JAMBO 2010!!!

A HUGE welcome from Tess (Project Manager) ......

Welcome to the 2010 edition of GVI/ Olive’s blog series! I’ve just returned from our volunteers first day at school, and I am buzzing!!! Olives Rehabilitation Centre is once again alive with hundreds of kids, ORC staff and of course, GVI volunteers. Thanks to the on-going support of GVI volunteers, the school has been able to increase it’s capacity to over 200 students! Today I noticed around 50 new faces running around the school. This is 50 previously idle kids now receiving a free education and at least one healthy meal a day. A local donor was also in today, gathering numbers of new students so he can supply them with uniforms – awesome!

Excited students race out of the school to greet us

The school is once again heaving with students, staff and GVI volunteers

Head teacher Mr Michael was noticeably absent, Steven told me he was walking through the local community rounding up ‘missing’ students, finding out why they are not at school, and encouraging them to return if parents are happy for them to continue their education. The commitment to the kids that these volunteer teachers show never fails to move me.

Brand new KG 1 students contemplating a missing letter in English class

An exciting development, we have a new teacher on board! Sadly, Mr Geoffry has moved back to western Kenya to be nearer to his family. But the new teacher (also named Mr Joseph) is lovely, and tells me he has heard about the great work the ORC is doing for a long time now. As I’m typing this, Mr Joseph is introducing himself and two GVI volunteers to the new standard four class.

A new addition to our team - Mr Joseph

And of course, the first class I visited was the newly formed standard 6! We were all getting worried last year about what was going to happen to our standard fivers, as for many of them, that would have been the end of the line for their education. Because of the new spacious premises that GVI volunteers have supported the ORC into, there is now room for another class, meaning we don’t lose last year’s standard fivers!!! This is one more year of free education, and one step closer to getting these kids into a public high-school to continue their education.

Last year's KG3 students who have now graduated into standard 1

We have many challenges ahead of us for this year. Mombasa has been out of fresh drinking water since before Christmas. People living in the Bombolulu slum (including the families of ORC students) are being forced to drink salty bore water. So we are hoping to provide the school with a water storage tank, which can be attached to the new roof and gutter system, allowing the school to harvest rainwater, and store water delivered in trucks. GVI volunteers are also financially supporting four ORC teachers to become formally qualified teachers. This will put the school another step closer to registering as a formal school, hence qualifying them for food grants and governmental support. Both of these initiatives (and so many more I haven’t mentioned here) is a great testament to GVI’s policy of ensuring that a portion of money brought in by volunteers is spent directly in the field, and it’s achieving great things here in Mombasa!

GVI Olives Project Manager, Tess (centre) with ORC Director Steven and his wife Jane, who teaches Kindergarten

I don’t have space in this blog to mention developments GVI volunteers have made with our other partners, so please stay tuned to this year’s blog series. And if you can, come join us here in Mombasa and get stuck into helping some the most amazing people you are likely to meet!

- Tess

JAMBO 2010!!!