Send 400 Kisii Orphans to schools in Kenya

Dear Partners,

The end of March (a time when schools close for the holiday) was a great day for 25 ECD children at Kiangoso primary school who had the opportunity to receive awards for their Education performances and also to usher them to start the primary school system. The children who were accompanied by their parents attended the graduation ceremony at the school.

The ECD learning is designed for children who are about the ages of 4 years to 6 years and once there are through they start the formal primary education at the ages of 7 years. The ECD learning is important for the children education growth and without proper foundation, children often find it hard coping with their peers in primary education. Our project tries to lay this solid foundation to orphans within this age bracket so that they can excel later in their learning.
The children, parents, teachers and our staff attended this graduation ceremony. Children were given nutritional porridge, biscuits and bread during this event. The children were all joyful, interacting with each other as always and showing their prowess in solving mathematical toys and alphabetical quiz. We organized a challenge for the children in numbers and the child who was able to recite numbers more numbers was given a prize, we were very surprised that quite a number were able to recite numbers i.e 1 to 100. These we awarded them with number toys, others who were able to recite the alphabet correctly and as fast as possible, we gave them alphabet toys. All the children got their ECD certificates and are now able to proceed to primary school where they will begin with standard 1.

The ECD teacher at the school had this to say “ Last year and the previous year, we had almost half of the ECD children not qualifying to join standard 1, but this year all the children have qualified. The porridge and the ECD text books have really helped us”

“My child sings (a e i o u) when he comes from school and is so pleased as he thinks I don’t know the alphabets, he has learnt so much. Thank you Health and Water Foundation” , a parent of one of the ECD children.

Happy New Year! On behalf of the children and the organization get their warmest greetings and once again we humbly appreciate your contribution towards this project that ensures 400 Kisii Orphans are enrolled and retained in school. Following the disbursed amount that we received of $170 we were able to provide school uniforms to 20 orphans in the three Primary schools namely: 6 orphans in Kiangoso Primary School, 8 orphans in Nyambaria Primary School and 6 orphans in Nyakongo Primary School. These uniforms included a set of a short, sweater, shirt, socks and shoes for the boy child and a set of a dress, sweater, socks and shoes for the girl child. Majority of these orphans lack full or proper school uniform and end up coming to school with home clothes or torn school uniforms. The main reason behind this is because these children are orphans who have no other person to cater for their needs as most of them lost their parents due to the high HIV/AIDS prevalence in the county. Although the government of Kenya has provided Free Primary Education to all pupils, those that are orphans are not able to cater for the other basic supporting learning materials particularly in this case school uniforms. It is through your kind support that we are able to restore hope to these children and instill their confidence in learning.

The Health and Water team began this process with Kiangoso Primary School in which the school head thanked the donors through the organization for giving these orphans hope to continue with school by donating the new school uniforms. He also urged them to work hard in their studies so as to make their guardian’s proud.Secondly, the HWF team headed to Nyambaria Primary School where they were greeted with much enthusiasm. During the school assembly, a 5 year old orphaned girl pupil who is an Early Childhood Pupil (ECD pupil) stood up to give a speech on behalf of the pupils and was quoted saying,”Ahsante sana marafiki zetu kwa ukarimu wako sasa tunakuja shuleni tukiwa nadhifu natayari kusoma.”(Thank you our friends for being so kind to us, we can now come to school looking smart and ready to learn).Lastly, the team headed to Nyakongo Primary School where they were received with lots of eagerness. During a short speech ceremony organized by the Headteacher, a 6 year old orphaned boy pupil named also an Early Childhood Pupil (ECD pupil) was quoted saying, “Ahsante sana Global Giving kwa kutukumbuka na tunawaahidi kufanya bidii.”(Thank you Global Giving donors for remembering us and we promise to work hard).

Lastly, the HWF team organized Jigger Campaign weekends in which the team visited the three schools in order to create awareness and eliminate the jigger menace among 20 pupils in the three schools. Each week for two months ,the team would split in groups and visit each school staring with personal care classes in the morning form 9am to 11 am and then removal of the jiggers from 2 pm to 4 pm.Although there was the challenge of low attendance especially in the afternoon ,the teams activities of the day were successful. Your help has made us put a smile on these orphans and we appreciate your kindness in supporting this venture.