Our Beginnings

Grace Fay (founder)

Growing up in a family of eight with a single mother who struggled to provide, I was fortunate to have my uncle who stepped in and gave me the opportunity of education from the age of twelve. At the age of twenty I moved to Nairobi to start working and earning independently. From the help of friends and a small kiosk   I raised enough money to come to further my education in college here in the UK. A few years on I started a family and begun to think of past events that got me here and how I wished to give these opportunities to orphans and single mothers back at home. With the help of friends in the UK and the support of my husband Grant Fay, we started the charity EKO (Educating Kenyan Orphans). Our first project of helping a school in Kawangware slums: Angel Academy, with the help of the late Bryan Cooper (Founder of Water for Life) was a success. My family and I moved back to Nairobi giving us the opportunity to build up a school with teachers for which EKO provided training and qualifications. To this day the EKO Academy is exceling with over 100 children. With annual fundraising the charity pays for teaching, school equipment and a Christmas treat. The school has a well equipped library with donated books and classes from nursery up to class 4. We also have one student in University and one in O levels who are sponsored by individuals in the UK.

Moving forward, our aim is to improve the structures to be permanent buildings on our land, so that the children will always have this opportunity, this chance at education.