The last month here in Kenya has been filled with many reasons to celebrate. Three weeks ago the LEI team took a trip to the Longonot Education Center to build a playground for the pre-primary school we constructed two years ago. The playground was a simple project idea that cost only $170! We started building early Wednesday morning and spent the full day constructing the swing set, monkey bars, balance beams, and a seesaw. Most of the children living in the rural town of Longonot had never seen any kind of playground equipment and usually spent most of their recess playing with old tires and rocks. When we had our impromptu “grand opening” of the playground the children were in awe (check out the video!). We were pretty happy and shocked to see that the most popular feature was the balance beam, which only cost $20! It reaffirmed our belief that even the smallest donation can make a huge impact in the lives of these kids. Still, we were very surprised by how much joy could be brought to these children with just a few hours of work and less than $200. Along with the playground we also brought the children composition books, chalk, and writing utensils to last them the entire second term. | |
At the Ahadi Education Center we recently had a small graduation ceremony for the street boys who have attended our class on a regular basis and shown true interest in changing their lives. We started class with just over 20 boys, holding class Monday through Friday every week for eight months. Of the boys we started with, seven of them have shown an incredible transformation; they have stopped taking drugs, and committed themselves to returning to their formal education; they returned to school three weeks ago! Seeing the change these boys have made in their lives has been one of our proudest accomplishments this year. Now is the time where we will start the process over again, in hopes of helping rehabilitate even more of the street boys in the town of Ngong. |
Construction at the LPK Daycare Center has been coming along nicely; the foundation, walls, and roof have been finished. In the next few weeks the interior of the classroom will be finished! We are currently fundraising to provide 15 desks and chairs for the classroom, allowing 30 children to comfortably sit in class. After the classroom is completed, construction of the four new sanitary toilets will begin. With 2014 just about halfway over we are very proud of the accomplishments we have made this year. Within the next six months we are hoping to find sponsors for each of the boys we have assisted in returning to school, while also helping the next group of boys at the Ahadi Education Center to return to school. We are also searching for a needy and deserving community for the next school or classroom we hope to build in 2015! | |