May 2016 Updates!

It has been a fairly busy time at the Centre with the start of the second term and I haven’t had time to write an update though it has been on my to-do-list for the last one week. I can’t quite believe we are in fourth week already! Time seems to have flown by. But we have had a pretty good start to the term and here is a brief update of what we have been up-to.

Back to school

openingWe opened the Centre for the second term on 4th May 2016 and it was encouraging that by the second day almost all the children (121 out 136) had reported for the term. It has been the case in the past that kids do not report back to school until after we are well into the third week of the term. We have been working very hard to change this and are glad to see that it has borne fruits.

The first two days were also a busy time for teachers preparing materials and classrooms for the new term. Some of  the things we bought include chalk, pencils,and notebooks. Grade two class floor has been bad for a while but it finally got repaired. The kids like the tiles on the floor.

tiles

Sadly a three kids will not be coming back to the centre. This are two brothers in class 1 and nursery whose mum was injured when a powerline fell on their house and another boy in baby class who was scalded last term and is not well enough to resume school.

Visit by Elena and Maura

Maura and Elena, our friends from Italy and partners through Direttamente visited on saturday on 14th. We were very happy to receive them at the centre and we had a wonderful time together. They shared delicious cookies with all of us and brought four suitcases full of clothes, shoes and classroom materials. Thanks Maura and Elena. We are really grateful for Direttamente’s continued support.

shoes

Garden

This term it is Nursery class turn to take care of the school garden. They have planted spring onions, terere  (Amaranth), tomatoes, zucchini, cucumber and coriander.

Anne

At the beginning of the year we admitted Anne a girl with special needs at the center.  Anne had been staying home and she was vulnerable to abuse. I am very glad to report that Anne has found a place at St. John’s Centre, a special school in Korogocho. What’s wonderful is that she got that place following intervention of a group of HoL parents (especially Mama Gigi) who are actively involved in community service and activisim.

Health

We managed to get almost all the kids immunized against measles during the nation wide immunization campaign. The campaigns are characterised by misinformation about harmful effects of the vaccine but we were able to reach all the parents in the centre with the information about importance of the vaccine. As well we the opportunity during the campaign to give the children antifungal and deworming pills

immunization

What’s coming in June

On June 1st we will be having a school trip to Rock City a theme park on Kiambu road. Other important dates include a parents/teachers conference on June 18th and midterm break on June 30 to July 4th.

That’s all for now.