Education Kenya Project #7766

Build Skills with the "lost" Youth in Kenya

by Rafiki Ya Maisha

Project Report | Aug 12, 2019
New Heights & future prospects

By Claire Mathijsen | Project Leader

Catering trainees preparing our lunch

Dear Rafikis,

On the ground surprises:

One early morning in May, the County Governor calls! The French Ambasssador is in his office and visiting Eldoret today and...has not heard of our Koshin school project. A tour of KTTI, the Koshin Technical Training Institute, is promptly organized by our local leader Elizabeth T. Wowed by what he saw, the Cultural Attache suggested we submit another grant request to the Embassy.The French development grants now seek to support women's empowerment projects lead by local NGOs. Our Kenya branch is currently writing a proposal for a Child Care Center & Women's basic business education for the farmer women at MARURA market, Eldoret municipality. The main idea is to give babies a safe place to spend the day other than muddy or dusty market grounds, a place where mothers can breastfeed and give their young children nursery and pre-school activities.

A Rafiki Ya Maisha Women's Wing has recently been created: dynamic professionnals and community leaders are now busy at work.They will carry this proposal through.

Two other communities have called us for assistance: KASSIM locality, on the ITEN road, wishes for a youth center and library with a meeting space; MUIYENENGWET locality, near Koshin, sought us out to help them develop projects on their community land.They own a beautiful 10 acre plot that has a goup of eager members wanting to develop it.

Our UN presentation has created a buzz on the ground and prompted new initiatives. Bolstered by our visible accomplishments in and around ELDORET, people are trusting RAFIKI YA MAISHA .

School news: SERGOEK has a state of the art Catering department, complete with a new modern kitchen donated by the FAWCO Foundation. A new Ladies Hostel with a capacity of 150 beds is now finished. A donation of a second hand Nissan Navara twin cabin was handed over to the automotive department by Claire & Christian R.M. Enrollment for next September is currently at a record high with ...602 students!!! New land is needed here in order to expand this rapidly growing institution. KOSHIN has also expanded and recently added 2 new workshops, stores and a building with 4 additional classrroms. Their grounds are now planted and looking lovely. Hostels, sanitary blocks, a kitchen and restaurant are still needed here. Both schools are looking beautiful in this green & rainy time of the year.

This is the full news with many future projects in store.We need your help and support to move to new places and increase the visibility of RAFIKI YA MAISHA! Plan to come an visit us soon!

Kwaheri, good bye!

Claire

t. Uninfor;ed qbout outr

New restaurant of catering department

BOG members & guests enjoying good food

New (freshly baptized!) Ladies Hostel

Bunking capacity for 150 young women

Nissan Navara handover to the school

Group photo - August 7, 2019

Permalink

May 13, 2019
Rafiki goes to the UN, and more

By Claire Mathijsen | Project Leader

UN Building with flags NYC

Jambo! Hello!

On March 14, Elizabeth T who travelled from Kenya & I from Paris gave a speech and shared the fruits of our Rafiki project at the UN-NGO forum in NYC. FAWCO, the Federation of American Women's Clubs Overseas, invited me as a recipient of their Development grant to participate in a panel discussion. Living in the UN building for 4 days during the Commission on the Status of Women, CSW63, was quite an unforgettable experience!

Think 9000 participants - mostly women from all around the world wearing their national dress - 800 conferences over an 11 day period...Imagine hundreds of voices singing We shall overcome today in one of the big auditoriums... In our 15 min speech, we demonstrated how our small NGO project had convincingly addressed this year’s theme of « Social protection, access to public services and gender equality & women empowerment through infrastructure» in our corner of rural Kenya. Our watchwords Leaving no-one behind allowed us to talk about how Rafiki Ya Maisha was dedicated to building the future of the lost youth of rural Kenya through technical and vocational training. Our co-panelists' speeches, a Town Hall meeting with UN SG Antonio Guterres, morning briefings and other informative panels all contributed to the « magical » feeling in the NY city spring air.

Another event on the ground was the arrival of this year's great volunteer, Nikos T, a biology student from Thessaloniki, Greece. Passionate about the environment and football, Nikos spend 2 months teaching and helping the youth. He had a hard time leaving and is already sorely missed in Chepkanga.

Our new updated website is online, refreshed and looking more stylish and contemporary. Check out https://www.rafikiyamaisha.com/

Thank you all for your continued support and interest in Rafiki. Our little village empowerment movement that has had planetary exposure and global networking opportunities, along with all of you!

Best,

Claire

Claire & Elizabeth

FAWCO group in Assembly Hall

Speech time

Nikos in Sergoek automotive workshop

Nikos with host family

Permalink

Feb 11, 2019
Development calls for Development

By Claire Mathijsen | Project Leader

Road to KTTI before February 2019

Dear Rafikis,

This report will demonstrate how development calls for development and how it has had considerable impact on our 2 school projects. The pictures will say it all.

Koshin, KTTI

The big news if that the mud road, at times quite impassable during the rains, has now been tarmacked! It passes smack in front of the school. No more geting stuck or having to give up on site or Board meetings. This clearly means easier and painless accessibility to the school for all.

This road had been earmarked for tarmacking since I can remember.... it is now it has almost reached the Moiben junction on the Iten road. You can spot the green roofs of the school buildings in the far left on the horizon. Micah, our kind and generous neighbor is standing on the photo.

Sergoek, vtc

The mess hall or restaurant for the 352 students enrolled in the school this year is nearing completion. The modern kitchen is practically ready to be installed and will make the flagship catering course of the school appear more attractive to prospective students.

At this point in time, with the county and national government building the road and the restaurant, our PPP is taking on it's full meaning. The modern kitchen is the result of a FAWCO Foundation grant and complements what the county has jumped in to do. A relay system is in place and our co-development is truly functional. What joy to see that the government of Kenya increased it's budget and strengthened it's sense of responsibity towards the youth. In 2018, they made good on promises.

You can be happy, along with all of us, to feel that all our efforts are paying off! Thank you all for this amazing collective entreprise!

Claire

Road to KTTI today!

New restaurant at Sergoek

Sergoek's modern kitchen, last phases

Where we came from

Permalink

‹ 1 ... 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 ... 17 ›

About Project Reports

Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.

If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.