Educate a child from Kibagare Slum at St Martins

Greetings from St Martins School, Kibagare.

We hope all is well with you, your families, and your teams in your respective countries.

Here at school, all is well and we have had a positive start to this year despite the many challenges we have had in the last year due to drought and high inflation.

Despite the challenges, we were able to open school on the 23rd of January this year. The first term of the year which will be ending on the 21st of April this year has been full of positives and we are optimistic that the rest of the year will be a good one.

At the beginning of this year, we were able to admit new students in our primary and the girls' secondary schools. 80 pupils in their first year of primary school and 20 girls in their first year of secondary school were admitted in February and thus far they are having a good time and learning as is expected of them.

In total, we have 779 students in our primary school and 169 girls in our boarding school. Getting students for both schools has been a challenge especially for the girls' boarding school because of our location as a school and also due to the fact that most families are leaving the slum and looking for other places and means to support their families away from the slum. Also due to high inflation and the high unemployment rates in Kenya and especially the slum communities in urban areas and Nairobi, in particular, most people are not so keen on education as was the case previously.

Poverty levels are still high in the slum and as a school, we are working and looking into ways of seeing to it that the children from the slum have the much-needed education that will be able to transform their lives and that of their families in the future.

We are still working with the community in their groups to help them support each other as we offer them the training and workshops they need to come up with ways to support themselves. we have continued to support families in need to start up small businesses and also link them to microfinance institutions to help them get loans to support their small businesses. 

The school's Saturday feeding program has been on since the school reopened. We are still feeding between 1000 and 1200 children every weekend. We are grateful for the support we receive from this program as without it children are forced to stay without a meal during their weekend stays at home.

In March of this year, we hosted a group of 26 volunteers from Europe and the USA. This is the first big trip since the covid pandemic started. We had a good time and thanks to this and many more to come we hope that we will get more people to share our stories and in return, we will get support for most of our programs.

We can say that these three months have been good and we hope for more in the coming days. This coming week, the students in both schools will be doing their end-of-term 1 exams, and thereafter school will be on break for two weeks.

We are grateful for the support we receive and continue to receive. Your contributions go a long way and they are very much appreciated by us all here.

Thank you and best regards,

Alfred Aswan.

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:

• School Website