It's day two in Kenya with the team splitting up to work on their two separate projects. Here's an update on both from Head of Media Mitchell Jones and Head of Marketing Dave Toyn...
Jubilee Academy
Today we made our first trip to the Jubilee Academy, a local school in the Nakuru region that has been open since the late 1980s.
In recent years the intake of pupils has reduced due to the deteriorating facilities - but that is something we hope to change! We will be assisting the building work for additional classrooms at the project; currently there are just three and we hope to help increase this to five.
In addition to the building work, we are also helping to create a playground for the children. When we arrived there was just a grassy area but with lots of hard work and effort the transformation in just a day has been brilliant, using sunken tyres we have created a 'dragon' climbing frame, (Pictures will follow!!) and we will also be making swings, a see-saw and football goals, amongst other fun games.
Building work aside, there were also members of the travelling team who spent time in the classroom teaching basic Mathematics and English. During the children's break time we enjoyed some sports, dancing and singing and a video may even surface of the children being taught the famous Dale Cavese!
All in all it was a hugely successful day a the Jubilee Academy, and a brilliant experience that we cannot wait to do again tomorrow. Let's hope our backs aren't aching too much from all the digging!
More updates will follow during the week!
Mitch
Luchema Primary School
Whilst the majority of the Stevenage contingent were at Jubilee Academy, our second smaller group of eight volunteers visited Luchema Primary School on the outskirts of Nakuru for the first time today. Built just over a year ago the school has approximately 100 pupils and we were the first group of overseas volunteers to visit the project.
We were met by the entire school who seemed delighted to see us all and greeted us with a variety of traditional singing and dancing. We were even convinced to have a go ourselves much to their amusement! I doubt we'll be asked to try that again tomorrow, unless they fancy another laugh...!
After introducing ourselves individually and serving the pupils with drinks, the day was taken up by either helping with the construction of a new classroom or teaching English, maths, science, religious education and more amongst the five different classes. We finished with a chaotic yet fun game of football involving most of the pupils and teachers - the future of Kenyan football certainly looks bright after their performance, both by the girls and boys!
Overall it was a fantastic day for our eight volunteers at Luchema, with each genuinely enjoying their day getting to know the pupils and learning more about the Kenyan culture and education. The enthusiasm of all volunteers, pupils and staff was brilliant to see and we're all looking forward to tomorrow.
.www.kevincoleman.comWe hope to have a selection of photos uploaded onto the club Facebook page later this week, however club photographer Kevin Coleman has also uploaded some onto his website:
Dave