Kenyan High School Teacher Wins royal international award
A Kenyan high school teacher has received a royal international award for her volunteer work in prisons and for inspiring young people to volunteer.
Esther Mureke-Kuria was named one of only 100 people worldwide to receive The Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award, also known locally as The President’s Award, for her outstanding support of youth.
Kuria has been teaching German and English for over a decade and is currently a teacher at Nyeri High School.
In June 2010, she launched a mentorship program between Nyeri High School students and Mathari Primary School students.
Her students visited the primary school every Friday at 4 p.m. to teach pupils in grades five through eight.
“The programmes bore fruit because in 2012, the first-ever Mathari primary school pupil Daniel Kamunya joined Nyeri High School. This was historic because no other pupil from the school had merited to be admitted to Nyeri High School,” Kuria explained.
“I have a heart for the community and bettering lives of people; most importantly my students. I have initiated many successful community projects, the most recent being high school students teaching inmates at the King’ong’o Maximum Prison in Nyeri,” she said.
Kuria also volunteered to teach inmates at the prison German.
In June 2011, she established the Prison Volunteer Service between Nyeri High School and King’ong’o Prison, making it the only school in Kenya authorized by the Commissioner of Prisons to visit and volunteer at a maximum-security prison.
It was established in 1956 by the late Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, in collaboration with German educationalist Kurt Hahn.
According to a press release from the award office this year to commemorate HRH The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh Award, which he founded, is honoring some of the organization’s most inspiring volunteers.
Nellie Munala, CEO of Kenya, presented the President’s Award to Ms Kuria for demonstrating self-determination that benefited her immediate community.
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The Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award relies heavily on volunteers. Behind every young person who undertakes the Award is an army of tireless volunteers, who freely give their time, expertise and other resources to support the Award and the young people.
They are among others the Award Leaders, Activity Coaches/mentors and Adventurous Journey assessors
