Mikoroshoni News – March 2016

mikoroshoni-newsFirst of all a very big THANK YOU to all our supporters. We have received many renewal cheques for 2016 and lots of donations are being put straight into the MPS bank account, both monthly and yearly.

Trustees
We would like to welcome two new Trustees. They are Paul Kay from Sheffield and Lee Wolf from Middleton, Manchester.
Trustees Evelyn Lyall and John Brooker have recently visited Mombasa. Their time there overlapped so they were both able to attend meetings with Joshua & the teachers and they both spent many hours at school working with the children.

Feeding
The saying goes ‘When one door closes another door opens.’ This is very appropriate for MPS. The SAGA Charitable Trust’s sponsorship of the feeding programme came to a natural end in November 2015. A big thank you for their many years of support.
Also a big thank you to those people who have given extra donations for food. This paid for the feeding programme to continue during the first three months of 2016.
We can now report that we have funding for the feeding programme for the next 3 years. This daily meal is so vitally important to all the children.
We will give you more information about the new sponsorship for the feeding programme in the next newsletter.

Teachers
Joshua reports that all teachers are working hard. They begin their day at 6.45am and finish at 4.30pm.
A new teacher is to be appointed to start next term. Headteacher, Joshua has been teaching 17 periods a week to try to cut down on teachers’ salaries. However, it is impossible for Joshua to do his job as Headteacher with such a workload. Employing another teacher is a necessity for the good of the school.
Selina Charo, one of the teachers, is about to take maternity leave so a temporary teacher will be employed to cover her class.

Mr Edward Mbara – caretaker
Unfortunately Edward’s eyesight is deteriorating rapidly and he is no longer able to do his job. We paid for him to go to the eye hospital to have tests to determine the cause of his blindness. He has been diagnosed with Glaucoma and prescribed with drops. His sight will not improve so we had to make the decision with him to retire. He will leave with 6 months pay as is required by Kenyan law.

Kindergarden 1
Twenty seven children joined KG1 in January. We have provided each child with a school uniform, a PE kit and a pair of shoes. The Kenyan Government insist on uniforms – without them the children cannot attend school. Evelyn was impressed with the enthusiasm in KG1. They are all eager to answer questions and write on the blackboard. Every correct answer is celebrated with a well done song from the class and the pupil does a little dance.

Homes
John went out into the village with Joshua to visit some of the homes of the new KG1 children. The committee try to choose the most needy children so their homes are extremely poor. One of the mothers said how grateful she is that her child has food at school.

KG3 Trip
Evelyn went to a nature reserve with KG3. They all piled onto a local matatu minibus – it was a great adventure. When the Guide showed the children an ostrich they were convinced it was a crocodile! The guide showed them an ostrich egg but still it was a crocodile! The teachers agreed more work is needed on the names of wild animals. The children enjoyed a picnic of juice and bread before they went back to school – happy but very tired.

Rotaract supporting MPS
This is a group of young students who are members of a Rotaract Club (part of Rotary International) in Mombasa They meet each week at Jaffrey College in Mombasa and raise money for local charities. They have chosen to help MPS and are going out to visit school and present them with a cheque. John attended one of their meetings and was very impressed with their enthusiasm to help.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MIKOROSHONI 20 YEARS OLD
It is twenty years since Pat & John Lloyd and Yvonne & John Brooker first set eyes on the little school in Shanzu village. We all decided we wanted to help and so our story began.
We are going to hold a celebration later in the year. We’re sure there will be much singing and dancing and a party. There will also be a birthday cake designed and made by Kennedy, one of our ex pupils who studied at Catering College.

Some of you have been with us since we first started raising money and others have joined us along the way.

We’d like to say a very big ASANTE SANA (thank you) to ALL of you from The Trustees, Parents, Teachers & Children at Mikoroshoni Primary School, Mombasa, Kenya.