CIYOTA has a unique operating model of education for 4-13 aged conflict-affected children addressing their needs to serve one of the most vulnerable populations in the world. We set up a primary school serving a total of 809 children to date. We are dismantling class attendance barriers by creating as many classrooms and dormitories on campus, attended to by experienced teachers and care takers respectively, to enhance learning.
We provide three meals a day to keep the children from absenteeism in search for food, we have a school van that takes 3 trips carrying children to and fro school and providing on-campus accommodation for orphaned, unaccompanied minors and children from farther communities within the refugee settlement.
Community-owned school.
The school is community-owned; founded and led by refugees for the refugees. The school listens to the opinions from the community that sends their children to the school.
Scholarship opportunities
We actively look for scholarships for children who struggle to raise school fees and scholastic materials for their study.
Girls of Transformation.
Our education programs were registering a high rate of dropouts among females so we introduced this program to the girls in the upper primary school and secondary school programs. Early marriage, gender-based violence in homes, lack of scholastic and sanitary materials at school that enticed the girls to take personal decisions to drop-out of school.
We held peer-to-peer talks, provided scholastic and sanitary materials, guidance and counselling through workshops where empowered senior women teachers nurture the girls and help them to transition from primary to secondary school.
An estimate of 116 girls from our primary school and 82 girls on the secondary school program benefited from the Girls of Transformation program. These girls, aside from reducing the rate of dropouts from school:
Extra co-curricular activities
Our children participate in a wide variety of co-curricular activities where they also compete with other schools in other refugee settlements. The activities include brass band club, debating, netball, football and volleyball.