The start of it all

I had been on my first trip to Kenya, it was almost at an end when on the Saturday we had a horrendous thunder storm, and on the Sunday I decided to go into the village at Ukunda to see what damage had been done by the previous day's storm. There was a lot of damage to small stalls (vibanda). Whilst walking along the road I was greeted by a stranger, who introduced himself as Duncan, one of the teachers at Shamu Primary School, and asked if I could help sponsor his school. I was a little reticent at first and told him that I would like to return to Kenya at a later time, he then ask if I could bring a map of Kenya for the school as they did not have one. On returning to the UK I decided to do exactly that, in fact I collected a number of educational items and brought then to Kenya on my next trip.


Many of the classrooms lack even the most basic essentials like desks. So In November of 1996 100 new desks were bought for the school. These desks were made by Kwale Saw mill, at a total cost of about £6.00 Pounds Sterling per desk, including delivery. A lot of the old desks had deteriorated, and vandals had destroyed some of them. Now that the school has some of the classrooms secured, they can lock these desks away during the holidays. As will be seen from this photograph many of the children are not in school uniform. Although the school prefer that children wear uniforms, some parents simply cannot afford them.

Without doubt the largest project undertaken at Shamu was the construction of new toilets, this became necessary due to the El Nino rains of 1997, the old toilets collapsed into the pit. The estimated life of the pit is about 40 years, before it will fill up. There was still some work to be done on them. The outside wall needs rendering and doors will have to be fitted, so that the toilets can be locked. This is necessary because the whole village would use them as a public convenience.

During my time at the school i.e. between 1994 and 2001 I supplied the school with many new text books, the old books being in a dilapidated state most of these were purchased in Mombasa as it was cheaper than trying to bring books from the UK and besides that the books in Kenya conform to the Kenyan curriculum. I also provide the school with many other educational items. Mr. Mraja the second head teacher during my involvement with the school needed to record everything in the school log book.