End of year report

We greet you all our partners. we have yet come to the end of another year and we thank you all for the continued support and care that you have accorded to us here at happy day junior school.

This year has been full of challenges especially due to the political temparatures in our country. this year has also seen a change to the school syllabus that was occasioned by the changes in the countries political constitution. this has forced all schools to buy new text books especially the social studies books so that the teachers can teach current affairs.

Our staff has been very busy through out and what we say to them is thankyou very much for your work. we also say thankyou to our friends and family in norway for the continued support. you have enabled us come this far. without your support we wouldnt have come this far may you be blessed.

To every one who has in anyway,be it financially , materially or through a word of advice we say thankyou very much.

We shall be holding a pre- unit graduation ceremony on 14th nov 2013. on this day our kids in pre- unit will be adorned in graduation gowns and the cap. they will also receive academic certificates. they will also have food and drinks as a way of celebrating. we have invited you all to this

Occassion because we want to make it a memorable day. we have already booked the gowns and are hoping that we shall have enough money to cater for the other needs.

School will be closed on the same day for the christmass holiday

next year we want to repaint the premises and also draw some shapes and cartoons on the walls. we will also cement our classes because they are not in good conditions.

We only have one toilet that serves everyone and we are hoping to construct a new one. water has also been a problem to the school and the neighbours. this is because the city council has began issuing water meter s in the area and we have applied for ours. we currently buy water from outside the compound at a cost of 10 shillings per 20 lters and its very costly for the school.

We hope that by january that the city council will have connected us to the water supply pipes. our septic tank also needs to be connected to the main sewage line. this is also done by the city council at cost of 30 thousands. we hope to do so by the end of December.the school will also have to renew the government and city council licences at a cost of 10 thousands and 15 thousands consecutively. we hope to apply for the licences in December for convenience purposes.

We will continue with the feeding program on January though we face very many challenges. due to high food prices we were forced to reduce the quantity of food that we used to give to the children. we now serve smaller portions. most parents were unable to pay the small school fees that we charge them. this has been a challenge in the running of the school. we rely on the money for buying food, chalk and any other requirement that the school may need. we have written letters to our parents and invited them to a meeting on january whose agenda will be ways of gaining incomes that they may be able to pay school fees.

We intend to teach them basketry and bead work and also how to make bricket from charcoal dust. these items will need a market and we hope that we will find it so that it can be an income generating project for them.

the children are eagerly waiting for the christmas party that we hope to have together with the graduation ceremony.

Lastly we wish you all a merry christmas and a happy new year 2014.

be blessed

Happy Day Junior School report October 2013

First I thank God for bringing us this far and for enabling us to continue with this noble cause. I also thank all our partners, friends, sponsors, family, parents, teachers and even our beloved children. Without every one of you in this great Happy Day Junior School family things would not be the same.

We apologize for not being able to give out our reports on time and we say sorry to all our partners. From now on we hope to be giving out our reports on a monthly basis.

This year (2013) began with a lot of politics in our country and almost all of us were uncertain of what awaited our country after the elections. Most parents fled from Nairobi our capital city and where our project is located and went to their rural homes – with their children. The first term which started on 4^th January was a very tough one everyone in all schools and especially for teachers because they had to be very cautious when dealing with children from different backgrounds and different ethnic communities. After the general elections in our country which were held in March 4^th, tension was still very high and school had to be closed for 3 weeks and this interfered most with school time. We thank God that 1^st term ended without any particular incident to any of our members.

The term was also full of challenges due to the high cost of living experienced worldwide and especially due to the fact that our children in Happy Day Junior School come from very poor households. That term saw us buy exercise books, pencils and many types of stationery for the children. We also had to request all parents to provide their children with tissue papers and soaps for hygienic purposes which proved to be a burden to some of them. During the same term, most of the parents were unable to pay the small amount of money that they are required to pay in the school for their children. This made the school management to be very strained because teachers then lacked very essential items like biro pens and chalks. We say thank you very much to those parents who supported the school by remembering to pay the school fees for their children. This went a long way into helping your kids learn. First term came thru to an end on 10^th march 2013 with a sigh of relief.

We opened school on 6^th may 2013 and now the political tension and temper had cooled down and we immediately entered into serious studies. All the parents were now back to Nairobi, and thus their children reported back to school. The challenge that we faced during the term was still the same we had during the first term. Life was so hard for most of the parents and so they were unable to pay the school fees. Another challenge came with the increase of food prices by the government due to the introduction of the VAT (value added tax). This really affected our feeding program and sometimes we had to let the children go home for lunch and come back for the afternoon classes. This affected most of the kids because some of them did not find food for lunch at home due to the fact that the parent didn’t have money for lunch. Food prices are still very high as I write this report and we are still forced to let them go home for lunch.

During the same term, teacher Kellis daughter Irene became sick and required money to enable her to undergo surgery. Thanks for the support that someone gave to her. The girl has not yet been operated on because the money has not accumulated to what the hospital needs in order to treat her.

The same term saw a family of four kids who are in the school lose their bread winner and their only parent. We say poleni sana to David Mwangi, Peter Mwangi, Amos Ndung’u and Jane Wangare. These children are now parent less and they need our help so that they can be able to achieve their goals in life. The school is already providing free education to the 4 kids but they still need lots of support from all of us.

The last term, which is the third term of the school year started on 2^nd September 2013. The challenges are still on and we are still trying to make ends meet and to run the school project smoothly. We received visitors from Norway this term, and they brought us books to read and learn. We really appreciate you ladies may you be blessed. The baby class kids use the building bricks and they are having a lot of fun – and learning a lot through them. I have already given the books to the teachers and they say the books are helping a great deal though they are written in Norwegian. The number works in the books are just similar to what we teach in Kenya.

The feeding program is also coming to a standstill because the government again increased the VAT on most of the food items. This has forced us to stop providing porridge (maize flour and sugar) to the children until when we shall be able to. We regret this decision because some kids don’t take breakfast at home knowing that they will take porridge during break time.

We are hoping to hold a graduation party for the kids in pre-unit as they go to join primary school. This is a way of appreciating them and showing that we care about what they do. We have 12 kids in our pre-unit class which is taught by teacher Mercy who is in pre-school teacher college. Every kid in that class will require 500 ksh so that they can get the graduation gowns to wear on that day and the remaining cash we can buy some snacks and presents for them as they go to the next class. We have written news letters to the parents regarding the same and are waiting for feedback from them. Any person who is willing to help in anyway please talk to Annelene if you are in Norway and to Margaret if you are in Kenya. Let us help make that day a memorable one for our school kids.

The school currently has 54 children, 5 teachers, 1 caretaker and 1 cook. Most of our children do not have full school uniforms due to the financial constraints. We have provided some of them with uniforms and we still have some of them who are unable to buy.

Children’s report

Meshack Mating’e is a 7 year old boy. The father died 2 years ago and the mother is jobless. This boy is one of the best kids in the school. He is well behaved and academically able. The mother is unable to promptly pay school fees and even providing food for him. He loves reading comics and telling stories. He is good in football. He is in class one.

Faith Mongare is a 5 year old girl in pre-unit class. She is very reserved and doesn’t talk much. She comes from a very poor household. The father works at the quarry and earns like one hundred shillings a day which is not enough for the familys daily food. The mother is a housewife and so providing for the children’s need is a very hard task. She likes being alone most of the time. In class she is an average child. She has 3 siblings.

Winnie Mwikali is a 6 year old girl in pre-unit. When she was brought to the school she used to cry all day long and the mother said that she had been running away from the other school due to hunger. Nowadays she doesn’t run away because she receives lunch in the school. The mother now says that she is better and that she looks forward to coming to school. She is a very reliable pupil and a hard worker.

Bridgit Nyawira is a 4 year old in our nursery school class. She likes singing and playing with toys. She comes from a single mother family and so most of the time the mother is unable to provide for their daily needs. She is very clever in academics and likes school very much. She is one of the school uniform beneficiaries because when we were giving out the uniforms she didn’t have any.

Joseph Irungu is 3 years old and in the baby class. The father died when he was 3 months old through a road accident. He used to be a matatu driver. The mother is a casual laborer at the quarry and she requested that we except Joseph from paying anything so that se can ble able to provide food and shelter for the other 3 siblings and for Joseph too.

Damaris Mbula is a 7 year old girl in class 1. The mother collects plastic items from the Dandora dump site and sells them for recycling. She is also asthmatic and during her seizures she is mostly not in school because she has to be near her mother. She also has a brother Moses Muasa who is also in our school. Most of the time, they come to school without having taken breakfast. We also had to provide them with school shoes because they used to come to school in slippers. She is good in academics.

Sally Joy Nyongesa is 8 years old and lives with her uncle and his wife after the parents died of HIV/AIDS when she was young. The guardians have their own 5 children and they do not have a constant in come. The uncle is a casual laborer at a restaurant and the aunt sells vegetables. They live in a mud walled house and life is very hard for them. She is also a school uniform beneficiary from the school project.

Valery Achieng is a 3 year old girl in the baby class. She is very jovial girl and she likes singing and playing with toys. She is always early to come to school. She loves the school so much that on Saturdays her mother has to bring her to school so she can know it’s not a school day.

Petro Munywoki is 8 years old and in class one. He likes playing with toy cars and is very brilliant academically. He doesn’t have most of the school requirement items and so learning is hard for him when he doesn’t even have writing materials. We hope to be able to provide for him some stationary as soon as we are able to.

Angela Mutheu is 6 years old and from a very poor household. The mother sells bananas and is unable to pay fees for the four children she has. She likes jumping ropes, reading and playing handball games. She is good in academics. The parents have been separated and so she lives with the father’s mother who is her grandmother.

Those are a few examples of the children that we have at Happy Day Junior School. Most parents have been unable to pay up what they owe the school. When Titus and Annelene’s mother and aunt came to visit the project in early September this year, they looked at the schools records for the whole year and they found that the parents were not paying at all. This has brought lots of challenges especially with the feeding program. We would just wish that the program continues because some of the kids if they are told to go home for lunch, they will return back to school without eating any food at home. As I said earlier the main challenge and the most serious one is our feeding program. The other challenge that we have is on the school classrooms. We need to renovate the walls and put some cement and also floors need to be cemented. We only have one toilet and one bathroom and it’s used by all pupils and staff. We would like to change the bathroom into another toilet so that we can have two toilets. The septic tank also needs to be connected to the sewage line before it becomes full and overflows. This will require money and we hope to accomplish this by the end of the year so that we can have a better place in January 2014.

We again thank all Happy Day members and partners for the great support we receive from you and we are most grateful to all of you.