Hi to you all friends of St Martins school,
We are glad to have made it this far. It has not been an easy few months with the high cost of food, inflation, and drought that we are currently experiencing in the country. Children from our school and the slum are the most affected as they are less likely to get their meals while at home. As a school, it has been a struggle feeding the 800-plus students in our primary school, the 200 girls in high school, and the close to 1000 children who attend our weekly Saturday feeding program. We are grateful for the support we have received over the course of this year.
Education: The 2022 school academic year ended on the 23rd of November. Students in preschool, grades 1-5 and 7, and forms 1- 3 have closed school for the long holidays. They did their end-of-year term and year exams and most of them performed very well. They will be on an extended holiday break is close to two months. Classes will resume on the 23rd of January 2023.
Graduating class of 2022: 85 students in grade 6, 74 students in grade 8 and 34 girls in From 4 will be sitting their end of Primary and Secondary school national exams in November and December. Grade 8 students and final-year students in high school are guaranteed to transition to secondary schools and colleges/Universities. Grade 6 pupils are supposed to join Junior high though we are still unsure of their transition. As a school, we have resolved to set up a junior high school and we are in the process of working towards having one set up before February 2023.
University and Tertiary Education: 11 students are currently pursuing different courses in colleges and Universities here in Kenya and Rwanda. Modester is in her final year at African Leadership University pursuing Computer Science and Linda is also in her final year pursuing her nursing Diploma at The Kenya Medical Training Institute. There is a need to support our boys and girls through to universities and colleges as it is through this support that they are fully able to make it out of the slum and help themselves and their families.
Competency-Based Curriculum graduates: 85 pupils in grade 6 will be sitting their national exams this November. This is the first group of students to join junior high in the next year. We are still not sure of its implementation though we are in the process of establishing a junior school because we fear some pupils might miss out on junior high due to limited spaces and financial constraints. We are waiting on the way forward on how best to go about the graduates and we will be sure to send an update.
St Martins school feeding and the current situation in the country: Kenya is facing its worst drought in 40 years. The rains have failed in the last 3 years. The driest areas are the most affected with animals dying and people reliant on relief food. At St Martin's School, Kibagare, Sr. Emmah has struggled and worries about the 800 students in our school daily feeding and children who come for the weekend feeding program. The costs of food have more than doubled, a good example is a 90 kg bag of maize previously costing KES 3000 is now being sold at KES 7000. Prices of fuel and other commodities have also gone up due to inflation. Still, we continue to feed the children despite the increased cost and we hope to continue doing the same when the children resume school in January 2023.
Saturday Feeding Program: We have continued with the Saturday feeding program for the children from the slum and other slums within our area. Children come as early as 9 am while the serving starts at 12.45 pm.27,486 children have been fed from July to date The weekend feeding program is important for the school and the community because without most of the children will be in the streets begging for food and looking for ways to feed themselves exposing them to exploitation and or being forced into the streets. We wish to sincerely thank the people and organizations that donate towards this noble task. This support helps to serve orphans and vulnerable children. May you be blessed abundantly.
Food baskets for the most vulnerable in the community: Schools are closed for the long holiday from the 23rd of November to January 23rd, 2023, well over 2 months. Most of the guardians of our children and the many in the community are worried. Most may not be able to feed the children for the long duration they will be at home.
In 2020 when COVID affected us all we had a food baskets fundraiser for our children and the most vulnerable in the slum. Through this, we are able to guarantee meals for most families. We are appealing for support to help on this as it will go a long way in ensuring children are not forced to beg or sleep hungry. We have started a fundraiser http://goto.gg/57607 on GlobalGiving to help sustain the families during this long holiday break, our request is to share this with friends, family, and colleagues to help this initiative.
We are grateful for the far we have come thank to the support we have received from you all to date and we hope to continue serving the community here in the hope that through this support they will be able to make ends meets and improve their lives one day at a time.
We wish you all a merry Christmas and a happy new year. Thank you and be blessed.
St Martins School, Kibagare.
Links:
Greetings from St Martins school here in Kibagare. It is our hope that all is well in your respective countries despite the much that is still happening post-COVID.
As a school we have not been spared either, climate change, high inflation, and increase in the price of commodities are a reality here at school, in the slum, and in the country at large. Food prices have gone up by more than 200% and with no rain in the period March - June, we might be in for a rough second half of the year. All in all, we have continued to do the much we can thank for your support for the better part of the last 6 months.
Education: We have continued to offer education to the neediest from Kibagare. The new school calendar year has been on since the 26th of April and we are currently in the second term of the year that was cut short by the national elections for three weeks now. The students are back in school and we are hoping for a smooth few weeks before taking another one-week break.
Currently, we have 800 students in Primary school and 189 girls in Boarding school.
Competency-Based Curriculum for Primary School: Primary school students in their sixth year of primary school will be sitting at the end of primary school and joining junior high in year 7. 86 students in our primary school will be sitting this exam in November of this year. The challenge we foresee is having extra classrooms in the event we are asked to accommodate the junior high school. We are optimistic that we will have a solution before the year-end.
St Martins School Boys school: We have continued to support boys to join the high school as this was a challenge for a long time. We officially opened the boys' school on the 11th of May this year and we have been able to admit 19 boys in year 1 and 5 boys in year 2. We are hoping to increase the number of boys as time progresses. Thank all who have supported this initiative.
St Martins school feeding and the Saturday feeding Program: We have continued to feed the 800 children while at school Monday through to Friday and also during Saturdays as some have no guarantee of a meal at home. Due to high food prices, it has not been easy though we continue to do the much we can because without this all the gains we have made over time will be lost as some will end up in the streets begging for food and increased cases of malnutrition.
Our Saturday feeding program serves between 1000-1300 children every weekend.
Community Outreach and Women Groups: Through our community outreach program and women empowerment, 263 households are taking part in our community outreach initiatives. 17 women groups have been formed and registered and are currently participating in Voluntary savings and loanings among themselves, through these groups, the women have been able to set up small income-generating activities for themselves and this has helped them support their families.
Through our HIV and AIDS program, we have been able to support 76 households with Psychosocial support, counseling, training on adherence to medication, and linking defaulters to health care facilities.
Despite the many challenges we face in doing our job, your support has been consistent and highly valuable and we are grateful for the far that we have come thanks to this support we will be sure to send you updates on the much that we have achieved as the year progresses.
Thank you and be blessed.
Links:
Friend,Greetings from St Martins School.
It is our hope that the first quarter of the year has been as per your expectations and that all is well on your end. For us as a school, we are grateful to have made it this far and are hopeful for more positives going forward.
The revised school calendar year is still being implemented. The first quarter of this year we were able to complete the third term of the calender year 2021.
Education : Our students in both schools were able to sit their end of primary and secondary school national exams. A total of 67 students in Primary and 55 girls in secondary school sat this exams and we received the results in this month of April. 27 girls and 30 boys in our primary school graduated with 250 marks and above and they are eligible to join secondary schools in this calendar year as from the 5th of April 2022. The primary school attained a mean of 308.79 a new high for the school in a long time.
6 girls in high school scored a C+ and above and are eligible to join University in the upcoming intake, 11 girls scored a C while another 11 girls scored a C-, they are eligible for diploma and technical courses of their choice in tertiary institutions. 27 girls performed fairly well and are looking to do certificate courses and skills training to enable them have necessary skills to support themselves in the future.
It is through the support we receive in sponsorships and in donations that we are able as a school do the much we can in uplifting the lives of our children through education. We are grateful to each and everyone of you for giving us the support all through.
As a school we hope to support both boys and girls who will be unable to attend secondary school due to financial constraints.
Boys Outeach program: Most boys do not have a chance at education and we started an outreach program to support the boys attend high school. 5 boys graduated in the just concluded national exams and they have done very well. We have enlisted 10 more boys this year to benefit from this program and we hope they will perfom well when their time comes. We hope to get more boys into this program though in most instances we are faced with financial constraints and thereby forced to take a lower number than we'd wish to support. We are grateful even with the little we get we are able to support also the education of the boy child.
St Martins School feeding and Saturday feeding program: We have continued to feed the children during the weeks they have been in school since we reopened this year. The students were in school for 9 weeks ending 4th March 2022. We feed 800 students two meals a day, breakfast and lunch. We were able to serve a total of 36,000 servings during the 9 weeks period the children were in school.
We have also continued with the Saturday feeding program, this is to guarantee the children have a meal during weekends. We are still feeding between 1100 - 1300 children every Saturday. Were this not the case most of the children would be forced to go without food over the weekend.
Community Empowerment and Outreach Program: We have continued to reach out to the community and offer support to the most vulnerable and poor in the community. We work closely and offer support to families and children living with HIV and AIDs. They are offered psychosocial support, trainings on adherance and disclosure, training and talks on the importance of ARVs, we help monitor the Viaral load, conselling on disclosure and also support families unable to provide meals for themselves with food baskets on a monthly basis. Through this interventions we are able to reduce cases of death and reduction of stigma improving on the well being of the families of the children we support.
237 Caregivers and community members are participating in Voluntary savings and loanings. The groups have a savings and loaning revolving fund kitty which helps them navigate through this tough economic time due to high inflation. We offer members of the community trainings on Child development and family matters, we help link them with financial instituions to access funds for business, we help monitor and evaluate their small businesses and advise on how best they can be managed, We have been able to train the caregivers on the importance of having medical insurance and enroll on the national insurance scheme. 16 caregivers managed to enroll during this trainings. We are hopeful that we will be able to do more trainings and enourage more members and families to join.
We have reopened for a new term this month of April, both St Martins primary and secondary. We are admitting new students joining our preschool and also girls in their first year of secondary school and looking forward to what the next 10 weeks have on offer.
We are gratefulf and appreciative of the support we have received and continue to receive to date, Thank you all and best regards,
From St Martins School.
Links:
Hi Friends of St Martins School and a Happy New Year.
We are grateful to have made it this far thanks to the support you have given us in the last year. We have made good progress and are looking forward to this new year with the intention of being the change we wish to see for the community and the students in our community here at Kibagare.
Climate Change has had a huge impact in our economy and this has negatively affected livelihooods. This is characterised by inadequate rainfall, high cost and unreliable energy , farmers becoming poor , increased food prices and a high cost of living. All the above are reliant on the rains and we haven't had much in the last three months.
Depesssion and mental health issues are also on the rise in this community we serve and the most affected are the children as they have very little to choose from and are forced to live with the much that comes their way on a daily basis.
As a school we are doing our level best to do the much we can and below are some of the much we have been able to do and achieve in the last few months.
School Feeding program: This is a key and important program for us as a school as it guarantees meals for most of the chilldren who would otherwise be forced in the streets in search of food. Our student population as of December 2021 was 789 children aged between 6 year and 15 years in Primary school. They are fed breakfast and lunch while at school. For the 22 weeks ending 23rd December 2021, when school resumed in July we were able to guarantee our children attend school without worrying about the lack of meals.
We have also continued with the Saturday feeding program every Saturday. Many children benefit from this program.As of December 2021, a total of 21,400 meals were served thanks to the support we receive for the feeding program.
Education: St Martins primary school and the secondary school have made good progress. We have 789 students in primary school, 187 girls in High school ( Boarding) , 42 teaching staff and 39 non teaching and surbodinate staff. School has been on from the 27th of July and we closed for the year on the 23rd of December.
Music and Arts has been introduced in the new curriculum that tests on competency and to date grades 3, 4 and 5 have done well in their national exams. This is a welcome move as it encourages students to pursue other career options after graduation.
We have also been able to help boys graduating from our primary school to further their eduction after primary school. 26 boys are in different schools thanks to this initiative and we have 5 boys who will be graduating after the national exams beind done in March 2022.
The graduating class of 2021, 77 boys and girls in Primary school and 66 girls in secondary school will be sitting for their national exams in March. We are preparing them for the same and we are hoping to have very good results come April 2022.
Fire Incident at School: On the 5th of August 2021, we had a fire incident at school. One of our dorms, a 200 bed capacity facility was destroyed in the fire. The top floor plus the roof which had solar panels to pump water used in the school was destroyed too. None of the students nor staff were injured in the fire. We have been forced to host the students in another facility though we may not have space to accomodate girls joing school as from April of 2022. This is because we will not have space neither do we have the funds to repair the damaged dorm. We have been able to repair the roof but there is need to repair and replace lockers destroyed in the fire.
Solar Panels Lost in the Fire Replaced: Thanks to the support, campaigns and donations we received after the fire incident at school on the 5th of August, we have been able to replace the panels lost in the fire and resume water pumping using solar. We had reverted to the national grid and this was very costly for the school for the months after the fire. Thanks to this we have been able to reduce our high costs on energy and at the same time have a clean and reliable source of energy. We are grateful to each and every one of you for the much you did to help us actualize this, Thank you.
Community Outreach Program: We have continued to support the community, and more the guardians of the children that we support. We have set up a revolving fund for the community groups, thanks to a donation from COPADO. This has encouraged more guardians to join in groups and come up with ways to support their families. 263 households are part of our community outreach program an increase from the 150 households we had initially. We have been able to offer interventions and trainings during group meetings and home visits conducted by our Mentor mother and the community coordinator. We conduct trainings on:
Thanks to this trainings, 180 participants have been able to start and run small businesses thanks to the grants they receive from their groups. For the year ending December 2021, we had 17 active groups that have beeb able to save KES 2,328, 605 ( USD 23,800 ) and have been able to get loans of KES 1,026,023 ( USD 10,260 ) This is proof that with the rigt support and mindset, change happens!
We are still continuing to offer skills trainings to selected group members. The women are being trained on tailoring and dressmaking skills to have a means of generating and income for themselves. 4 trainees have graduated since we started and have been provided with a startup kitty to start their businesses.
We also support members of the community living with HIV and AIDs. 40 adults and 20 children living with HIV and AIDs are offered
The challenge we have on achieving our target for the above group that is growing is the lack of a community space to conduct all the activities above. The cost of renting space is high and thus the need to have our own space built here at school. To build a hall will cost USD 45,000 and we have donations 0f USD 12,000 towards the same.
Sponsorships: We rely on sponsorships to run most of our activities. Ths guarantees that a child does not miss out on school, has meals, uniforms and access to e-learning and technology. Without this support, most of our students are forced to drop out of school and not get a chance to finish primary and secondary school.
We are verified on Benevity and also on GlobalGiving to receive donations and matching donations from some Employers. Our target is to have 500 sponsored by the end of this year. 400 students are currently under sponsorships in both our schools.
The annual cost of Sponsorship for a primary school child is EUR 550 and a high school student is EUR 1100. Thanks to sponsorships, we are able to guarantee our girls and boys attend school each year, reduce gender gap and wealth disparities and help in achieving universal access to quality education.
We look forward to hearing from you our donors on how best we can work together towards achieving our tagerts this year.
Thank you, best regards and A Happy New Year.
Links:
Geetings from St Martins School,
It is our hope that all has been well with you all and your families since our last update.
Education: We are back in school after a short break for the teachers and the students. We reopened school on the 27th July for ur third term and also the start of the new revised calendar year which runs from the 27th of July 2021 to March 0f 2022. Students have transitioned to the next class. We have been able to admit new students in both our schools, with 100 new students in primary and 52 girls in the high school.
We have shorter breaks (one week at most) due to Covid compared to previous years. This has a negative impact on learning due to the huge work load and short time to cover the sylabbus and also hoping that the pandemic will be managed over time. All in all we have hopes for a good term.
Covid19 situation: We have been having increased cases in the country, though the school has not been affected much. Vaccine rollout is still slow and we rely entirely on donations as a country though we are optimistic that we will all be vaccinated over time. We are keen on the measures advised by the health ministry, and with the donations received to date we have been able to provide hand washing stations, masks and sanitizers for our students and the staff.
Community Involvement: HIV is still a big problem here in the Kibagare commmuity, with the help of our community mentor mother, we have been able to reach out to individuals and families within the slum offering them psychosocial support, helping them with the pill count, seeing to it that thay adhere to their medication, monitoring their viral loads, helping them with disclosure and also providing food baskets to those that are unable to provide for themselves.
Our community mentor mother also sensitizes the members on the importance of ARVs, she also helps them through their daily challenges that force them not to default on their medication, cervical cancer screening sessions, how best to deal with stigma and discrimination and the importance of disclosure.
Our community Empowerment officer has been able to organise digital marketing forums for the women groups and thank to her support 17 women gruops are active within the kibagare community. They are actively participating in Voluntary savings and loanings and table banking.
Fire Incident at school: on the 5th of August one of our girls dorm was burnt down. The building top floor had solar panels that the school was using to pump water for the 1010 students in school plus 100 staff. We are seeking to rebuild the dorm and also to replace the panels and we are fundraising for this. We are grateful for the many of you who have donated to our call and we are requsting that the same be shared with friend and families to help us actualize our goal. Help us rebuild and replace panels lost in the fire
Our mission still is to educate as many children, providing them with daily meals, a conducive learning enviroment, access to technology, and ensure they have a chance at education. Challenges will always be there and we deal with each as it comes and we are grateful that thanks to your support we have been able to make it this far.
We are grateful for your support and we will be sure to send you more updates over time.
Thank you and best regards,
Links:
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 will get an e-mail when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports via e-mail without donating.
We'll only email you new reports and updates about this project.
Support this important cause by creating a personalized fundraising page.
Start a Fundraiser
Make a monthly donation & get 
