I stepped off of the bus in Taveta and was immediately
blindfolded. Slightly dazed after the
six hour journey from Mombasa I had no clue what was going on. Once I regained my senses, I spun around
discovered Sammy one of my friends from Taveta standing there laughing hysterically. At in that moment I knew I was home.
It’s been four months since we left the school in Mtakuja
completed and in the hands of the community there. Handing the school over to the community
members in Mtakuja was an important step in enabling the growth of a
sustainable project this community. The
ultimate proof of the success of this project would be in the community’s
response to the project with the absence of staff from 4frica. And their response has been incredible.
I revisited the Makutano Nursery School last week and was
thrilled to be greeted by just under twenty students learning in the classroom
there. Since we left the community of
Mtakuja have sourced a teacher for the school, cleaned the compound, set up an
interim committee to manage the school and enrolled seventeen students for the
remainder of the 2012 school year. The
enrollment for 2013 is expected to double to around thirty-five students.
The teacher at the school, Madam Dorcus, is also starting a
tree planting program where each student will bring one tree seedling and plant
it. Each student will then be
responsible for watering and caring for their tree. I was very impressed by this initiative and
the repercussions it has for the environment around the school.
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| Madam Dorcus Delivering Tuesday's Lesson |
Congratulations to everyone how has been involved in this
project. This first pilot project fills
me with such great hopes for the future of 4frica and the communities in the
Taveta District. Plans for Project Two
are well on their way. We are currently
working on budgets for the project/s and meetings with the community
and government stakeholders were held last week. The project will be announced before the end of the year.
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| Students Learning At Makutano Nursery School |
