the voices of children from diverse backgrounds into global communities to bring awareness, understanding, and hope.

Orphan Assistance and Sponsorship Program
The Kageno Orphan Assistance & Sponsorship Program was conceived to address the immediate and long-term needs of children attending the Kageno Nursery School and to create lasting change by strengthening the communities in which they live. Gifts from sponsors are combined to provide the assistance the community needs most - access to clean water and sanitation, improved nutrition, health care, education, and vocational training.

Kageno's Community Education Program's
Without intervention, there are virtually no jobs available for residents of Kageno communities outside the local industries of fishing and subsistence farming. The cyclical nature of these industries and the migrant fishermen's behavior often lead to long spells of little or no income for women and children. With no work and few skills for people to fall back upon, women and children simply starve.


Kageno is creating permanent jobs and teaching valuable skills to reduce dependence on seasonal extraction industries. Craft-manufacturing and eco-tourism activities are crucial to the financial sustainability of every Kageno project.

Kageno's Community Education Initiatives include:

Educating Women
Kageno provides educational opportunities for women. Inadequate participation of girls in the education system in Africa stifles potential gains in economic development, community health, and national welfare. Primary and lower secondary education reduces poverty and unwanted pregnancies, and improves community health by giving people the skills they need to participate fully in the economy and in society. Educated women gain wage-earning power and learn skills that allow them to be more productive in their work at home. They have fewer and healthier children, and those children are more likely to go to school and remain there longer, and they become more able to protect themselves from diseases such as HIV/AIDS. Educated women are also more likely to assume active roles in family and community decision-making.

Weekly Staff Meetings
Weekly Kageno staff meeting are not only used to update the staff on the coming weeks activities, but are also used to learn and discuss a selected educational topic. Topics in the past have included; family planing, prevention and treatment of sexually transmitted disease and better nutrition for your family.

Computer Classes
Kageno opens computer centers that raise computer awareness and provide IT training, job skills, and access to information for the whole community. Computer centers are completely solar powered, and each is equipped with laptops and printers. Computer training and internet access help show new possibilities to the community, and inspire children and youth to aim beyond the local status quo.

English Lessons
In Rwanda, Kageno is offers daily english lessons for the community. English is not only an important tool when looking for employment outside the village, but it is also a crucial step in the development of Kageno's ecotourism activities.

Micro-loan Education Program
Weekly Micro-loan meeting are used to collect payments, but more importantly they are used to teach the loan beneficiaries the skills needed to succeed in the program. Beneficiaries are taught basic business principles, as well as basic life skills. Kageno focuses on both areas because we realize that they are dependent on each other and that a person must be healthy and productive to succeed in paying back the loan.

Agricultural Training
Kageno works with the local community to help them understand and protect their environment. Through Kageno's agricultural training program community members gain knowledge of sustainable eco-friendly agricultural techniques, crop diversifications, how to increase yields and much more. In addition to providing the Kageno community with these training's we also offer small workshops for other organizations and neighboring communities.