by Lia and Rev. Wasike

Well, we did it! We managed to reach our goal of raising 1,800 USD towards the purchase of land for the school. Thanks to all the volunteers who helped organise fund raising activities over the last six months and to the kind people who donated funds.

The majority of the money was raised over online efforts on our website and on the betterplace.org website. Yet, local fundraising in Kimilili, Kenya and Luebeck, Germany also played an important role in raising the final sum needed to purchase the land and pay for the legal fees.

Rev. Wasike called the landowner today and gave him the news. They hope to complete the sale of the land before the end of the month.


Numerous members of CBSM partook in a month long effort to speak to their community at large, often going door-to-door, asking for contributions. Some people kindly gifted food goods.
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a kind donation of maize for the auction
Whereas, others attended a fund raising event where the goods were auctioned.

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Wilfred, board member, talking to the CBSM members
Besides the auction, the children entertained the guests with song, theater and dance.
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CBSM children's choir
Last Sunday, Lia held a Tea Party For CBSM Kimilili in her hometown of Luebeck, Germany.
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Guests at the tea party fund raiser
Friends and acquaintances baked up a storm of fancy cakes and various small-scale businesses provided gifts for the raffle.
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The organisation team were given the use of one of Luebeck’s nicest restaurants for the occasion.

A few of the children attending the event kindly painted baseball caps for the children on CBSM Education Center. We will be sending the children the caps soon!
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The children in Germany  painting baseball caps for the children in Kimilili
 
Rev. Wasike and the women co-ops of the CBSM Gardening Vocational Training Program have decided to organise two further fundraising events in August, Tea Parties for Kimilili. These tea parties will be a combination of tea party, bake sale and raffle. The funds raised through the sale of cakes and raffle tickets will go towards the down payment on the school land.

We ask everyone to look into their cupboards or ask their friends to look in their cupboards and see if you/they might have some light weight objects (e.g. pens, baseball caps, stickers, sun glasses, skipping ropes, sewing kits, old stamps) that you/they can send to Rev. Wasike to use for raffle prizes.

The goods can be sent to:

Rev. Wasike Wilberforce Walubengo
P.O. Box 2099-00200
Nairobi ,Kenya

Please make sure that you mention that the contents are gifts, second-hand goods, and of no monetary value, so that Rev. Wasike does not have to pay duty on the goods.

We want to invite all the schools and government officials and community elders who came to our Kimilili Football Tournament a few weeks ago to attend the tea parties and help contribute to our cause.

The women of CBSM have made a goal to try and raise 10-20% of the money needed for the down payment on the school land. You can help them indirectly reach their goal by contributing in this manner.
 
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Plot of land CBSM is trying to buy. The temporary school facilities is in background.

The success of our work often relies on creating a circle of help and participation. We are very fortunate to have a lively community of people in Kimilili, as well as in other places in Kenya and in other countries. We are all working our hardest to create a better life for the children and widows of Kimilili. At the moment, we are asking the betterplace.org members to join this circle.


The landowner has asked Rev. Wasike for a down payment of 1000 Euros by the beginning of September to assure that the children can start school again in their temporary facilities. This down payment will be 30% of the total cost of the land. If we do not raise this money by then, the CBSM school children will have to leave the land and start over again to find a place to learn.

The 380 Euros we are hoping to raise at betterplace.org represents 10% of the cost of the land we need to purchase. The Kimilili community members have made pledges to raise another 10% and have already raised half of this sum. The last 10% we are hoping to raise through a fund raising event in Germany this summer.

We believe this circle of help, where everyone carries a small load on their shoulders, is the best way to move forward.
 

by Rev. Wasike

We all had wonderful moments during the end of school term ceremonies. I’ll post some photos soon and tell you more about the ceremonies. We were so happy that the ceremonies took place in the new compound of the school.

However, it was every busy day for me since I had to attend various meetings with different stake holders of our CBSM projects.

We had general meetings that involved the following:

1.  Community –guardians, neighbours, etc. This meeting concerned the care and upkeep of the children and the school

2.   Establishing a new fundraising committee. Fortunately, Mr. Edward Makona, Mr. Wanaswa , and Ms. Florence Ghety travelled with me from Nairobi to attend these meetings. They are our Nairobi elected members and we’ve voted in our Kimilili members during this meeting (more later)

3.    A meeting with the community leaders

4.     Board members

Top on Agenda besides celebrations was:

Members raised concern that the landlord had started selling the adjacent plots to the ¼ acre plot where our school now is. Hence locking us out to expand our current land size (to a needed ¾ acre) and reducing the playing ground of the children since the new buyer of the plot has already fenced his potion. The landlord was fortunately present at the meeting and defended his action by saying that he has not heard from the school board despite having approached them numerous times with offers to sell the land to the school.

We had hoped to rent the land for the next year or two, or until we could raise enough funds to purchase the land and build a new permanent school. It now appears as if we must act quickly and effectively to purchase the land (3/4 acre) or run the risk of losing our present facilities in the time ahead.

It was a very constructive and positive discussion. We all agreed that that the landlord should endeavour to moves the new land owner to another portion of land; to allow the children to play and to allow us time to raise the funds to purchase the land that we are on now, as well as enough land for expansion of the school to one meeting our needs.

This means expanding from our temporary facilities of a 5 classroom building to a permanent facility with 8 classrooms, 3 office (principal, teachers room, medical officer), and kitchen. Currently, the children have no playing field and a very small garden. We would like to offer them an area to play and a larger school garden. We estimate that the minimal amount of land that could contain these would be ¾ acre. That would cost 12,000 USD.

We must now pursue all avenues of fundraising to raise the needed capital. If you have any suggestions about what we can do, please write us (cbsmkenya (at) yahoo (dot) com). If you know how we could in the short term raise 10% of this sum to place as a deposit and thus insuring that the landlord will not sell the land, we’d be grateful.  If you know of any organisation or company who would be willing to help finance this purchase we would be very glad to receive the information.