Springtime in Kenya, 2011
By Lili Fulton (with some inputs from Lew)
Hi all,
Lew and I just got back from our annual visit to Kenya to visit the Mercy Children’s Center and I have lots of pictures and news to report. Mostly things are progressing well, with new students and new class levels and such. And, as with any school, there are various issues to deal with. I dealt with teaching issues (e.g. concerns over curriculum, test scores and teachers’ discipline methods), management issues (teacher hiring/firing policies, strengthening the role of the local community), and of course budget issues; especially the constant need for more desks, food, clothes and school supplies.
The Bumala school is as beautiful as ever though it is strained to try to feed and clothe the 300 kids who now go there (and especially the 35 or so who are now staying in the dormitory). The latest new water well (deeper, electric pump) is working pretty well so far, and they are having a nice rainy season which should help the vegetables. And, we started a high school – at least the first year of one, known as Form 1. So far we have three teachers, one 28 student class. The goal is to make this high school self-supporting. So far nineteen students pay, nine are graduates from MCC Elementary or local orphans and therefore do not pay. The fees for the paying students just about cover the cost of the teachers. It’s a good first step, but we have far to go to fully develop the new school.
In Nairobi, our Kawangware MCC school is also rolling along fairly well, though we are still “stuck in the mud” and continue our search for a new location. We now think it will take a bigger sum to make this happen, and we are considering fundraising options. But for now things are okay, the facility is not great but serviceable, and the students and teachers remain enthusiastic.
In January we sent some Kawangware Class 8 graduates out to Bumala to start Form 1 at the new High School, and had included our class 7 and 8 kids (about 10 of them) so that we could close down the boy’s dormitory in Nairobi. As it turns out, after one term up country, many of the Class 7 and 8’s were very ready to come back to their homes in Kawangware. So we are welcoming them back and reopening the boy’s dorm on the Kawangware campus and putting the head teacher – John Wafula – in to live with these kids. Here is a picture of some of the boys who want to live (again) at the school sponsored apartment. Some of them admittedly look awfully old to be in fifth grade but I promise you there they are.
On the other hand the Form One kids at Bumala seem very happy with their new home and schooling. They may miss their people back home but they seem to like their new bucolic home very much, and like many 15 or 16 year olds the most important people in their lives are their classmates anyway. I was amazed by how mature and sharp some of ‘our kids’ look these days. It warms the heart. Unfortunately I didn’t bring a camera with me to Bumala when I visited.
April is a holiday month between terms for Kenyan schools but I was able to have a craft day at the Kawangware school. We worked outside while the floor was drying with new hard clay covering. Five years ago we had resurfaced this floor but it has suffered the ravages of time so badly that it needed a new covering. For the smaller classrooms, we are tying a cheaper technique this term: we are simply completely wetting and smoothing the dirt floors now - during the off time - so that they can dry in an undisturbed fashion and hopefully quit destroying our desks with their gullies and holes. Such is life in our fairly muddy slum.
Thanks to some donations by Barbara Hoegen and her colleagues at the American School of Paris we were able to give the kids book bags and back packs to decorate on craft day. The baby class also got tin cups that they each put their own name on while the teachers helped decorate each one specially.
Finally I repeated the macramé class while a neighbor lady taught the older kids how to make beads from recycled paper. They are really very nice and I ended up buying a bunch of these necklaces in the hopes of selling them in Paris as an income generation scheme for the school. Here are 2 examples (please excuse the aging model but she was the only one available on such short notice):
Update on Needs:
My visit did remind me of just how much is needed for the kids, and I found that our “start of year” budget didn’t fully cover the unexpected restarting of the dorm and acquisition of all needed school supplies. I have identified a number of areas where we need to raise funds (beyond our monthly budget). These include:
- Books: each year we try to purchase some new supporting books for the teachers, and this year “social studies” is very important, in part because of the new Kenyan constitution that is now covered in the new texts. Text books are unfortunately expensive, so to get about 20 new books it will cost around KSH 30,000 (EUR 250, USD 350 – note that currently the exchange rate is about KSH 120=EUR 1 and KSH 85=USD 1).
- Shoes: we need lots of new pairs of shoes, like all years, and at about KSH 500 per pair. This will cost KSH 50,000 to 100,000 depending on how many kids we supply.
- Hoodies: the cold season is coming (yes, in June/July it can get down to +10 at night, occasionally even +5 and no one has heat). These kids need warm clothing. A sweater or a ‘hoody’ costs about 800/= each. We could use at least 100.
- Beds and bedding: for the dorms we will need some new beds and mattresses, and bedding with mosquito netting. All in all it costs around KSH 12,000 for a bunk bed that can sleep four. We need 3 such setups (KSH 36,000). It would be good to replace some existing mattresses as well (up to 10,000).
- Large Propane Cooker: I had wanted to buy the urban campus a gas cooker because I am ashamed of the fact that they still cook with charcoal and wood. Our analysis of the recurring costs makes it look like using the canisters of gas would actually be very comparable in price to buying charcoal or wood once they have invested the upfront cost.
- Computers: Though we got the computer center going in Bumala (thanks to a number of generous donations of laptops), we don’t have computers in Kawangware. We won’t try to start a formal computer centre there at this time, but the teachers would like some computers so we are looking for about 3-5 not-too-old laptops for them. Any laptop that accepts USB sticks is very useful for internet access.
- One student (Valentine, one of our Kawangware graduates) is entering Form 2. Last year she was at a boarding school in western Kenya but we lost our sponsor for her, so she moved back to Nairobi. We hope to put her in a high school in Nairobi, for a cost of about KSH 15,000 per term.
We also will be starting our regular fundraising for our monthly expenses (our Friends of MCC contribution is about USD 2000 per month, and we have already used up what we had left at the end of 2010 – so we’re getting started a little late here!).
In particular, we need to pay teachers salaries – these average about KSH 3,500 to 4,000 per month. We would love to get all our teachers sponsored this year – and we will be happy to put people in touch with teachers they sponsor, if interested – or at least to know who they are and what class they teach, etc. If we could arrange a monthly “virement” to feed into our monthly budget transfer to the school, that would be great.
And Finally: I met a few other orphans, who for varying reasons can’t go to MCC, but who also need sponsorship to continue their educations. One is too old for our program since she is trying to finish high school, one is too young and lives with her aunt far away from the school, and one is not healthy enough (at 10 years old, and though he is neither HIV+ nor suffering from epilepsy, he sometimes faints for no apparent reason so he is living with an uncle while looking for medical support). If you would like to develop a direct relationship with any of these kids we could help you work that out.
NEW NGO AND FRENCH BANK ACCOUNT
Luckily we’ve finally gotten our new NGO, “Amis de MCC” officially registered in France and have opened a bank account, and we are happy provide that information to interested folks (and to help arrange some “virements” :-). This will complement our existing NGO, Friends of the Mercy Children's Centre, which enables Americans to contribute tax-free. (see www.friendsmcc.org)
