Michael and Benson have graduated!

In August 2026, two of our students graduated at Mount Kenya University.

Michael graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Nursing. Thanks to his great dedication, ambition and perseverance, he obtained excellent results.
To be able to apply for a job as a Registered Nurse Bachelor (RN-BSN), he now has to complete an exam set by the Nursing Council of Kenya and a one-year internship, followed by his official accreditation. And then, at last, he can start looking for the job of his dreams!

Benson graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Procurement, achieving good results. Thanks to his intelligence and perseverance, he also managed to complete his Bachelor of Law degree at the University of Nairobi at the same time.
He will now undertake a further one-and-a-half-year training programme at the Kenyan School of Law in order to be registered as a lawyer at the High Court of Kenya.

Michael and Benson, congratulations to both of you! We are very proud of you and we wish you lots of success going forward in your next steps.

Please help us to enable more ambitious, talented people like Benson and Michael to attend university?
Just click here for information how to donate to StandUp4Talent or donate directly via iDeal/WERO

On a visit to Kenya in 2025: Quality time with our students!

In November 2025, it was about time for our next visit to Kenya. We met our students in Kajiado, Tikoishi, Orpirikata, Kimana and Nairobi. Once again, the welcome was overwhelming, with lots of singing and dancing, hugs from all the Mamas, and a feast with the traditionally slaughtered goat.

We were able to spend a lot of time talking to our students. Mutual trust, openness and taking plenty of time ensured good and intensive talks. This way, we learn more and more about our students, their lives and the problems they encounter in their daily life.

We finished our trip with our popular StandUp4Talent Family Dinner for the university students. They were all really looking forward to it!
Read more about our intensive and interesting visit to our amazing students in Kenya here.

Janny has already made more than 100 handbags for MaasaiGirls!

After the huge success of selling homemade handbags to fund education for our MaasaiGirls in 2025, Janny (who will turn 90 in two weeks!) couldn’t stop! She just kept going!
She used every spare moment to sit down at her sewing machine. And she took every opportunity to sell her bags, whether it was during a chat with fellow residents or at a family party.

Since the start of her project, she already made more than 100 handbags! And in December, she was at the Christmas market in the OBG Nijmegen senior citizens’ complex.
Everybody enjoyed this nice little market and she managed to sell most of her bags.

Janny, thank you so much for your amazing efforts and for the generous donation you were able to make this year as a result of your hard work!

Sylvia has graduated! And she is looking forward to the next step….

On 5 December 2025 Sylvia graduated with a Diploma’s degree in Health Records and Information Technology at Mount Kenya University!

Thanks to her extraordinary perseverance, Sylvia managed to complete secondary school and the first part of her further education, despite a difficult childhood and many problems financing her school fees. The next step in her studies would not have been possible without our help.
In April 2024, we started sponsoring this motivated student. And now she has graduated with excellent results!

To improve her chances of finding a job, Sylvia would also like to obtain her Bachelor’s degree in Health Records and Information Technology. We are happy to support her in this next step in her professional development. Do you also like to support Sylvia in her next step? Please click here for more information about donating.

Sylvia, we are proud of you and wish you lots of success in continuing your studies!

With a little help, Noah can finish his education!

Sometimes it doesn’t take much to give a student in Africa a better future. Take Noah, for example, a talented young man from a very poor family in Malawi. One of his teachers in Malawi paid his secondary school fees and part of his teacher training (DAPP Teacher’s Training College in Blantyre). Until she was no longer able to do so due to the high cost of educating her own children.

We greatly appreciate what she has done for Noah and have taken over the sponsorship of his final year of study. He is very happy that he can now complete his studies without any worries.

Help us give young people like Noah a better future!
A small donation can sometimes make the difference between getting a diploma or not.
Click here for more information about Noah and to find out how you can join us in helping talented students finish their education.

Hadijah doesn’t want to be married off! She wants to become a nurse!

Hadijah, a talented and ambitious young MaasaiGirl completed her high school graduation in 2023 with very good results and has been admitted to KENYA METHODIST UNIVERSITY in Meru for a Bachelor of Nursing from 1 September 2025.
However, her parents (family of six children) do not have enough income to pay for her studies and, according to Maasai tradition, wanted to marry her off.

Hadija was desperate and turned to Purity, one of our contacts, for help. She managed to convince the parents of the importance of a good education for their daughter. After all, in the long run, that pays off much more than a dowry of a few cows.
If we manage to raise enough sponsorship money for Hadijah, we can offer her a sponsorship contract. Hadijah’s studies take four years and cost about 2,000 euros a year.

Help us to make Hadijah’s dream come true!
With your donation, we can give her the chance to attend a beautiful study and build a great future.
Click here for more information about Hadijah and how to donate for her studies.

Moindi doesn’t want to be married off! She wants to go to school!

Moindi, a Maasai girl from Kenya, 16 years old, was taken out of high school by her father in mid-February 2025 to be married off. She fled to the home of Joseph Sankale, one of our contacts, where she was She fled to the home of Joseph Sankale, one of our contacts, where she was welcomed with love, respect and care. Because of the risk of abduction, Moindi has been enrolled at a school far away from her father’s village.
For school fees and school supplies, about 600 euros per school year, Moindi is dependent on sponsorship. StandUp4Talent is committed to saving this ambitious and talented Maasai girl from being married off and enabling her to finish high school.

Thanks to some generous sponsors, Moindi was able to start class 3 of her new high school in May 2025. She is very happy to be given this opportunity! But to ensure she can also complete class 4, donations are still very welcome!
Click here for more information about Moindi and how to donate for her studies.

A milestone for Lawrence: publication of his first 3 books!

During his studies (Bachelor of Commerce, Catholic University of Malawi), Lawrence was already regularly writing poems and essays. In November, he published his first 3 books, ‘Laudate Deus English Grammar’, ‘Business Novel (Ferrari or Budget Car)’ and ‘Impi Biyeni’ poetry book.

In an interview on ‘24/7 Malawi’, he talked about his motivation to write these books: ‘I want to help the youth in Malawi and beyond to change their lives through businesses and writing. My books aim to provide guidance and motivation for those who want to start their own businesses and make a positive impact in their communities.’ Read this interview here.
We are very proud of Lawrence! We wish him success in continuing his career as a writer.

Purity has graduated!

In 2016, we started supporting the study of Purity, Bachelor of Education, Early Childhood Studies at Kenyatta University Nairobi. Unfortunately, her studies were frequently interrupted, due to teacher strikes and the corona pandemic lockdowns.

She completed her studies in 2022, but unfortunately it turned out to be impossible to graduate because the university had lost the results of one exam! Mid-2024, after many phone calls and visits to the university, at last there was the long-awaited result! Purity was very happy. Finally, she could officially graduate! At the Graduation Ceremony on 13 December 2024, she received the Bachelor’s degree she had waited for so long.

In traditional Maasai communities, which often live in remote areas and have very limited income, it is still an exception when a girl/woman goes to university and graduates with a bachelor’s degree. That is why a grand traditional ceremony with singing, dancing and speeches was organised for Purity by her community Orpirikata on 27 December.
Read more about Purity.

Purity, congratulations! We are very proud of you!

Purity is now working as a teacher in the local primary school. She also energetically dedicates herself to the community together with Faith, one of our other students. Thanks to the collaboration between these two amazing women, their individual development has extended to their entire community. And we are very proud of them!
Read more about the impact Faith and Purity are making on their communities.

Purity wishes that every child from her community could have the same opportunity she had. That is why she is the contact person and coach for our students from Orpirikata on behalf of StandUp4Talent. We are currently sponsoring 4 high school students from Orpirikata, but we still have a waiting list of teenagers who would also like to go to school very much. Would you like to help Purity to give these girls (and boys too) a chance for a better future? Please check our donation page for information about the ways you can support us. Many thanks in advance!

Handbags made by Janny for MaasaiGirls

One is never too old to set up a sponsorship campaign! We saw that through a great initiative by Janny, the mother of Brigitte, 88 years young!
She wanted to contribute to the education of our MaasaiGirls. In August, she started selling beautiful homemade handbags and toiletry bags. Sales were excellent, and to complete her campaigne she had a stall at the weekly market in the senior living centre OBG Nijmegen in November.
The money she collected was above expectations and will fully benefit the education of MaasaiGirls.

Janny, many thanks for your efforts and this beautiful donation!

Would you also like to set up a sponsorship campaign to support us? Please let us know! We are happy to help by providing texts, photos and QR codes for donations.

Faith has graduated!

In 2018, Faith managed to touch our hearts with her dream at a campfire in the Kenyan bush:
My dream is to become the voice of the Maasai girls and my society, to fight for their rights to education, fight against female genital mutilation, fight teenage pregnancy among the young maasai girls, fight against child marriages and making this young girls realize their dreams.

With the help of our sponsors, she was able to start her studies in Communication and Public Relations at St. Pauls University Kenya in January 2019. While studying, her academic results, her personal development, her ambitions and her entrepreneurial drive evolved and improved at a high pace.
Click here for more information about Faith.

During her studies, Faith was already committed to all kinds of projects for her community. Together with Purity, one of our other students, a wide range of projects were set up to help their communities move forward in their development. This has brought so much energy and inspiration to their fellow villagers that everyone is now participating in new plans and a better future. Read more about Faith and Purity’s impact on their communities.

Faith completed her Bachelor in Communications with excellent grades and received her degree during a beautiful Graduation Ceremony on 14 November!
And of course, a big celebration was held in her community afterwards!

Congratulations Faith! We are all incredibly proud of you. Keep up all your good work for your community. As a result we, as StandUp4Talent, have the impact on communities in Kenya that we want to achieve with our sponsorships.

StandUp4Talent is celebrating its 10 year anniversary!

We started our StandUp4Talent foundation with great enthusiasm in 2014, so we are celebrating our 10th anniversary this year!
Thanks to the generous gifts of our donators, we have been able to support more than 50 students in their education during these 10 years. Some with a one-off donation or temporary support. Others needed our support throughout their school careers.

We are very proud of our hard-working students who take the opportunities we are able to offer them thanks to our donators. A number of students have now graduated.

We are very grateful to all our donators! We hope we can continue to count on you in the future and offer many more young people a chance for a better future!

Information about donations

A Warm Reunion with Our Students in Kenya

This year, once again, we visited our students and the communities we work with in Kenya.
Seeing with our own eyes and hearing with our own ears what is happening adds so much value! And direct personal contact has such a big impact on both the students and the communities!

We received a very warm welcome in the villages of Orpirikata and Tikoishi, met with all the high school students, and held meetings with the CBOs about ongoing and future projects. We visited several other projects to explore future plans, particularly in the areas of permaculture and water supply.

In Nairobi, we had individual meetings with all our bachelor students and organized another dinner for the whole group, the “StandUp4Talent Family Dinner.”

It was another impressive trip!
Read our full report here

Teckler has graduated!

Teckler has completed her Bachelor of Commerce studies at Jomo Kenya University of Agriculture and Technology. At the Graduation Ceremony on 28 June, she was decorated with Maasai jewellery and congratulatory cards by her “sisters”.

We are very proud of Teckler. As a young girl, she ran away from home to avoid forced marriage and ended up in a rescue centre where she was able to complete primary school. Thanks to support from StandUp4Talent and a few special sponsors, she was able to attend High School and university.
During her studies, Teckler faced several problems and difficulties, but thanks to her perseverance and by working very hard, she managed to complete her Bachelor’s degree.
Teckler is now looking for a job or a scholarship for a master’s study abroad.

We warmly congratulate her and wish her lots of success!

Great news: Yamikani has a job!

Thanks to the support of StandUp4Talent Yamikani was able to study at the Catholic University of Malawi in Limbe, Bachelor of Arts in Education.

He graduated in September 2022. The poor economic situation in Malawi made it very difficult to find a job. To increase his chances in to find a job, he started working as an English teacher at his old school on a voluntary, so unpaid, basis.

In early 2024, his efforts were rewarded! He was officially employed as a teacher by the Ministry of Education!

Wereldwinkel Sint Michielsgestel and Berlicum many thanks for your donation!

This year, we received a generous donation from the Wereldwinkel in Sint Michielsgestel and Berlicum. The Wereldwinkel sells original gifts from other cultures. The producers receive a fair price, enabling them to make a decent living. Wereldwinkel is operated by about 50 volunteers, who enthusiastically dedicate themselves to charity.

Part of the profit is donated every year to charity organisations nominated by the volunteers. StandUp4Talent was one of the lucky ones this year!

We thank all Wereldwinkel volunteers for their efforts and this generous donation!

Visiting our students in Kenya

In August-September 2023, we (Stefan and Brigitte) visited all our students in Kenya.

We visited our high school students in their villages during their school holidays. It was nice to talk to them in their own environment, without the pressure of the strict school regime. And it was nice to meet their parents and their communities.

We met our undergraduate students in Nairobi. We visited some universities and got a glimpse of life in their student accommodations. Seeing the circumstances in which they have to live and study gives you a huge appreciation and respect for their achievements.

At the end of our journey, we organised a dinner for our undergraduate students, our “StanddUp4Talent Family Dinner”, so they could get to know each other. We hope that in the future they will support each other, give tips, work together, etc.

Click here to read our detailed report