Requirements to stay open

 Good morning Happy Day family.  

We trust you are all fine. 

Yesterday the government announced that it's starting a schools inspection and mapping program starting in June. This exercise targets all public, private and informal schools in the country.  

The inspection and mapping includes::

1. Checking if a school is a safe space for the kids.

2. If the school has enough toilets.

3. Child to teacher ratio.

4. Availability of teaching and learning materials. 

5. Compliance ( licenses)

6. Availability of extracurricular activities space.

7. School records...registers, admission books, attendance books, parent's contacts, visitor's book. 

8. Student -desk ratio.

9. Cleanliness. 

10. Compliance by teaching and non teaching staff ( health certificates, tsc numbers, lesson plans, schemes of work)

This year we have not gotten the relevant licenses and this might land us into problems during the exercise by the government.  

We are therefore requesting for at least 2 of them .... 

1. Ministry of education 

2. County government 

This 2 are the major ones and they are mostly the ones that are checked during such exercises.  

For extracurricular activities we have a space near the school where our children are able to play and create talents. 

We have 2 toilets that are functional though they need a few repairs. 

Our classroom are at a fair condition. .

We have enough desks for our kids. 

We have good water storage ( 3000 liter capacity tank). 

Our blackboards are good though in need of repainting). One classroom does not have a blackboard. 

Our staffs are compliant.  

We have a banner that we will hang outside the gate as our identity.  

The feeding program is ongoing though in need of a boost. 

All our records are upto date.  

We hope when they come they find us compliant in all areas though there is always some things that might pass our eyes

Heavy rains shuts down Happy day and affects families

Kenya has been hit by unprecedented heavy rains lately that has paralyzed huge parts of the country and killed several people. Happy day junior schools is temporary closed and families are struggling. PLEASE HELP:

This is how it looks (press the link and see video on Facebook)

Updates since February

Happy day is on their April break (3 weeks). Maggie and Ben has been providing  updates on a regular basis, and I am sorry I have not shared them here continuously. We have managed to pay salaries and extra expenses that has occurred due to an upgrade of the sewage system and the repair of the roof in one of the classrooms. See videos below. But we are struggling to cover expenses to the daily food programme, uniforms and other dire needs due to lack of funds. In addition to a shortage of money from sponsors, the exchange rate has worsened dramatically due to the weakening of the Norwegian krone. As an example, we paid NOK 685 for KSh 10000 in January. In March we had to pay NOK 870 for the same amount! Happy day suffers from this 💔 

We are in dire need of more funds! Our accounts are emptied.

Here are some insights from the last two months:

28 February 2024:
Jambo you all. We hope this finds you well. 

We at happy day are fine and striving to make the happy day kids stay happy in school and enjoy learning.  

Today tractors came to make a sewer line trench at our gate and we took the opportunity to have our septic tank connected to the sewer line bu negotiating with the foreman who agreed to do it at a cost of 13k. This is a permanent solution to our sewage system because from now henceforth we will not need the exhauster services.... we therefore request for the above amount so that we can be connected as soon as possible. .

This week is the mid term week and we were supposed to break on Thursday but due to the ongoing  work ( digging the trenches) we had to break today. We will be back on Monday next week. 

We were unable to do our mid term exams before the break because we couldn't afford to buy it. 

We discussed with the teachers and we will do the exams from Monday next week upto Wednesday.  

We are therefore requesting for 2k to enable us to buy the exams. 

Again we say Asante sana to you all for your kind help and thoughts towards us. Be blessed always. 

Attached are videos and pictures of the work in progress.  

More to come as work continues

11 March: Good morning you all. Our grade one class roof is down. Looks like someone stepped on it over the weekend. Our pellets ( cooking fuel) are also finished and today we had to buy charcoal.  

We are therefore requesting for 2800 so that we can order for the pellets. 

Have a blessed week

Estimate costs: 

2 iron sheets @1200= 2400

I timber........ 800

1 cement......850

2 buckets sand @250=500

2 buckets concrete @320=640

Labour fee..... 1500

TOTAL... 6690

Despite challenges the children play and have fun:

Good afternoon Happy day family.

We hope this finds you well.  

This is an appreciation note to you all for your support towards the wellbeing of Happy day kids and staff. We are very grateful to you and we feel blessed and pray that you too will be blessed.  

Our fun day was a big success all credit goes back to you for you made it possible.  

Most if not all of our pupils have never ventured our of the slums. 

They really enjoyed touring a new hood with a different infrastructure from theirs... 

They really marveled at what most of us take as normal.  

They could not stop staring at new things ( to them) . We hope they were encouraged to work smart . 

We left behind about 10 of our pupils for lack of uniform. As witnessed in the above pictures, the venue had many schools participating and it wasn't easy for teachers to identify kids other than see the uniforms.  

The 10 come from very very underprivileged homes and they are unable to afford uniforms... we nevertheless allow them to come without.

As we all know, this term we have not bought any stationary for the school and it is a big challenge to both the teachers and the pupils. 

We therefore request for the following items...  

1. Ream papers (2) @ 700 ...... 1400

2. Chalk..... @ 1200

3. Office glue @ 300

4. Biro pens ( red and blue)..... @ 500

5. Pencils... 5 pkts@ 750

6. Sharper @200

7. Eraser @200

8. Modeling clay... 20 pcs @.... 100....2000

9. A paper punch .... @500

10. Full scaps @... 550

TOTAL...7500.

It's also a kind request for foodstuff. 

We are running the feeding program from the 20 ksh the is paid by a few parents. 

A friend of mine had donated rice and it's finished and so now it's a bit of a challenge to us. 

And so we are requesting for food in order to keep the kids in school.  

We all know that most of them are in school because they are assured of a meal every week day. 

Kindly consider our request.  

Have a blessed day ahead

School trip

The school trip scheduled for October finally took place on Friday February 9th.  

You can see photos and videos here <3 

Updates January 2024

18 January:  Good morning happy day family... This is our current situation. The pipe that brings water to our plot was vandalized and currently no water is flowing into our tank. We are almost running out of water.

We have had a plumber come to check it out and this is what he requires for the repairs

It is an urgent need

22 January: Good evening happy day family. We hope you are all fine. 

This week as started well and almost all the children are back . 

We have started the feeding program though small quantities... The kids are very happy.  

Our eco safi stove ( environmental friendly stove) uses special pellets.  

We are supposed to purchase 1sacks ( 30kg ) each month for us to be able to keep the stove. 

This month we haven't bought the pellets.

We are therefore required to order for them @ 1400 shillings. 

We will appreciate if we get the pellets. 

Have a blessed evening

30 January: Good morning happy day family... The pellets were delivered and we  to you all.

This is the stove that we are using

Annelene: We are struggling with raising enough money to cater for Happy days needs. Salaries and food must be prioritized, but we do understand the need to pay for licences and learning materials. We will continue to try to raise money and wish you well <3 

A New School Year at Happy Day Junior School

 Good Afternoon Happy Day family.... 

Happy new year to you all. We trust that you all had a great Christmas holiday. We too had a lovely time with our families. 

Schools opened on 8th January 2024 for the first term of this year. 

We are happy that most of our pupils and staff reported back.

We are looking forward to a good start this term and we hope that by the end of the term we will have achieved our objective.... Which is : 

1. To create a safe space for our learners. 

2. To give quality education ( both academic and social)

3. To make a difference in a childs life and put a smile on their face. 

We have always achieved the above because of your continued support. 

We are very grateful for the support we receive from you and our friends. Feel appreciated very much. 

Being a new term and our pupils transitioning to the next class, we have a few requirements for us to be able to achieve our objectives.... This are:

1. Exercise books

2. Pencils

3. Crayons

4. Water colours

5. Plain papers

6. Fullscaps

7. Scissors

8. Office glue

9. Stick glue

10. Biro pens

11. Modeling clay

12. Mark pens

13. Staples

14. Paper punch

NB: We require text books for all learning areas and at least one encyclopedia for each class (this we can get from The Kenya Institute Of Education) so that we buy the recommended ones. 

It is also our hope that we continue with the feeding program which has been very instrumental in helping us to achieve our objectives. This is because the kids look forward to coming to school because they are assured of getting 2 meals each day (porridge at break time and food for lunch). 

We will give an updated report on attendance after we open . 

We wish you all a happy and prosperous new year.

We are also supposed to renew our licences for this year so that we can be at the right side of the law. Especially the Nairobi city county one and the kra one. 

For the ministry one we have to wait for the new guidelines because I understand there are some changes made by the ministry

Below are prices for the required licences...

Certificate of 

 1. Incorporation ... 10000 ( standard for all businesses)

2. Unified business permit( former county council permit).... 26000

3. Kra operations license.   22000

We are supposed to start the application process so that we can be able to operate smoothly during this academic year. 

Kenya Institute Of Education cost for the required textbooks

1. Encyclopedia for all lower primary grades.... 4 @ 680 = 2720

2. Activity books for all lower primary grades ( each grade has 5 learning areas).... 

Each books costs 350 × 5 =1750

1750 × 4 = 7000

We also request for physical education learning materials:

Balls

Skipping ropes

Rings