In our continued connections with the community, schools in Mathare Valley linked together and approached the Department for International Development (DFID) for textbooks. Headstart School got a donation of over 2000 textbooks and teachers guides and has now been able to open a library for the school. Recent school results show improved performance as the students have most of the textbooks they need for their school work. The school is also working closely with Dignitas Project who have been supplying stationery to the school, mainly exercise books and pens. They are also fully sponsoring one month training for 6 teachers in August, the teachers will be trained on teaching skills.
The school also participated in the Day of the African Child event held in the area earlier this month. The students presented poems and a traditional dance communicating a message of hope to the children of Mathare Valley and emerged second in the entire region.
As a way of strengthening relationships with the community and other schools around Mathare, Maji Mazuri participated in the Starehe non formal schools football games and again went all the way to the finals, beating over 20 schools in the tournament to emerge second overall. These activities and linkages continue to highly motivate the students and staff and increase the self esteem of the students and are a major contributing factor to the rising population of the school and improved performance.
The rising numbers have however presented challenges. Early this year, food prices skyrocketed causing the same amount of funds used to buy food for the feeding programme to minimize drastically, this prompted Maji Mazuri USA President, Kevin Corcoran to launch a food appeal through the Maji Mazuri website. The food appeal is ongoing and so far it has received positive response from many friends and partners of Maji Mazuri generously donating to the appeal.
We continue to experience the drought in Kenya and any donation made to the appeal is highly appreciated. You can donate directly to Kenya, through our global partners or website.
The students need proper desks and additional ones for the baby and pre unit classes in order to create more space to accommodate more students as the tables that are currently being used in the classrooms take up a lot of space. The existing cooker also needs to be replaced by a bigger one to cater for the growing population.
Amidst these challenges, we remain encouraged and motivated by the support we continue to receive from parents, well wishers and the entire Maji Mazuri community.
