The Kibwezi Educational Center is a learning center in the town of Kibwezi

Kibwezi

Kibwezi is a town in Makueni District, Eastern Province, Kenya.Kibwezi town is the headquarters of Kibwezi division, one of 15 administrative divisions in Makueni District. The division has a population of 80,236, of whom 4,695 are classified urban. The division has four locations: Kikumbulyu,...

, Kenya

Kenya

Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...

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It contains a polytechnic offering two-year vocational programs in carpentry, masonry, welding, and tailoring. There is also a secretarial department which requires students to have graduated from secondary school. A primary school and preschool are for grades one though eight. Scholarships are available for need based students such as orphans. There are around thirty children in the greater Kibwezi area supported and sometimes under scholarship for educational costs.

Samuel Mote is the director of the Educational Centre.

History and Presbyterian connection

Since 1988, the Presbyterian Church of East Africa

Presbyterian Church of East Africa

Presbyterian Church of East Africa is a Presbyterian denomination headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya. It was started by missionaries from Scotland, most notable of whom was Dr John Arthur. It has its headquarters in Nairobi South C....

 and Burke Presbyterian Church, PCUSA, have worked together to build a partnership in Kibwezi. This historical location is where in 1891 the first three Scottish missionaries came to Kenya, and where two died as a result of malaria. That is the historical significance of the international partnership formed in a remote bush town half way between Nairobi

Nairobi

Nairobi is the capital and largest city of Kenya. The city and its surrounding area also forms the Nairobi County. The name "Nairobi" comes from the Maasai phrase Enkare Nyirobi, which translates to "the place of cool waters". However, it is popularly known as the "Green City in the Sun" and is...

 and Mombasa

Mombasa

Mombasa is the second-largest city in Kenya. Lying next to the Indian Ocean, it has a major port and an international airport. The city also serves as the centre of the coastal tourism industry....

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Harambee

Harambee is Swahili for "working together". To maintain a close connection, Burke Presbyterian Church sends a work camp to Kiwebzi every three years. This year marks the twentieth anniversary of when the first work camp traveled to Kibwezi. The demographics of each group is approximately fifteen adults and ten adults. In 2008, a leadership team of eight adults is traveling to Kibwezi to evaluate the past twenty years of work camp partnership and to develop a long term plan for the project's future. Some issues to be discuss the possibility of developing new village churches, increasing the orphan care program, and creating a micro financing system (similar to a credit union, but for small business loans) in the town of Kibwezi which will remain separate from the church and Educational Centre, and finally the delivery of six laptop computers from the One Laptop Per Child program. The next work camp was held in 2009 and included delivery of another 100 OLPC laptops.

Past Burke Presbyterian Work Camps

For more information see The Burke Presbyterian Church's web page.