School Updates June 2020 - Kenya Kesho School for Girls

School is closed,
but there is always something to do!

Learning

On March 16th all schools in Kenya were closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The Kenya Ministry of Education has indicated there will be a gradual start to the opening of the schools in September. Schools in urban areas of Kenya are doing online learning through technology such as Zoom. Our community is poor with no Wi-Fi, no smart phones and no money to afford technology, therefore no online learning. We are concerned not to lag behind especially when schools reopen, so each week we print volumes of assignments and homework for the girls. They come to get the homework and are supposed to return the following week for marking and correction. Let me tell you, the very next day they are there for more! Bless them!

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Feeding The Girls & Their Families

In early May we launched the Sandra's Food Fundraiser Appeal to collect food in support of our girls and their families who are hard hit buy the economic consequences of the pandemic. Thanks to our very generous contributors, 120 families benefited from this initiative. Some of the ladies were so emotionally overcome and they all say thank you very much to our fabulous donors. We are family.
We continue to support the families in many different ways. We also continue paying salaries to our teachers and all the non-teaching staff, courtesy of our very generous sponsors.

Tree Planting

The rainy season started in April and we have been planting trees around the school compound. A lot of veggie seeds have been planted in our greenhouses too. We bought 10 VANILLA plants from Andrew Bowy of Kusini Farm, who gave us a two hour lecture and demonstration on care and maintenance. It is a moment of hope during these difficult times. Daniel went out to measure for a football pitch and a tennis court and a running track last week. We have run (!) into a problem! Over the past year we have planted over 1500 indigenous trees and now there is no room for a sports field. What are we to do?

School Uniforms

In January, we started making new uniforms for the girls. We settled on a checked brown colour after putting into consideration a number of factors. We provide uniforms to our girls as part of their sponsorship. Before the closure of the school a number of girls were already in new uniforms. We are now making more uniforms ready for the re-opening.

Sewing Machines

We have had a super, fabulous donation of five sewing machines to the Kenya Kesho School for Girls. We would like to start a project for making re-usable sanitary pads. Access to sanitary pads is a persistent problem within our very rural community. Girls miss school, find alternative, less hygienic methods and sometimes resort to sexual relationships in exchange for money to buy pads. We request you to support us in this project. We will need a stitching teacher and a reliable source of materials. Thank you.

School Library & Sports Fields

As I mentioned, Daniel started marking out the sports fields beginning with the football pitch - we think it may have to be half size until we work out what to do with the trees! Is there a volunteer sports teacher who would like to come and be in charge of sports? We have an awesome football team. Girls love football!

We have been working on our school library by arranging the books and entering the data into the computer. Our teachers are fully engaged and the library looks tidy and organised.

School Updates June 2020Simba2020-07-14T15:15:10+01:00