Government regulations now mean we must have a playground and the rented land we used immediately behind the school was no longer available for rent. The cost to buy the land was £32,000. This seems high but it’s just the going rate and we had no other alternatives.
This was one of those “ouch” moments but with a lot of help from donors and some tightening of our belts we finally got there.
Land in the area is expensive by standards for Kenya, but we’re surrounded by business and the right type of land is scarce in this locality. For our small charity £32,000 is a huge sum. We had a lot of people help through our appeals and we had to raid our reserves that we hoped would go towards the next stage of the school building.
Once we’d bought the land, we then had to spend more of our funds on making the playground secure with appropriate fencing. But child security is one of our top priorities so again we had no choice.
It does mean we need more regular donors to support our children and help with that next part of the school building project.
A huge number of people have helped to raise this amount and particular thanks go to East Midlands Reactive Maintenance (EMRM) for their contribution raised from a team taking on the Three Peaks Challenge, and Dave Morton (from EMRM) taking on a virtual canoe challenge.
We also received help from the Northwick Trust, whose donation also made this purchase possible. Mandy and William Baron at Autogate made a super donation, as did Mandy Russell. Sally, our chair trustee, took on the scary prospect of burned tootsies in a fire walk to raise more funds! Chris Sumner and family – thank you for your generous support as well.
The purchase of the playground was completed in August 2022, so we now have a safe place for the children to play and take breaks, and of course it helps for aspects of physical education.
For the new integrated science curriculum for lower secondary schools in Kenya, we had to have a science laboratory so the children can learn through hands on experience.
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Shereen Ajumal, a Rotarian with the Rotary Club of Sleaford, met up with her four sponsored children recently via Zoom. During that meeting, one of them mentioned that she liked swimming. Interesting! It turns out that none of the children in the school have ever been to a swimming pool.
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RotaKids clubs within schools are part of the worldwide Rotary organisation. This school club, Sheerhatch RotaKids, sponsors Pressy – to ensure her education and food for a year at least.
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