Project Summary: Kenya, Kiwanje Ndege School Upgrade

Simple tasks, like constructing new desks for a local school, leave a lasting impact | Trent O'Donnell

Our community project trips provide much needed facilities to some of the regions poorest areas | Trent O'Donnell

Blog home / Project Summary: Kenya, Kiwanje Ndege School Upgrade

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Year: 2007

Achievements: Over 4 days, 17 participants split into 2-3 work parties and completed the following jobs:

“The painters” - painted all 6 classrooms made from stone and also whitewashed the inside of the teachers' admin block and used the last of the paint to cover a wall per room – 3 rooms.
“The carpenters” – made 23 school desks which were a lot sturdier than the existing ones and repaired about 10 of the existing school benches.
The football pitch now has two goalposts (before there was none) and the edges are now marked out.
A volleyball net and volleyball was supplied (replacing just a rope).
Water tank - the biggest improvement was the installation of the 10,000 litre water tank. This was placed at the end of the classrooms on a sand/stone base.

Impact:

Painting of classrooms and teachers block - previously these classes were bare cement plaster, so the new paint has brightened up these classrooms, making for a better learning environment rather than a grey dull environment.
Desks - these desks were distributed across the 6 classes which has made a huge difference, now providing extra seating capacity of 69 additional seats in the school. This alleviates the necessity for 4 children to share a bench, as it's now down to only 3 children per bench.. . and gives them enough space to actually write!
Football pitch - this was the most popular thing we did according to the school children.
Rainwater tank - previously every morning the kids have to come to school with 3 litres of water for the kitchen and to drink. For much of the year the kids (or their mothers) have to walk to collect this before going to school and often the water was from poor sources and dirty. (The head teacher said that in the previous year there was a typhoid outbreak coming from poor water sources). This tank will alleviate the need for water collection for much of the year and give peace of mind knowing that the water from the tank is clean, so the children spend less time walking to school, and drink less dirty water.

Footage:

Thanks to: our friends at World Nomads for raising the funds ($USD1,500) for the purchase of the materials for this project as well as the wages of the local trades person that worked on this project.