Soar Kenya

Monday, April 14, 2008, 10:48 AM

Dear Don & Mary

I hope this mail finds both of you and your loved ones in great health. The start of week 2 of school was good. The library roofing is being completed now after stalling for sometime because Robert (contractor) could not come back on time. A new contractor is completing the remaining part and is moving pretty fast.

It rained today and we should be able to transplant the many seedlings of assorted vegetables (onions, tomatoes, cabbages, kales, etc) which are getting overgrown in the nurseries. Transplanting will be done in the course of this week. They needed some fertilizer, DAP, and we got two bags for them at the new sky-high prices. The post-election violence effects are now being felt especially by the farmers. Previously, a 50kg bag was going at Kshs. 2000/=. Today, we bought the same at Kshs. 4000/= a bag at the cheapest outlet. Of course the farmers will work on recouping this after harvesting. We are looking at a possible food shortage in Kenya and all forecasts point in that direction. Many farmers cannot afford this new range of farm inputs and will therefore not work their farms. We hope the new government, named yesterday in a Grand Coalition bringing all the protagonists in the last election together will work on ways of helping out.

Rashid is getting better by the day and we continue praying for his good health and strength. Nelly will bring the new director of AGRI (one who took over from Steve Lewis) to Hopewell tomorrow morning so that they guide us on improving our farm. Darleen was also sending the AGRI people some funds so that they help start a Rabbit project in school to supply the kids with the much needed proteins. The team tomorrow will be assessing and selecting the site for the hatches to put the initial 40 rabbits.

The dorm is nearly complete and it looks beautiful. I have done you lots of injustice by not sending pictures but my situation should improve now. We expect the girls to start boarding from 5^th May. Initially, we will spread the foam mattresses down as we source for beds. A steel double decker bed measuring 2½ ft by 6ft goes for Kshs. 5000/= ($86) and will provide exclusive comfort for two girls. We will be sending out an appeal for 75 beds for the 150 girls earmarked to board immediately. I hope the cargo gets released soonest so that we can use any bed sheets and towels in there. I promise to get you pictures in the next 2 days.

I hope this update does the trick for Hopewells dearest friends.

We love you

VITALICE

Three Two-Year Diploma Scholarships have been donated by Steve & Ruth Gibbs for three very ambitious young men, Daniel Owuor, Eutycus Mbuthia and Peterson Kuria, who were taken under the wing of Mr. Rashid, the Principal of Hopewell High School when they were 14 years of age.  In 2005 they took their final exam and have been teaching assistants at Hopewell ever since earning a mere $65.00 a month, in the hopes of furthering their education.  These three young men will continue working as usual at Hopewell while going to school themselves in the evenings, on Saturdays and full time when Hopewell is closed for Holiday .  We want to wish Daniel, Eutycus and Peterson the Best of Luck on their future endeavor.

Dear Don & Mary

School was such a marathon this ending week. We brought earlier the end of first term so as to coincide with the long Easter break. All students will be away until 7^th April when they resume the April classes. We have all been doing well save for Rashid who has been indisposed for the whole of this week. He has been down sick with a combination of malaria and typhoid but has been on good medication. I visited him today and he was better, marking students’ scripts in his house. Nelly was away in Nairobi today for a family get together. Most teachers and stuff are within awaiting school reopening and taking a well deserved rest.

I fully agree with you that there needs to be a centre from where your various operations emanate. And there needs to be a comprehensive analysis of your various efforts in Kenya and an assessment on what has been achieved and what remains outstanding. This year most of your effort was directed towards the emergency relief needed because of the post election violence. For schools, you have achieved a lot already considering that you have been in operation for such a short time. I just wish to request that we be on the same page with regard to all these projects. In as far as I know, only SOAR-K has been running a scholarship program for Hopewell graduates and I would love it if our other development partners and friends channeled scholarship assistance through SOAR-K. And it would even be lovelier if the many SOAR contributors and supporters channeled their hard-earned dollars through you for post-high school education for Hopewell graduates. I asked Rashid to handle this scholarship business jointly with Nelly so that it is the same language and one principal correspondent on this project to respond to queries and give project updates.

We have introduced all our development partners to Barut Primary school. You have assisted in many ways and I don’t know how further you wish to help. We have a good working relationship with Barut elementary and when it comes to such projects that directly benefit the kids, we will fully support them. But know that Barut is a state-owned school, fully funded by the state. Every school term, the government pays for each of the kids there Kshs.1400/=($23) for tuition, school supplies and general school maintenance under a national program called FPE(Free Primary Education). For development projects like classroom building, etc.  The CDF (Constituency Development Fund) only deals with public schools and they have just been built for a good water tank. So it should be clear to what extent you wish to involve SOAR-K with Barut. I would suggest help that directly goes to kids like school uniforms, sanitary pads for girls and any other direct assistance you wish to give. But child sponsorship, construction, renovation, income generating projects, etc are misplaced here and if our good friend Pauline gets transferred to another school(which the government is entitled to do at will anytime),then you will be starting afresh with a new head teacher. Help that directly benefits the kids will be top of my priority for Barut.

Hopewell is a private charitable education centre which gets not a single dime from the Kenyan government. In fact, the government charges the school an annual operational license of Kshs. 27,000/= ($436) every April and gives not even the basic of services. We meet 50% of  our recurrent expenditure from the assistance we get from our friends abroad, SOAR-K,HOPE and WTW while the cost-sharing element where each of the kids is expected to pay Kshs.1500/=($25) helps meets the other 50%. It is the same help that builds the school, buys school supplies, pays all staff and does everything else. We hope to reduce our heavy reliance on external help by putting in place such cost-cutting measures as an Intensive Agricultural Production unit(irrigated farm to produce food with surplus being sold and proceeds used to support the overall school budget). The computer lab to be started with the laptops in the SOAR container will be opened up for the public from 4pm to 7pm and on weekends as internet cybers as well as for secretarial services to generate additional income for the school. With more computers in future, Nelly can coordinate full certificate and diploma training in Computer Science which will not only help our students and graduates but will generate funds to support various school initiatives. When all these ventures are up and running, Nelly, Rashid and myself with all of you who have worked so hard to keep us a float, will breathe a sigh of relief, relax and just celebrate in the returns to this noble investment.

The land we are acquiring to add to the school compound is the one Don and you had shown interest in. At that time, the owner was uptight but is now ready to offload it to us. It goes for Kshs.600, 000/= ($9678). The bank is financing 50% of this (asset financing) while we are expected to meet the rest. The bank will retain the title deed to the land until we have slowly cleared the loan. We will be at the bank this coming Tuesday with the seller to sign the agreement then in two weeks, the bank will have paid him. This is the portion we intend to convert into an intensive agricultural unit for the school. AGRI of Steve Lewis has agreed to help with setting up the farm while a fellow Rotarian, who is an agricultural engineer has agreed to design a viable and sustainable farm for us at no cost. So things are looking better and at this rate, we cold be self-sustaining in a short while.

Nelly spent last Wednesday with Doshi in Nairobi working out the details of the Sanitary Towels’ Project and placed an order for the pads and panties for 1000 girls. The cash was already sent by the Werners and distribution will be done by the Rotary Club. She visited Susan Lee at Hellmann the same day and found the exemption letter had been signed and logged in at the revenue authority. Susan was to let us know the date when the container is being released so that Nelly’s dad is on the ready to truck it down here. Looks like we are going to have a beautiful and exciting welcome back ceremony for the kids when they come back from home.

I was at Hopewell this morning and met the ˜fundis” (carpenters) who will be working on modifying our 3 large tin classrooms into dormitories for girls. We resolved to have the girls boarding from May 5^th when the second term of school begins. The iron sheet walls will be removed, foundation done then we use soil bricks to build walls, redo the floors and the rooms will be converted into two large halls which will accommodate up to 250 girls. Any bedding in that SOAR cargo has already found perfect use. A bathroom will be constructed using the stone bricks that remained of the library project. I will be writing you a detailed project brief of this Dormitory thing tomorrow. I have all the time to write you mails for the next two weeks.

The Library project enters its final phase from next Saturday when finishing, plastering and any decorations. The wood for the fascia board comes in the same day for finishing.

That is quite some long mail. It is because I had stayed away from too long and truly missed you. Regards to all our kind and caring friends. We love you.

VITALICE