Soar Kenya

Schools, Orphans, and Relief
Wed
19
Dec '07

ANNUAL REPORT-2007 FOR HOPEWELL HIGH SCHOOL-KENYA

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

Tue
18
Dec '07

Keeping Girls In School

This article recently printed in the NY Times http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/12/giving/12GIRLS.html?_r=1&fta=y&oref=slogin describes the problems girls face and the help being provided.

Fri
14
Dec '07

Delayed Cargo

Cargo is now suppose to arrive by the 16th. Due to bad weather it is about 1 week late. I will post photos as soon as I can.

Tue
11
Dec '07

Cargo

The cargo should have arrived in Mombasa. It is being trucked to the Nairobi Embakaski. I will post photos as soon as I receive some. Please keep checking this site for more updates.

Sun
9
Dec '07

Reminder

Remember to watch Ruth’s interview on Channel 27 at 6pm on the 12th.

Mon
3
Dec '07

News from Hopewell

I haven’t been to a cyber café for some time now. How are our dearest friends abroad doing? How is the farm at this time of the year? I just admire the huge effort you put into your work, not just the farm but in everything else you lay your hands on. Who can believe it that SOAR-K started just the other day. Its impact is already being felt far and wide. Many thanks you kind and noble people. We received the roofing money and the Blue-Roof man (Don) can rest assured that it is going to be a blue roof throughout. We understand the amount of time, sacrifice and effort all of you together with the extended family and friends put into this. Only God can reward such huge acts of kindness as the ones coming our way from SOAR-K.

The deliveries for timber are not expected till 13th while iron sheets which had to be ordered from the factory in Nairobi (because of the special size we need……6m, 30gauge box profile). I will be in Nairobi on Wednesday next week to check with Doshi about trucking of the container from Nairobi to Nakuru. At long last, we are just counting days before the precious haul from Waunakee arrives in Kenya. I will make sure I have enough pictures during the unloading of this cargo…….there will be uncontrolled excited faces! I was so much excited when I saw these many priceless stuff in your garage and I have been telling Rashid and Nelly the magnitude of what to expect. It will be easy to get Pauline during this school holidays, she lives within Barut area. Depending on transport arrangements by Doshi, we will decide on the appropriate method of Harrison getting his pallets.

We spent the whole of yesterday in school with staff and parents’ representatives working on developing the school’s strategic plan for the next 5 years. The draft s being compiled and once ready, I will email you at SOAR-K so that you can comment as well as add your input because we consider you as a key stakeholder in the development of Hopewell.

Have a blessed day and God take care of this special family.

VITALICE

Sat
1
Dec '07

The latest from Martin


From: MARTIN MUNENE.
To: Mary

Thanks a lot Mom for your love. I am grateful that you came into my life. You continue to make my life so much better from so far.
It’s true that i am excited and happy that I will be able to continue with my education, courtesy of you and the Soar Kenya group.

I trust Nelly completely and am happy with all the good work she has done so far. She’s so keen in all she does!

I pray that the cargo arrives as soon as expected. It will bear some of the supplies that i need so much.

It will also help so many children here in Kenya. I know that being a mother, you know what best suits your children and have done your best in packing this cargo. I always say a prayer of thanksgiving and blessings for all those who participate in helping the needy over here, especially the Children at Hopewell. After high school, I spent my whole period there while i awaited admission in the university and i can tell you I know what all that you do mean to them and us all. You may never know this until some day, but it is the truth. It does so much. Thanks.
Looks like you have so much to do in your farm. It is quite a tough season for you. But I wish you all the best. May God give you and your family good health to do all that you wish to. I wish I could help. If the farm were around, I would spent the whole of my holiday and weekends doing some work in it!!

I will keep up the good work and make it even a better work. I have no reason whatsoever to let you down. Am glad that you are proud of us. I am also so proud to have you in my life!!

I have to go now. It’s getting late and I have to walk to my hostels and do some reading before retiring to bed.
Pass my love to Don, Jeremy, Kevin, Nathan, and Amber.

Love and respect,
Martin.

'

More From Calvin

For those of you who think you can’t make a difference:
Calvin wrote to H.O.P.E.  a couple of years ago after reading an article in the Kenyan Standard.  He was living near Eldoret with a guardian, who was not able to continue sending him to high school.  I(Darleen Johnson) e-mailed him back, and told him that if he could get to Nakuru, there was a free high school (Hopewell), and perhaps he could work out a work/study program or something there.  He got there, and I had already talked to Vitalice Kahendah, who told me that they had over 100 kids who had arrived at their door, willing to sleep outside if they could just enroll in high school.  The school had rented a building, where they supply a foam mat, running (cold) water, and two meals per day for whatever they can pay.  In Calvin’s case, Vitalice said he would supply a uniform, the text books Calvin would need, room and board for $100 per term.  I agreed to pay for at least one term to see how Calvin would do.
At first, Calviin struggled in all his classes.  At last, he graduated 4th in his class.  He made remarkable progress, and he was worth every dime we spent on him.  He earned it, because he was given a chance.  I am very proud of Calvin, who has become a good friend.
Here is his thank you letter to us.


Hallo Darleen

        How are you doing I hope all is well with you, for me I am doing fine. I hope at the moment you are fully recovered and you are strong enough to do all the best for Hopewell.  The schools are closed; I am through with my exams. The exam was fair and I hope to pass.

       Thank you very much from the bottom of my heart for this great support. Darleen you have done a great thing in my life that I can’t ever forget. You gave me hope when I had no hope of going on with my education. May the Lord bless you very much. Maybe there is nothing I can award you for what you have done but please accept my thanks and appreciation because it sincerely comes from my heart.

        I would also like to thank you for your continued support towards Kenyan schools and orphanages. May this kind of heart grow big and bigger and may the Lord always supply to you so that you may have much to give.

        

I would also like to thank you for your support in building Hopewell latrine; the new latrine is just wonderful it will be of great use to the next year’s students. I would also thank you for all that you have done.

     My guardian also appreciates for all that you have done for me. He also told me to pass many greetings to you and your family.

     I humbly ask you to let me know of any plan you have for me. I also would like to pass my greetings to Johnson and tell him that I am through with my high school education and also pass my thanks to him.

        May the Lord bless you in all that you do and I hope to hear from you. Pass my greetings to your family at large.

               Have a wonderful time

                  From Calvin.