Report from BHW Kenya Partnership Facilitator Following Visit in 2019

Recent Events

Commitment and Sacrifice

The school has 22 employees and four committee members. The committee consists of Isaac, Joseph, Fransesca and Robert. The committee members go above and beyond what they are employed to do – for example, Joseph is a driver but he also works repairing, welding and does many other tasks. Joseph and Fransesca get paid a very small wage but Isaac and Robert receive nothing.

The committee members spoke passionately about their commitment to carry out God’s work in the community. They explained with heartache the circumstances of some of the children in the community that they have taken in, given free medical treatment to and educated. They fight for the children and inspire them to dream.

The committee members are making significant personal sacrifices of time, money and other opportunities. Isaac’s colleagues in DR Congo (which is where he is from) tell him that he is wasting his time and missing out on opportunities to progress his career – he tells them that he is making the best investment both here and in heaven and that God has provided and will continue to provide for him. 

Progress to Becoming Self-Sustaining

NCEC have identified that increasing the number of students is the key to the school becoming self-sustaining. When the school was “re-started” in 2016 there were less than 100 students. There are now 211 students – 72 in pre-school, 55 in lower primary and 84 in upper primary. 

NCEC has estimated that they will need 300 students before the school will be self-sustaining.

One of the reasons for the increase in the number of students is that the school is now paying its teachers on time so the teachers are motivated. This is evident in the performance of the students and is recognised by the parents. The reputation of the school in the wider community (and even nationally) has increased significantly, attracting more students. 

NCEC’s standard 8 students sat a national exam at the end of 2019. If a student achieves a score of 400 or more in that national exam, they will be awarded a scholarship to attend a highly ranked school enabling them to go on to university. No NCEC student has ever achieved a score of 400 or more but last year they had a mean score of 311.94 with the top candidate scoring 398 marks out of 500 marks. This great result will increase the reputation of the school, attracting more students and bringing them one step closer to being self-sustaining. 

Forward Green Children (KEN03e)

Last year they had four standard eight candidates from Forward Green and in fact the top candidate who scored 398 was from Forward Green Home. The boy really made the school proud!  Generally most of these children have been doing well academically. Two of the other children also scored above average and one was below average but has potential to improve. Placing these children in boarding school has helped them considerably with their school work. The remaining children from Forward Green are all required to join boarding school in 2020 due to their class levels and for them to improve their performance. 

Greenhouses

They had very heavy rains about a year ago which destroyed the crops and also made the soil acidic. They have treated the soil and the greenhouses are now being effectively used to produce crops. One greenhouse was being used to grow cabbage (they can sell a big cabbage for KSH100). The second greenhouse is being used to grow thorn melon which is a small melon believed to be very good for your health. They also have land surrounding the greenhouses which they are using to grow kale and other vegetables.

Pona Dispensary

The hospital is running smoothly with a strong team of eight staff. The process of registering the dispensary with NHIF to become a registered health centre is still ongoing.

2019 Funds

The school had one school bus which would pick the children up in the morning and drop them off at night. The government then introduced a policy that the school bus cannot pick up children before 6am and must not drop children off after 6pm. This meant the school had to purchase another bus. They purchased a second hand van with borrowed funds from the FOB revolving fund (KEN03c), a local table banking group and the Pona dispensary. 

Previously, BHW funded three 10 litre water tanks on the school property. These have been installed temporarily next to the bore and are storage tanks. The idea is to raise them up high on structures so that water can be pumped from the bore to the tanks and then gravity feed to the school and greenhouse etc. It would cost about US$2,600 to fund the structures and piping.

Isaac took me around the school and showed me where the tiles had been installed in the bathrooms, kindergarten and secretary’s office. The government required tiles to be installed in the bathrooms for hygiene. Isaac also showed me where they had constructed a second entrance to the girl's dormitory (on the second floor) as a fire escape – also a government requirement.

The funds BHW gave in 2019 was used to pay for the tiles, fire escape, salaries, and repay the loan which NCEC had borrowed from the FOB revolving fund to purchase the van.

Personal Stories

Isaac is in standard 8 at NCEC. His mother is a prostitute who lives on the street. His older brother was in a gang and was killed in July 2019. Isaac also has a hole in his ear, which was caused or made worse by someone (not a doctor) doing some sort of primitive operation when he was young. Isaac is very bright, is the current school president and wants to be a doctor.

Evans came from a gang where he was beating people and stealing. His life has been transformed – he is no longer involved in the gang or violence – he is now polite, can cook and is active in the church. Older women wanted him for sex but he refused. He recently led another boy to Christ. His favourite song goes something like “Our wonderful God. He can take you from the pit and raise you to the sky”. Evans was recently elected as a leader of NCEC.

One girl, who is a student at NCEC, ended up on the streets when her mother died. Her father remarried and his new wife rejected her. She was told by her father’s new wife that she was not her daughter and that if she wanted a mother she should go to her mother’s grave and resurrect her. Her father’s new wife wanted to take the girl out of school and make her work as a housemaid. The girl cried and cried and begged NCEC to let her stay at school even though she had no way to pay the school fees – they agreed and she is doing well.

Current Issues and Challenges

The first challenge they face is the (changing) requirements of the government. The government changed the rules on the hours of school transport so they had to purchase another van, the government required tiles in the bathrooms, the government required a second entrance to the girl’s dormitories (see photo), the government requires the roof to be lifted in the grade 4-6 classroom and staffroom – and so on. 

The second challenge is receiving payment of school fees for the Forward Green children. This is a significant impediment to the school being self-sustaining.