Whether building and resourcing schools, exposing students to the possibilities beyond their communities, ensuring students have access to clean water and nourishing food at school, or helping students keep themselves safe, healthy and fit to learn, Village Impact helps students learn, lead, and thrive.
All of this is made possible because of you—thank you!
As you may recall, and with your support, Village Impact is tackling our most ambitious project yet—constructing and resourcing a 600-seat, all-girls high school in Mai Mahiu, Kenya.
Your contributions will specifically fund the salaries of the counselling staff at the new girl's school as part of the project's overarching goal to provide access to quality secondary school education in the community for the very first time.
We're thrilled to report that there is excellent progress towards our goal.
- Land was donated by the community on which to construct the school. The land is adjacent to the existing primary school in the village; however, the new school will be the first secondary school in the community.
- A well was drilled at the site of the new girl's school. This will provide a clean water source for the secondary school, the primary school, which had no water source, and for families living in the surrounding community.
- A Village Impact Community Development worker was activated and met with stakeholders, including school administration, elders, Village Chiefs and community members. These meetings are part of a needs assessment process to determine the scope of psychosocial and other supports needed for students and their families and how these needs may be best supported by programming at the new school.
- A community meeting was held with Village Impact staff, school administration and local government. Over 1,000 parents and caregivers, primarily women, attended the meeting. We know an essential element in the success and sustainability of projects is community participation at all stages of project development and in the life cycle of the school. This community consultation meeting is one of the first participatory steps in our community-building process to create a collaborative environment for this undertaking.
- The management team in Kenya and North America are developing the counselling job descriptions. Our aim is to have counselling staff in place for the school opening, which we anticipate will be in April of this year.
Check out our first VIDEO UPDATE on the project HERE.
Learn more about why providing counselling is so important in the trauma-affected communities in which Village Impact focuses our work HERE.
A Special Message from Ellyn Bader and the Village Impact Counselling Advisory Team
Hello,
There are no words to express my gratitude for your donation to the Kenyan Counselling Program.
When a place is so far away, it is easy to be out of sight, out of mind. It is also easy to take for granted counselling in schools because that is so common in so many countries.
Yet our counsellors, Milkah and John, and our ground team, Philip and Sam, have had to work so hard to get to where counselling is now accepted and welcomed.
When the new girls' high school opens in the spring of 2022, your donation will bring support and hope to so many girls.
These are girls who would never have been educated. These are girls who would have been easy targets for abuse.
I look forward to sharing more with you in 2022 as all of this unfolds. We want you to stay connected to what you are helping bring about.
With much respect and thanks,
Warmly,
Ellyn and the Counselling AdvisoryTeam
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