Our Nabuur friend, Malcolm, has sent us a list of plant types we are going to plant: Swiss chard, eggplant, green peppers, cabbages or Kale, green beans or okra, tomato, marigolds, radish, spinach, garlic or spring onions.

To speed the germination process, we are going to soak a paper towel or a cloth in water. Then we will put the seeds in water for 1 hour and then onto the paper towel or cloth and wrap and keep in a warm place but make sure it stays damp. After we’ve kept the seeds wrapped overnight or for a day or two, depending upon type of plant, we will plant the seeds.

I’ll write you more about the preparation and planting of our garden. Hopefully, I’ll also be able to post a few photos as well.

 

We are so happy to announce a new project, our Nutrition and School Garden Project. The garden will provide the most essential food for the school children. It is a half-acre (2020 sq m) plot near our new temporary school facilities. This project is being realised with the help of the children, community volunteers and a whole list of Nabuur volunteers.

Most noticeably, we are excited to have the help of the following volunteers,

* Daniel in Nairobi (project assistance)
* Ron in England (project management)
* Ken in the States (small-scale farming, drip irrigation system)
* Malcolm in South Africa (small-scale organic farming)
* Our Dutch student team (documentation and presentation of project developments)
* Lia in Germany (project coordination)

As the project develops, all of the activities will be presented on it’s own website and blog posts.

Further project phases include more long term and short term sustainable farming for food security practices, co-partnerships with other small scale farmers in Kimilili, setting up nutrition courses and creating cooking courses in the school for the students and community.

 

From Daniel Kasis

First, Rev wasike  sends greetings to all of you from him and all the community members working on building the new facilities. They are building five classrooms and two latrine blocks.

On Tuesday, Rev. Wasike and the community members were able to erect the posts and roof 3 classes work. They finished this work very promptly. Rev. Wasike spent part of the day playing with the kids in our new compound and the kids were eager to start learning again.

Digging was also started on the latrines.

Friday, Rev. Wasike and the team were able to finish the roofing of the five classrooms and the latrine was dug 20ft for the day.

We are hopeful that the children will be back at the school reading and writing once again.

 

from Lia

Rev. Wasike is in Kimilili since the end of last week. He is working very diligently on getting the new temporary school built.

I would like to stress that these facilities will be very rudimentary. These recent circumstances are driving us towards the inevitable more quickly than we anticipated, which is the need to purchase land and build a new school.

Our project manager, Ron, is in the process of writing up a CBSM New School project plan. 

We've contacted Architecture for Humanity with a request for a two phase design. We've contacted Architecture for Humanity with a request for a two-phase design. The first phase includes 6-8 classrooms and 2 offices (teacher and health officer) and a latrine block. The second phase includes 4 more classrooms, a sewing room, woodworking shop, a science and computer room, and a washing/shower building (with solar water heating system).

We'll keep you posted in further developments. 

 

We've managed to redo our sponsor page, "Your Help". It now contains concrete information about the some of the children's personal needs, as well as certain supplies for the teachers and school. Please do go and see whether you feel it is fine, or needs improving.

Lia

 

The crisis continues. We are trying to negotiate an emergency loan in order to buy building materials. Well let you know in the next day or two more about the situation.

Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers.

 

Hello. Greetings from Kimilili. Over two hundred pupils reported back this year for the new school year.  We also received over 30 new applicants from needy children. Unfortunately, we could not admit any of them because the health officer's instruction did not allow further strains on our school sanitation and lighting. We opened the school yesterday with a ceremony, only to stand before locked doors this morning. Or landlord suddenly decided to close us off from the facilities.

We have been trying to convince our landlord to make the necessary changes to the school facilities for months now. The health authorities have been very patient, but firm in their requirements. Most immediate need is the insignificant situation with latrines. We only have one and this is completely unacceptable both from a hygiene point of view and as a health risk.
 

Our landlord has problems with alcohol and is irrational and unreliable in his behaviour. We have made repeated efforts to come to an agreement with him about the school facilities, even offering to supply the materials and labour. Yet, for every meeting he says yes, there is a meeting he changes to no.
 

After much discussion with the CBSM guardians and community leaders, we have finally accepted the fact that the only solution we have for our dilemma is to relocate and build a temporary school on another plot of land. Fortunately, a community member has offered us a plot of land rent free for this purpose until we can find the funding for purchase of land and build our own school.  

When we were evacuated from Nairobi at the beginning of last year, we knew our present facilities were only temporary. We were hoping to rent for a longer period of time, so that the children could recover from their trauma and we could raise funds to build a new school and orphanage. Now, it seems as our fate is to find temporary facilities again.
 

We are looking for emergency funding (1,500 USD) for the materials to build these temporary facilities. The materials needed are corrugated iron sheeting, lumber and nails. The community has kindly offered to supply all necessary labour.

Please, i
f you know of anyone who could help us in our present crisis, we would be ever so thankful for your assistance.

 

written by Lia

Well, we got our new Village Phone Salon website up! Phew. I'm always amazed at how time consuming such a thing is. It give me a lot of respect for professional web designers.

Could you please go to the VPS
website and tell me what you think? If you see any mistakes or needed improvement, I would be grateful for your suggestions.

 

Tomorrow is a big day at CBSM, for it is the first day of our new school year. We will welcome in the occasion with a celebration ceremony for the children and teachers and parents.When I return from my trip up to Kimilili, I will post some photos and tell you how everything went.