Gentiana Primary School

240 children attend Gentiana Primary School, from classes I to VIII. In the new kindergarten, 30 children attend Nursery Schoool, and 30 children attend preschool, which is equivalent to Swiss kindergarten.

The slum kids of Kawangware are tough – they have to be. Also the children of Gentiana Primary School. Of the 231 parents and parents’ parents, only seven have permanent employment compensated in monthly wages; the rest are casual workers.

Three quarters of the children live with siblings and parents in a single room, more than half have no electricity or water at home, and for many, school lunch is the only hot meal of the day.

Therefore, many Gentiana children do not particularly love vacations. Part of the reason for the popularity of special education weeks during the vacations is lunch.

Gentiana Primary School empowers children to break the vicious cycle of poverty and lack of opportunity: With special teaching methods geared to the children, with a scholarship program for high schools, with social services to alleviate the greatest spiritual as well as material needs. All these achievements are made possible by the help of generous people in Switzerland and Germany.