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Helping women in Mathare Valley to set up small businesses necessarily meant that they were not at home to care for their children for much of the day. Sadly, this led to severe problems.

Several women lost their children through fire and other dangers when left home un- attended. Other children were exposed to rape, prostitution and loitering in the streets. To address these problems the Maji Mazuri started a day care center that would take care of the children as mothers went on with their businesses. The center provides shelter for children, and introduces them to formal education while at the same time allowing mothers to do their business without having to worry about the safety of their children.

Because of lack of sustained funding, the project remained for some time confused to simply feeding and providing the children with day care. However, as the center grew in popularity, more and more women brought in their children to be admitted, including some not necessarily participating in the micro business finance program. The project has contracted the services of two youth volunteers who are offering formal education to these children at the pre unit level.

Headstart School continues to have a strong and stable staff of 11, with 9 teachers and 2 support staff. The school has been vibrant during the third term of school having reopened school for the last quarter of the year on 6^th September 2010 after the August Holidays.

Lessons and extra curricula activities went very well where on 26th October 2010, pupils visited the Animal Orphanage right next to the Nairobi National Park and saw various wild animals. They also visited the Wilson Airport which is just near the Animal Orphanage and one of the busiest small airports in the world as it serves as a hub of connection for export goods and passengers via small charter planes to countries around East Africa. The trip was successful and the pupils enjoyed themselves very much.

Fridays was exclusively for co-curricular activities in football, athletics and others. Debate club was scheduled to take place on every Thursdays with shairi (Kiswahili Poems) being done on Tuesdays. Kids’ club and talent programme is held every Wednesday from 12:00 pm-12:45 pm for pre-school and from 3:10 pm-4:00 pm for lower primary. During this term kids club has assisted four pupils with uniform and shoes. The Kids Club is supported by Hope Worldwide and the Talent Programme by DUARA. On 18th October, we had a dancing competition where we hosted other three schools and our school emerged the winner. We appreciated our kids with refreshments. However, there was a challenge since our pupils lacked dancing costumes and drums.

We were also invited for the world eggs day on 8th November where four pupils presented a shairi. In return, they provided each pupil an egg, a bag and a ruler. As we approached the end of the term, each class sat for their end year exams. The performance was very encouraging since each class showed improvements in their mean score.

We also received this November, Daniel Wambua one of the Upper Matasia Secondary School alumni and volunteer at our Kasarani Home became a full time administrative assistant at the school. He has been of great benefit to the school. He has worked tirelessly in assisting Tr. Joyce in running the school.  We are proud to have him on Board. He completed his diploma in Social work after a two year stint and has just finished sitting his final exams. He has dedicated his full time in attending office issues such as meeting the parents or visitors, collecting school fee and writing any reports needed. This has given Joyce ample time to attend her class and other administrative duties.

Pupils sat their end of term exams in November after which their parents were invited to see the best three pupils in each class awarded with some gifts in front of all the parents and their fellow pupils. Other categories like prefects and best improved pupils were also awarded. Our aim was to award as many categories as possible such as most disciplined pupil, the smartest, sportsmanship and active participants in clubs to motivate pupils all round. The rewarding ceremony was to motivate those who did well and to encourage the others to rise to the occasion. The school officially closed at 2pm on 24th November 2010.

This year has seen the school population grow to 295 students from 186 last year. The school’s popularity has grown, partly because of Maji Mazuri’s involvement with the community through the existing and new projects in Mathare Valley. To improve the quality of education, the school has procured 4 new trained teachers, to cope with the increasing demand of admission in the school.

We are still in the process of fundraising for the Maji Mazuri Mathare Community Centre, which will house all the Mathare Maji Mazuri programs and solve the problem of congestion at Headstart School.