Trip report: Lew and Lili Fulton, March 2010: “Springtime at the Mercy Children’s Center”

Okay so it is always springtime in Kenya…still Lew and I got to go visit ‘our kids’ at the MCC in Nairobi and Western Kenya in March, and had a great time. And here, finally is our report.

Kawangware (Nairobi) Campus

Things are not perfect in Kawangware, but we’ll start with some good news: our first graduation class (Class 8) took the Kenyan national exams, which must be passed to attend secondary school (high school). They did surprisingly well. We had seven students who sat the difficult exams. The big news is that one of our 2 passing students – Dancan - received the best score from all the 150 students in the Kawangware area of Nairobi.

Two of our 7 students – Dancan and Valentine – passed with high enough scores to be admitted to a quality academic boarding school in Western Kenya for their four year secondary education. They have both been sponsored by MCC supporters to the order of $50 a month so that they can continue their education. We got to visit these kids at their new school (pictures below) and they seem to be doing very well in their new environment. Thank you so much Francois and Jerry!

Like last year, in 2010 there are still about 150 students, in 11 classes starting from baby class, nursery and kindergarten, up to Class 8. They are spending pleasant days learning, sharing and growing at our Kawangware campus. Every one of them has shoes, a uniform and notebooks. Thanks to Kitsy McMullen for providing a full updated supply of all the different subject textbooks that are needed for each grade level, and to Nigel Sizer, Knox Presebyterian Church in Ontario, and several others for providing funding that covers to costs of teachers and food at the school.

We were finally able to get the 8th grade girls in for HIV counseling and testing. By doing so we also attracted the attention of an excellent national NGO that specializes in AIDS prevention and care in Kenya. LVCT (Liverpool Voluntary Counseling and Testing) is now planning to bring mobile testing and counseling services to the school and to give classes to the children, the teachers and the surrounding community on HIV/AIDS.

We have developed a partnership between MCC and an employee of the Solar Cookers International organization who plans to organize a children’s environment club for our kids within the Kawangware slum.

The MCC boys and girls have a soccer team that competes against neighboring schools in their area. They don’t yet have uniforms but they already have a competitive team. We are looking for a local sponsor for uniforms.

The teachers at Kawangware seem to be more of a team themselves these days then they have ever been. They are dedicated to teaching the kids and are trying to improve their classroom management techniques. Unfortunately corporal punishment and rote memorization are still the norm in many Kenyan schools but our teachers are trying to move beyond that to a more positive educational experience for our kids.

The Challenges:

Conditions in the Kawangware slum seem to be getting worse. It is now seen as one of the more dangerous areas of Nairobi. While we were in Kenya the Nairobi police were caught in the act and filmed while they shot and killed seven Kawangware residents for what was clearly only very mild provocation. Luckily this made national news and the country is appalled, and some police were arrested, so in the long run maybe some much needed reforms will be implemented, but for now the media coverage only highlights just how vulnerable our Kawangware students are. It is not the ideal place to grow up.

The rents in Kawangware keep rising and the common area near the school is shrinking as more dwellings get built. So we are now looking to eventually change locations, and are considering various options from purchasing a building (very expensive even in the slums of Nairobi) to cutting back on the number of grade levels and seeing about sending the older students to board at our Bumala school. But we won’t make any changes before 2011.

We have five graduates who did not do very well on their national exams. I know these students personally and they are not at all stupid. It is obviously a tough exam. I hate to quit supporting those kids now but they could only continue their educations in technical high schools if they got sponsorship as well as some guidance (which Charles and Pius may be able to provide) A couple of them have returned to their rural homes.

One of our five graduates who is not in high school – Snoreen – has fallen ill with what appears to be rheumatic fever. Thanks to a fundraising effort by One Child’s Village in Edmonton we have been able to cover her doctor’s fees for the time being. She has been at the hospital for over a month now, and is expected to stay 2 more weeks because her kidneys were damaged by the illness as well. But I just spoke to the doctor who says that her long term prognosis is very good for complete recovery.

We continue to house 25 of the older students in a dormitory, and we changed location last year to a great building with cleaner, very secure apartments. But it is quite expensive to cover the costs of feeding and housing the kids who stay there. Since in Bumala we have now built a building that can serve as a dormitory (see below), we are considering moving some of our older kids out to Bumala and only to keep one of the two apartments that we are presently renting in Kawangware.

We are presently only offering a hot school lunch to 40 of our day students for the time being because the high cost of food and fuel. Others who have somewhere else that they can get lunch leave the school at lunchtime each day. We are not happy about this and a top priority is to feed all the kids at least one healthy meal a day but for now we are not succeeding in this goal. We continue to try to qualify for support from either “Feed the Children” or “World Food Program”, but the bureaucratic hurdles are formidable.

Overall, we are very proud of the teachers and students in Kawangware, and look forward to graduating our next Class 8 – close to 20 students – during 2010. Best of luck on the exams!

Bumala Campus

This was our first visit to Bumala in two years and it was really wonderful to see how much progress they have made out there, as well as what a healthy, friendly environment those kids are growing up in. Because MCC owns land in Bumala (5 acres), the school has been able to invest in lots of permanent structures. One Child’s Village has been an amazing benefactor in this regarding, funding most of the construction.

Good News

Using 2 of our 5 acres that remain unbuilt on, Charles has just planted crops to increase the self reliance for our school feeding programs.

The school is growing rapidly. Compared to 2009 when we had about 150 students, going into 2010 the school has increased to nearly 250 students, since more and more people from the community are asking to have the kids they know, or are caring for, accepted at the school. The school continues to enroll only orphans, but there is no shortage of supply. Given the low cost of food and good cooking facilities at the Bumala school, all the students are fed breakfast and lunch daily. Despite the rapid increase in numbers, they almost all have uniforms and shoes and they are even receiving nursing care, including treatment for the 50 or so kids who are HIV+.

In terms of facilities, thanks to the development projects of 2009, the school now has:

• Seven buildings, including 4 classroom buildings, a kitchen, and a multi-purpose building with offices and future dorm rooms
• Electricity hookup and wiring and lighting throughout most of the buildings
• computer classroom and sewing classroom with which they now provide training and workshops for other students from the Bumala community in these rooms
• Assembly hall and an overhead projector for “movie nights” and presentations
• Dormitory rooms that can house up to about 32 students (not yet occupied)

The Bumala branch of the Mercy Children’s Centre now has classes up to Kenyan class five level. This means that we have seven classes in all, including the two preschool classes. We also have a few older students who are paying for certificate classes in computers and sewing. This is the beginning of income generation for the school which will hopefully grow over time, making the school more self-sufficient.

The kids can put on a pretty professional welcome show. They sing and dance well. In fact it has been recommended that they might be ready to compete in a national music/dance competition.

Challenges:

The incredible growth of the Bumala campus is hard to keep up with both managerially and maintenance wise. But our staff (now 25 including 15 teachers!) seems to really be doing well and the kids are clearly thriving.

Despite our three large water storage tanks water is still a big problem: the well that we had built a couple of years ago has run dry. For now the school is buying water from its neighbors. We are negotiating with a local NGO that has dug a very deep bore hole to get water provided from there.

Charles and Pius have planted a number of trees – a couple of papaya trees are already bearing fruit. But we should continue to plant trees aggressively to ensure that 5 years from now there is plenty of shade and home-grown fruit.

Bumala is doing so well that we dare to dream of self sustainability. We may be able to add a secondary (high) school on the premises that could take in paying students along with ‘our’ orphans who pass the national exam. This could potentially cover much of the entire school’s operating costs. Developing this would involve a big push and will require funding for construction and initial equipment. We will plan this out during 2010, do some fund raising, and see if this is a possible project to undertake during 2011. If some students from Kawangware move out to Bumala, we could begin by offering just Form 1 (first year of secondary school), for which a room is already available.

We are still cooking with inefficient stoves and firewood. Given the Fultons training in energy management and appropriate technology, we really should be better able to manage some technology transfer here. But some customs are hard to change!

Kakamega

Yes there is a budding new campus at Kakamega, but it is just a pre-school. Pius’ hometown of Kakamega (tucked right up into an ancient rainforest in Western Kenya) has plenty of AIDS orphans of its own. They wanted to send some of their little ones to board in Nairobi or Bumala but since there was no room, they decided to start teaching 75 little orphans right there in their own town, in a half built brick building on a country road. With three volunteer teachers and a volunteer head master, they can provide a basic schooling for these kids. Some of the local families are chipping in porridge everyday so that they can have a meal. Mercy Children’s centre has provided some uniforms and guidance.

We visited the school and of course the kids were adorable. The teachers begged us for support and since Lili and Lew are suckers, we agreed – but for now at least we have agreed to personally provide a small amount of monthly support as long as the number of students does not increase! They agreed to keep it to the pre-school classes and to 75 kids, as they believe they can place most of the kids in a local elementary school from first grade on. So we have pledged to provide them with 150 dollars per month. But since all our supporters have done so well to relieve much of the burden of funding Kawangware and Bumala we Fultons might just be able to cover this cost.

Summary

In conclusion thanks to on-going leadership on the parts of Charles and Pius, strong commitment of all the teachers, and to your incredible support, the Mercy Children’s Center is still going strong. We are improving the lives of nearly 500 Kenyan kids who don’t have a lot of other options. I could see how they have grown over the years and I was beyond grateful to see them thriving.

It has been an economically tough year around the world, but people have been generous. Hopefully in 2010 this will continue - these kids’ still need our help.

Thank you so much for your continued support,

Lili and Lew Fulton