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May 2019: Kibet4Kids builds new public primary school

May 2019: Kibet4Kids builds new public primary school

During the last one and a half year Kibet4Kids has received a substantial amount of donations and has been able to do a lot of work for impoverished children in Kenya. We have expanded the Special School in Mindiliwo. We started the construction of a completely new primary school. And we have helped Kolol primary school (our first project) to improve.

The school for intellectually challenged children (Mindililwo Special School)

We mentioned before that we started to help this school because they had a waiting list with 192 children. Since the end of 2017 we have spent around 28.000 euro on the following:

  • Building a new dormitory, including 50 beds and mattresses.
  • Increasing the size of the dining hall, so that it can now accommodate a total of 250 pupils.
  • Building a playground which has swings, slides and so on. This is perfect for the development of motorskills.

The school increased its number of pupils this year from 118 to 145 (70 boys and 75 girls). We are planning to build the new sanitary block (toilets and bathrooms) starting this summer.

The new public primary school of Kamokos

By the end of 2018 Kibet4Kids started its third project; the construction of a completely new public (free of charge) primary school in Kamokos. Kamokos is a rural community in Kenya, roughly 12 kilometers from Iten. The children of Kamokos attend a primary school which is about 5 kilometers away, in a nearby village (Chewapsos primary). This is a long distance walking, especially for the youngest children. Apart from that, Kamokos deals with seasonal rivers that make it impossible to reach Chepwapsos primary during parts of the year, which means the children of Kamokos often miss school and tend to lack behind in class. Finally, Chewapsos primary has very full classes, with 70 to 80 pupils per class. Building a school in Kamokos would not just help the children of Kamokos, but will also reduce the class sizes in Chepwapsos.

Luckily, we found out that Kamokos has been having a nursery school. It’s a very basis nursery school, made of iron sheets, but it’s built on a big parcel of land that belongs to the community. In cooperation with the directors of the nursery school, the Kenyan ministry of Education and the community of Kamokos, we decided to expand the nursery school and turn it into a complete primary school.

In October 2018 we found a sponsor for our first classroom: Re Medical Group (RMG) from The Netherland. RMG helped us build the classroom and donated the study books. With other donations we bought 30 desk and chairs, plus a lockable bookshelf. We also built toilets for the pupils and placed a perimeter fence around the compound. Finally, we paid part of the lunch for all pupils (for 3 months).

In January 2019 the new school was officially opened and since then the first 30 pupils are in class. This is class one, meaning all pupils are 6 to 7 years old. The teacher is employed by the Ministery of Education.

Kolol Primary school

Many of our sponsors have helped us help the children of Kolol. Our project in Kolol was actually finished in 2017, but by the time we completed it, there was still an amount of 13,000 euro remaining that was earmarked for Kolol. We used a substantial portion of this by putting tiles on the floors of all the classrooms. Due to the hot and dry climate in Kolol, all the floors were constantly getting cracks and holes. We hope to fix this once and for all, by covering all floors with quality tiles. We also bought hundreds of study books for the school. The government only provides Kolol with the most necessary books, which is not enough for good quality education.

Apart from that, Kibet4Kids decided to support the most outstanding pupil. Victor Kiptanui did his final primary school exams in November 2018 and passed with flying colours. He was invited for a very good boarding school. Almost all of the good quality secondary schools in Kenya are boarding schools. However, Victor is an orphan and his foster parents earn little money. Kibet4Kids paid his school fees for one year (400 euro) and gave Victor an additional 200 euro to buy the necessary study materials. We expect his foster parents, with the help of the community, to be able to pay for his second year in high school. Victor is a good student and a hard worker. We think he can be a great example for his community!

We would like the thank all our donors. Without you we would not be able to do these projects. Together we are changing the lives of hundreds, and finally even thousands, of children.

Outstanding student Victor Kiptanui who started high school with the help of Kibet4Kids