MAJI SAFI PROJECTS - KENYA UPDATE- APRIL 2004

Linda Greenland & Mike Radford
102 Whitecross Avenue
Whitchurch BRISTOL BS14 9JE
Tel: 01275-834883

XMAS 2003

I just made it to Kenya, I had been really sick with acute bronchitis since October, I’ve never felt so ill, a few days before departure, it was touch and go whether I could travel. The warmth and sunshine helped me feel better, but in the New Year I had two weeks of feeling well then again had bronchitis which turned to pleurisy. I then had a SEVERE allergic reaction to another course of antibiotics which caused so many problems (too many to bore you with) It was the end of Feb before I felt better and then in March went down with lots of bugs that my children at school were passing around. Let s hope now this is all behind me!!

Apart from feeling below par, our visit at Xmas was difficult with having Xmas and New Year midweek; we crammed all the Xmas shopping for families, also 3 government meetings in the few days in between, when everything was open. We went to visit the Provincial Offices and we got a letter of support from them, the last couple of years have been very difficult with problems of the Women Group at Maji Safi School and I have not wanted to burden you with all the details, but many times I really could have walked away, but just thinking of the happy smiling faces of all those children enjoying education kept me going. Perseverance finally paid off; we were assured that all issues would be sorted in 2004.

A BIG THANK YOU TO ALL SPONSORS who sent cards & money to help their families at Xmas. It made such a difference to them.

EASTER 2004

THE BEST NEWS YET!!! We finally have a letter to say Maji Safi school has been registered by the government and SOMETIME in May a new Head teacher will be taking over, he was a deputy Head at the Mombasa Kenya Navy school and is a very hardworking and experienced teacher and has visited the school and is very keen to start. This has meant lots of paperwork (& headaches) etc for me, but hopefully in the future everyone will reap the benefits and the school will be even more successful than it is now.

CEILIDH NIGHT – FEBRUARY

WHAT A SUCCESS!! Just see below what the money raised has done. Over £2100!! meant 2 new classrooms built at Inspirations - Shika Adabu, now waiting for the roof to go on. We really need these classrooms, we now have over 120 children split between morning and afternoon classes and with more starting January 2005, the 2 original classes could burst at the seams!!

WELL DONE! to Dave & Jenny Byett, families, friends, sponsors and colleagues who made this evening a brilliant success.

Dave and Jenny read my appeal in the last newsletter when I said we would welcome any help sponsors could give in helping to raise money!! Well, they came up trumps and arranged the night; the band, the dancers all gave their time and talent for free and we sold out of tickets within a couple of weeks. Dave promises there will be a NEXT time and we have decided that we need a bigger venue, the atmosphere was fantastic and again

MANY THANKS for everyone that supported this and made it a exceptional event.

A big thanks to Margaret & helpers for the raffle, which raised over £340 – (the "Porsche" lives to see another day! Ha ha),

MAJI SAFI SCHOOL

The day we arrived in Kenya school was due to close, but it was kept open, so our first day there we took photos of our sponsored children and we had an award ceremony for the top 3 children in each class. Each class sang a song or recited a poem and we had a lovely day. This is an old picture of MAJI SAFI SCHOOL, but now very difficult to take a new one as the school is now so BIG, 9 classrooms; 5 toilets & the offices and staffroom have been built on the left of the school. Who would have thought that 4 years ago there was only a wooden hut with 40 children? now we have over 400 enjoying education! We have just filled in the big hole you can see in the photo and also cleared all the rubble so the playground is more level.

The MAJI SAFI TEACHERS & STAFF

The offices and staff room are now in full use and the small "library" is coming on!! Large water tanks are now installed so the problem of fresh water is solved, a water lorry can fill the tanks on a regular basis, saving the daily chore of getting containers of water from Likoni 3 miles away. We bought lots of storybooks for the children and have managed to buy all the textbooks for the new Kenya curriculum that came into force in January; this was a mammoth task and depleted all our school funds. While we were there we employed a school administrator to relieve the teachers of the day to day paperwork, keep proper records and to liase with Miriam .

More families have left the village; some moved to rooms in Likoni or gone back "up country" as many have travelled to the coast looking for hotel work. This has been caused, by the closure of the only local hotel last Easter; the slow tourist industry and the fact that all the "Matatus" (mini buses that operated from Likoni to Timbwani village) have stopped. These were the only type of public transport. The government brought in new rules that all matatus had fitted seatbelts; instead of being crammed with over 20 people now restricted to 14 passengers, this meant all the old buses that ran this small stretch of road were condemned & people have to walk 3 miles to Likoni for the ferry to their work in Mombasa.

We have "lost" another 10 children that were sponsored. Please do not be too disappointed if your child is one of those that have left; whether they have enjoyed 1,2,3 or 4 years of schooling at Maji Safi, they have had an opportunity from you that they would not have otherwise had. We hope you will be happy to sponsor another deserving child; we will try to make sure they are from a local tribe that will be unlikely to move away!

JULY VISIT 2004

Original plans to build a playground and campsite at Teenwatch Drugs Project, after our Xmas visit all changed as UNICEF have "taken over" the project and are to build a rehabilitation centre on another site. So our project there was not feasible.

The 6th formers and teachers from Ashton Park School - Bristol, have booked their flights, and will spend almost 2 weeks working at "Inspirations" school, Shika Adabu to provide a small farmyard with animals for the children at the school to enjoy looking after, and in the future plant trees and crops to help become self sufficient. Also, construct a playground with swings, slides, seesaw and monkey bars, it will be fenced around for security.

The students have been busy fundraising to buy the land, play equipment, also poles and fencing So ASHTON PARK School will own their own bit of Kenya!! The playground is opposite the school and will be built to the left of the tree you see in the middle of the picture below.

If sponsors want to send letters/photos/money please can they let me have this BEFORE the end JUNE – as we leave beginning July - THANKS

You may also remember in a previous newsletter when I mentioned that friends Bobby and Ken Williams raised lots of money to buy GOATS & CHICKENS to help families in the village to become self-sufficient. Well, they’ve decided to join us and the students in July to help on the project, along with 2 of their friends; my eldest son Jeff and a friends daughter Verity are also coming so heads are being got together to unveil a "Masterpiece" in one of the classrooms; a huge wall mural is going to be painted; and all the children will be contributing with making paper mache animals, stars, trees etc etc lots of creative ideas to stimulate the little ones minds. Luckily we have Mike who has volunteered to paint the top half of the 11ft high wall!! (The wall is over 20ft wide!!) SO "WATCH THIS SPACE" In the next newsletter "ALL WILL BE REVEALED!"

The notice board will be moved to another wall.

STORYBOOKS!!

Most of you know that I am a school Librarian and I really believe that children benefit so much from reading for pleasure as well as learning from textbooks. I decided to try and raise money to start a small "library". I bought sets of storybooks in Kenya that the teachers want for class readers. We had extra baggage allowance at Easter, and again when we go with all the students in July, so I decided to buy some children’s books here, as they are really interesting and the graphics are so good.

I would like to thank my own school, (Hengrove School) and Banham Community Primary school, Norfolk; Fairfield School, Bristol; St James Church, Bristol and a few individual sponsors who have donated money to help start this new idea of mine!!

Now we need bookcases fitted in the classrooms!! TEACHERS: Mr Josephat and Mwanajuma with lots of happy pupils with their new storybooks.

Mr Josephat is leaving us in Sept to go to college for 2 years to complete his teacher-training course; he will be missed but will return when he has finished. Thank you to the sponsor who has offered to pay his tuition fees, all we have to find is a small amount of "living expenses" for him every month. It is crucial that he get the qualification papers, he is a fantastic teacher, the one who started Maji Safi Nursery 5 years ago and inspired us by his commitment to children. When we first met him he didn’t have a regular wage, parents used to give him a few pence or even a meal as thanks for teaching their children. He then helped us to start "Inspirations" and we hope that he will be part of our projects for many years to come.

BIG THANKS TO HENGROVE SCHOOL!!

Pupils and staff at my own school need a special mention for supporting us so much over the last 5 years. Some teachers sponsor children; pupils get involved with all sorts of fundraising and have built a classroom; provided mosquito nets; textbooks; school equipment and sports kit; uniform & shoes. Their efforts are a shining example for other young people to follow.

Most sponsors will receive a new photo of their child included with this newsletter, there were a few children missing when we visited the schools to take the photos and those children will have their photo taken when school re opened. Miriam and Bekker now know how to use their NEW digital camera and we hope to get these photos within a few weeks and will send them on to sponsors.

ANOTHER HOUSE FINISHED!!

In September we bought another piece of land and started to build another 7-roomed house next to the one that was built a couple of years ago. With the help of many sponsors and well-wishers the house was completed as we arrived in Kenya at Xmas and families were moving in on Xmas Eve!!

In total we now have 23 rooms that have rehoused needy families. LEAD Technologies Inc. V1.01

CHARITY REGISTRATION

With all my illness and other urgent commitments, the form filling was put on hold; we have appointed trustees and have almost completed the paperwork. We also waited because of the problem with the Maji Safi Women group and the school, we were not sure whether we would register under the name "Maji Safi Projects" but now all that is (almost) sorted we should be able to go ahead using that name which makes life much easier and means we don’t have to change bank accounts etc.

As you all know I am a "do-er" - more hands on than "form filling" so this task has been a mammoth one for me. I do work full – time and have the same type of family commitments as others so PATIENCE!! But hopefully, all will be sorted very soon. I was hoping that we would find someone who had completed these forms before and would make the job easy for us, but that hasn’t happened so we are go ahead slowly but surely!!

MOBILE PHONES

If anyone has any 2nd hand phones, preferably Nokia 3310/3410 or similar as we are providing our workers in Kenya with phones so we can keep in contact by text and keep in touch with each other.

OUR PLANS FOR THE FUTURE

We STILL need your support, fundraising and donations to achieve the above!! THANKS!!!!

THE '5 P' MILE

A HUGE THANKS TO EVERYONE FOR EVERYTHING!! YOU ARE WONDERFUL!! WE HAVE RAISED OVER £1,000 ! and this is going towards the project at Inspiration School.

HOT NEWS!!

Our friend Bobby Williams has organised a "BIG BAND NIGHT" on 9th October 2004 it should be a great night and we want to make it like "the Night at the Proms" with the HMS HERON Navy Band!! For more details please phone or email me nearer the time, but we will try to phone all "local" sponsors and friends to invite them to come.

LAST but not least: I would really like to thank our small but committed "committee" for their support and encouragement during some difficult times in the last few years. We still have a lot of work to do!

ALSO BIG THANKS to Andy Kybert – Woodside Press – Bristol, for printing the paper version of this newsletter and saving me lots of work!! Old ex-Hengrove School friends come in handy (ANDY) sometimes! Ha ha