By Beth Goodwin | Kakamega PM 2018
Just five days before this summer started, unforeseen circumstances meant EPAfrica took the decision to locate all Kenya Project Workers (PWs) in Kakamega. As a result, we operated the biggest ever EPAfrica site in Kakamega this year! Calum and Anna, our intrepid Pre-Summer Team busily visited schools, arranging accommodation for trios and giving the very welcome, if last-minute, news to some pipeline schools that this would be their first year of EPAfrica investment. We are very grateful to our partner schools for taking the change of plan in their stride.
On Wednesday 4th July the first-half Summer Team met 28 eager and nervous PWs at Jomo Kenyatta Airport.The group responded well to an intense training week, breaking only for World Cup matches and to cook for 32 people. They finished off the week by running the Head Teachers Conference, departing Kakamega in their HT’s cars, ready to explore their partner schools.
We partnered with 10 schools in Kakamega this summer. Having eight trios meant that most of these schools received a bigger investment than any other years. This gave the PWs more room to try different investment options, working towards our five goals in new and exciting ways.
One common issue that emerged from the discovery phase was malnutrition. Some PWs witnessed a student having a fit, which could be linked to the lack of variation in her diet. Others found that in their school surveys, one of the biggest complaints for students was lunch. With a bigger group and more people-hours, one PW led a working group, exploring these issues in more detail and compiling a database of nutritional information for common Kenyan foods.
The Innovation Seed Fund applications showed that PWs had clever ideas of how we could resolve this problem, and funds were awarded to initiatives introducing a fishing pond to one school and building vertical gardens in another. We will carry the learning over to next summer.
Some of our partnerships worked on a few, high value investments, such as water projects. This wouldn’t have been possible were it not for the larger budget trios afforded. It is clear from our work with partner schools and from Summer Team’s school selection that access to reliable, clean water remains an issue. Beyond securing a safe water source, there are many more ways water can help improve education: having running taps in the science, laboratory, for instance can help with: conducting experiments; maintaining equipment; and health and safety.
During the summer we ran a Project Worker Instagram Takeover across both sites. This was held on a Global Giving Match Funding Day, which helped us to fundraise extra money for the schools we worked with this summer. At St Mary’s Mukhuma, this money was used to renovate the science laboratory. They built new benches, installed gas and sinks and improved storage of the equipment. The local MP was so impressed with EPAfrica’s investment that he came to open the laboratory in person – another first for us!
Project Workers weren’t the only volunteers investing money this year. A central-pot pilot was run by the second-half Summer Team in Kakamega, helping us to engage with pre-selection and graduate schools on another level. This was the first time Summer Team have been given an investment budget to manage and they explored a broad range of solutions to problems that had emerged from school visits. You can read about them all on our blog. From Period Parties to Projector Skills, Solar Power to Girl-friendly toilets, the pilots demonstrated the variety of issues faced by Kenyan schools today, as well as the ways they can be tackled in partnership.
The volunteers in Kakamega pulled off a great feat this year. They dealt with a lot of new challenges, facing them with the typical solutions-focused attitude. Our schools were very grateful for the investments made, and future projects will build on the firsts dealt with this summer in future projects. It seems we benefited from the larger group of volunteers – we had more money, came up with more ideas, made more friends and had more people to play mafia!
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