This week Missions of Hope International (MOHI) celebrated the official launch of a new school uniform. Beginning in January 2016, approximately 13,000 students at each of MOHI’s 16 different school centers will wear the same uniform. Previously, each MOHI center had its own uniform that varied in color and style. The new, standardized uniform for all schools will unify MOHI students under the same MOHI brand, making MOHI students readily identifiable in each community to further promote the work of MOHI in Mathare Valley.
The new uniform prominently features the MOHI logo embroidered on a green sweater, with the name of the student’s specific school placed beneath the logo. The new uniforms are composed of high-quality materials to reduce tearing and allow more extensive wear throughout the school year. MOHI’s tailoring production unit, comprised of Mathare community members who graduated from MOHI’s skills training program, will produce the new uniforms.
MOHI will provide the first new uniform to each of its students at every center. MOHI also has requested that the students’ parents pay for a second full uniform so that by January, each student will have two full uniforms for the coming school year. Sponsors can partner with MOHI in its goal to p
rovide one full uniform to each of its students by purchasing a uniform for their sponsored child. The approximate cost for the new full uniform (a sweater, a dress for girls, and/or a shirt and shorts/ trousers for boys) is $30 USD.
At a launch ceremony yesterday, MOHI teachers, social workers, staff, and students, along with parents from the community, celebrated God’s faithfulness to MOHI in growing its schools, which correspondingly prompted this change. In commemorating the new uniform, MOHI’s Executive Director, Mary Kamau, said that this standardization represents an act of service to MOHI’s students. "As servants of God to these students, it is our responsibility to help them feel positively about themselves on the inside, which is also reflected in a good outward appearance,” said Mrs. Kamau. "By training them from a young age to look presentable, it can open many doors for them in the future. Looking smart on the outside changes how they think about themselves, prompting them to ask, ‘Who am I and what does God have planned for me?’”
Julius Otundo, Director of Education at MOHI, said that the new uniform is not just an issue of branding. "God demands excellence in our service toward these kids,” he remarked. "This new standardization of uniforms is for the purpose of excellence, giving the best service to these children, our best service to the organization, and our best service to God.”
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