Build School for 80 Students in Arid Kachuru Kenya

Kachuru situation has continued to worsen unfortunately, it has never rained and the prolonged drought has affected many families in the village.  Men in the family have moved with their livestock in search of greener pastures leaving their wives and children behind.  These women have been left desperate with very little to do yet they have to feed their children at the end of the day.  Thanks to the school feeding program in Kachuru School, since children are assured of a cup of porridge and lunch for the day.  In most households, 3 meals a day it’s a new vocabulary in the village.    As earlier reported, we encouraged leaders in the village to seek more support from other stakeholders and well-wishers to ensure that the most vulnerable households have at least some food for their families.  Village leaders have been working hard and once in a while there are some well-wishers visiting them and distributing food stuff.  Yesterday Kenya Red Cross team visited the village and distributed some food stuff to the various vulnerable groups like orphans, widows, widowers, people with disabilities etc.  This act of mercy was very noble and we thank Kenya Red Cross for the support to the needy Kachuru community.  We will not get tired to call upon well-wishers to consider supporting the community. To our GlobalGiving friends and well-wishers, we also call upon you for your support towards this community which is really suffering due to the prolonged drought.  The progress in school is good despite the many challenges and we are happy with the school feeding program.  Thank you to our good friends and partners for the continued support towards school feeding program and scholarships to the vulnerable children.  We also call upon our new government for intervention towards improving the living standards of this community.  They have been left behind for long in terms of development and support.  The community needs a lot of empowerment, support and we are ready to work hand in hand with other stakeholders to improve the living standards of the people in Kachuru.   We thank all those who have contributed to this community and have played a role to make their lives better.  We appreciate any support for this community.

Situation has not been very easy with the Kachuru community, it has been extremely dry as reported earlier and up to date it has not rained.  Class 8 pupils did their Kenya National Exams in March 2022 as expected but unfortunately their performance was not good at all due to various challenges and reasons but at least some of them have joined secondary schools while others are expected to join various vocational training centers for various technical courses.  Last week with our partners from USA we visited the school and held meeting with school administration, Board of Management (BOM) and some parents.  During the visit we distributed scholarships to the vulnerable children from the community who have been receiving our support every year to cater for their school uniforms, shoes, books etc.  As usual we received a long list for the support since most families are struggling to make ends meet but unfortunately at the moment we cannot accommodate more beneficiaries due to limited resources.    Am happy to report that once again feeding program in the school will continue and we really thank our supporters for their continued support.  During the meeting, we discussed various ways to help the school improve in performance and once again promised to support them with end term exams which will be done later this month.  From our visit, we discovered that there is so much to be done for the Kachuru community since they are facing a lot of challenges.  We encouraged them to start visiting various government offices for more support and we appreciated some support given to them during this campaign period.  We learned that they have received a big water tank for water harvesting and storage during rain seasons which we hope soon will come.  The County Government has also constructed classroom for them again improving conducive learning environment.    Water harvesting and storage will be noble in their feeding program and their kitchen garden which they will re-establish once it rains.  We hope they will continue benefitting from various stakeholders, we will keep encouraging them to seek for more support from the government as it is their rights.  They expressed their gratitude to all who have contributed towards their success.  Thank you

Learners in Kachiuru primary have started another school term well.  Most of them have reported back although some are yet to report and the school administration and the school board are following up the issue to understand the cause of the delay.  The area is extremely dry as previously reported and the cost of living is going up each and every day.  We really appreciate the support given to the Kachiuru community by our good friends, partners and well-wishers.   Feeding program in the school has been once again supported by our good donor whom we thank for the continued generosity.  Provision of meals in the school has been very important to the learners and parents who are really struggling to put food on the table for their families especially with the prolonged drought and worsened by the covid 19 pandemic.  Our organization in partnership with our partners supported the school with end of term exams in December 2021 as the school is facing serious financial challenges and they requested for our support on this and we are happy we managed and hopefully we will do the same end of this term as well.  Parents are really struggling and they cannot raise funds for such services at the moment and we all understand their position.  Candidates are preparing for their final national exams in March this year and we pray and wish them well. We will give the school and learners any support they will require from us during the national exams period.   Kindly accept our sincere gratitude for the continued support to the Kachiuru community and we request for further support to the community especially due to the many challenges they are facing. 

To this far it’s by the grace of God, learning has been going on in the country and learners have been safe and healthy despite the challenge of physical distancing.  Kachiuru learners are faced with more challenges since they are the minority in arid and semi-arid areas in Kenya.  The area has been extremely dry and hot for the past months making the cost of living extremely high.  Community in this region are pastoralists always on move in search of green pastures for their livestock.  Boys in the area are forced to accompany their fathers in search of green pastures thus denying them the right of education.  In our meetings with the community, we have been sensitizing parents to consider educating their children and it has been taken positively. Improvement in school attendance register in Kachiuru school has been reported. 

In our previous report, we reported that grade 8 pupils did their final exams and they were expected to join secondary schools in August 2021 where many have already reported.  We are happy to report that we managed to sponsor 2 students from Kachiuru primary join secondary schools on 100% support.  Thank you to our friends and well-wishers for the continued support.  Early this month, our organization has given scholarships to 25 Kachiuru primary pupils.   The scholarship cater for learning materials, school uniforms and shoes. We normally give scholarship once per year mainly in January but due to covid 19 pandemic and hardship facing many vulnerable households, we have decided to give more scholarships this time of the year in Kachiuru and other arid and semi-arid areas.  Our beneficiaries were very happy with this gesture as it was a good surprise to them since they were not expecting and their pockets were empty making it difficult even to put on the table.  Once again we appreciate all the support channeled to this project.  We will continue fundraising for this project and others with an aim of improving living standards of this community.  The journey is long and especially during these uncertain moments but we will not give up.  We invite our good friends, well-wishers and partners to walk the journey with us and Kachiuru community.  We wish to go far and we can only achieve as a team in Kiswahili we say “kidogo kidogo hujaza kibaba” meaning little by little will have the container filled.  We count on your contributions for more achievements.  Thank you for the continued support.

Glory to the Almighty God for a successful school term which started in January 2021 and ended in March 2021 and the learners went for a holiday from end of March to 10^th May 2021.  They have reported back to school for another school term and we are optimistic the term will be successful and learners teachers, subordinate staff and parents will be safe throughout the term.  As previously reported, grade 8 candidates were expected to sit for their national exams at the end of March and they successfully finished the exams.  Results were later announced in April 2021 and we appreciate the great effort put by all players in the chain.  The performance was good and we congratulate all the candidates who worked hard despite the tough moments as a result of covid 19 pandemic.  The candidates will remain at home until July 2021 when they will join secondary school and we hope to continue supporting those learners in our scholarship program and if possible accommodate more as we have already received request to support even more.  We request our friends to consider contributing to enable us support more Kachiuru learners join secondary schools.

As earlier reported, the challenge of keeping physical distance in Kachiuru School just like most schools in Kenya is impossible to achieve due to various challenges.  We hoped to raise some funds to buy more school desks but we did not achieve the goal but we have not given up as we understand what people are going through.  Much as we did not buy the desks, we were able to buy washable masks to all learners in Kachiuru school to ensure that they at least have face masks much as there is no physical distance.  The government on the other hand has not supported many schools with desks and other learning materials and we hope they are as well working on this to create more conducing environment.  Thank you for the support given on this project and the achievements achieved together.  Learners and parents were happy to receive face masks on their behalf kindly feel appreciated.  Thank you and please continue supporting our communities.