Hi All, During the most recent trip to Kenya we have embarked on a very exciting new project which we are looking forward to telling you about.

Many of you may remember a project called Bethel Children's Care Centre from new blogs on this website. We have been working with them for some time now, using the centre as a base for handing out your clothes and shoes donations, as well as supporting them with some educational materials such as exercise books, pencils, sharpeners, rubbers etc.

The project is based in the residential area of Mtomondoni, in the home of the founder, Elizabeth and her husband, Bill and provides nursery level education to young children in the area. Schooling in Kenya is done in three stages; nursery, primary and secondary. Completion of each stage is necessary for progression to the next one, however primary level is the only level which is provided free of charge by the government. Bethel, therefore, provides a crucial service to aound 80 local families, educating more than 80 children aged 2-6 in kindergarten (nursery) level schooling such as basic maths and english in preparation for primary schooling at the local government school.All the children who attend are from very poor backgrounds, with many being from single parent families, orphans or affected by HIV/AIDS. Therefore the facility is extremely useful to local parents or carers, especially those from single parent households, or those caring for orphans, as it enables them to go out and work during the day to put food on the table, whilst the children are looked after at Bethel.

Bethel charges just 100/= per month (around 70pence) which is enough to cover basic facilities such as pencils and paper, exam papers, desks, benches etc, whilst still being affordable to the local community.

However, the small amount the children and their families contribute is not adequate to pay wages for a teacher; meaning that Bethel have had a succession of volunteer teachers all in temporary roles and many underqualified for the job.

During the trip this time, with the assistance of the friends of Milele group fundraising here in the UK we have managed to take on a nursery teacher named Janet Dawa who will work at Bethel on a trial basis until the end of the year. If the trial is sucessful and funding can be secured long term, there is the hope that we will extend it indefinitely.

We also gave out many of the school uniform clothes which had been donated to the project, so the children have something smart to wear to school!

Thank-you to everyone who has donated so far, it will make a huge difference to very many children.

We would like to create some links between Bethel and some schools in the UK to help fund the teaching project. If you are a teacher at a school and would like to help us or to find out more, please don't hesitate to get in touch with Amy on 07950329398

Thank-you!

Amy and Rich

Hello Everyone! Whilst in Kenya this time we revisited a small community school called 'Bethel' which we saw for the first time three months ago during a previous visit.

It had around 40 students from kindergarten 1 to 3, with one iron sheet building, a volunteer teacher and a blackboard, the director Elizabeth was educating these children for free every day in an attempt to provide some of the local families with crucial education they could not have afforded for their children. Whilst small and modest, three months ago this school was a very promising start to what seemed to be a wonderful new centre.

When we returned last week we were astonished to see the immense progress and the transformation the centre had undergone in such a short time with such small amounts of funding.

Now, Bethel has grown and accomodates 70 children including baby class, kindergarten 1-3 and even afternoon tuition for children in standards one and two at the government school. There is now one more building which has been erected to accommodate the large baby class, made of similar materials the second classroom is a largely iron sheeting construction with palm frond roofing. The second building also has a small blackboard and logs of wood or rocks are used for desks and benches.

The school has very little to no money coming in from school fees since many of the children attending are unable to pay even the 8Op per month Elizabeth currently tries to charge. As a result they are trying to get by with the little they have but are not disheartened by the challenges this presents. Elizabeth is currently in the process of applying to the government for funding to start a feeding programme for the children, since it is painfully obvious that they regularly go without meals at home.

'Children's Care Centre' is an accurate name, since this project is much more than a school. Although the volunteer teachers prepare the children to attend government primary schools and provide additional tuition for slightly older children, it also aims to be a feeding centre, has future plans of a parents project to assist the families in the community to find work, and often assists the children in its care with medical fees too.

Whilst visiting we were lucky enough to have lots of relevant educational materials kindly donated to us which we could pass on to the nursery school for them to use in classes. Thank-you so much to everyone that donated something! Take a look at the pictures and see if you can spot your donation!

Keep tuned for all our news on this exciting new linked project.

Amy

Hello everyone! Today we were back in Gorofani to visit the Mbazi nursery school. The school is held in the same room that is also used for cooking the food programme at the weekends. Today there were 29 students in attendance, mostly in KG1 and 2, although there was a small class of older KG3s.

We busied ourselves for an hour or so clearing the stones from the ground with some of the committee members, before handing out some of your donations to the children.

There were balloons, toys, crayons, colouring pencils, toy building kits, games, colouring books and paper, all of which were received very excitedly by the pupils and teachers alike. Once they had figured out what on earth balloons were; all the children were crowding round clamouring for you to blow theirs up, then letting it go flat and coming back again!

THANK-YOU so much to all the generous people who have donated these things, they will really help the school and all the kids were so excited and proud to get their very first toy!