Help us to construct a new Classroom

2018 has been, without a doubt, a turning point for Roko 20 due entirely to the collaboration of two very special people, Florence and Benoit.

Florence and Benoit are French entrepreneurs, who recently sold their company, and decided to invest their time and energy in projects which are meaningful to them, and, hopefully, helpful to others.

This brought them to Kenya, and importantly to volunteer at Roko 20 earlier this year. During their time with us both were struck by our commitment and passion for the project, were in full support of Roko 20's Mission and Vision and were swept away by the resolve of our children. 

Notwithstanding this they recognised an urgent need for organisational advancement relating to management, communication and systems of administration. 

Their  decision to fully commit to Roko 20 came at the right time and we could not have been more delighted. This was the start of a collaboration which has already resulted in us having a clearer and more efficient organisation.

Their first action was to review and improve financial follow-up and processes. We now have simplified budget control, offering better legibility of financial flows, and enhanced transparency.

Together with them, we then devised a four step plan of improvements for the school, starting with Item 1 simply called 'Organisation'.  This item establishes how we operate, obtain our goals for future growth, defines our hierarchy with the school, identifies each job, its function and where it reports to within the organisation and establishes school and disciplinary rules.

Working closely with Job, Roko 20's Manager, the preparation of Item 1 has taken many months and involved intensive management communication training, staff consultations, workshops with teachers (4 workshops held between October and December 2018) and extensive research. This has now been rolled out to (and, most importantly, with) staff and will be implemented in January 2019, the start of the new school term and the new Year.

Once item 1 is firmly in place, and the results have been evident to all, we will start to work on our next item. This should take place during the second half of 2019, but we are keen on ensuring that whatever we are doing in the way of improving the school is long-lasting and firmly grounded in the minds of all before we embark on new projects ; as we are mindful that ours is a small, human scale, project, where it is important that what we do is adapted to what we can do.

These are the next items we plan to work on progressively :

-          Item 2 will deal with Pedagogical rules and define, explain and control the official teaching program, extra-curricular lessons, teaching and examination methods.

-          Item 3 will cover administrative processes (other than financial processes - which have already been streamlined)

-          The final item 4 will deal with the role and interaction of volunteers.

We have a lot to be grateful for and on January 3rd, 2019 we will open for the new term with a school population in excess of 120 pupils.  We employ 7 qualified teachers, 2 assistant teachers, 1 Day care worker, 2 cooks, 1 administration officer and a Manager.  Not to mention daily voluntary support by way of our contributing parents.

Construction of the new offices, classroom refurbishments and daycare centre extension is complete.  We are all set for opening in 2019. 

We are a community making a difference to those who are most in need and all of this could not be done without your amazing support.  We sincerely thank you.

Wishing you the very best from all of us at Roko 20 for a healthy, happy and successful 2019!