Build a school in a deprived area of Mombasa

It looks beautiful. Absolutely amazing! Photographs don't lie. The first phase of our new school was completed before we arrived in February, well, apart from the snagging that is. The delight and pride of our teachers, children and parents was tangible. It has made such a difference to the strategies that can be used for teaching now that people can actually move freely around the room. There is fantastic new furniture too paid for by a donor. Looking at the photographs I don't think you would be able to distinguish between our classrooms and a newly built UK classroom so a big thank you to everyone who contributed towards this fantastic achievement.

We've lots of other news though. Firstly, in February and March MSP had volunteers working on the project. Abi came for a couple of days from a charity called Performers without borders to work with our older children. They had such fun learning circus skills and next year a group of volunteers will return for a week, at the end of which the children will put on a show for the local community. There is a photograph below.

Other volunteers were Ali and Jon. Ali has just retired as a primary school teacher and spent a month working in the school with the children and the teachers. Both were very appreciative of the help she gave, as was I. Jon only stayed for a week but he took fantastic photographs which was absolutely brilliant. I always intend to take photographs but time runs away from me.The photographs below are his.

Our children are all doing so well and look so healthy mostly because of our feeding programme. Herrod Foundation have been supporting us since 2011 and thankfully agreed to continue. They were not able to fund the whole programme which now costs £10,000 a year but happily a UK donor has given us the shortfall. This has been a great relief.

What we need now, and soon, is a Cess Pit and soak away for the new building. Catriona Hargreaves Charitable Trust gave us money for a bore hole so that now we have our own water supply piped into the school. (We are also sharing the water with the surrounding community). Having water come out of a tap is great but of course it means that more water is used. More water to be got rid of. In our old building the pit is perfectly adequate to take away the water and human waste but we are pretty sure that the new pit will soon need emptying. A cess pit and soak away may not sound glamorous but it certainly is essential to save expense and provide a hygienic way to get rid of waste. If you feel you could help it would be very much appreciated.

Thank you to everyone for your continued support. You are making such a difference to the community of Mgongeni both now and for generations to come.

It was Christmas Day and I was happily surrounded by my children and excited grandchildren busily unwrapping the presents brought by Father Christmas during the night.  My husband disappeared for a few minutes and then rushed back in to tell me he'd received an email from the builder in Mombasa.

'I'm having a day off. I don't want to hear anything about the building', I replied, but he persisted. The contractor had taken photographs of our very nearly completed building. The first four classrooms of our own school with three toilets. Tears filled my eyes and I knew that this was the very best Christmas present I would ever receive. 

Building anywhere is fraught with problems and Kenya is no exception. On 5th January 2015 a new class of children joined our school and it was so important for this building to be completed as there really was no way we could accommodate them in our already impossibly full rented building, but time was running out. The contractor had promised that it would be completed and it was.

This also means that the furniture which was being made thanks to a UK donor had a home. It is so exciting and so wonderful. This is just the first phase of course but thanks to so many of you it really is happening.

Of course we now need to raise the money for the next phase of the building to ensure the projects sustainability. And of course there are text books to buy for the new class but at least they have a building.

When we went out to Kenya in November it had looked as though this would have a very different ending. A new government law meant that one and a half metres had been stolen from our ground slab for a road and two of the classrooms were going to be too small. Geoff, one of the founding trustees, spent many days sorting this out at the land's office but eventually they agreed that we could build up to our building line and restore the ground slab to its original dimensions.

Adding to the ground slab at a later stage was a huge expense that we could not have anticipated and as a result we have not been able to do a number of things we had planned. There is no glass in the windows and the floor which should have been terrazzo is just the concrete of the foundations. We need to raise funds for these urgently but at least the children could come in.

Next month we are going back to Kenya along with two volunteers and I can't wait. Thank you so much to all of you for your help and support. You are making such a difference to our school which now has 200 children.

It's finally happening! We've started building our school and we are so excited. In January 2015, the start of the new school year we would have had nowhere for our new class of children. We have now been promised by the contractor that the first phase will be complete by the end of November giving us time to raise the money and to set up the classrooms for the children to move into. Next month, October 2014, we shall be going out to Kenya ourselves and will be able to see it with our own eyes but we have at least had many photographs taken for you to look at. I hope they're not too boring!

As with all building work the ground had to be cleared and levelled. You might expect that the contractor would bring in diggers and he did, but they were in human form. 70 men managed to do all the digging in just two days. Amazing.

As you might expect there have been many visitors to the site. All the local dignitaries calling to inspect the work in progress. I'm not sure they had any greater idea than I with what they were looking at but apparently they sounded official. In true Kenyan fashion they all promised great support for the project and we live in hope.

This first phase consists of the foundations for the whole school and a four classroom block containing three toilets. This section will eventually be a self-contained unit for the younger children but in January we are expecting our older children to be the occupants. Until the funds have been raised for the rest of the ground floor which will include the kitchen the children will need to walk back to our rented building at lunchtime for their mid-day meal. It's only a five minute walk but probably too far for three year olds.

The space that has been released in the rented building will allow us to set up the computer suite again (a grand name for some very old PCs) and more importantly we shall be able to set up a clinic for our children, their siblings and their mothers. Such an exciting time. I can’t wait.

A big thank you to all of you. This school will make such a difference to the community of Mgongeni.

Every year we spend March and October in Kenya. Until this year when one of the founding trustees needed urgent medical treatment and the March trip was cancelled. You could feel the panic pouring into the emails from Kenya. They were not coping. It was a difficult time. But then the panic abated, the emails became more confident and our head teacher started telling us the problems and how she resolved them.They have really grown and I feel so proud. It makes you realise that clouds really do have a silver lining.

You will remember Hope our deaf girl. I am told that she is now using sign language herself and is making great progress. Last year for a short time she had a companion, Samuel, who is also profoundly deaf. He was only with us for a couple of weeks and then, when his parents could not see any improvement, they took him away and sent him to a residential school for the deaf. Unfortunately, not only did he not progress there but he became timid and withdrawn. Well now he is back with us and is learning in the same class as Hope. He has a lot of catching up to do but he is making progress and his confidence has grown. We are hoping that this will be good for them both of them as they are the same age. At present though we desperately need to try and get hearing aids for him. The parents clearly cannot afford to buy them and neither can MSP. Samuel's parents would be delighted if anyone felt they could make a contribution towards the £500 needed.

And the building. Ah, I really had hoped to tell you just how far we had progressed. I should know from watching all those programmes on the television that construction is just so fraught with delays but... We really are hoping to start building in August. It's become so urgent as we really do not have anywhere for a new intake in January. But watch this space because the moment we start you will be the first to know.

Many thanks to all of you who have supported us in the past. You have made such a difference.

We have some fantastic news. Our rented school is full to bursting, 175 children, in fact we have had to temporarily disband the computer suite to use as a classroom but that is not the fantastic news. We really need to build our own school but although we had the money to build two classrooms we could not start without money for the foundations. We were beginning to think that it was not going to happen. So, no-one can imagine our delight when a private donor gave us the money we needed. This means that we can start the foundations in March 2014. We are now working hard to raise the money for another two classrooms to complete a secure four classroom block with toilets so hopefully when I write the next update there will be a photograph of construction taking place.

We were out in Kenya in November and hope to go back next month. I can't wait to see how Hope our profoundly deaf student is doing. We had been told that because she had been without any hearing for so long that it was unlikely that she would be able to make sense of what she heard. I can't tell you how fantastic it felt when last November I walked into the room and Hope called out 'Rita'. Her mother is brilliant and is working in school as a teaching assistant with her own child but without pay. Hope is such a lucky girl to have a mother like Joyce.

Then we have Stella. Stella is hard of hearing but she copes. Sort of. Our classrooms are small and Kenyan teachers have loud voices but it didn't stop her being on the periphery of everything that happens. Then Siemens donated hearing aids to a small number of deaf children in Mombasa and because we were in the loop through Hope's audiologist we were able to access some for Stella. I'm really excited at the thought of seeing her.

We take so much for granted in the UK. If you can't hear you get hearing aids and if you can't see you get glasses. No-one in Mgongeni wears glasses. Incredibly we had only just noticed. (Probably explains all the road traffic accidents). Then when I was there last time I saw a child reading with her nose almost on the page. A UK donor has given us the money for Triza's specs and also some for Said and we are hoping to be able to offer them to others who have a problem. I couldn't bear to be without my specs but I guess if it is see or eat you have no choice.

Such an exciting time for our community. I can't wait to see the start of our new building.

Links:

• Mustard Seed Project Website