Kitengela, Kenya

It's hard to believe my time in Kenya is over. Seven days almost didn't seem long enough to accomplish everything we wanted to do, but by the end of my stay we had made a great deal of progress!

Last year, we started a lunch program at Empakasi Primary School. With the help of our project manger, Kevin, we constructed a chicken coop and a greenhouse to help the school feed the students. We have started similar projects at our many partner schools in Uganda, but this was our first attempt at starting a lunch program in Kenya and naturally, we faced some unexpected challenges that we have been working through.

Unfortunately, due to lack of oversight on the ground, the chickens went unfed during a school break in May and stopped laying eggs completely. Our efforts to recuperate the birds was unsuccessful so we decided to sell them off and start over once we had established the proper maintenance. Fortunately, we were able to recoup all the funds we put in to the chicken program.

To prevent anything like this from happening again, Kevin recommend creating a lunch committee that would be in charge of all garden and chicken related business. We hosted a parents meeting to review the status of the lunch program and form a lunch committee. Many parents showed up and we were able to elect a lunch committee of two parents, two teachers, and Kevin. 

We decided to test out the effectiveness of this committee by planting another crop in the greenhouse before we invested in more chickens. The new crop should be planted by the end of the month with the help of our maintenance worker, Opiyo, who just recently underwent an organic gardening training course with Kevin. 

Lunch Committee and Garden Maintenance Worker 

While I was there, I was able to help facilitate our pen pal letter writing program where every student at Empakasi received and wrote a response letter to their pen pals at Eagle Crest Elementary in Longmont.

Attached to each pen pal letter, is a picture of themselves that will be shared with their pen pal. When we first started this program, they were very shy in front of the camera, however this time I didn't have that same problem as most of them would strike a pose before I was even ready to take their picture!

It was hard to leave such loving and energetic kids, however I am hopeful for the future with the renewed excitement and organization of our programs!

Mwebaza Primary School

Last Sunday was Mwebaza School's "Parents' Day" celebration. The students of Mwebaza composed and choreographed songs, dances, and skits that conveyed lessons and values they have learned in school. Throughout the day they performed songs about proper hygiene, satirical skits on corporal punishment and alcoholism in the home, and dances that reflected their traditions and culture. Teacher speeches were dispersed between the student performances, that informed the parents of ongoing projects at the school and reiterated the importance of education.

Mwebaza Staff

Madam Bukenya, Namatovu's Mother and Founder of Mwebaza School

Parents' Day is also the graduation celebration for the Kindergarten class moving up to Primary One. They fit every student with their own gown, and as the "guest of honor" they gave me a gown too so I could symbolically cut the cake with all the little kindergarteners holding the knife! After the photo op, the cake was cut into a million little pieces and I got to hand it out to all the little graduates!

The last item of the day was the Award Program, where we distributed gifts to students who had excelled in certain subjects or exemplified good character throughout the year. The students and families were so grateful to receive gifts that would improve their children's life such as bed sheets, comforters, shoes, and backpacks! 

My last day in Uganda was spent at Mwebaza School hosting scholarship interviews. This program allows children who can't afford school fees to attend school for free. We started this program last year, and the result was that parents were saving funds to smart small businesses and cater to the needs their other children. It was clear that everyone we interviewed this year was also well deserving and would use this opportunity to improve their situation. 

The Ministry of Transport

This year, we have tirelessly fundraised in Colorado to raise sufficient funds from various grants and donations so we could purchase two vehicles in Uganda, one for Mwebaza School and the other for St. Paul. These vehicles will serve a duel-purpose; when they are not being used to transport children to and from school as a school bus, they will be transporting civilians to and from the capital as a taxi, which will being income for the school.

So while I'm here, one of the major tasks I wanted to accomplish is to oversee the purchase and registration of these vehicles. Upon my arrival, I quickly learned that I had seriously underestimated the time in which it would take us to complete this process. Fortunately, before I arrived Namatovu had already found a dealership that offers high quality used cars where we could purchase a large 29-passenger bus for Mwebaza and a smaller 14-passenger van for St. Paul. After purchasing the vehicles, we had to, of course, purchase insurance. We also had to transfer the "Log Book" or registration into our name, pass the public service vehicle inspection, and pay a myriad of fees and taxes before it was roadworthy. After two weeks of going back and forth between insurance offices, car dealerships, and government ministries, both vehicles are finally up and running on the streets of Uganda!

Both schools are elated and we are beyond grateful for our generous supporters who helped make this project a reality!

Mwebaza School Bus

St. Paul School Bus 

The Ministry of Transport 

St. Paul School

Last weekend, Namatovu and I got a break from running around Kampala and left for the village of Nkokonjeru, where St. Paul School is located.

Front view of St. Paul's new school building 

Rear view of St. Paul's new school building. Detached kitchen structure on the left, EnviroLoo bathroom building on the right

On Saturday, we woke up to a large crowd already forming around the school as word had gotten out we were holding scholarship interviews that day. In Uganda, both public and private schools charge school fees to cover any expenses incurred by the school since private schools receive no government funding and the financial support given to public schools by the government is insufficient and unreliable. The Mwebaza Foundation started a scholarship program at St. Paul last year, to assist families that are really struggling to afford school fees, even though school fees at St. Paul are significantly lower than any other school in the area, with many students already attending school at a discounted rate. 

We spent the next seven hours interviewing scholarship applicants, listening to heartbreaking stories and learning of the many difficult situations these families are in. The day was full of stories of grandparents raising their orphaned grandchildren, or single mothers whose husbands abandoned them, all with no consistent income. However, our last interview of the day, soft feet shuffled in to the classroom where we were sitting. A young girl holding hands with an even younger boy. Could it be her son? No, she is too young! They sat and introduced themselves, Catherine and Ivan, brother and sister. A family of six who had been orphaned and is now living on their own with some occasional help from an auntie in another district, who sends funds from her craft shop when she can. The oldest is a 24 year old sister, but it was Catherine, 15, who came with Ivan, 5, for the interview. She is no longer in school and is working in a salon to earn money. Her schooling stopped when she had to begin working when her parents died, but she is helping pay for her younger siblings to attend school. I can’t imagine being left with all my siblings as my responsibility at 24, let alone 15. This made me even more grateful that we are doing this program, especially since there is no type of government system in place to assist children in this situation. I was content in knowing that we able to help the people truly in need, with at least free access to education.

Even though these guardians have no financial wherewithal to offer the school, they were all happily willing to assist St. Paul with different tasks in return for a scholarship. I discussed this with the staff and we agreed that we should utilize these parents for maintenance program work like occasional gardening project or cutting the grass of the school compound. We even discussed with the parents a schedule where each parent is expected to sign up twice a month for cooking duty at the school so the school doesn't have to spend money to pay a cook, and can focus on buying things like school materials and paying teacher salaries!

On Sunday, we hosted a Parents' Day Celebration, where the community came to celebrate the progress of the school. This year the celebration included an award ceremony where students who excelled in particular subjects or showed maturity beyond their years, were given gifts. I cannot tell you how excited they were to receive the practical gifts of bedding, shoes, and backpacks! Children cheered and parents' danced and ululated with joy! I took this opportunity to explain to the community all the other projects we have started at the school like the piggery, the new goat-rearing program, the clean water project, and the compostable toilets, and how we hope these new programs can help the school become more sufficient and encourage others in the community to send their children to school. 

One of the goats given to St. Paul School from the holiday gift giving program.

New backpack!

New shoes!

We also had new furniture delivered to the school, since they have been without sufficient school desks since the completion of the new school building! 

I also came with some new children's books to add to their library, they will clearly get a lot of use!