Towards the end of last year, I had the privilege of joining Jambojet in distributing food to pupils at the Our Lady of Nazareth Primary School deep in the Mukuru Kwa Njenga slums. For those not in the know, Mukuru Kwa Njenga is among other villages in the wider Mukuru that is Mukuru kwa Reuben, Mukuru kwa Njenga, Sinai, Paradise, Jamaica, Kingstone, Mariguini, Fuata Nyayo and Kayaba.
The journey to the school was only a few kilometers from Mombasa Road but it felt like an eternity due to the various twists and turns that we had to take to get to the school. I have to say that driving through the slums and seeing some of the conditions that the people were living in made me get an appreciation for the little that I have.
When we finally got to the school, I was pleasantly surprised in that in as much as some of the classes were made from iron sheets, it appeared well planned and clean. I later came to discover that it is run by the Marianist, a Society of Mary clerical religious congregation of Pontifical Right for men under the Catholic Church.
I came to learn that JamboJet started supporting the school which is just 4 kilometers away from their headquarters in 2017. This was after the school approached the budget airline with a request to fly their top students to Mombasa as a way of encouraging them. JamboJet agreed to this request and that was the beginning of their journey together.
After their initial interaction, JamboJet looked at the statistics and saw that a good number of pupils came to hungry which led to a high dropout rate. While those who managed to finish school were not able to proceed due to lack of finances. It was this need that prompted the airline to come to the aid of the pupils who were bright but financially challenged. They started out by sponsoring two pupils who have since joined university. Over the years, this number has grown from two pupils per year to ten this year. With the sponsorship catering for their school fees in both secondary and university if need be.
Other than Our Lady of Nazareth Primary School, I came to learn that Jambojet has a CSR project in every destination that they fly to. One of these is a rehabilitation center in Diani which takes care of girls who have been affected by drug abuse and prostitution. In Kisumu, they work with the Kibos School of the Visually Impaired. In Nairobi, thay also work with the East Africa School of Aviation where they provide a two year paid internship for the bright but needy students. This is in a bid to improve the workforce in the airline industry.
Other than education, JamboJet’s other CSR pillar is the environment which has an aim of reducing the carbon emissions. The airline has set a target of planting 2 Million trees in the next for years in partnership with the Ministry of Environment and the Kenya Forestry Service. So far they have been able to plant trees in Eldoret, Ngong Hills and Mangroves in Mombasa, Malindi, Lamu and Diani.