Education Kenya Project #9852

The Nobelity Project's Kenya Schools Fund

by Nobelity Project

The Nobelity Project's Kenya Schools Fund

Project Report | Nov 21, 2012
17 Schools and Counting!

By Turk Pipkin | Project Leader

Purified Water System at Mutaki Primary

The success of our feature film Building Hope - the Story of Mahiga Hope High School - has helped us amplify our work with rural Kenyan schools. The purified water systems at Mutaki Primary, Kiguru Primary and Muthuini Primary are all complete (adding those schools to many other completed water and classroom projects). Likewise for our second new stone classroom at the mountain-top Mugaka Primary (a challenging place to build but one where the local community contributes greatly to the work), and we have just completed a rebuild of the original mud brick classrooms at Mutaki which has now grown from a parent-built one-room preschool to a very busy Primary School where we've been building a new classroom each year as the students move up a grade.

One of our most exciting new completed projects is the new Ronald F. and William A. Inglehart Science Lab at Simbara High School. This Nobelity Project/Kenya Schools Fund project owes a special thanks to our Global Giving donors, to The John and Tamra Gorman Family, the Kieni West Community Development Fund, the staff and students of Simbara High and our building contractor, Shancar Industries. The first 12th grade class at Simbara is now able to complete the Physics and Chemistry courses and take the Lab tests that are required for graduation from high school.

Check out our short Simbara Science Lab video at the link below.

If you'd like to be a part of this work, we are currently fundraising for a number of Kenya Schools Fund projects, including for a new purified rainwater system for the girls dormitory at Irbaan Primary School. These girls need clean drinking and sanitation water, and are only waiting for the funding to start the water flowing.

We also now have 7 school library projects in Kenya, most of them in need of durable library shelving to hold the thousands of books that will be arriving soon. As it turns out, our 1000 Books for Hope campaign ended up being 10,000 Books for Hope, or as I think of it, 10,000 reasons for Hope. With your support we can make that Ten thousand and one!

If you want to read a full length account of our work in Kenya, check out Building Hope - the Story of Mahiga Hope High School. The coffee table, full color print version is at barnesandnoble.com and the full color iPad version of Building Hope is at the iBookstore.

Thanks to everyone who's playing a continuing part in our work in Kenya and the U.S.!

Christy Pipkin with Senior Class Girls at Simbara

The new Inglehart Simbara Science Lab

Links:

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Aug 21, 2012
Peace, Love and Education

By Turk Pipkin | Project Leader

Girls in their new classrom, Daaba Primary School

I've just returned from a 7,000 kilometer working tour of East Africa and was inspired by the progress at all 15 of our Kenya School Fund projects. Here are a few highlights.

In the arid lands of Samburu, Daaba Primary is a dream come true. A year ago, 50 students at Daaba were attending outdoor classes in the dust and sun, and climbing 40-feet into a dark and dangerous open well to fill their water jugs with unclean water. The school now has eight permanent classrooms and -- thanks to a new solar-powered well built with our water partners Well Aware -- a safe supply of water for the school and community.

The courage of the community and our contractor in the face of a terrible drought and local conflict stemming from the war in Somalia has resulted in over two hundred kids enrolled in the school, half of them girls in a Turkana tribal area where girls have rarely received an education. Daaba is as close to a miracle as I can possibly imagine and I will never forget the amazing welcome and thank you’s from this great community.

A 10-hour drive to the South, the enrollment at Mutaki Primary has more than doubled to 200 students from pre-school through grade 4. The new classrooms are a thing of beauty, as is the new solar-powered, UV-purified rainwater water system.

Accompanied by Nobelity Project Executive Director Christy Pipkin and a group of supporters, we also saw the first permanent classroom at Mogawka Primary; new water systems at numerous schools and site surveys for more to come, and the grand opening of the Joe Gracey Library, Computer and Music lab at Amboni Primary/Simbara Secondary.

Also at Simbara Secondary School, we cut the ribbon and I filmed the first high school chemistry class at the new Ronald F. and William A. Inglehart Science Lab.

I was also delighted to accompany National Public Radio reporter John Burnett as he visited three of our school projects. John Burnett's NPR/All Things Considered story on Kenyan Education challenges and triumphs at three of our key high school projects.

With great community partners and a 100 percent focus on long-term good for the kids and local communities, it's possible to make a significant and lasting difference in the lives of kids all over the world. Thanks to all our Global Giving donors for helping make a difference in the lives of thousands of kids in Kenya, while showing that the the time for Universal Secondary Education has arrived.

Turk Pipkin

The Nobelity Project

Joe Gracey Library, Computer and Music Lab

The New Mogaka School Classroom

Links:

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May 18, 2012
Full Speed Ahead!

By Turk Pipkin | Project Leader

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