By Robert Mutasi 
The Mama Dota Foundation has stepped up its support for vulnerable children and struggling families in Langas, Uasin Gishu County, helping needy learners remain in school while also seeking ways to improve the livelihoods of their parents.
The foundation, led by Florence Akinyi Onyango, popularly known as Mama Dota, has been supporting children from disadvantaged households through school fees assistance, food and essential items needed for their education.
Mama Dota said her involvement in the community was inspired by the challenges she encountered among children whose families could not afford basic educational needs.
“I came to Langas’ school to look after our children, the needy and to educate them,” she said.
She said poverty had left some children struggling to attend classes consistently, while girls from vulnerable households sometimes missed school because their families could not afford sanitary products.
The foundation has therefore sought to address some of these challenges by helping learners meet basic requirements and remain in school with dignity.
Mama Dota also raised concerns over the shortage of public schools in the densely populated parts of Langas and its neighbouring areas.
She identified Langas, Kapkendui, Mweruti and Kitwe as areas in need of additional public education facilities to accommodate the growing number of children.
She noted that many parents in the area struggle to raise school fees and provide lunch for their children, leaving families vulnerable to disruptions in their children’s education.
The foundation’s intervention has consequently focused not only on learners but also on the economic challenges facing their parents.
Ambrose Jauko, a member of the foundation’s support team, said the organisation wanted to help parents, particularly mothers, establish sustainable sources of income.
Jauko said Mama Dota’s personal experience of growing up with limited resources and earning a living through selling fish had shaped her determination to help other families become self-reliant.
“We will empower the parents to eat at home,” Jauko said.
He explained that supporting parents to establish small businesses would enable them to provide food, pay school fees and meet other household expenses without depending entirely on donations.
The initiative has also extended assistance to learners living with different abilities, alongside food support and fee subsidies for vulnerable children.
The school currently serves about 1,800 learners, highlighting the scale of the educational needs facing families in the area.
Parents and other community members welcomed the support, saying assistance from the foundation had helped ease some of the financial pressure affecting households.
One parent praised Mama Dota for understanding the difficulties faced by families struggling to keep their children in school.
“She is a woman who has come from far away. She knows the meaning of school fees,” the parent said.
The foundation’s approach combines immediate support for children with longer-term efforts to strengthen household incomes.
By helping learners meet basic school requirements while supporting parents to pursue small-scale businesses, the initiative is seeking to tackle both the immediate and underlying causes of educational vulnerability.
Mama Dota’s efforts have also renewed calls for increased investment in public education infrastructure in Langas and surrounding communities, where population growth has placed additional pressure on existing schools.
For beneficiaries, the support represents more than financial assistance. It offers vulnerable children an opportunity to continue their education while giving struggling families a chance to build more sustainable livelihoods.