Muringato School
Okay, so this week was not necessarily unproductive nor was it really productive.
Monday was really cool. Kettie and I went to visit Muringato School which is a primary school tucked within the Kimathi coffee fields. This school has so little. Many of the kids have to walk like an hour and a half each way to get to school, through heavily wooded areas into the valley. Some of the kids in the past have been attacked and raped on their way to school. They have no running water at the school so anytime they need water; they have to go down this treacherously steep hill to the stream. It is not just a little hill either, I was wearing my hikers and at points thought I was going to fall down the hill and knock my head on the rocks jutting out along the way. The only way to pull yourself up was by grabbing the rocks and exposed tree roots. I can’t even imagine how these little kids do this in flip flops (if they even have shoes) with a bucket of water. They have fields to supplement the food provided by the World Food Program, but the monkeys always steal the maize before they can harvest it. The school structures were built in 1956 and have had little to no upkeep. They are just are buildings with random pieces of wood on the sides to shelter the wind, chicken wire on the windows to attempt to prevent break-ins a and desks that are falling apart before your eyes. I’m not even going to mention how disgusting the washrooms are… picture the worst outhouse you have ever used… now multiply it by 100 and you might be close. For all of these reasons, Muringato is currently trying to relocate to closer towards the road, on land which was donated by Kimathi, where they will work to build permanent structures, fully functioning washrooms, farmland, space for their few goats and one cow. They are in the process of moving all the old structures up to the new location, so that they can still hold classes while they are working on raising the funds to build the new school, and fully construct it.
The cost to relocate the school is somewhere around $ 5000, and they have raised just over half of it. They still need like $2500 this month in order to complete the building before the kids get back in September for the next school term. Once this is complete they have to start raising money for the new buildings, which will cost them around $60000. I, the other interns, as well as past interns will be working to help raise that money while we are here. You will be hearing a lot about the progress and our goals on this blog, as well I’m sure that you will get some emails from me about it too so be forewarned. The past interns set up a great website on Give Meaning. Com which issues tax receipts for all donations towards Muringato which are directly put towards the costs. It also has some great pictures and other info on the page so check it out!
www.givemeaning.com/projects/partnersinlearning
Okay, so this week was not necessarily unproductive nor was it really productive.
Monday was really cool. Kettie and I went to visit Muringato School which is a primary school tucked within the Kimathi coffee fields. This school has so little. Many of the kids have to walk like an hour and a half each way to get to school, through heavily wooded areas into the valley. Some of the kids in the past have been attacked and raped on their way to school. They have no running water at the school so anytime they need water; they have to go down this treacherously steep hill to the stream. It is not just a little hill either, I was wearing my hikers and at points thought I was going to fall down the hill and knock my head on the rocks jutting out along the way. The only way to pull yourself up was by grabbing the rocks and exposed tree roots. I can’t even imagine how these little kids do this in flip flops (if they even have shoes) with a bucket of water. They have fields to supplement the food provided by the World Food Program, but the monkeys always steal the maize before they can harvest it. The school structures were built in 1956 and have had little to no upkeep. They are just are buildings with random pieces of wood on the sides to shelter the wind, chicken wire on the windows to attempt to prevent break-ins a and desks that are falling apart before your eyes. I’m not even going to mention how disgusting the washrooms are… picture the worst outhouse you have ever used… now multiply it by 100 and you might be close. For all of these reasons, Muringato is currently trying to relocate to closer towards the road, on land which was donated by Kimathi, where they will work to build permanent structures, fully functioning washrooms, farmland, space for their few goats and one cow. They are in the process of moving all the old structures up to the new location, so that they can still hold classes while they are working on raising the funds to build the new school, and fully construct it.
The cost to relocate the school is somewhere around $ 5000, and they have raised just over half of it. They still need like $2500 this month in order to complete the building before the kids get back in September for the next school term. Once this is complete they have to start raising money for the new buildings, which will cost them around $60000. I, the other interns, as well as past interns will be working to help raise that money while we are here. You will be hearing a lot about the progress and our goals on this blog, as well I’m sure that you will get some emails from me about it too so be forewarned. The past interns set up a great website on Give Meaning. Com which issues tax receipts for all donations towards Muringato which are directly put towards the costs. It also has some great pictures and other info on the page so check it out!
www.givemeaning.com/projects/partnersinlearning
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