Why did we renovate elementary schools?
In Kenya elementary school has been free since 2003. The government has paid for teachers and gives small allowances for supplies and maintenance. This has resulted in schools being totally overcrowded (I have seen 155 students in one classroom with one teacher). The roofs are leaking. We met a teacher in one of the schools we visited who said “I am glad you came today, because yesterday it was raining and we all had to huddle in one corner of the classroom so we wouldn’t get soaked”. The floors often are just dirt, which is a problem since a small critter called (jigger) lives in it and finds the children’s feet and lays their eggs in their feet. It usually becomes infected and is also very painful. Desks are a luxury. Most students sit on the floor and write on their laps.
Who is supposed to pay for school maintenance? The parents of course; the same parents who cannot feed their families. It is no wonder that the schools are in such desperate need of repair. There are 203 elementary schools in the Kilifi district. We have renovated 5 of them. We hope that people see what can be done and more people or organizations will come forward and do the same. We the fund believe that it is imperative that the children of Kenya have to be educated if we want to break the circle of poverty. The cost varied from $20,000 to $50,000. Chumani was done in two stages.
I have put a slide show together for each of the schools that we renovated:
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