Construction of the new school building in Longonot is progressing rapidly! Check out the pictures below and see for yourself. The walls are are largely finished, the windows and doors will go in shortly, and the roof should go up within a week. Overall, the school is scheduled to be completed two weeks from today--April 25th.

Everyone in Longonot is very excited to see the progress. We here at LEI are incredibly pleased to see the first aim we had when our organization started coming to fruition a little over a year later. The new Longonot ECD school building will feature two classrooms, a kitchen, dining area, and new latrines. All a marked improvement over the previous status quo. Moreover, the new building will not be in danger of falling over from the next big puff of wind which may be the most critical change! And a new building should be just the start of more and better education opportunities in Longonot....

The pictures:

The Two Classrooms
The Future Kitchen
Side View
At Work
Front View with Dining Area/Extra Room at Right
Full Length View

Momma Morrah, Omari and the children thought it would be a good idea to give back to their community the kind of generosity and selflessness they have been given over the years. For their first community service project, they wanted to clean up the field located very near to their home and school. Sporting their new Faraja Children’s Home t-shirts, donated by Tammy Ma, and armed with garbage bags and latex gloves, the children spent their Sunday morning picking up plastic bags and garbage that littered the field.

Future projects to help out the sick and elderly with household chores are being planned! We are continuously impressed by the children's dedication, willingness, even eagerness, to help others.

Check out the photos below!

Before
Picking Up Trash
Omari Directing the Children
Kids Having Fun
After

Thing’s have been very busy lately at both Faraja Children’s Home and at the Longonot ECD School!

Faraja has received brand new bunk beds, meaning each child has their own bed and no longer has to sleep on the floor (see pictures below)! There's now more space and comfort to be had for everyone. We have also been adding to Faraja's sustainability efforts by improving the chicken coop, planting new vegetables in the garden in preparation for the rainy season, and will be buying cows for milk production. The milk will not only be used at the orphanage but will also be sold (at a very good price given the high demand for milk in Kenya) for a profit.

Construction of the new Longonot ECD School has also begun! We are building two new classrooms, a kitchen, a dining area, and new latrines. The teachers and children are extremely excited to see the progress each day. So far, the foundation is nearly complete, and we are hoping the construction will be finished before May.  After a year of planning, tangible progress is finally being made!

We will upload photos of the construction soon! 

Bunk beds #1
Bunk beds #2

The security wall at Faraja is completed!  View a picture here.  Tell us what you think!  Due to the amazing amount of support we received, we spent a bit more on the wall than originally planned—about $10,000.  We think it was worth it though (that’s razor wire on the top by the way…) as no one will be climbing over that wall anytime soon.  See a few more pictures below.

About three weeks ago we asked for help building the security wall to replace the existing wooden fence in order to protect the orphanage from thieves and other invaders after Omari was wounded in the face by a machete during an attack.  Now, thanks to all of your incredible generosity and support, the orphanage has that wall and the children of Faraja can sleep soundly tonight for the first time in over eight years.  The orphanage is as safe as possible now as we’ve also hired a very foreboding security guard, added improved locks, etc. 

We have now raised nearly $100,000 for the orphanage and children in Kenya, so we’ll be able to do much, much more for the children at the orphanage.  We have some leftover building materials so are contemplating building a small guard shack next to the gate.  Next we’ll purchase bunk bed frames as all the children are currently sleeping on mattresses on the floor (sometimes more than 1 per mattress)—the bunk beds will give everyone more space and comfort.  And overall, we are working to set Faraja on a path to long-term financial sustainability.  We want to ensure it can ably serve the vulnerable children of Ngong now and in the future.  Part of this will be to buy the land the orphanage is built on for which we will need to raise more funds (renting like this is a common arrangement in Kenya).  For now, we have secured discounted rental agreement which will pay for the cost of the wall.

Follow us on Twitter @LongonotEd and like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/LongonotEducationInitiative for additional ways to get updates on our progress.

Thank you again for your support, encouragement, and interest!

Here are a few more pictures of the wall and Faraja:

The wall
Freshly painted gate
Cleaning up inside the compound

Thank you all for your patience, we apologize for the lack of updates recently.

We will post pictures of the finished wall to Reddit tomorrow evening!

Here are a few pictures from the eighth day of construction:

Completed section of the wall.
The existing two gates; the cement will be demolished and the second gate will be sold.
Where the new gate will be.

As you can see, we are increasing the size of the compound by constructing the wall along the edges of the plot of land. The original plot was divided into two homes with two gates, divided by a barbed wire fence between the two. The section of land just outside of the compound was used for vehicle access. Now that it is just Mama Mora and her family living within the duplex, we have taken down the barbed wire fence, are removing one of the two existing gates, and moving the remaining gate to its new location. With the newly acquired land we will increase the size of the garden, improving the home's sustainability effort. The primary school directly next to Faraja is also extremely grateful for the construction of this wall as they have been meaning to get rid of the barbed wire fence and permanently close the existing access way; many children attempt to cross as a shortcut while injuring themselves on the barbed wire in the process.

Tomorrow we will paint the gate, begin adding barbed wire along the top of the wall, and start cleaning up inside the compound!

The wall is nearly finished! The final segment of foundation was completed today. All that is left is a few more columns, the relocation of the gate, the wall of the last segment, and the barbed wire on top! It should be finished by the end of this week!

Omari, Mama Mora and the children are beyond excited. They have been without a truly safe and sound night of sleep for eight years; needless to say they are more than looking forward to it.

This will not be the last time we say this, but thank you to everyone who has donated and made this happen.

Today the workers were given a day off; work will resume tomorrow.

Here are two pictures, taken today, of the wall after the fourth day of construction!

The Associated Press has written a story about LEI's fundraising windfall for the Faraja Children's Home orphanage via Reddit, Twitter, and blogs.  Read the story at ABC, CBS, The Washington Post, and many other news outlets!

Check out new pictures of Faraja in the Photo Gallery!


Also: Construction Day 4!

The wall is coming up, and fast!

More and more stones are being shaped. There is a huge pile of already shaped stones out of the picture. The foundation is nearly done, meaning the actual wall will likely start coming up tomorrow!