Nzavoni - A School in Need

The last couple of times I've been to the Kinyambu area, I have visited a nearby primary school called Nzavoni. 

 The students and staff of Nzavoni

Last winter we brought them some educational gifts and they sang for us. They sing in their local Kamba language with great joy, welcoming visitors.

Nzavoni Classroom

Nzavoni Classroom

However, the poor condition of the classrooms there struck me both times. On the last visit, in March of 2016, I could see that things were getting bad quickly. We saw a couple of classrooms that had rotten rafters half fallen down, big cracks in the walls and evidence of a large termite mound that was forming in the inside walls. The head teacher's office was tiny and the teacher's workroom was in disrepair. 

Parents are concerned for their children in these rooms, consequently, the school has been losing students to nearby schools, causing overcrowding at those other schools. 

It kept bothering me after I got home and after talking to George Bunz and others at Rainbow of Hope we decided to put fundraising resources into building 3 classrooms and some offices for them. Kenya made primary school education free in 2003 but local communities are responsible for school buildings and maintenance. The government supplies teachers and some very basic school supplies.

There will be a water tank on each building to catch rainwater and we will furnish the classrooms with desks, tables and chairs and blackboards. The offices will have lockable storage for exams and materials and desks and chairs for teachers. Parents will provide unskilled labour and are excited to have a new building for their children.

I and the Kenya group we work with, want to make sure that we don't just focus all our efforts on one school and that we spread things around a bit. This will be a good start. We hope that parents bring their children back to this school and that the standards of education will strengthen.

Monitoring visit, February and March 2016

It's been several months since returning from my latest visit to Kinyambu. It seems to take me that long to process things and get down what the visit meant to me.

Monitoring Team

I had two friends with me this time, new to Kenya, who found the visit quite interesting and inspiring. Roy, my cousin, 10 days younger than me, who had spent much of his work life in northern Manitoba  found the whole trip an eye opener. He is someone who watched every National Geographic Special on Africa but kept saying how different the reality is. A TV show just can't capture the smells, the light, the sounds and the people. Cal, a new friend from Prince Albert, was most intrigued by meeting the local people. He enjoyed the dancing, visiting the schools, getting into the local life and eating the local food.

We met with Simon and the KRECD group on the Saturday afternoon of our visit. They are excited about possible programs we can do to improve agricultural production in the area. Their idea is to get better breeds of chicken and improved fruit trees and give them to the school children who would raise them at their homes. Kind of like our 4H programs. Sounds good to me.

Presenting a laptop

We also visited Kinyambu Primary School where we presented them with 2
computers and a printer and a lot of sports clothing for the teachers and t-shirts that the students can wear while playing so they look more like a team. They're enjoying those and the students are learning to operate the printer too.

Thange School Students

We also went to two nearby schools, Thange where Beth Muendo teaches and Nzavoni. We presented some gifts to the schools and they sang songs for us too.

Nzavoni has some classrooms in very bad condition. The termites have gotten into the rafters and they are almost non-existent. The walls have big cracks and the floors are rough. I came home determined to raise some money to build some new classrooms there which I've started to raise money for.

We left for Tanzania after a few days, driving around Mt. Kilimanjaro  to visit another Rainbow of Hope project.

See you next year, Kinyambu.

Learning computers

The Kinyambu Library is now equipped with computers and printer. Sylvia Ndunge Kyalo and Teddy Muoti lend a hand in printing some work for the headteacher.

Both Sylvia and Teddy are class eight pupils in Kinyambu Primary. They did marvelous work with the laptop and printer after just a few directions on how to operate them.

Post and pictures courtesy of  Mwalimu Timothy Kaija, seen below using the computer as well.