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Ngeteti Primary School

Water Tank and Classroom Renovation Work

Project Start Date: 30 October 2008

Location

Rift valley, Kenya

The project site is a Kenyan Primary School situated within the Karunga Location, Gilgil division in the Nakuru District of the Rift Valley province. The rift valley, a historical centre of volcanic activity, is an area of stark beauty that holds great interest for geologists and environmentalists. The project site holds spectacular panoramas overlooking Mount Longonot, Lake Naivasha and the Aberdare mountain range.

The school is situated on the road between Gilgil and Nyharuru. GilGil lies roughly 2.5hrs from Nairobi on a road that is currently being renovated, and is located between Naivasha and Nakuru on the base of the valley.

Gilgil, a pleasant African town is roughly 20kms from the site, and provides a large platform for people to do business. The nearest trading post is the smaller settlement of Karunga where the majority of basic provisions can be procured.

This is a semi-arid area receiving only 17-20 inches of rain per year. Of late this is becoming much less as the rains have been insufficient and inconsistent over the last 3-4 years, leaving much of East Africa in a state of drought.

The area experiences the same rain system as much of the rest of the rift valley and central highlands, that is 'long rains' from March to late May/early June, winter (that is spring like days and colder nights) from June to August/September, 'short rains' from late September - early November, and Summer from Nov/Dec until late Feb early March. Please note that, as is being experienced over much of the world, African seasons seem to be shifting and have become rather unpredictable.

There are several places in the valley where game can be viewed. Zebra, giraffe and baboons are often seen by the roadsides, and the area's national park (most notably Nakuru) is noted for its large populations of black rhino.

History of the School

Ngeteti Primary School began in 1997 with 30 children being taught in two classes in an old settlers house. Since then it has had several head teachers and the pupil numbers increased to 172 in January 2006, and it has recently reached over 400.

The school buildings were unstable impermanent structures that had been haphazardly thrown up in one straight line. The overall effect was depressing, stark and barren: non-conducive to a positive encouraging learning environment.

The school has been built up over the last decade through the energy and zeal of its headmaster, who despite the schools extremely poor facilities has helped the school achieve high grade standards. The school's objectives are to provide teaching facilities in this low income area so as to develop the necessary economic and social skills for school leavers so they can have an effective role in uplifting the community.

The community of Karunga value education and have pulled together, volunteering their time and resources, to build two classrooms. These, through no lack of effort were temporary make-shifts that are uncompleted due to a lack of resources. They are of a very low standard and need replacing, both for pupil's safety and learning potential. The school was vulnerable to the cold winds and rains which seasonably occur in the area and classes often have to be abandoned because the lack of windows allow for little protection against the elements.

As is common place throughout the area, new settlements are being created, which, when combined with the advent of free education, has meant that the school's population is constantly growing and the insufficient resources currently in place are being put under more and more pressure. With the recent troubles in January the school now caters for even more displaced children. The nearby 2 stream school 'Simba Primary' is also being put under similar pressure and is having to turn children away, thus directing them towards Ngeteti primary. This heightened the problem as more children were cramped into unsafe and potentially unhealthy conditions.

The spread of disease is advanced by this overcrowding, and children often have to miss out large chunks of their vital education due to health issues. With medicines being unaffordable, unobtainable and often of second rate quality, sicknesses lengthen and simple curable aliments frequently develop into conditions more serious. This in turn weakens the whole community in many aspects: the family affected will scrape together any spare or attainable cash for the sick child, at the same time the illness might spread through the family and any work done by them can not be done e.g. the small family farm will not be tended and the excess food/milk not taken to market. Now this family is left poorer and needier, and there is less/no money to donate to personal development or community projects.

Children if habitually sick during their younger years could experience developmental impairments and be negatively affected mentally or physically. This decreases the work force of the current and future community. Also children miss out on a chance to further themselves through education.

School provides a key chance for children to gain vital skills, a knowledge base and confidence. This empowers people and allows them a chance to take advantage of opportunities alternative to the meagre ones offered to them within rural settlements.

By equipping people with useful employable skills the whole community is empowered as the new professionals can utilise their skills within the village, or if they find work in the urban settings then money will always be sent back to the village as is tradition. Those that do not reach that stage will have skills useful to rural life such as farming practices, disease prevention, mathematics, english and reading and writing.

The Need for Volunteers and Cash

The school have recognised the construction of a further classrooms as their priority and immediate need. The schools grade 6, 7 and 8 classes were held all together in an extremely old, dark and run down colonial building situated on the school ground. The small rooms in the building created an extremely cramped learning environment, and the limited amount of natural light the buildings design permits means that reading and blackboard work was often difficult.

The teacher is under extreme pressure to meet the needs of all the children spanning three grades and she and the children suffer. Teachers in rural settings often have had inadequate or outdated training and the very low salaries do not help matters. The old building was extremely outdated and needed to be replaced as a matter of urgency. Grade 8 examinations determine whether pupils gain entry into secondary school and with such a difficult learning environment the older children in the school are ultimately suffering greatly.

Without outside assistance nothing would have done about this situation. The community is poor, the arid conditions restricts development as water collection takes many most part of their day and agriculture is limited. Most families depend on a few cows for survival, selling milk in the nearest trading posts for cash or trading for food crops.

In summary, this is a large ongoing project that is now being completed over multiple phases building 4 new classrooms in 2 separate classroom blocks. This involved the construction of the foundation, walls and roof. The existing facilities have been built and supported entirely using local village contributions which are insufficient to provide a safe, secure and permanent facility for the education of their children.

See photos of the main Project site at Negeteti here - http://madtribe.offexploring.com/madinkenya/slideshow/ngeteti-virgin-intrepid-project

Itinerary

Thursday 30 Oct

6.05 Flight Arrives into Nairobi

7.00 Depart Nairobi for Gilgil

9.00 Schools tour starts to look at various Volunteer Projects in the following order:

Langalanga Primary School

Here UK volunteers constructed a new staffroom, a library and several new classrooms which would not be possible without funding or participation from UK volunteers. Langalanga was used at a prisoner of war camp in the 1940s and most classes were taught in these rundown buildings that were original used as cells. See how new buildings have been constructed on the site to replace the fallen ones, only one classroom block remains which stands in stark contrast to the new facilities.

See photos of Langalanga here - http://madtribe.offexploring.com/madinkenya/slideshow/langalanga-primary-school

Ngumo Primary School

See a project overlooking the Rift Valley that is half completed.Ngumo primary school was in a dire state. Up until last year it had no permanent structures at all, the 8 classrooms are made of mud and wood, or iron sheets. As these were old classrooms, they all leaked. There were no windows at all, this and the state of the classes meant that rain was a big disturbance at the school. This project was a four phase project to build a new two class block to replace the dangerous earthen structures. More classrooms are currently being built and others are needed to achieve 100% capacity.

See Photos of Ngumo here - http://madtribe.offexploring.com/madinkenya/slideshow/ngumo-primary-school

Karunga Dispensary and Maternity Unit

Karunga Dispensary is a government clinic that provides a needed and vital service for a large widespread community. It is a small operation staffed only by 3 permanent workers that deals with a myriad of problems and complaints. The most reported illnesses are HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria. The community also have a large problem with diabetes and arthritis. The dispensary has a free consultation service and donated and government subsidised drugs available to the patients for a small fee. A major problem in this, as in other African rural settings is a high mother/infant mortality rate during pregnancy and delivery. UK Volunteers had built 2 rooms within the clinic to enable them to be used as a delivery room and maternity ward. They also floored the rest of the dispensary and built a toilet and shower block that provided a clean and hygienic environment for their ever increasing influx of patients, and also constructed of a water tank. The tank will holds roughly 50000 litres of water and is usedfor all aspects of running the clinic.

See photos of Karunga here - http://madtribe.offexploring.com/madinkenya/slideshow/karunga-maternity-ward-dispensary

13.00 Lunch and Bag Drop at the Volunteer House

14.00 Visit to Ngeteti Primary School to start work!

16.30 Finish work for the day and return to the Volunteer House to relax

18.00 Dinner is served as daylight ends and you are free to unwind and to socialise for the evening. Lanterns will be lit as there is no mains electricity at the house.

Friday 31 Oct

06.15 As the c*** crows and daylight pours into your room you will get up to have your first bucket wash.

07.00 Breakfast is served with time given to prepare yourself and any materials for the day. It is a 5 to 10 minute walk to Ngeteti School from the house.

08.00 Work recommences in the schools.

10.30 Tea Break!

11.00 Back to work

13.00 Lunch is served back at the house

14.00 Back to the Project site

16.30 Finish your project work

Saturday 1 Nov

06.15 Get up and Wash up!

07.00 Breakfast

08.00 We will end the Project by holding a Sports Day

11.00 We pack our bags to head off on Safari