Build Skills with the "lost" Youth in Kenya

Dear Friends,

I admit to surprising myself when I sit down to write this quarterly report. Amid the global pandemic slowdown, if not flat out downturn, development seemed at a distant possibility. Our Kenyan school projects have never appeared more remote. Students and trainees lost a whole year and yet they are being fast tracked. 
If our building project of 4 classrooms was stalled, things are heading towards the finish line now.

At Sergoek, a donated car is now fully refurbished and on the road. Once a broken vehicle recovered in a ditch on a corrugated dirt road in the far North and offered as teaching parts to the automotive workshop students, the Nissan Navara is operating as a full Service vehicle! It even looks like it may have come out of the car dealership yesterday! 

The Garment Workshop of the school was busy last August sewing workers Overalls with reflective tape for the County’s workers at Moiben. This order came courtesy of Governor Jackson M.himself, a great fan of the vtc, vocational training center.

The latest addition of the 4 classroom brick and mortar building is inching it’s way towards completion and starting to look good.

At Koshin, the plans for a new teaching kitchen and refectory are in the making and several contractors have been competing for the job. We are still busy collecting their proposals before both the local and international Rafiki Ya Maisha boards can validate the drawings and the BQ and put it before the school Board.

The school here is still struggling to get their water supply under control and have been promised help by the central government. I joined the Board meetings on line this year - a first -  allowing me to stay more closely in touch than before. Definietively, a positive adjustment of the last year.

Thank you for your support which allows us to pursue the development of these two schools. Koshin seems to be the most in need of help and your friendship keeps us energised!

Asante sana,

Claire

Dear all,

We are proud at the professionalisation of the schools and the great work that the headmasters and staff have put into our schools. Currently, we have upwards of 600 trainees in one school and 300 in the other. We are happy to see everyone back in person and eager to catch up after a lost year. 

The three new workshops at the Sergoek college have been delayed due to the sanitary situation and construction will be picking up soon again. The old iron sheet building was recycled and constitutes the sheds needed for the masonery workshop and other "dirty" work.

Plans are on the drawing board for a new kitchen and dining hall at the Koshin institute. When these facilities are on site in a rural school, it encourages more students to enroll. We need your continued support so we can build this dining hall and thereby give this school the means to increase their student intake.

Asante sana!

Claire