What’s happening at the school – August to October 2024

There’s lots going on

The very short answer to what has been going on at the school is loads! There have been several developments around the building and as a sneaky preview we can tell you it’s two new floors and enhanced security building work that will be finished in January 2025. The 1st floor is complete and already being used whereas the 2nd floor is completely unfinished. Watch out for the next update. You can see the detailed report about lots that has gone on in the school in the last quarter in our full report for the quarter. Now here’s a summary.

School property development

We intended to purchase a bungalow next to our playground, but when that did not go through we had to change plans. The adjacent residential developments, as you will see, have gone up so close to the school that they have severely compromised the safety and security of the school and our students. So with the help of our kind donors we’ve embarked on building the next floor with additional security features above, although the second floor will be completed later. Building actually started in October.

We still need to raise over £68,000 to finish that next floor to give us additional capacity and adequate toilet facilities for the girls and boys. Plus essential security on the roof to prevent intrusion from the adjoining apartments.

The kids have been working hard

We’re really pleased with the progress of the whole school, as evidenced in recent exam results. When you read our full report for the quarter you’ll see how well our top pupils have performed. It’s not just in exams that they performed well. To illustrate that here’s a snippet about our top 5 performers, although we should make it clear we’re proud of the achievements of all of our children.

George Munga was in the team that did so well in the Insha writing competition, coming in the top three from secondary schools in Mombasa County. Sherine Sheriat is the class prefect, and was one of our team that performed so well at the African Debate Academy. Blessing Mutethya is a very special pupil, an albino with eye problems, she’s shy but knows what she wants and asks for it. Kunta Kazunga was the kitchen prefect last year, his role was to make sure everyone had eaten and give menu feedback to the teacher on duty. This year he was the representative for Environment and Nutrition and straight away he got permission to do a beach cleaning environmental project that was a huge success. Pressy has joined our safe house for girls and despite her challenges she always stays amongst our top five pupils.

But for all that all the students work hard, have fun and are progressing, we mustn’t forget how tough it is when they leave school and head for home.

What the children are learning and how Trade Aid helps

The new Kenyan competency based curriculum (CBC) is designed to be practical, rather than just learning by rote. The aim is to identify strengths at an early age and build on them to help them in their careers. To help the students in their work-skills studies we were supported by Trade Aid, a brilliant Rotary charity initiative. They provided, free of charge, 4 sewing machines and accessories, a carpenter’s box and a handyman box. Thanks to Ken Billington and the Rotary Club of Grantham Kesteven.

That wasn’t all that came across from the UK

Our chair trustee, Sally, has been collecting goodies to go out to Kenya, courtesy of DHL who make an annual shipment free of charge. There was an amazing volume collected this year, that included:

• The six Trade Aid boxes
• 500 items of uniform donated by Tesco at Bar Hill
• Around 100 personal development books aimed at teenagers donated by ActionCOACH
• Six large boxes of maths books donated by the Edward Peake School
• Period pants, sanitary wear, hygiene products and more books donated by Rotary, Ryan Hulance and other supporters
• Rucksacks so the kids can take work home, donated by the Rotary Club of Lutterworth
• And lots of spectacles (see below)

Help for the community with a medical camp

With much support from the local Rotary community and health professionals, and funding from Rotary and supporters in the UK, we held another medical camp. Many of the local community don’t have enough money to feed their families, and with all medical care being a paid for service, they desperately need healthcare. We had 100s attending for help.

We gave polio vaccinations, dispensed a huge quantity of medication, other vaccinations, and help and wellbeing advice. The queue to see our two opticians was busy all day, and the donated glasses that had come across from the UK were put to good use. Poor eyesight is a major problem for the poor, they can’t afford to have their eyesight checked, let alone buy glasses. The paediatrician was also in great demand and was super with the children.

Visit to the UK by our Kenyan team

Three of our Kenyan volunteer team and Nancy (our school manager), who are all Rotarians, came across to the UK and presented at the Rotary joint district conference for Essex and East Anglia. It was their chance to meet and thank in person so many people who have helped and supported the school as it has got off the ground and thrived. The presentation at conference was a massive success and a lot of people made contact with the team to thank them for all the work they do with the children. Everyone who met them was very impressed that they had paid their own travel costs, and for some of them that represents several months salary. The team took the opportunity to meet a number of Rotary groups, plus Rotakids, and were hosted and shown some of rural England and London on a couple of “days off” by a variety of people. Thanks to everyone who made the visit special with their time and support.

New year means new students

Last year’s intake saw over 150 applications for just 35 places. 107 children qualified to take our entry exams where we are looking for all round educational, attitude and communications skills together with an understanding of any other talents they may have. We’re looking for students who will grab the opportunities we provide and make a difference when they’ve finished their education. We’re looking for children who come from a very poor background above all, children who would otherwise leave education age 11 or 12 because they just can’t afford school fees, even for the state schools.

This year we already have over 70 applications, with lots more to come in the time allowed. It’s great because the reputation of the school is growing, it’s sad because we’ll have to turn so many children away. So far we’ve selected just the first child to start school in January, here’s an insight into her story.

Rina is a Maasai girl from Narok and she is a daughter to Lekoko our Maasai Security guard. Maasais are pastoralists and have a rich and unique culture right from their outfits to their houses (manyattas). Rina comes from a region that is faced by the worst drought in years. As her mother and siblings live in the Maasai, Rina will join the other 7 girls in the safehouse. Her father lives in a tiny room under the stairs on the school premises as he is our night guard. When we say tiny room, we mean tiny room. And he’s a big chap.

There’s lots of other good news around the school and the charity, here’s a quick overview

The school has changed it’s name to The Bombolulu Educational Centre following some changes in the rules at the Department of Education. That will help once we’ve completed the final stage of building work as we open up the premises to offer basic skills training to all older age groups in the community.

The safehouse for the girls is thriving and we are now looking after 7 girls. We have space for 2 more and a bed reserved for emergencies. We’re obviously on a restricted budget but small things can make a huge difference. Mercy received a birthday card for the very first time in her life and it means the world to her.

Three of our UK volunteers, Sally our chair trustee, Keith Hichisson, and Val Beale visited the school in September. It maintains close contact between the charity and the school and the kids love to see visitors. During the visit Sally helped interview for two new teachers (out of 100 applicants). The school will shortly be joined by Moses, he’ll take the lead role for science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM), with Milka supporting the STEM subjects and a wide range of other subjects she is qualified to teach. As part of the trip our volunteers visited the homes of some of our pupils and while they were prepared for a level of poverty, it still struck home hard to see the unimaginable level of poverty our students go home to.

We had the honour of a visit from Dr. Joe Kamau, Rotary District Governor for Kenya, Eritrea, South Sudan and Ethiopia (rather a large district), the new Rotarian District Governor Elect and members of the district executive committee. The school is a flagship project for Rotary Club Mombasa Downtown and a major project for the whole region. They were welcomed by our team in Kenya, the children and a number of local Rotarians who support the school. Dr Kamau was happy to see that this project is a huge success and that we are able to support the community because by giving education to children we are helping to eliminate many things including poverty, illiteracy, child pregnancy and crimes.

We had two new work experience teachers, Faith and Mercy, both locals, who volunteered to give up their time while they waited for graduation from university. They supported the children who need additional help.

The Rotary Club of Harpenden Village funded a large TV, soundbar and projector that means, amongst others, the children can now use YouTube for learning as a whole class, and that includes music tuition. They also funded a large commercial fridge. We’ve managed to source donations of a guitar, drums, a recorder (thanks Sally, Keith Hichisson and Val Beale) and, on the next shipment, a keyboard for the school. We’re always on the lookout for more musical instruments to send across, can you help please?

We’ve teamed up with a local company, CMW, a distributor for the network, data and telecom industries, who have sponsored seven of our children to “provide much needed support to a small charity which is making such a difference to numerous children’s lives”. They were delighted to receive thank you letters from several of the children. Thank you CMW.

You can read about all of these stories in more detail and more information about what’s going on at the school by reading our full report for the quarter. We’ve said thank you above to many of our kind supporters, if you haven’t been mentioned specifically here we’d still like to say thank you.