Educational Facilities in Kenya
In January 2010, Gill David and Sue Thain visited Kenya in order to find out more about a project the Charity was considering undertaking. The trip was both exciting and frightening. Their excitement was seeing a remarkably beautiful country with wild animals and birds they had never seen before. The frightening side was seeing the extreme poverty and lawlessness – very much worse than any of them had met with in Ecuador or Peru. Gill wrote:
“The long dusty track to Tomaini Pre-school (the name means ‘hope’) is bordered by some of the loveliest stretches of land in East Africa. Huge sacred fig and other trees give way to rolling pasture, dotted all over with Giraffe, Zebra and Eland. The village we came to was primitive and rubbish-strewn, and the little school, neatly built of second-hand timber, stood out among family homes and the most unlikely shops, boasting extravagant English names. The school has a tiny office and store area which could become a kitchen, and a long school room, divided into 3 spaces by partitions.
The children range from under 3 to 8 years old, and the head teacher told us that by the time they go to Primary School they can all read and write. The whole village has only one water tap where the women gather to fill their plastic containers. So the school has no water supply. The teachers are caring for 152 children in one big noisy space with no facilities whatever. Their one toilet is a stinking hole in the ground and an obvious health hazard. There is no water to keep the place clean, or the children clean.”
Now at the cost of 3,000 euros raised in Lanzarote, they have a water supply to a big tank which flows by gravity to separate loos, showers and basins.
The Unity, Rubira and Kamuyu Primary Schools, had no desks. As you see the children sit on rough planks resting on rocks and have nowhere to write. This Unity Primary classroom for 90 eight to nine year olds, needed 30 desks, each desk to seat 3 children, made locally for 15 euros each. We have already sent the money for these desks.
The heads of Rubira and Kamuyu Schools also have no desks for their 370 children and have asked us for the money to buy 90 more, as well as, 2 Office desks, 20 lockers and 20 chairs for teachers. It is something we can only do with your help.