Educating orphans & the disadvantaged in Kenya

Jambo!

 Happy holidays from Kenya! As we enter our Christmas break, I wanted to provide you all with a little update on Roko 20 and how we are all doing. We have had a wonderful few months here and I am filled with excitement to share it with you all.

Student updates:

All the pupils at Roko 20 have been working exceptionally hard this term, and I am delighted to announce that 15 pupils in our grade 8 class have completed their primary level of education and will be heading to junior school in the new year! In addition (as if that’s not impressive enough), we have another 20 children who completed grade 6 and passed their exams with flying colours. They will start their secondary schooling in January of 2024. We could not be more proud of their hard work and determination!

Here at the academy, we also take great pride in the helping the children develop their athletic abilities and I must say we have a few sport stars emerging. A very big and special shoutout must be given to our very own Beatrice Wanjiku (14 years old) who participated in the Kandara 10km Marathon and emerged victorious, claiming 2^nd place!

 As our last big adventure this semester, we have sought to provide our Grade 5 and 6 pupils with a bit of exposure to the international community. Many of our children have dreams of travelling abroad and exploring the world, so we have started a project with a Spanish school where they have become international pen pals through letters scanned by emails. They communicate every few months to tell each other about their favourite hobbies, foods, and things they are learning. It is lovely to see the pupils here share their story with others abroad while learning about different cultures themselves.

School improvements:

As always, Roko 20 continues to strive to make improvements around the facility in order to help our children maximize their learning and quality of life. We are currently in our rainy season, which means the plants and fruits that we have planted are flourishing. This allows us to provide the children with nutrition right from our own garden, making sure that their bellies are full and their brains are ready to learn. From the donations provided by you, we have also been able to install big water tanks at the school, that provide access to clean water to drink, bathe, and wash clothing. Lastly, our recently installed solar lights are helping boarders to study at night in the classroom and also helps keep costs down.

Of course, none of this would be possible without the continued support of you all. The children, teachers, parents, volunteers, and staff are all incredibly thankful. We feel a gratitude beyond measure for the contributions made to Roko 20 Academy. Asante sana to you! We hope you all have a cozy holiday season and happy new year.

Hello everyone,

It’s a sad fact that charities are being squeezed by the cost-of-living crisis resulting in falling donations. Roko 20 has felt the pinch and we are doing our best to reduce costs and utilize every shilling from our budget.

Food

Many families in our community survive on just one meal per day eaten in the evening. Most parents work as casual labourers on small holdings and work is scarce so what they earn in a day is what they will eat. At Roko 20 Academy we ensure that no child will struggle to concentrate in class due to hunger or suffer the stress about when they will next eat.

Despite significant increases in the price of all food items we continue to provide our children with a morning breakfast, mid-day snack and lunch. Some are even given food before leaving school at the end of the day. Each child will get a small breakfast of a cup of porridge in the morning before class and during mid-morning break and also a lunch containing beans, vegetable and maize or rice. More recently, due to the kindness of two sponsors, we have been giving out a small meal before children leave school in the afternoon.

Our Manager is always monitoring the cost of food staples such as rice, beans and maize. Due to the increase in the cost of maize he has adjusted the lunch programme to include more rice dishes. Cow peas have replaced beans in the diet. Morning tea has been replaced with a cup of porridge.

Other areas where we are actively making cutbacks:

Self -sufficient farming

The change in rainfall patterns has a huge impact on Kenya because 98% of the country’s agriculture is rain-fed. The major challenge we have growing food on the school land is timing. It’s critical to know when rains start and stop so that we know when to plant or harvest our crops. In addition another challenge is that the source of our piped water supply is erratic and insufficient to keep our plants healthy. The Department of Irrigation is now supplying bigger pipes to the community to rectify this problem. These should be in place by the end of July and will enable us to successfully grow more vegetables and fruits.

School Van

The school van is old and is a constant source of expenditure as it was always breaking down and would usually spend a lot of time in a garage awaiting repairs. Finding alternative means of transport was costly. We had to make a list of those children who could reasonably walk the distance to school. We alerted a good friend and supporter of Roko 20 of our problem and to help resolve it she offered to purchase a new engine for the van. It is now running perfectly. We are so very grateful for this lady’s investment as it has removed a constant headache in terms of time and big expense.

Solar lights

We have recently added more solar lights to keep electricity costs down and use clean/green energy. These have been placed around the school compound and used at night for security purposes.

Parents’ responsibility

Historically we have provided everything a child needs to receive an education at Roko 20 Academy. However, to reduce our costs parents are now required to contribute some things towards educating their children. We are aware there are some who simply cannot afford anything and we will continue to support these families. These are elderly grandmothers who are unable to work and left to raise their grandchildren unsupported and parents with mental health issues or with alcoholism / addictions.

Parents are now expected to provide their children with :
- exercise books and stationaries,
- replacement uniforms,
- payment of the fees imposed on all parents by the Government such as exam fees and extra-curricular activity fees
- school fees for pupils in Junior school (grade 7) and also secondary school (commencing 2024)

We are continually working out ways of saving the school money. These are funds that you have donated and we are so very thankful to you for helping us to continue our important work.

Thanks as always for your continued support.