A Brief History of GVI Olives: World Environment Day 2007

Whilst we are getting ready to welcome our first volunteers to the GVI Olives project in Mombasa in early July, our relationship with the Olives Rehabilitation Centre (ORC) in Mombasa stretches back for two years to June 2007. So I thought I’d write a brief history of how World Environment Day in 2007 has lead to the imminent arrival of GVI volunteers coming specifically to work with the amazing staff and incredible kids hidden away in a few ramshackle buildings on the edge of Bombolulu...

It all begun in June 2007 when Paula Kahumbu invited GVI to participate in World Environment Day at Haller Park in Mombasa. Amongst numerous other organisations, many of whom GVI have worked with, such as Kenya Sea Turtle Conservation Committee, Wildlife Clubs of Kenya and the Colobus Trust, GVI's Kenya expedition set up a modest stall with educational posters and activities about the dolphins, turtles and colobus monkeys we research further down the coast at Mkwiro and Shimoni. With colour-in colobus face masks and 'pin-the-dorsal-fin-on-the-dolphin' proving to be surprise hits amongst the visitors that day, we found ourselves swamped by a crowd of very polite, well-behaved, smart-looking children clearly enjoying their day out.

I began talking to their teacher, Michael, who explained to me that they were all from the Olives Rehabilitation Centre, in Mombasa's Bomobolulu area, on a day out. Michael explained that the centre had 80 children in their care, and provided education to disadvantaged children from Mombasa's Bombolulu slum. He invited me to visit them one day, and both he and the children left such an impression on me that I very soon did.

With the children looking so clean, well-behaved and speaking very good English across all ages, I was expecting a similarly impressive centre, of clean modern class rooms set in well-tended grounds. The reality was wholly unexpected; at the end of a short dirt track, set amongst crowded basic housing, the Olives Rehabilitation Centre was housed across a couple of small, basic buildings that somehow divided in to enough small classrooms to run a fully operational school.

We were given the short tour by Michael, and met Steven and the other volunteer teachers as well as an endless stream of happy smiling children. Shocked by just how little the centre actually had to work with, their achievements were equally amazing. The children were happy and confident, leaving no doubt that they felt secure and cared for, and the warmth, enthusiasm and commitment of the teachers, largely working voluntarily on very low wages, was also undeniable. They explained that they provided lunch so ensure the children lasted the day's classes - for many of them it is the only regular meal they get. On the rare occasion that they are able to find sponsorship to get children in to private mainstream education, they typically remain within the top 10% of their classes. Remarkable when Steven explained how the ORC all started.

Thank you for taking the interest in GVI Olives project and I hope you will be back to follow our story,

Corti

A Brief History of GVI Olives: World Environment Day 2007