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TheGivingMachine
  Our School
 
  When we discovered the school in September 2008 there were no resources, the walls were bare and the furniture was makeshift. But the children were happy and learning.
   
Inside one of the classrooms		    During the following three months we managed to gather educational resources, toys and clothes and shipped these out to coincide with our return. In February 2009 we returned to Kenya on a fact-finding mission.
  The two rooms used by the school were even more appalling than we remembered. One of the two small rooms held 22 children aged from 2 – 6 seated on the concrete floor whilst another six older children were cramped together at two dilapidated desks. This situation was immediately remedied by the purchase of sufficient small plastic chairs and new wooden tables to enable all the young children to be seated at a table.
        Display on the walls
  The new tables   Display on the walls
 
  Taken at the start of the rains    
     Taken at the start of the rains 		The mould growing up the walls was, we discovered, the result of the flooding that occurred in the rainy season. Our plan to paint the walls and run the school from the existing building until land for a new school could be found was clearly untenable and efforts were made to find alternative accommodation.
   
  There have been many changes in our school since this time. The name is now Miche Bora (meaning precious shoots) and we are renting a new building which has power, 3 classrooms, a kitchen and a toilet.  
Inside one of our new classrooms
 

We have three strong committed teachers. Irene our headteacher,  is a qualified teacher who is currently being sponsored by Mustard Seed Project  to do her diploma in Early Childhood Development. Sonery and Bernard who were unqualified are  being sponsored to do in-service training for their certificate in ECD. These qualifications are recognised throughout East Africa.

                             Bernard

   Sonery Kavere                       Irene  Changawe                        Bernard Wekesa

The teachers now have salaries, contracts including conditions of service and job descriptions which they are carrying out as true professionals. Good administrative systems are in place and we receive regular reports of progress. One of our new Trustees is the headteacher of a large local primary school and he is supporting the staff.

We have now set up a feeding programme giving the children a daily bowl of porridge and we also provide uniform and shoes for the poorest of our children. The current building will only accommodate 40 children and so our efforts are concentrated on finding a larger building that will accommodate the 100 children on our waiting list.

As soon as funds are available and we find a suitable plot of land we shall be able to build our own school.

Updated May 2010
 
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The Mustard Seed Project (Kenya), UK Registered Charity No. 1127935,
Company Limited by Guarantee No. 6778042 and registered as a Charitable Trust in Kenya.