Why I started Hive Futures

I grew up in Kamunyu, Gatundu, Kenya. I did not only watch my classmates being sent home for school fees. I was one of them.

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My family grew coffee and delivered it to the Magomano factory. When prices collapsed, the trees came down. At twelve I was picking coffee on the big estates beside my mother and my older brother, for twenty shillings a debe, a 20-kilo tin. I missed much of secondary school because the fees were not paid. I finished in 2003 still owing the school, and it held my certificate until 2007.

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In Gĩkũyũ, the language I grew up speaking, we say Wega uumaga na mũciĩ: goodness begins at home. The proverb teaches that whatever good a person carries into the world was first planted at home, by a family, a village, a community.

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Hive Futures is how I return that goodness. We pay school fees in full, directly to the school, through all three years of Senior School, for bright learners in Kenya's coffee and tea communities, and we aim to keep supporting those who finish in good standing into university, college or technical training. Their harvests travel the world, yet school fees still send their children home. We call these learners Futures. Our hope is that each Future becomes the wega of their home and passes it on.

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Goodness begins at home. Together, we help it grow.

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Alex Muturi, Founder