Mafanikio: our impact beneficiary from my time volunteering in Kenya
- Greta Liscio
- May 26
- 4 min read
During my sabbatical in 2024, I was traveling through South-East Asia. After four months travelling I still hadn't really decided where to head next. I was looking for volunteering projects in conservation and then I decided to head to Africa.
I have to be very honest here. As some of you may know, when I started the journey that led me to found Na-triarch, I was focused on projects mainly dealing with conservation. Human-wildlife conflict avoidance was the subject I felt confident about, and I had long thought about specific selection criteria for non-profits working in this field.
Nevertheless, when I arrived in Kenya, I did some research and Mafanikio struck me as a deeply interesting project outside of my comfort zone. It involved exactly what I was looking for: rural community development. However, this was primarily an educational project. Mafanikio builds primary schools in rural Kenya, providing affordable education for underprivileged children.
It was not in my plans to include a project like this among my partners. And yet, it is this exact project that changed my trajectory the most.
Education in Kenya: Out of Reach for Many
Before jumping into the story of how Mafanikio became one of my partners, let’s take a step back to understand the reality of education in Kenya.
While it is true that primary education is largely free in Kenya, there is a massive disparity in access between urban and rural areas. Furthermore, "free" primary school still requires families to pay for uniforms, learning materials, and various additional fees that change from school to school.
However, what makes access to basic literacy in rural areas truly difficult isn't just the cost—it's the distance. Imagine the closest public school being a two-hour walk from home. For families without any means of transportation, that is the real obstacle.
Secondary school is another story altogether. Fees are much higher and rarely subsidized, making it a far-fetched option for most kids from rural communities. To attend, they would have to move into school dorms and pay for board and lodging on top of tuition fees.
Mbogolo and the Eco-Green School
On the outskirts of Malindi—a small coastal town about a thirty-minute motorbike ride away—lies Mbogolo. Mbogolo is a typical rural village, characterized by a local shop and mostly mud huts with sheet metal rooftops.
Perched on a small hill sits a concrete building, surrounded by smaller structures still under construction. That is the Eco-Green School. It includes a local clinic that serves as a community hospital. Surrounded by vibrant green fields, banana, and mango trees, this little construction site is the heart of daily life for around 150 children from all the neighboring villages.
The students range from 4 to 18 years old, grouped into different classes based on their educational level rather than just age. Until recently, there were only five grades and two preparatory classes, but Mafanikio is currently building two more classrooms (grade 6 and 7).
The school provides primary education and preparation for secondary school. Officially, it is private because it requires a symbolic fee from the families. Practically, however, the school’s construction, teachers, and staff are funded mainly by donations and the volunteer program.
Throwing Myself into the Cold Water - Volunteering in Kenya
That is where my experience began. Originally, I had applied to join the volunteer program to help out on the construction site. But right before arriving in Kenya, I had a minor accident that forced me to pivot and join the teaching staff instead.
I think it was destiny. The whole chain of events that led to me teaching math and English to third grade kids in rural Kenya was absurd—Kenya wasn’t even originally in my travel plans.
And yet, there I was. Riding on a very old motorcycle through beautiful nature and local villages on my way to school. As we entered the village and the first huts appeared, children began greeting and shouting at us, excited and cheerful. It was then that I realized how deeply this experience would change my life.
Once at school, I was assigned a class, handed the textbooks, and that was it—I had to throw myself into the cold water. When I walked into the classroom, I was completely overwhelmed by the sweetness of the kids, their eagerness to learn, and their curiosity about me.
It wasn’t easy at the beginning. Children need to respect you before they care to listen to you when they are bored, and I had never been a teacher before. It was a process. But it was a process I fell deeply in love with. Every single one of those children is forever engraved in my heart. To give you an idea, I still keep their drawings in my bedside table drawer. My phone is full of their pictures, which I look at every single week.
This year, I went back to teach the same class. One of my best memories is turning multiplication table drills into a game at the board and observing them get excited about their turn. Or watching the movie Spirit with them in the media room, where I turned out to be the only one crying.
What stays with me is simply their essence as children: playful, intelligent, curious, pure, sometimes good or bad to each other, but always forgiving and incredibly sweet. Because of all this, they deserve a shot at life. And without a proper education, that shot doesn't exist. For most of them, Eco-Green is the only real path to literacy.
A Shared Mission
None of this would be possible without one amazing woman: Diana Muinanari.
She is the founder of Mafanikio and has made it her life's mission to create schools and opportunities in rural Kenya through volunteering projects. The project speaks for itself. Anyone who visits falls in love with it and finds it almost impossible to leave it behind. I know at least four volunteers who return every single year; many stay for months, some for nearly a year.
Eco-Green is hard to explain—it is so much more than just a school. It is community, cultural exchange, opportunity, and dialogue. It builds a bridge between people who otherwise would have never met.
I hope to be able to support this project long-term and see these kids become adults with a better chance at life.
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