Visits and Volunteering - Part 1

This week has been one of visits and volunteering. Catherine, Louise and UK visitor, Kezia, spent a morning out and about in Nairobi visiting four students. Wilberforce, below, sat his KCSE last November and as part of the FDC programme agreement, is now giving back to the community, in a volunteering initiative which is compulsory for all FDC students. Without this voluntary work and the necessary KCSE grades, students will not be considered by FDC for sponsorship of their tertiary education. 

Wilberforce is volunteering at a primary school in Kawangare, which is 15km west of Nairobi City Centre. Below, we see the wonderful and thought provoking tour he gave us:

Above, we see Wilberforce with the headmaster of the primary school, which has been funded by a church group within Kawangare. He was full of praise for Wilberforce's enthusiasm and dedication - which was wonderful to hear. The Wikepedia description of Kawangare is as follows:

"Kawangare is a slum in Kenya with hundreds of thousands of residents, many of whom are children. Water supplied by the city authority is not available every day. Safe drinking water is expensive in Kawangare. Many children in the slum do not attend school. The population is ethnically diverse, and many persons are HIV-positive. Most people live there on less than $1 USD a day."

So these children are relatively lucky - they are being provided with an education up to Year 3 of secondary schooling - but as you can see, their facilities are incredibly basic and teachers have to work with the bare minimum - one text book per class if they are lucky, and the children share exercise books and the rare calculator.

But apparent to us all, was the total enthusiasm of both teachers and students alike - keen to teach and be taught! Well done, Wilberforce, for contributing your time and knowledge!

Thanks must also go to Robert, Wilberforce's old school friend, for enabling Wilberforce to work in Kawangare, by sharing his lodging with him, as pictured below: