Annual Report 2025

TMET
Sep 30, 2025
5 min read

This is the first TMET annual report since 2022, due to a turnover of Trustees since 2023 and a period of adjusting to new roles and responsibilities within the Trust.

Professor Suzette Heald resigned as Chair of TMET in August 2023, along with Jean Smith. Many thanks go to Suzette for her long and dedicated service to TMET over her many years as Chair. And thanks also to Jean Smith for being an active Trustee.

Pippa Price took over as Chair in August 2023, with all the other Trustees remaining the same, and with Mathias Mwita as TMET coordinator in Kenya. We are currently looking for new Trustees to join the board, and welcome any volunteers!

In 2025, TMET is sponsoring 18 secondary school students; 14 girls and 4 boys. We are also sponsoring 15 University students, 11 girls and 4 boys. Each year, we continue to recruit new secondary students from all 4 areas of Kuria, the remote tribal area of Kenya where TMET operates. Students need a mean grade of a B or above at the end of their secondary education to be eligible to apply for further sponsorship from TMET for University.

Of our seven school leavers in 2024, 75% got a B or above; one with an excellent A- and two with B+. Three are now being sponsored through University by TMET.

2026 will see a new ‘Competency Based Curriculum’ (CBC) introduced within the Secondary Schools in Kenya, with Senior Secondary Schools having 3 years of students. TMET will therefore sponsor three years of school education (having previously sponsored four years).

A highlight of the the last two years has been the Trustee visits to Kenya. Pippa and Jo visited in November 2023 and Pippa and Sally in April 2025. We are grateful to Mathias Mwita for the coordination of the visit when we were there, and to the Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate Conception (SFIC) who accommodate us when we are in Kenya.

Trustee visits (though costly) are a vital part of running the Trust and always highlight the issues students and parents face during their school and university years. The issues that came to the fore were very similar during both visits. Firstly, as the cost of living soars within Kenya, and school fees keep going up, it is very difficult for families to keep up with all the fee demands. TMET increased the amount of sponsorship by around 15-20% in 2024, but do not provide full fees, so parents have to find the remainder from somewhere. Despite this, most of our students have paid the majority of their fees. There are a few striking exceptions, where the most needy students have an outstanding fee balance which may never be cleared as they cannot afford to do so (and TMET only clear these in very rare circumstances).

Secondly, it has become increasingly clear in recent years that University students cannot progress in their studies without a smart phone, tablet or laptop. Both times we visited, very few of our University students had any of the above, as they could not afford it. As a result of this, TMET has now donated a tablet to every university student; this has been a significant one-off expense, but having done that, we now only need to provide a tablet to each new student we sponsor through university. Many thanks to the donor who provided the funds for the tablets!

Other issues include lack of revision books, and requests from the local community to sponsor more students (which is not possible as TMET has limited funds).

During the visit earlier this year, we were pleased to see that two of our ex-students, who graduated a number of years ago have set up a ‘TMET Beneficiary’ group, with a bank account in to which they can pay any amounts in order to sponsor their own students. If they cannot afford to do this, they have the opportunity to give their own time to help with current students’ studies.

During our recent time in Kuria, we managed to visit around 30 current and previous students in their homes (see photos below). The objective of this was to record their stories and to be able to show the impact TMET has had on their lives. It was enlightening to see them face to face and to hear their challenges. We have recorded all their stories, a selection of which we hope to put on the TMET website in the future.

During both Trustee visits, we attended the annual Get Together Party, where all current TMET students and previous students came together with parents, local officials and Trustees to discuss issues and to spend time together. This year was a student focussed affair, where current and previous students conducted discussions in break out groups and presented back to the whole audience afterwards.

Both recent visits to Kuria have highlighted that the ‘leaching’ of gold is bringing more funds to the local community. Although the majority of leaching plants are owned by non-Kurians, the plants are employing a significant number of local young people of school age, who are therefore earning money. This is damaging the ethos that education is a good thing and will help get a good job and sustain the family, as some locals are asking why they would send their children to school when they can earn money immediately at the gold plants.

Mathias Mwita and our local contacts within Kuria report that it never stops raining in Kuria. This was certainly true when we were there this April, and had an impact on our visits to homes, making it difficult to get up some muddy uneven roads, and curtailing some of the visits. Even during the Get Together Party we experienced biblical rain! The high rainfall is affecting some crops, meaning that income suffers greatly, and therefore the ability to pay school fees.

TMET accounts remain fairly stable, although having two Trustee visits within 18 months dented them somewhat. We are extremely grateful to our donors and for any future donations, without whom the Trust simply could not sponsor as many students.

We are proud to say that in the 34 years since the Trust was established, TMET has sponsored around 340 students, either through Secondary School or University. This has had a significant impact on families in the Kuria community, and we look forward to future years when we can make a similar contribution.