Maweni School Appeal

Bill & Paula Stevens of National Bee supplies visited Mombasa Kenya in November 2010 accompanied by daughter Lauren and granddaughter Honey for a family holiday at the end of a hectic summer season.  Aware of the acute needs of the area, as many tourists are, they went laden with gifts for local children to help with schooling, like pens, pencils, solar calculators, chalk as well as clothing and mountains of sweets. These small gifts are very warmly received by the local youngsters who are hungry for education and the chance to get ahead in life.

After discussions with locals they were taken to a small primary school nearby, but unlike other schools closer to the hotel, this one does not get anything like the regular visits and donations from well-meaning tourists wanting to help.

The Maweni School
The school is Maweni Nursery School; the head teacher is a volunteer Victoria Roy, as are the other teachers and cook. The pupils some 170 are all from the local community around the school.

There are four classrooms, all in a very poor state of repair with only one having simple desks and benches. In the other three classrooms the children do their school work on the floor. Even the floors are in poor condition having large holes in what is ancient concrete.

Food is prepared over an open fire once a day in a small building which was provided by a kind donation made some time ago by British visitors. It was previously prepared outside in the open. The children eat their meal on the floor of the classrooms. For many of the children this will be their only meal of the day and is in itself a real motivation for attending school. Perhaps once a week meat is on the menu. Food is paid for mostly by donations from tourists.

The school receives no funding at all from any government source as it is not a requirement to attend formal schooling up to the age of seven. None of the children are asked to pay for their schooling or for food; indeed it is unlikely that any could afford to pay anything given the poverty of the area. Despite their hardship, and entirely as would be expected of a proud Kenyan, the children queue to enter the school every day. It seems even in their early years they and their families recognise that through education a better life is possible.

Sixteen of the children are resident within the school as they have no family at all. Those children were sleeping on the floor when we first visited. It is not uncommon in Africa to sleep on the floor, however to have no family at all and no family home makes matters much worse. There was no play equipment at all for the children, just dust.

Having visited a few times in the first week the inevitable question comes to mind: what can we do to help this school and the children?

With your help, we will provide

By carrying out a few much needed jobs in this school, we expect them to have a profound effect on the entire village community, the children and the volunteers who teach them, which will impact on all their futures.

We have already been able to make some immediate changes as follows:

• Money has been provided to ensure all the orphans now sleep in beds with mosquito nets for all.
• Funds has also been provided for the purchase and installation of play equipment. Six swings a slide and a roundabout will be installed late in December. The entire Village will be able to use out of school hours putting the school at the heart of the community.

Some of the much needed and achievable projects we have identified as can be clearly seen in the pictures are:

• The school yard is uneven so needs to be leveled for the safety of all. The name Maweni derives from the rocky coral like ground on which the village and school is built. Most of the children do not own any shoes.
• There is no running water; a ‘government’ tap is two hundred yards away. Water is collected in buckets from there.
• There is no electricity, only a generator for extracting salt water from a well for kitchen use.
• Provide desks and benches in the three classrooms that have none, with a cupboard for teaching supplies and books.
• The provision of a large room or hall with tables and chairs so the whole school can have meetings, assemblies and of course be used a dining room. The pictures show the kids making the shape of the proposed room where it would be built if successful. It could of course be used as a community resource as well.
• School uniforms would further enhance the childrens undoubted and obvious pride in their school and their community. Most of the children have very poor clothing available and are totally reliant upon hand me downs from siblings and tourists. Shoes and or flip flops would be a bonus however difficult to keep up with as childrens feet grow so quickly.

The above list which is by no way complete if it were to be provided in the UK would be a very tall order, however the costs of provision locally is very reasonable indeed. We propose to purchase all items from known sources in order to manage costs, and obtain the very best value for the school.

How you can help

Bill & Paula of National Bee Supplies will underwrite all and any administration and travel costs associated with this project so that every single penny donated will be spent on the school.
We are confident £10,000 will provide most if not all of the most urgently needed projects above. If you would like to help it would be very much appreciated indeed by at least 170 pupils and helpers who are very much in need.
Thank you.
Bill & Paula Stevens

To make a donation to the Maweni School Appeal

In August 2011, the Maweni School Appeal achieved charity status. (charity no: 1143232)
To make a donation online, please go to  www.justgiving.com/maweni

Alternatively, please make all cheques payable to ‘The Maweni School Appeal’
and send to National Bee Supplies, Merrivale Road,Exeter Road, Industrial Estate, Okehampton, Devon EX20 1UD

Alternatively, Please make a BACS payment directly to:

Bank Sort Code: 54-21-14
Bank account name: Maweni School No 22078622
Bank name and branch: NatWest Bank, Okehampton