What happened during 2004
Easter 2004 - Ten boxes have been sent to the school by the kind help of DHL They contain 4 computers, a scanner and printer and some software donated from a local school and a parishioner; some red and white school uniform; and exercise books and hand-made textiles from the pupils at Slough Grammar School. These pupils have been making school bags for the pupils of the Ndumbuini Hill School which they have filled with pencils and notebooks and love, hanging mobiles, teaching tools in the form of wall hangings, and cushions.
The best news - June 11th - the boxes have at last been delivered to the school. We want to express our sincere gratitude to DHL for all their help and patience. The email from the school expresses the joy with which they were received. Pictures to follow. We must hope and pray that all items will be made good use of.
Summer 2004 - BIG NEWS!
The school now has a new roof. Photos have been sent through and can be seen here and here. There are also details of the building work progress.
More photos were received from the school in the middle of August showing the latest progress. View here. Also in September. View here.
Thank you to all our supporters. As a result of your help this school will shortly have 5 more classrooms. To see the BEFORE click here.
The other big news is that the boxes of computers and textiles have been received and photos of delighted pupils with their new possessions have been sent to England (click here to view). The Head, Mrs Njenga, and Teacher James are to be trained over the holidays in computer skills so that the pupils will be using the computers and should be able to go on line from September. Teacher Esnas is already computer literate and son, William is skilled to do the necessary engineering.
More letters from pupils to individual church members have been received and distributed. The replies can be handed in to Ruth as soon as they are ready and when there are enough a package will be sent off. To those who have not had a letter this time, the message is that one should be coming in the next batch. Please wait patiently. Exam results were also sent over. if you are interested in seeing them, please speak to Ruth.
It looks as if we may well be able to afford to drill a new borehole for the school too which will give them an independent source of water. This will not only encourage good health among the pupils and staff but will also ensure them a steady income as they supply the surrounding community with water it badly needs too.
August 2004
Grace writes about life at the school now it is holiday time and they are preparing for the new term in September. They are planning to make full use of the four computers that we shipped out to them this year with the help of DHL. They are also now welcoming the money from the Bright Start Playgroup for a new slide. This money is being sent out now, although it was raised some months ago.
From Grace Njenga August 2004
Three of the computers are in good working order and the other one needs some minor repair, which we are about to do.
We want the teaching of computer to start as from 3rd Term – September. Teacher Esnas who is conversant with
computers has started to do some practices in order to be okay before then. I am also joining a college next week in
order to update myself and I will be helping Teacher Esnas.
The school construction is coming up very well and is just about to be completed soon.
We are praising God for all that he is doing for us.
Jimmo and I remembered that you had advised us sometime ago that a group of youth contributed some money for
the purchase of a slide. We thought this would be the most appropriate time for putting it up since we are about to
have the landscaping done.
Pass my love to all at your church.
Grace
September 2004 - The roof and the works to the school are finished and the children are in their new classrooms! It all looks better than we could have hoped as you can see from these pictures.
A word from Jonathan Sturt who managed the project from this end:
I would like to take this opportunity to thank every one of you for your continued support and splendid efforts that you have all put into the project. I believe that with the power of God and the prayers of everybody around us here and in Africa, we have achieved great things and the world will be a little bit better off because of it.
October 2004 - The go-ahead has just been given for the borehole to be drilled at the school. Work to complete it should be carried out by the end of the month. We are very glad that the sum of money raised by the sponsored climb of Kilimanjaro has enabled this piece of work to be done as well as the roof on the school. this project will then be effectively complete. All Saints will continue to finance the school as has been promised for a few years but by then, with the computers and the building work, the school should have the means to continue successfully on its own. We want to thank all the many people who have shown an interest and the many more who have supported this project monetarily over the years. It is good to prove that a few people can make a very real difference, if only to a small part of the world and a small community. For those people their lives and their thinking will be different because of our efforts. PRAISE THE LORD!
November 2004 - there are 48 children in the school and an advertising campaign is now underway to enrol more. It is hoped that there will be another 40 pupils by January 2005. There has been less turbulence on the register as the pupils and their families are very happy with the service the school provides. This is good news for the one to one link. Correspondents have been frustrated that the pupil they were linked to had often left the school before their letter was ever received by them. There are now seven staff in the school as there will be a need to teach across all eight standards soon.
By January there should be proper computer lessons being offered with the computers we had shipped out to them.
Background information about Kenya
Achieved so far - September 2003
Ndumbuini Hill School as seen in October 2003