Specialist care for 200 children with disabilities

Thank you for your kind and generous support to enable two special educational needs schools in Kenya become fully self-reliant.  Unfortunately the 9 month school closure in Kenya due to COVID-19 last year, and a further lockdown in March this year, has delayed the progress of the income generating projects at both schools.  We are still very hopeful that both schools will be generating enough income to no longer require external support by the end of the summer this year.  Increasing their sustainability, and reducing reliance on overseas funding, will make the schools more resilient and able to help future generations of children.

School lunches and physiotherapy services

All students returned to the two schools in January when they reopened, they were delighted to be back with their friends.  The two schools were supported with a feeding programme for the learners’ lunches and with physiotherapy services.

The school lunches were especially important as the majority of the parents could not afford to pay the school fees, although they are highly subsidised, due to the effects of COVID-19 on the economy and the majority of them sadly losing their livelihoods and jobs. The learners enjoyed hot meals for their breakfast, lunch and dinner, and additional mid-morning and evening snacks thanks to the feeding programme support from you and a grant from Help Every Day.

The physiotherapy sessions were also very well received by the parents and the teachers especially since most learners had missed those while at home for 9 months in 2020. The parents could not hide their joy when collecting their children for the school holiday when they saw the improvement their children had made from the therapy sessions!

Income generating activities

Percy Davies school, with the support of the Rotary Club of Parklands in Nairobi, built a small building to house the new posho mill in.  The building was completed in mid-March after approval and sign-off by the government public works officer.  They also had high voltage power installed in the house to run the posho mill.  

Unfortunately, on March 26th, Kenya went into a second lockdown and cessation of movement due to escalating cases of COVID-19.  The delivery of the posho mill was postponed until the movement restrictions could be lifted.  The restrictions were lifted on 1st May and we are delighted to say that the posho mill has now been delivered and is ready for use!

The greenhouse in Percy Davies was planted with tomatoes by the beginning of March after the tomatoes had germinated from their nurseries in February.  The training of the teachers and non-teaching staff to tender the tomatoes continued with an agronomist supervising their progress fortnightly.  The team has done an excellent job and the tomatoes started fruiting in April and they should be having their first harvest by the end of May 2021.

We are very excited to see the progress of the green house and are looking forward to the first harvest soon!  This wouldn’t have been possible without your kind support and a grant from Help Every Day, thank you!

The school continues to tend to the orange and mango trees in their farm and are positive they should be getting their first harvest by December this year as the trees have already started flowering and fruiting in small numbers. Their maturity period is at two years and therefore we expect that all should be fruiting later this year. They have also intercropped seasonal beans with the fruit trees as they are yet to form big canopies to restrict ground farming. The beans will be used fully to supplement their feeding programme and are expected to be harvested in June 2021.

The school reopened for the second term this year on 11th May as the COVID-19 restrictions had been lifted allowing schools to re-open again.  We are looking forward to more engagement and witnessing a major success for the income generating activity projects in the school. The feeding programme for the lunches and the physiotherapy support will continue in this term with an agreed phase off by the end of July when the schools will be ending the second term.

On behalf of the children, teachers and everyone at Raising Futures Kenya, thank you for your kind support which is enabling these two schools to become more sustainable and self reliant.

The special educational needs programme had suspended most of the school activities in the last 9 months of 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Kirunguru special school had closed indefinitely as all learners had gone home, while Percy Davies had 2 young learners who stayed when the rest of the children are taken away by their parents as they have no families of their own. Through your generous giving, Raising Futures Kenya was able to continue to support the school in order to provide specialist care not only to Jedidah and Livingstone but also two vulnerable families who couldn’t afford food, due to the effect of the pandemic.

The good news is that schools in Kenya were all allowed to re-open from January 4th so students have been returning over the last few weeks. Two weeks after school reopening, the Kenya National Examination Council (KNEC) conducted a school-based assessment to assess the learning gaps caused by the prolonged closure of schools due to COVID-19. A selected number of learners from the two special schools participated in the assessment. These learners are in the intermediate class as they have the ability to reason, follow instructions and perform activities of daily living. 

All staff from the two special schools attended a one-day training course on COVID-19 protocols and prevention measures to safeguard the children under their specialist care. The schools have taken all precautionary measures following the guidelines from health and education ministries to ensure that the children will remain safe and healthy throughout the school term.

Both schools have been working on income generating projects to enable them to earn sustainable income and reduce the dependency on external funding for the growth and development of the schools. Kirunguru had planted maize and fruit seedlings on the school farm which was cared for by the support staff throughout the long school break. At Percy Davies, the school had planted mango and orange fruit seedlings which are doing so well. Percy Davies school is now preparing to plant tomatoes and kales in their new greenhouse. According to the head teacher, the funding from Raising Futures Kenya has enabled the school to purchase all the necessary tools and equipment needed in order to start greenhouse farming. They are expecting to go through a training session with an agronomist from the ministry of agriculture on how to tend to vegetables in the greenhouse. Once the vegetables are ready, the school will be able to sell to the local community but also supplement their feeding programme hence provide nutritious meals to the children. 

Apart from the farming, the school received funding in December to purchase a posho mill that will be used to grind maize, sorghum and millet to flour. The maize and porridge flours from the posho mill will be sold to the local people in the community, learning institutions and retail businesses. This will also reduce the expenses for the school as they will now be able to mill flour for their own consumption. The posho mill project also received a boost from a Rotary Club that will oversee the construction of a structure where maize milling will be carried out after the machine is installed.

Raising Futures Kenya is grateful for the generous giving towards the specialist care programme for children with disability. Thank you so much for continued support as we believe that children with special needs have the right to live happily, thrive and reach their potential.