Healthy Minds, Healthy Lives-600 Girls in Kenya

On July 24, 2022, Jessica will compete in the IRONMAN at Lake Placid, and we thought there was no better time to give you an update on the project to which Jessica has dedicated her competition! Every dollar you've helped Jessica raise is being rushed to Kenya to move the project forward. 

As you'll recall, 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. We're incredibly grateful for you and Jessica, and are thrilled to share this brief progress report! 

• Construction of the two-story school is well underway. Our local construction team completed the first block of 6 classrooms in April, and we opened the doors and welcome students for the first term of the Kenya school year, which began in May. We welcomed one hundred Form 1 students (Grade 9) and 10 Form 2 students as the inaugural cohort. The school administration had decided only to allow Form 1 (Grade 9) registration as part of the phase-in plan for the school. Still, parents came daily asking for space for a Form 2 (Grade 10) class, so the Acting Principal opened up spots to accommodate these eager students. Since the school is not yet eligible to be registered with the Government, which will provide the teaching staff and ongoing operating budget, part of the girls' school fees have gone to hire three community teachers to cover teaching duties in the interim. The governmental registration will be processed as soon as the final construction is completed.

• A dedicated Psycho-Social Counsellor was hired for the school and is currently in an on-boarding process. We're thrilled to welcome Connie Kamonya to the Village Impact team. Connie is passionate about teens and has worked with students on mentorship and behavioural change programs in various schools. Connie was introduced to the girls and will assume full-time duties at the school in July. Your funding will help construct Connie's office and counselling space-more on that to come in future reports!

• A borehole well was successfully drilled, and we installed a three-tank storage system to provide a clean, safe water source for the girl's school, the primary school's population of 3,200 students, and the surrounding community. The current challenge is that the water coming from the well ranges in temperature from 62-80° Celsius. Because of this heat, the first water pump installation failed and finding a pumping system that can accommodate both the extreme heat and pumping capacity has proven difficult. However, we reached out to Well Aware, a US-based water-focused NGO with projects also in the Rift Valley, and with their help, we are confident we will have a solution in hand shortly.  

Check out our VIDEO UPDATE on the project here!

Thank you again so much! None of this would be possible without your generous support. Make sure to cheer Jessica on in her race! Track her progress through the IRONMAN app here!

We look forward to the next update and hope you do too!