Soar Kenya

Hallo Mary

    My name is Calvin I completed my high school at Hopewell. I would like to pass my thanks to you and your family for being very great supporters to Hopewell high school. May be there is nothing I could give of what you have done but just accept my thanks and appreciation. May this heart of helping Kenyans grow big and bigger. Also pass my thanks to the SOAR-KENYA and Wrestling the World.

 May the lord bless you for this great heart may you have wonderful Christmas holiday I hope you may keep in touch.

Thank you very much.

 From Calvin former Hopewell student

   Calvin

We closed school last Saturday which means that I will not be in class teaching Biology until 7th January.I will however be more regular on the net deatailing the progress of the various projects at Hopewell this ending year.

I will be talking to my President at the club during tomorrow’s fellowship about the progress of the water treatment plant. The contractor ,Unique Joiners,who was finalising another project at the neighboring Kigonor school here in Barut completed his works there and I asked them to start immediately at Hopewell . I am from school now and have left them marking out the 25-metre trench for piping.Their plan entails pumping water to the highest point of the school, 25 metres from the borehole into the 10,000 litre tank that will be atop the 3m steel tower.From this tower,water will then flow back to our present concrete tower where the filtration system will be installed before clean potable water reaches the water kiosk. By building the tower at that point,they will have gained an addiotnal head pressure of 3m creating a total head of 5m which is adequate to pump water with adequate pressure to all points of the school, including future developments. As I told you earlier, I am free now and will be down there daily following the project’s progress.

I will also be overseeing the start of phase 2 of the library project….roofing. Mary wrote me yesterday and said the fundraiser which you and Pat attended raised $5,500 for the roof which she will be sending Nelly tomorrow.The coloured roofing sheets have gone up to Kshs.310/= per metre from 280/= when WTW did the classrooms,and the combined total of timber, iron sheets, ridges and the the other roofing acessories plus labour brings the cost to Kshs.356,000/=.So what is available should complete this massive school-cum community library.I would be most glad if you got Mrs. Eunice Nyukuri,our teacher/librarian in touch with Nancy at the Fontana library I visited for the most needed advice in managing this library.

Nelly is starting to check out suitable accomodations for you and Pat for March.I will be working on a tentative itinerary for this visit which is eagerly awaited at Hopewell.And the timing seems perfect since it will be around the start of Sanitary Towels’ Project Phase II.

More later. Be mightily blessed and warmest regards to mum Pat.

VITALICE

Hi!
I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving; we certainly did!
I just wanted you to know what H.O.P.E. is up to between now and the end of the year.  Thankfully, we’ve made friends we can trust to send money to who will spend it on the orphans and not on themselves.    Linda Onyango is buying uniforms for the graduates of Little Saints (one of the two nursery schools we support in Nakuru) so that they can go to the first grade in January.  Sally is doing the same thing for the orphans in the hills behind Eldoret.  We’ve sent them both $300 so far, and they’ll be getting another $300 next month to finish up and get all the kids into school for the new term. (In Kenya , the school year is the same as the calendar year, and starts in January.)
We also sent Geoffrey Kinyanjui $300 to buy grocery/Christmas packages for his HIV+ patients, most of whom are women with children.  Last year, he gave themn each enough wheat flour and vegetable oil to make chapatis (like fried tortillas) for Christmas - a big Christmas treat.
The biggest project is still the library at Hopewell .  We got the foundation, and walls up, and Mary Hoffman and the SOAR-KENYA group have just about raised enough money for the roof; H.O.P.E. will make up the shortfall.
I’ll try to keep you informed about whatever other projects come up, like the latrines which had to be replaced at Hopewell before the library could even be started. 
So for those of you who have sent H.O.P.E. money lately, we thank you.  That’s where your money has gone.  Good job, all!
Darleen & Johnny

Boy, do we need sponsors - for approximately 50 elementary students and an uncertain number of high school students.  Why not make 2008 the year you decide to sponsor a child and change his/her life?   Can’t afford $24 a month?  Share the child with a friend or two.  Can’t sponsor for the next 10 years?  Then sponsor for a year or three, as long as you are able to do so.  So, go check out the kids on our Sponsor page - you may end up with a lifelong relationship!

Want to help, but  you don’t have a lot of cash?  How about change?  Put out a change jar at work, throw in your own change, and send it all to Soar Kenya.  If you want it used for a specific purpose, just let us know.  All donations are joyously accepted!

I  have about 50 kids. Those who are really needy and orphans. The rest of them have other places where they get help through different organizations.

The teachers’ salary is quite a problem the parents share the cost of the teacher which in most cases they are unable to raise. The government supports only the primary section through free primary education programme. As at now I have four teachers and they have not been paid their salaries. I am really struggling.

I intend to house about twenty kids please these are some of the things they need.

i.)                  A decker bed ( for two kids)

ii.)                 Two pairs of bed sheets for each

iii.)               A mattress each

iv.)               Two blankets each

v.)                A washing basin

vi.)               Plates, cups and spoons

vii.)             Water containers.

We also need 2 big pots and four small size.

Please tomorrow I will go to the supermarket to get the prices for each item .I will write and give you the total cost.  Mary, pray for me to be able to give great care to these kids. God will always be on our side

Pauline

As I mentioned in my last post, we’re trying to help out neediest children at Barut Elementary School.  We want to provide chickens and chicken coops.  How are we doing so far?  Two books on chickens have been sent to Pauline and another is soon to be mailed.  A donor has promised to buy one hundred chicks.  Pauline is doing research on the cost of coops and feed.   Once we know the total cost, we’ll raise the rest of the money for building and for feed.  Our children will be assured of a steady source of food.  Any extra eggs can be sold to buy feed and meet other needs.  And so it goes; one step at a time, we work to provide the opportunity to become self sufficient.

Aileen

While Mary is hopefully taking a brief break after that wonderful fundraiser, I (Aileen) am focusing on some of the students at Barut Elementary School.  Pauline, the school administrator with whom I deal, wants to provide living quarters for her 20 most needy children.  She is searching for a building that will house them, and I am stepping way, way out of my comfort zone to do a few smaller fundraisers of my own.  So far we have one donor a week who has pledged $70 a month.  All donors are more that welcome to give any amount (as you may have guessed) .

Meanwhile, one of Pauline’s students, 5-year-old Steicy, is being sponsored by the Benton High School National Honor Society.  They’ve held two fundraisers (and more to come) and have raised enough money to cover 9 months of sponsorship and a Christmas monetary gift.  Three cheers for Connor, Jessica, Jocelyn, Jordan,  and Kelly.  These kids are awesome!

The Soar-Kenya board would like to thank everyone involved in the successful fundraiser held on the 18th. The money needed to install the roof of the library was raised. We hope everyone had a wonderful time and pictures of that roof will be posted soon.

 Mary

Rafiki Steve

VITALICE

‘Experience may make us knowledgeable but only God can give us wisdom’

Vitalice Kahendah

Hopewell High School

P.O.Box 7068 ,Nakuru-Kenya

Cell Phone: +254-733517519

                  +254-725365021