A Kisumu based church is set to offer bursaries to brighter students from needy families who are set to join different universities in September this year.
The Imani Pentecostal Church sponsors students annually but this year the number of beneficiaries has doubled due to the lowering of university cut off points.
Announcing the news during a Sunday service at the church, Pastor Gerishom Otieno said that they had identified more students but funds are a limiting factor at the moment.
“We have more than 50 needy students who attend our church and qualified to join various campuses, but we were forced to pick the ones whose situation is dire even though our wish was to sponsor all,” said Otieno.
A majority of the beneficiaries are orphans while others have guardians who are unable to raise the money. In the programme, each student's school fees will be paid and their basic needs taken care of by the church.
The leadership of the church is now calling on the government to consider such brighter minds, in order to supplement the funds contributed by members and donors.
“The government receives taxes which is not fully utilised, it will be a fine idea to set up funds to support needy students, because the Higher Educations Loans Board (HELB) money is not enough,” said Otieno.