64% of children attend primary school in Africa; only 26% of those students make it to High School – (UN Report)

Educated mothers are 50% more likely to immunize their children than mothers with no schooling – (Net Aid)

In Africa, only 62% of pupils complete primary education compared to an average completion rate of 94% in North America – ( UNESCO Institute for Statistics)

Under-privileged countries spend less than 3.5% of their GDP on education – (UNESCO, EFA Global Monitoring Report 2005)

100 million children of primary school-age were not in school in 2006 – (UIS enrollment data)

In some deeply impoverished nations less than half of the children are in primary school and under 20 percent go to secondary school. Around the world, a total of 114 million children do not get even a basic education and 584 million women are illiterate – (UN report 2006)

Who We Are

In the mid afternoon heat of central Africa, 20 young boys kick around a soccer ball. The only non-African boy in the group is the son of a missionary couple. This is Zaire in the mid 80s. Of those 20 boys, some joined the Katanga rebels in their fight against the corrupt government of Mobutu. The rest were either victims of the humanitarian crises or civil wars that hit the country, or took up small menial jobs to make ends meet. Only 2 of those boys finished high school, one of them being Jeff Willner, the missionary boy. Education played a key role in his life--boarding school in Kenya, technical college in Texas and a MBA at Wharton; all assisting him in his professional career. He built and sold OBJECTARTS a 70 person computer training company, worked with Mckinsey & Co advising major corporations, and became a Royal Geographic Fellow through several Land Rover expeditions around the world.

Not the fastest, or highest goal scorer on the football pitch that sweltering afternoon, but with the benefit of education was able to make a contribution to society. The rest of his soccer team didn’t get that opportunity. That is the tragedy of wasted human potential in under-privileged countries. Personal conviction to give back led Jeff to create Kensington Tours, as a method of introducing the beauty of Africa to visitors and improving business and employment in the region.

With infrastructure in place, and offices in Kenya, Tanzania and Egypt, and a conviction that more could be done, Kensington Cares was born. It grew out of Kensington Tours as a way of providing an effective channel to people who want to make a difference. Kensington Cares is based on the premise that: higher education can unlock a world of opportunities for children in under-privileged countries, it is one of the most powerful instruments for reducing poverty and inequality, and it lays a foundation for sustained economic growth. Kensington Tours was set with a dual mission of being a strong backbone to support the foundation, and a means of attracting employees genuinely passionate about helping people.

Often, the direct costs of education (such as tuition, activity fees, uniforms, textbooks, and materials) are out of the reach of the poor. Reducing the direct costs of education is thus very important in drawing children into school. Keeping these factors in mind, Kensington Cares applies the same world class lean operations to its charity work as Kensington Tours does with its travel operations. Kensington cares works directly with grassroots’ educational centres thereby eliminating the middle man which allows operating costs to be kept at a minimum.