12th December 2007
Receive our warmest greetings. We hope and trust that this report finds all of you and your loved ones in good health. Hopewell School, a charitable education centre that offers education, love and care to academically bright but needy children from the slums of our city of Nakuru and other hardship regions of Kenya, ended the school year on Saturday 24th November 2007. The new school year begins on Monday 7th January 2008. At the close of the school year, the school population stood at: 802 students (366 girls & 436 boys), 22 teachers, 15 administrative/ support staff (guards, cooks, secretary, etc) and 4 additional members of staff at the Hopewell Junior Academy (pre-school 105 children aged between 3 and 5 years). With you generous support, both in kind and cash, and with God’s grace, Hopewell recorded yet another successful year. Various school programs ran smoothly and efficiently. We have never been happier! We received two sets of high profile guests in the course of the year. In May, the Johnsons, Johnny and Darleen of HOPE Inc, California, faithfully checked in as they have done every single year since 2002. The huge difference this time around was that they brought along sons Adam and Patrick who instantly became star attractions within the school community. The other set of celebrities arrived in October-Ruth Gibbs & Maryanne Hoff from SOAR-Kenya, Wisconsin. The two visits succeeded in better equipping Hopewell as a centre of learning as well as inspiring students, staff and the general school community (see details elsewhere in this report). The school also presented its biggest entry ever for the national high school examinations, Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE). 157 students (103 boys & 54 girls) sat this one-month long test and we expect good results in late February 2008 which we will promptly share and celebrate with you. The Hopewell community witnessed another miracle in June this year-the visit of the school’s director, Vitalice, to the United States of America at the invitation of Wrestling The World (WTW) and to attend the Rotary International Conference in Salt Lake City. It is one experience Vitalice shared with all Hopewellians and the last chapter to “Vitalice’s Coming to America” is yet to be written. It gave him a first hand glimpse of the immense generosity, kindness and immeasurable love that Hopewell friends abroad have. Besides opening their homes, they all opened up their hearts to him and Hopewell will forever be grateful for this gesture of love and magnanimity. Of special mention is WTW’s Executive Director, Phill Klamm, who wrote the invitation and sent it in good time for visa processing. Phill, together with board members Blayne, Emmy, Joanne and Jodie organized a huge welcome party for Vitalice at Whitewater before an excursion at the Wisconsin Dells; Steve Werner who practically took time off all his important schedule to work the details of the trip and further sacrificed his personal finances to meet the cost of Vitalice’s registration at the Rotary conference and internal flights in the USA (Midway-SLC and back as well as Midway to Fresno, CA). Thanks also to the most kind and meticulous Patricia Werner prepared a detailed schedule for all engagements which took Vitalice to many corners of Wisconsin; the ever caring and hardworking Hoffmans, Don and Mary and their entire family, where Vitalice learnt first-hand the ideals of hard work and efficiency combined with a social conscience that drive the American enterprise. The Hoffmans kept Vitalis comfortably in the farm from where he left with a brand new laptop computer which has greatly eased work at Hopewell. The board of SOAR-K (Ruth, Lynn) sacrificed their time to make this trip a memorable experience by showing Vitalis the landmarks around Wisconsin, including Madison University and the state capitol, the zoo and the many great lakes. Jarret Mirkes and Matt Werner played their roles too in showing Vitalice around Milton High school and Milwaukee city respectively, a truly remarkable experience. Richard & Charlsie Sims, former LDS Charity directors in Kenya and residents of Utah, made contacts that led to Vitalice getting three hosts during the conference. Special thanks to Paul Halliday Jr who met and helped Vitalice with registration and orientation at the conference, Caroline Dailey who showed him around the city and took him to watch the Great Tabernacle Choir perform and attend a special ticketed Rotary Foundation event. And the entire Hopewell community knows how comfortable and ‘spoilt’(teasing) Vitalis was at the palatial home of Bruce & Coralie Alder and the great treat they gave him at their ranch, and of course a firsthand experience at ‘skiing’ on real snow. An icing on the cake was arrival in Hanford, CA to not only visit with the Johnsons, but see Mama Hopewell, Darleen, who was recovering from a complicated heart surgery. It was never noticeable in that household if Mama was ever sick. Johnny, Shannon and Brian arranged tours to Hanford High and Hanford High schools where Vitalice had a chance to give a verbatim thank you and appreciation to the teachers and other workers in the Hanford school district who have kept Hopewell staff afloat over the years through their contributions to the Sponsor A Teacher Program which pays Hopewell staff. Attendance with Johnny to 2 meetings at Hanford Sunset and Hanford Rotary helped open new avenues of help for Hopewell. A road trip with Baba Hopewell, Johnny, to San Francisco was a marvelous experience. Many thanks to all who made the trip most enjoyable and productive. God bless you all. In the course of this year, Hopewell was mightily blessed with support from various organizations and individuals to undertake the following projects: 1. HOPE (Helping Other People Everywhere)-this California-based non profit organization, strengthened its partnership with Hopewell by: increasing staff pay from the previous $40 dollars in April to $50 a month by the end of the year. Total monthly income in the Sponsor A Teacher Program rose from $900 early this year and closed at $1300 by November. HOPE also stocked up the school library with $1200 worth of curricular textbooks, bought school supplies and farm equipment, sent $300 emergency contribution towards construction of the girls’ latrine which collapsed; initiated and throughout the year funded a milk program at the Hopewell Junior Academy and Little Saints, where each of the 160 pre-scholars drank 250mls of pasteurized and homogenized milk daily; fitted each of the kids in the 2 nursery school with a new pair of school uniform, contributed $100 towards purchase of toys at Hopewell Junior Academy as well as bought all girls 2 pairs of panties to support the Sanitary Towel Program; funded construction of the 200-seating capacity Hopewell Community library with a colossal this contribution of $12,500 to date and clothed all Hopewell students and staff through regular supplies of clothing, shoes and school supplies. Help that came from HOPE Inc this year is just too many to fit in this space! Many thanks to all the supporters of HOPE, Your contributions made a BIG difference in our lives this year. 2. SOAR-K(Schools, Orphanages And Relief-Kenya)-this new Wisconsin-based non-profit organization founded after the experience of Don Hoffman’s visit to Kenya and Hopewell in 2006, made Hopewell scale new heights of development this year. Mary Hoffman started the ball rolling by giving all Hopewell staff and students a Christmas party (2006) before following up with lots of generous help in this year. SOAR-K put together a 40-ft cargo container filled with an assortment of books, clothing and many vital school supplies. The cargo is expected to dock in Mombasa by late December 2007 and its contents will be distributed to many centres with needy kids with Hopewell being the major beneficiary. SOAR-K was the chief financier in the construction of a new girls’ latrine with a contribution of $500 after the old ablution block collapsed nearly killing 3 girls. Besides financing Hopewell’s Founders’ Day celebrations (Prize-Giving Day) by buying prizes and feeding the over 1,500 students, parents, community leaders and guests who attended this function, SOAR-K bought the school a large capacity digital copier to improve the quality of examinations produced at Hopewell. Previously, one had to walk 5 kilometers to the nearest outlet, to produce a copy. SOAR-K initiated a Hopewell Scholarship Fund to finance post-secondary schooling of Hopewell graduates. This fund is currently sponsoring 3 (one undertaking peace & disaster mitigation studies at the university, the second IT while the third is doing nursing) students who have successfully completed their first year of college. They join another Hopewell graduate, Miriam who has been under sponsorship from HOPE and has 3 more months to complete her diploma in Early Childhood Development-pre-school teacher. SOAR-K undertook and financed the roofing phase of the massive Hopewell Community Library with a staggering contribution of $5000. The Hoffmans also regularly supported in the provision of critical school supplies, e.g. chalk and stationery throughout the year which made school programs run smoothly and sent $200 for furniture at the pre-school. SOAR-K has initiated a Child Sponsorship Program whose objective is to support individual children’s education through provision of school supplies, fee payment as well support and care at home. Two Hopewell students already have a sponsor under this program. We acknowledge the role played by many individuals, families of SOAR-K board members as well as special groups like Lannita’s Girl Scout Troop which helped with the beddings drive for the proposed girls’ dormitory at Hopewell. 3. Wrestling The World (WTW) – after a massive infusion of funds that saw 5 permanent classrooms up in 2006 and additional projects at Hopewell, WTW finalized their commitment with the ongoing installation of a $12,800 water treatment facility at Hopewell. This is a matching grant project with Rotary International through the Rotary Club of Nakuru. Sanitary Towel Project, another initiative of WTW and spearheaded by Steve & Patricia Werner, has kept not only Hopewell girls in school throughout the year but additional 600 girls in Barut primary, Hope Centre, Christ the King Academy, St Joseph Primary and Njoro girls were beneficiaries. Special thanks to those who sacrificed their all to ensure no girl missed school during ‘those days’ and which greatly improved their performance through the year. The energetic Pam Knorr who threw the challenge to her colleagues at work and made Project Team leader Pat laugh all the way to the bank with a Walworth Elementary cheque of $500; Jo Baier whose efforts make a significant percentage of the total contributions for this girls’ project in the new year and the Werners’ many special friends and colleagues whose efforts have guaranteed that an even bigger number of girls will get this critical support in the coming new year. 4. Help Kenya Project-the connection was made possible by Peter Muia, a Kenyan based in New Jersey who introduced Hopewell to Jude Ndambuki, Founder-Director of this group which seeks to enhance the learning of Information Technology in Kenyan schools. HKP has pledged to deliver 4 refurbished Dell computers to Hopewell in May 2008 when their next container arrives from the USA. It is our hope that this will be the beginning of a fruitful partnership with Kenyans in the Diaspora…Kenyans building Kenya. Special thanks to Peter who has been indefatigable in marketing Hopewell among Kenyans abroad. 5. Appropriate Grassroots Initiative(AGRI)-this agricultural specialist group has continued working with Hopewell through the tripartite School Milk Program with HOPE Inc(financing),AGRI(fund administration & quality aspects) and Hopewell(beneficiary and project reporting). AGRI donated basic milk treatment equipment to Thande Dairies, the milk suppliers and continues to efficiently monitor deliveries to the two junior schools. Special thanks to Steve Lewis who helped put this contract together, Rob & Kirston (Peace Corps) who have streamlined record keeping and James, the AGRI farm manager who has faithfully coordinated deliveries. 6. Caring individuals also came our way this year and made significant contributions: a) Susan Henry-this exceptionally kind lady from Canada who sponsors about 7 children across the globe, came to us through browsing the Starehe and WTW websites. She has since then picked up Kenny in form one for sponsorship (tuition and boarding) as well as general school supplies. Susan has not only been a sponsor but has been most useful in using her corporate business skills in advising and ‘gently shoving’ us towards adopting total quality management at Hopewell. She bought the school a DVD player and sent over a Merchant of Venice CD so that final year students could get better prepared for their English Literature exam. A beautiful camera and project management books for Vitalice came our way too. We feel honored to have made her acquaintance. b) Rotarian Kundan Doshi-this caring philanthropist continues supporting Hopewell programs in many ways and this year played host to Ruth & Maryanne from SOAR-K where a joint cooperative effort to fundraise for the Hopewell Scholarship Fund was hatched and crystallized in a subsequent session with potential business partners. Rtn. Doshi will also be helping to truck the 40-ft container from Nairobi to Hopewell school. c) Peter Hewitt- a missionary and agricultural expert from Australia made our acquaintance through Rashid, Hopewell’s Principal. Peter has since helped to supply and plant more than 500 tree seedlings in the school and his pastors-in-training have on a weekly basis visited Hopewell to provide general guidance and counseling to students. d) Doris & her Girl Scout Troop- the group from California followed up their sanitary pads’ contributions with a scholarship fundraising to help support the top girl in the graduating class of 2007 through university. This arrangement is being overseen by WTW. This report cannot claim to thank and acknowledge the contributions of the many generous people who helped make life for the needy kids at Hopewell better. There were too many of you out there who lent a hand and as always, there is never any help considered too little at Hopewell, because Hopewell needs and appreciates EVERYTHING! We are looking for continued support from all of you in this coming year which promises great challenges. We are fine-tuning Hopewell’s Strategic Plan and continue with the necessary amendments as your comments and useful suggestions stream in. We shall be sending out the final plan with our priorities for the coming year and we kindly ask each and every one of you to stay the course with Hopewell. Where we have come from was the hardest. Things are looking brighter for the various Hopewell programs and it is a centre you would be most proud to be associated with once all the detailed plans are accomplished. We love you, respect you and are forever on our knees praying for you and your loved ones. We wish you a Merry Christmas filled with God’s blessings and a Happy and prosperous New Year. Yours in Community Service,
VITALICE KAHENDAH NELLY MUTHUI RASHID SEWE Director Deputy Director Principal Cell: +254733517519 Cell: +254725365021 Cell: +254724466451 kahendah@yahoo.com nmuthui@yahoo.com hopewellhighschool@yahoo.com
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