St. Gorety Mikei Community Secondary School
The St. Gorety Mikei Community Secondary School is a small crowded school in Nyatike District of Kenya that provides education for 300 local students.
The school receives a meagre subsidy from the government and the students are required to provide a small stipend ($135 per year) to help with paying teachers, providing lunch and other administrative costs. Even this proves difficult for many in the community where over 75% of the people live on less than $1 a day.
Larger neighbouring secondary schools are several kilometers away and are only accepting full board students. The young people of this community simply can not afford to go to secondary school that only provide full boarding.
Edward Kabaka, founder of a local NGO, Rieko Kenya, reports, "The situation here has been made worse by the high number of orphans and vulnerable children, mostly from the death of parents from HIV/AIDS. This situation has already overwhelmed traditional care structures. The increase in enrollment at the St.Gorety Mikei Community Secondary School means that students often have to learn outside under a tree or in semi-structured buildings that do not meet standards of the ministry of public works and health."
CanAssist agreed to help construct a classroom for the school in order to help alleviate the crowded learning situation and construction started on the classroom in February 2012. The total cost to provide this building was estimated to be approximately $7000 Can. The community agreed to provide a portion of of this in labour and materials and CanAssist provided about $4500 in donated funding.
The school receives a meagre subsidy from the government and the students are required to provide a small stipend ($135 per year) to help with paying teachers, providing lunch and other administrative costs. Even this proves difficult for many in the community where over 75% of the people live on less than $1 a day.
Larger neighbouring secondary schools are several kilometers away and are only accepting full board students. The young people of this community simply can not afford to go to secondary school that only provide full boarding.
Edward Kabaka, founder of a local NGO, Rieko Kenya, reports, "The situation here has been made worse by the high number of orphans and vulnerable children, mostly from the death of parents from HIV/AIDS. This situation has already overwhelmed traditional care structures. The increase in enrollment at the St.Gorety Mikei Community Secondary School means that students often have to learn outside under a tree or in semi-structured buildings that do not meet standards of the ministry of public works and health."
CanAssist agreed to help construct a classroom for the school in order to help alleviate the crowded learning situation and construction started on the classroom in February 2012. The total cost to provide this building was estimated to be approximately $7000 Can. The community agreed to provide a portion of of this in labour and materials and CanAssist provided about $4500 in donated funding.
A second classroom was also started through a government grant to the school but this would only pay for part of the contstruction. Students at Kingston Ontario Secondary Schools (LCVI and KCVI) collected donations to help fund this construction and complete the classrooms. As of June 6, their mission has been accomplished. Congratulations all.
New Classroom for the St Gorety Secondary School - August 2012
CanAssist has received donations in memory of James Owen and they have been sent to the
St Gorety School in January 2014. A computer classroom bearing Jim's name is now under construction at the school.
St Gorety School in January 2014. A computer classroom bearing Jim's name is now under construction at the school.
