Appeal for the children

Help us replace this:                                                   with this:

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An appeal to help the children:
This morning we travelled an hour to Shisango school. Shisango has done Virtues training and Read for the Top, but today their physical needs are more pressing. A Secondary section was opened two years ago which now houses about 75 students and is growing. The Primary (elementary) sector has over 600 children from K to 8. The pit latrines which dotted a large field next to the school were in such poor shape that most have been demolished. The Secondary retained one block of 3 doors which was renovated and is in use. The primary children are left with 6 toilets for girls and four for boys. Here are the pictures. The smell of course cannot be conveyed to you.

The little girl you see is holding the door closed for her friend who will return the favour because there is no other way of keeping the door shut. The boys don’t even have doors on a couple of their units. Public Health is threatening to close the school, and rightly so, but there is no funding available right now for sanitation.
After much discussion this morning with the Head Teacher, representatives of the county government and the chairwoman of the Parent’s Advisory Committee, we have promised to put in a composting toilet of 4 doors for the girls and two doors and a urinal for the boys. This will be for the use of the older children (gr. 5-8) since the composting toilet needs some care and maintenance which may not be possible for the little ones. The school and the county will look for funds to replace the pit latrines for those children.  If we can find funding we will put in a block for the senior girls. The Ministry of Education calculates one latrine for 25 students, so more will still be needed.
Each block will cost between $1200 and $1500, so we need about $3000 for our modest proposal. We are thinking that if there is a Rotary Club, a school, a plumbing or bathroom fixtures company that would be willing to sponsor any part of this, we would put their name and logo on the unit. Any amount from business, or individuals will garner a tax receipt through Tembo-Kenya (www.tembokenya.org)