Makayauni School Building
Project
"One
room at a time"
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| Start October
2008 |
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Fundraising
Target: €43,000
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Raised to Date (August 2010): €38,500
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Fundraising for the new Makayauni School
is led by the Dalkey Group under the direction of Terry
Dunne, with assistance from Bernard and Maureen Challen in
Shoreham-by-Sea, Sussex.
For up-to-date photos
of the building progress, see HERE
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Good News from Shoreham-By-Sea, Sussex.
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Following
a wonderful family celebration for Mo’s Mum’s (Joan
Carter) 90th birthday we boosted the Makayauni
school fund by over £200 pounds. In less than a year since
we launched our fundraising we have collected £3084 for
the school building fund and £100 for a water project. We
have also raised £20 for soap that we have sold in
Shoreham.
We
have enjoyed several social gatherings including the
initial Barbecue, followed by a coffee morning to celebrate
our 40th wedding anniversary.
In
March we had a Lenten lunch which was not as austere as it
sounds!
St
Peter’s parish Justice and Peace group donated the funds
from two Fairtrade breakfasts and Liz Shepley organised a
progressive dinner in the parish and donated half the
proceeds to the Makayauni school fund.
A
Christmas donation in lieu of presents from the family and
a donation in memory of a wonderful neighbour who died last
year have helped us to achieve such a grand total.
Ideally,
we would like to fund a classroom from Sussex, requiring £3500,
or near to £4000 equipped.
Any
donation, however small, will make a difference- please
help.
Thank
you all!
Donations have been made to the
Trocaire-Friends of Kitui
account via the Belfast
office, so that income tax can be reclaimed on behalf of UK
taxpayers ("Gift Aid").
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Joan Carter celebrates
her 90th Birthday
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Maureen and Bernard
Challen
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A
message from Maureen and Bernard :
"After
Pat came back from Kenya a year or so ago, we talked about
the work that had been carried out and the scope of needs
there. Together we watched the video of the water tank
inspection at the school in Makauni. This highlighted the
lack of facilities at the school. (The video is available
on the site below)
Our
understanding of the Kitui initiative began with Pat’s
engineering background in providing a water supply. Later
the need for education and the provision of school places
was seen as an important element in the local community
life. The
enthusiasm of the people in Makauni encouraged us to get
involved.
Since
we are both involved with education, and this year we
celebrate 40 years’ of marriage, we thought a way to
start fund-raising would be to have an anniversary party
and to collect donations for the school project.
Ideally,
we would like to fund a classroom from Sussex, requiring £3500,
or near to £4000 equipped. The local community provides
bricks and some labour, but
money is needed for some materials and a contractor
is needed – as is described elsewhere on the site here.
For
UK Donation form click HERE
For
Irish Donation Form, or for donors from other countries,
click
HERE
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The Dalkey fundraising group working on
behalf of the community of Makayauni has already raised nearly 50% of the costs for
this building project, which aims to complete eight classrooms and a staff room by
August 2010. Under the guidance of Friends of
Kitui, the Dalkey and Shoreham groups will work towards the
common purpose of constructing a new school for the
children and families of Makayauni.
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Much of the Dalkey-raised funding has
come through the efforts of students who have volunteered
their time towards this great cause. Many thanks to all who helped our
fundraising "Bag Pack" on November 9th 2009, which
raised €3,300. Another group worked on a bag-pack in
January 2010 and raised a further €3,500.
Special thanks to the Transition Year
students at Loreto Dalkey who have us such tremendous
support!
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Makayauni
School Programme
Our
target is to complete the construction of an 8 classroom school by December 2010
which will be handed over to the community and run as a non
fee-paying public school.
The community of Makayauni has now
delivered on its promise of providing bricks, sand and hardcore to get
this project under way. On February 5th we viewed the 20,000 bricks and
many tons of materials gathered on the school site. The people told us of
the impact of the famine on their lives, and we undertook to provide
supplementary food for the children for one month to relieve the pressure
on the parents.
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The
existing school at Makayauni
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About Makayauni School Building
Project
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| Makayauni
Primary School in the east of Zombe, in the Kitui District of Kenya, has
230 students in 8 classes. The school has two “buildings”, each with
four classrooms. The building which they describe as “semi permanent”
is constructed from poor quality bricks made locally. All rooms
have dirt floors, in fact consisting of several inches of fine dust. Only
one room, perhaps 4m X 3m, has a door, and serves as staff room, office
and store.
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The second
“temporary” building also has four classrooms, and as shown in the
pictures on the left, it is constructed from rough timber plastered with
mud. The corrugated iron roof leaks in the rainy season, and acts like a
radiator for the sun’s heat in the dry season. The school lacks even the
most basic requirement– a decent blackboard. A single latrine (toilet)
serves the entire school. |
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this, the students are hard working, disciplined and cheerful. When we
visited to school, they put on a wonderful performance of singing and
dancing to thank the people of Dalkey for supporting the construction of a
water tank, which was completed May 2008.
With your help, we hope to build a new
8-classroom school in the coming year. The total cost is €40,000.
Hopefully we will be able to raise enough funds for
additional staffroom, and store. |
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As dusk
approaches, and after welcoming visitors in song and dance,
the children return the meagre furniture to the mud-walled
classrooms. |
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Left: Bricks made by the community have
been collected in readiness for construction |
Right: The community has
also gathered tons of sand and hardcore as their
contribution to the project. |
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The Children of
Makayauni are looking to us for help. |
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We
support people in need in Kitui, Kenya.
