Fears for children

There are children everywhere, trotting to school (some as young as four of five) along the side of the road with a book bag on their back. Others play in the gutters while mother minds a vegetable stall. We have always noticed how free children are here to go alone to school, to a shop, wander and play. But in the last few weeks a new fear for children's safety has surfaced in Nairobi. Four or five children have been snatched from a bus, from a Sunday School class and elsewhere and in some cases ransom money demanded. While some are found, one little girl is still missing although the parents have paid up. The boy who rode a bus to go 300 metres because his mother didn't want him to cross a busy road, disappeared yesterday.

Project planning

Teacher training for Read for the Top

Thanks to the generosity of Rotary District 5020 we have a small grant for Read for the Top in five more schools. The teacher training day will be held in November. We are setting our budgets for this,for some cleam water, for eco-san toilets and for Virtues training in schools and communities.

In addition we have almost enough funding for the clergy training on the response to sexual abuse. The clergy are very important peole in their communities and this training will give them tools and strategies against this very prevalent problem. We shall also be using some assertiveness training for young women (and men) in a pilot secondary school. One teenage girl in three becomes pregant in Kenya, often meaning the end to her education.
Finally, we have some funding for the re-usable sanitary pad project in a pilot school which will start in the new year.

Oops

Oops, I miscalculated! The MPs awarded themselves a departing bonus of $100 K each

The end of a week

Yesterday was cool and rainy with the temperature barely reaching 20 C. And it was laundry day so we have a line of clothes on the balcony. The power was off most of the afternoon and in the evening we had intermittent breaks of a minute or so. Very frustrating! But this morning we woke to bright sunshine. We shall meet with some members of Kakamega Rotary Club to look at the springs they have protected with the remainder of the global grant.

The news yesterday informed us that the Ministry has decided to go back to the normal time for school opening. So schools will open on Jan 7, but primary school exam results will not be available until the end of January. This will delay the integration of first year high school students into secondary.

Last week the MPs voted themselves a severance package of about $25K each after the government announced new taxes to pay for teacher and doctor increases in pay. Add to this that the new Constitution does not allow anyone to set their own remuneration any more. The President did the right thing and refused to sign the bill. The community-oriented MPs are now threatening to 'go slow' on legislation. Letters and comments show how furious people are.

Our proposed grant from Rotary has been withdrawn. This would have covered Read for the Top in 10 schools, Virtues training in ten schools and 20 communities, professional development for 80 more  teachers , plus job training for about 20 young people.

Today is the International Day of the Girl Child. Some stats: Educating girls is one of the strongest ways not only to improve gender equality but to promote healthy development of families, communities and nations (World Bank) When 10% more girls go to school a country's GDP increases on average by 3%; children born to educated mothers are more likely to survivie past the age of 5; one extra year of primary school boosts girls' eventual wages by 10-30%; in the developing world 1 in 7 girls is married before her 15th birthday; 77 million girls worldwide are not enrolled in school; when international development funds are allocated less than 2 cents of every dollar is directed specifically to girls.

Article in our Kenya paper today co-authored by Desmond Tutu against child marriage.

Finals of Read for the Top

Form 4 is the last year of High School. English exams require reading six set texts: three English, three Swahili. Having this contest has encouraged the studenst to read and comprehend the books. we are looking forward to improved marks in the examinations next month

Read for the Top

A session of Read for the Top is always a learning experience. We went on Friday to the second High School running the contest for their senior (exam) class. A friend in Victoria built us an electronic board to use that lights up for an answer. We had to learn a couple of new tricks to adapt to it and the contestants had an even steeper learning curve. We soon settled down to an enjoyable contest and we go back on Monday for the finals.