After several years of direct assistance by the Trustees to the St. Phillip’s School Mathare, in Mathare Valley, one of the poorest slums of Nairobi, the Trustees have established in 2010 collaboration with a Partners Poland Foundation, Warsaw, Poland, which was able to secure funding of Pol Aid (Development Assistance of Poland), for a series of improvements needed by the School. Improvement of the walls and roofing, cementing of floors, providing furniture, equipping the kitchen, stationary, part of the costs of the feeding programme, were among the components of the Partners’ project.
Following the success of that project Watu Kwa Watu has prepared preliminary needs assessments and proposals for similar assistance, with a focus on health and sanitary conditions, for 6 schools serving poor slum children in Nairobi area. These proposals have been further elaborated by Partners Poland Foundation and presented, as project “School of Health”, for funding to the Pol Aid (Polish Development Assistance, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Poland). The funding has been granted.
Since at the beginning of 2011 the formalities of registration of Watu Kwa Watu were still in progress, and the Trust did not have a bank account, the funds for implementation of the project were transferred from Poland via Rotary Club, Karura Branch, Nairobi, which was the main Kenyan partner for financial transfers’ purposes. Watu Kwa Watu was the main partner for project preparation and implementation.
The project School of Health 2011, has covered improvement of toilets, hand washing facilities, floors, walls and furniture, rain water drainage, fencing, window glazing and window bars etc (not all in every school) in the following schools in Nairobi area:
- Cheleta Primary in Runda, serving children from Githogoro and Huruma slums:
At ceremony of completion of refurbishing the School: Field Project Officer, Chair of Rotary Club Karura, City Council of Nairobi representative and Chair of Watu Kwa Watu (behind)
At ceremony of completion of refurbishing the School
- Starkid School and Resque Center, serving Githogoro slum;
- Kasarini Primary, serving Githogoro slum, and nearby rural poor areas;
- St. Phillip School Mathare, serving Mathare slum
Grade 4 with new furniture and repaired classroom walls
School Headteacher (on right) and Vice Chair of Waty Kwa Watu (middle) in the “corridor” of St. Phillip School Mathare.
- Karura Forest Primary, serving children of forest workers and from Mathare slum;
- Highridge Primary, serving children from three slum areas near Parklands.
In addition, children in all assisted schools have undergone a deworming treatment. This treatment is being repeated periodically by a collaborating Kenyan NGO, AAR Beckmann Trust. AAR Trust has also supported three of the schools with a tree-planting assistance.