Back to School!

January marks the beginning of the new school year in Kenya, and our Nairobi Kids headed back to class on January 6.  As can be seen from these photos of the first week of school, the children were excited to be back in class and see their friends. 

Fanuel (the school director) reports that 95% of the sponsored children (other than Form 1, which reports next week) have returned to school.  Brenda (the Plant-a-Book Int. director) has emailed any sponsor whose sponsored child has not returned.  Therefore, if you have not received an email you can rest assured that your sponsored child has safely returned to class.  We may still see a few more children straggle in as some families travel far into the countryside over the break and their return is sometimes delayed for various reasons.

Since high school eligibility is dependent upon KCPE scores, Form 1 traditionally starts a few weeks after the other children return to school.  WHS Form 1 students will begin the school year on Monday.  We expect a list from Fanuel of the Form 1 students have returned to class by the end of next week.

In other exciting news, Fanuel reports that the primary school children are already using the two new classrooms that have been built, even though the construction is not yet complete.  He assures us that they are safe to use.  Thank you to all of our donors who made the construction of these much needed classrooms possible!  Donations are still needed to complete these rooms.

Please remember to update your sponsored child’s grade level when writing them letters or making purchases from the Online Shop.  If you have any questions about your sponsored child, please email Brenda at info@plantabook.org.

 

 

 

 ~ Submitted by Brooke

Goals for 2014

 

As the New Year begins, we at PAB have worked with Fanuel, the school director, to develop a set of goals for 2014.  This year we are taking a “back to basics” approach that emphasizes the fundamental features of our sponsorship program.  Our primary goals for 2014 are:

1.    Increase the number of children sponsored

Packages and gifts from the Online Shop are certainly appreciated, but the single most important gift that we can give our Nairobi Kids is the gift of sponsorship.  Sponsorship provides these children with the financial and emotional support they need to stay in school and earn their secondary school diplomas. 

If one of your sponsored children has graduated or moved away, please consider picking another child to take their place.  We will also be focusing on getting the word out about our programs in an effort to expand our sponsorship base.  In the coming months, the blog will be featuring simple ways our supporters can help us spread the word about our Nairobi Kids. 

2.    Complete the new classrooms for the Galilee Primary School

Our large project this year will be to raise funds to complete the new Galilee Primary School classrooms.  Thus far, we have raised the funds to complete one classroom and are only $1396 away from complete funding of the second classroom.  We hope to build a total of six primary classrooms through our Buy-a-Brick Campaign.  For more information on the Buy-a-Brick Campaign, visit www.plantabook.org. 

3.    Encourage deeper relationships with sponsored children through letter-writing

The encouragement of a sponsor can have a very positive effect on a sponsored child’s school performance and general outlook on life.  This year we would like to foster deeper relationships between sponsors and their sponsored children by increasing the number of letters, cards, and postcards sent by sponsors.  We will be instituting a “Letter of the Month Club” on the blog to help sponsors remember to write and to provide some ideas of interesting topics to explore.

4.    Improve Textbook Ratios

Fanuel reports that insufficient textbooks is one of the biggest obstacles that the school faces in providing the children with a quality education.  At WHS, the textbook ratio is now approximately one textbook to every four students.  The ratio is better at GPS due to a large donation of textbooks in 2011, but students still currently share at a ratio of approximately one textbook to every two students. 

Some of the textbooks used are paperbacks and must be replaced every few years due to wear and tear.  In wealthier countries these types of texts are replaced on annual basis.  Please consider purchasing textbooks this year for your sponsored child and/or the classroom.  A full set of textbooks is available from the Online Shop for approximately $50 (depending on the grade), and individual texts can be purchased for $5-7.  Buying your sponsored child a textbook provides three blessings: (1) your sponsored child has use of the book for the school year; (2) it reduces the overall text to student ratio for the class; and (3) when the school year ends, the text will remain with the class to be used by students next year.

Thanks to all of our sponsors, donors, and volunteers for your continued support this year as we work to reach these goals and help our Nairobi Kids get a quality education!

~submitted by Brenda and Brooke

Construction on the New Primary Classrooms Has Begun

Construction has begun on the two primary classrooms that we have partially funded to date!  These classrooms will replace the dilapidated, temporary structures that the children in the Galilee Primary School currently occupy.  We need only $1396 more to fully fund these two classrooms.  Assuming that we are able to raise the remaining funds, construction is expected to take approximately two months.  This timing will allow the students to move into the new classrooms during the first term of the new school year. 

Please help us raise the funds to complete the construction of these first two classrooms by making a donation to our Buy-a-Brick Campaign.  For more information on the Buy-a-Brick Campaign, please visit www.plantabook.org or email info@plantabook.org.

~submitted by Brooke

Buy a Brick Campaign

The classrooms serving the Galilee Primary School students were intended to be temporary. As primitive as they are, they have actually served our kids for many years now.  The walls and roof consist of sheet metal with rough wood pole supports, and one wall in each room is half sheet metal and half chicken wire to allow for airflow and a little light. The state of deterioration is very evident. The roofs are leaking, causing flooding during the rainy season. The children need and deserve a healthy and appropriate learning environment.

We would like to replace the classrooms with actual classroom buildings.  Each classroom costs $5737 to build. We would like to build six ground floor classrooms to begin and then eventually add second floor classrooms to those. This is the style of classroom that will replace the sheet metal and chicken wire ones:

 

Thanks to donations received through KKIN UK and Plant-a-Book International we have completely paid for one classroom to be constructed and are on our way to funding a second room!  Can you join us in this campaign? Any donation amount is welcome and will go a long way to creating adequate classrooms so our students can get the most from their education.

Please make your donation through the PayPal button on this site or write to info@plantabook.org.

Thanks for making a difference!

Fun and Games

If you were to ask our students what their favorite sport is, my guess is the vast majority would say FOOTBALL (or soccer, as we call it in the States).  Here is the girls' team, just before a game this fall.

It's great to know that our students are able to participate in some normal, healthy school activities, such as sports and music, as well as their studies.  This helps provide a more well rounded education for our students and helps them develop friendships.  We are so happy to know their physical education and health are a priority, too.

Surprise: New Desks!

Every once in awhile something unexpected happens and makes for a happy surprise!  So it was when the school learned that they were to be the recipients of 600 school desks, donated by the African Development Bank.  Since many of Galilee Primary School's desks were very old and in poor repair, these new desks were a wonderful blessing! 

 

 

 

Through their project to help non-formal schools in need, the bank also gave the school a desktop computer last semester.  We are very appreciative of these efforts to help schools for children living in poverty.

Friday's Featured Student - A very patient young man

Victor - SOS49

Victor has been waiting a long time for a sponsor.  Please email info@nairobikids.org to learn more on how you can help this wonderful young man.

Victor is 11 years old with a birthday on June 27, 1999.  He is in Class 6.  His best subject is science and he wants to be an accountant someday.  Victor lives with his unemployed parents and has grown up in the Kayole-Soweto slums.  He enjoys playing football.  Can you help Victor by being his sponsor and friend?

Victor can be sponsored on either the Basic Program or the Breakfast Included Sponsorship program.

Breakfast-Included Sponsorship Program:  The fees are $12.50/month which covers a nutritious fruit breakfast, a basic school uniform, basic school supplies and a small stipend toward the school's operating costs. These sponsorships provide vital funding for the child's and school's needs. In return you will receive a photo and letters from your child each term, knowing that you are sending your child to school with fruit in their tummy and a nice uniform and supplies.   

Basic Program Sponsorship: While breakfast, uniform and school supplies are not included, these sponsorships provide an opportunity for children to exchange letters with their sponsors and provide a stipend toward the school's operating costs.

Friday's Featured Student - An adorable little girl

Meet Idah - SOS62

Idah just turned 12 years old, with a birthday on August 12. She is in class 7A and her best subjects are English and science. She lives with her parents and a two siblings in the Soweto slums. Her parents are unemployed and they live in abject poverty. Idah likes skipping rope and thinks it would be fun to be a pilot someday. Can you be Idah's new sponsor?

Sponsorship means so much to the students at Galilee and WHS, recently a student wrote to their sponsor "May god bless you more and more for the mercy you have shown on me by sponsoring my education."  

Won't you consider making the day of a student at Galilee or WHS, you will not only be enriching their, but the joy you will get out of sponsoring will enrich yours as well.

For more information on the different sponsorship programs email info@nairobikids.org or go to our website at http://www.nairobikids.org .

Friday's Featured Student - Update -- H'es been Sponsored!

Meet Sampson

I am reposting Sampson again this week, since he is still waiting for sponsor.  The cost of food and gas have gone up dramatically in Kenya recently, making it very hard to get by.  The school and it's students need all the support it can get to make it through this tough time.

Samson is 13 years old and in Form 1. His birthday is August 1, 1997. Samson lives with his parents, and his father is a farmer. His mother is jobless. He has four much older brothers and an older sister.  He enjoys playing legball and helps with cooking at home. His best subject is business studies and he wants to be a doctor someday. Samson scored 294/500 on the KCPE exam. 

Samson has been waiting a very long time to find a sponsor.  We have found in the past that students that have a sponsor are much more likely to stay in school and continue on in their education.  The simple fact that someone that he has never met cares enough about him to help him achieve his dreams, can be just enough to help him succeed.  Can you help encourage this young man to stay in school and complete his education so that he may leave the slums, by becoming his sponsor?

For only $12.50 per month you can help change the life of a child forever.  Please email info@nairobikids.org to learn more.

We're happy to report that Samson has been sponsored!  Please visit our website at www.nairobikids.org to see more children who would love to hear the news that they have been sponsored!

We've Come a Long Way Part 2

Galilee has changed a lot since Fanuel wrote that letter back in 2003. At the time we had only a handful of sponsor.   And thanks to the sponsors and other caring individuals, we have made many of the dreams, which Fanuel spoke about, come true.

Eventually we raised the money to purchase several plots of land and replace most of dangerous tin buildings with brick, so the children would no longer be injured while attending school, nor would they get rained on while trying to study. We also built Waddington High School and equipped it with textbooks, desks, and a fully functional lab. The small school that just 7 years ago had only 186 students now has over 1400. It goes from Baby class all the way through the completion of High School. With 41 paid teachers, the school no longer has to rely on volunteers.

In 2007 we brought both a potable water well and electricity to the school. Previously Fanuel had to purchase water and transport it for all the children. Now not only does the new well hydrate all the children, but also provides a small income to help with the cost of overhead. The newly wired electricity runs both the well and keeps the kids safer, as now they don’t run the risk of fires from kerosene lamps.

We have also expanded Holly House dramatically. We now rent two buildings and raised enough money to add a permanent third building. Now the orphans and destitute children of the Soweto Slums will always have a home and an education at Galilee. Today we have 130 children who call Holly House home.

And thanks to Feed the Children, every child at Galilee Primary School gets a hot meal every day. We no longer have students going days without food or giving up their meal so their siblings can eat. For many of our students this is the only meal they will get in a day.

Just a few months ago we were able to finish the fundraising to build a brand new kitchen.  Now the school has the room to store the food from Feed the Children and the students are no longer forced to stand in smoke as they wait for their lunch.

All of these things happened because people all over the world cared enough to give and donate time to Galilee Primary School and Waddington High School. They also told friends, neighbors and family members about our remarkable organization. Galilee, Holly House and WHS would not be where it is today if it wasn’t for these amazing people. It truly was built with love and $1 at a time.


We have made some wonderful things happen at Galilee and WHS, but we aren’t done yet.


• The Kenyan Health Department has informed the school that more toilets need to be built or they will shut down the school.  Feed the Children has offered to build 6 more toilets if we purchase the land.  Currently we need $1575 in order to purchase the land.

• In order to go on to further education or get jobs other than menial jobs, every form 4 student must take the KCSE at the cost of approximately $109 per student. Many of the student’s families make less than $1 per day, making paying for these exams nearly impossible.


• We still have some of those dangerous tin buildings that need to be replaced.  Not only do they pose a threat to the kids, but they are hot in the summer, cold in the winter and leak in the rainy season making it very hard for the teachers to teach and the students to learn. 



The children still need us to help give them a brighter future and a chance to end the cycle of poverty. Please consider making a donation today and be part of a wonderful future.

Go to www.nairobikids.org to learn more.

Impact of Raising Food and Gas Prices on the School

Hello,
Thank you so very much for the big efforts you have and continue doing towards sponsoring children in our schools as well as the drives you are doing that are enabling us put learning materials in the hands of the children and teachers. These materials in the long run are going to help our kids to improve their academic standards and thus have higher chances of passing the national examinations.

The cost of life in Kenya has suddenly gone up in away that we are all getting worried of what future holds for us. It is increasingly difficult for us to meet our monthly bills ie salaries for our teachers, food, electricity etc.
Everybody is struggling here in Kenya especially now that prices for petroleum products , and that of food have gone through the roof. A 90kg bag of maize which we were buying at ksh 1600 ($17.89) just a few months ago, now it is costing ksh. 4500($50.32). A 90kg bag of beans that were buying at ksh. 3000 ($33.55)  is now costing ksh. 6200 (69.33). A 50kg bag of rice that were buying at ksh. 2000 ($22.36) just a few months ago now we are buying the same bag at ksh. 4200 ($46.97).
The situation is now getting into a crisis especially for us with a big number of children to feed. Before, full sponsorship used to cover normal school fees and food, but because of the continuing rise in food prices the full sponsorship fee is no longer enough to cover the same. I would wish to inform you that we have been talking to parents about our problems. In this regard we have appealed to the parents especially those whose children are on full sponsorship to chip in and support. We agreed with them that they will be paying ksh. 1500 ksh per term in addition to what sponsors are paying to support our school programs. In the same breadth we are keen on discouraging total dependence syndrome and thus creating an avenue for parents participation in their childrens’ education.
We are happy some parents have responded well and are they now paying the much we agreed with them although many are struggling as well as some we think should be able to contribute something are lagging behind. We actually don’t like sending children home for fees but really nothing else works.
Thank you
FANUEL

If you can hep in anyway,  please use the donate button on the right hand side or contact us at info@nairobikids.org