Dear Friends and Supporters

We are pleased to send you a report on our recent visit to Enaikishomi School which is going from strength to strength under the direction of the excellent, new headmaster, Mathew Munyi.

With best wishes to you all for Christmas and 2023.
Edward and Sandy

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Report on the visit to the School by Edward and Sandy Elgar accompanied by their daughter Laura, her husband Alex and their children Leo, Barnaby and Chloe.

It was a delight to arrive at Enaikishomi School and see the well maintained and clean school grounds.

A New Dining Hall

There has been a major change at the school since our last visit in January, namely the construction of a beautiful multipurpose dining hall.

This is a light and very large space measuring 23 by 7 metres.

It has been well positioned alongside the kitchen with a new washing-up area and a serving hatch. It will be of particular benefit in the rainy season. No longer will the children have to sit outside getting wet and muddy!

This hall will be used for many different activities including music lessons and concerts, art classes and exhibitions, meetings with the parents and community etc.

It was wonderful to see the children queuing up in an orderly manner to collect their food. Many of the children come from very poor families and some have little to eat at home. Therefore, the feeding programme is an important lifeline.

We were very moved to see an enlarged and framed photograph of our daughter, Amy, donated by a neighbour, Mr Mwai.

The Headteacher – Mr Mathew Munyi

We had a warm welcome from Mathew followed by detailed discussions of recent progress at the school. Mathew is a truly excellent leader and commands the respect of all the teachers and ancillary staff as well as ourselves as donors. He is also modest and it was only at subsequent meetings that we learned from the Lewa education officer that Mathew is instrumental at Enaikishomi School in making exceptional progress in digital technology. IT at Enaikishomi School serves as a model for the many other schools administered by Lewa.

In contrast to previous years, the general maintenance of the school is excellent with the gardens very neat and tidy and the sports pitch in good condition for football despite the drought. Mathew has organised rotas for the cleaning of all the classrooms and toilets.  There were no broken windows which is always a good sign.

Mathew is compassionate and proactive in improving the well-being of the children.

During our tour, we were surprised to find some mattresses stacked up in the classroom for the three and four year old children. These were purchased from the funds that Enaikishomi receives from the Lewa marathon. Mathew explained that some of the children come from troubled families and get little sleep at home. Some of them walk for up to three hours a day just to get to and from school so they are all encouraged to have a two hour sleep after lunch!

White Elephants

This visit was very helpful to modify some of our previous ideas that could all too easily have resulted in buildings or technologies that would have been of little benefit.

We have shelved plans to construct a purpose built music room and library. Music lessons and any concerts can easily be accommodated in the new dining hall. A library for printed books is not necessary as apparently the children download and read books on the 52 tablets available at the school. In addition, the school is well served by a mobile library from Lewa.

We have also decided against installing a biogas plant to fuel the kitchen stoves. Whilst this is an attractive and environmentally friendly technology, it requires eight tons of cow manure to get started, followed by regular top ups. As a result of the severe drought, the local pastoralist farmers have taken their cows to the slopes of Mt Kenya in search of grazing. We were also told that many of the cows have died from thirst or malnutrition. In brief, it would be impossible to gather sufficient cow dung to make the biogas project viable. In view of this, we decided in consultation with Mathew and Nicholas Mutembi from Lewa to install an array of solar panels on the roof of the dining hall to supply new electric commercial cookers.

A new school curriculum?

We were advised that the new government under President William Ruto may introduce changes whereby children would move to secondary school at the age of eleven/twelve rather than fourteen as at present. If this were to happen, Enaikishomi would then have two empty classrooms that could be used for other purposes. So we do not envisage any more new construction in the foreseeable future.

The Water Kiosk

Enaikishomi is situated in the county of Laikipia which has suffered from a severe drought during the last three/four years. Fortunately, the school borehole is performing well. However, there are increasing demands from the local community on the water kiosk which is a lifeline to many. We have agreed with Mathew to install a water ATM at the kiosk which will enable local people to purchase water using their mobile phones. This will improve access to the water as well as eliminate the need for cash transactions that can be a source of temptation.

The Wildshots Programme

The weekend photography course conducted at the Lewa Education Centre by Mike and Harriet Kendrick earlier in the year was a great success, even though those pupils attending from Enaikishomi School were on the young side. Photos from the course have been selected and are currently being framed for display in the school. It is hoped that as a result of this programme, a photography club will be established in the future.

The Impact of Climate Change

The severe drought has had a devastating impact on the local community. Many families have lost their livelihood as their cows have died of starvation. Other families have taken their cows to the foothills of Mt Kenya in search of grazing. In some cases the children accompany their parents, leading to a temporary decline in student numbers.Mathew informed us that many families doubt that the traditional pastoral way of life will provide a viable livelihood for their children and as a consequence are placing a higher value on education.

New Initiatives

After long and helpful discussions with the Headteacher, Mathew, the Lewa Education Officer, Purity Kinoti and Nicholas Mutembi, Lewa Logistics, we agreed to support the following projects:

1. The installation of new water tanks, some of which may be linked to existing tanks through an overflow system. The harvesting and conservation of rainwater is critically important.
2. To support the very successful digital learning programme, we agreed to extend the internet to three more classrooms and provide three new Spectron teaching screens.
3. To provide a large television screen in the new dining hall so that the children can watch the news during the day and also while eating their meals. Having been brought up to believe that it is wrong to watch TV while eating (!), we initially had some doubts about this idea. However, both Mathew and the teachers reminded us that very few of the children have TV at home and that their knowledge of the outside world is narrowly confined to the local community. Watching the news on a daily basis will help to widen their horizons.
4. The school has a flourishing farming club run by the children. Last year they had a healthy crop of yellow maize half of which was eaten by the weaver birds! It was agreed to install posts and netting to protect the crops in the future.
5. To paint the old kitchen, the staff room and the headmaster’s room and to install pin boards and rails as appropriate.
6. To provide pebble/small stones on walkways to reduce the amount of mud or dirt brought into the classrooms and other buildings.
7. To remove old shutters from the very first classroom which was built and install appropriate windows.
8. To install an ATM system at the water kiosk for local people to make payments by Mpesa on their mobile phones.
9. To provide nursery play equipment.
10. To provide further equipment such as two working tables for activities in the new dining room, a metal table for serving food and new electric cooking stoves.
11. To provide invertors into staff quarters for teachers to power their mobile phones.
12. To provide more sports’ balls as necessary.
13. To facilitate a visit to the Lewa Education Centre via the Borana and Lewa conservancies.

Conclusion

This was a very encouraging visit. We are confident that the school will continue to make good progress under the leadership of the excellent Head Teacher Mathew Munyi. We look forward to our next visit tentatively scheduled for October 2023

With best wishes

Edward and Sandy Elgar
Trustees of the Amy Elgar Trust
Charity Registration No.: 1144222