A new school for 500+ pupils in rural Kenya

Life for the nearly 600 children that attend Mkamenyi Primary School has just got a whole load better thanks to African Promise and our supporters.

Earlier this week an additional 60,000 litres of rainwater storage capacity was commissioned, taking total capacity beyond 100,000 litres and well on the way towards the target of a 150,000 litre system. It's a far cry from the situation as it was prior to our partnership with the school when there was just a solitary 10,000 litre plastic tank and a long-ago decommissioned concrete tank.

If that wasn't enough excitement, this week also saw pupils make use for the first time of the dining hall furniture that we supplied during the recent holidays. Although the school-wide lunch programme was introduced - with our support - at the school in April last year, until now the children had been sitting on the unfinished floor of the hall or even outside, but in the words of the school's former headteacher, "the children can now enjoy their lunch in the comfort of a spacious dining hall away from the dust and scorching sun."

These milestones follow on the back of an intense period of work over the last couple of months where we have used the longest absence of children from classrooms since in-school learning resumed post Covid-closures to fit glazing to window casements and to begin internal painting in classrooms, including those that were constructed in the early stages of the project and which have already been in operation for more than two years.

The transformation of the central 'quad' has also been completed with the construction of retaining walls, paved pathways and an assembly ground (complete with essential flag post!). We are excited to see this space evolve in the months and years to come once trees, shrubs and grasses are planted and mature.

There is still much work to be done at Mkamenyi even in the fourth year of its redevelopment and after spending more than £200,000 (and counting!) and in the coming weeks we will turn our attention to the remaining elements of the project which primarily includes an upgrade and extension of the pre-school unit and construction of a boys’ toilet block, together with further increases to the capacity of the rainwater harvesting system. 

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