KidsTalk In Africa: The Kakamega Story

The KidsTalk Future Leaders Programs

Providing Hope through Education and Compassion

Despite their desperate situation: there is hope. In the village of Kakamega local families are giving shelter to these children in their homes. During the day, these children attend a remarkable school. Education, love and compassion is the foundation for Hope. These schools are operated with little funding. KidsTalk Foundation purchases textbooks, desks, classroom supplies and recently purchased property and a building for a Nursery School that serves a dual purpose by providing both housing and classroom facilities

To the orphans, school is not just a place to learn: it is the foundation for their future. Leaders emerge from all walks of life and social standing. The KidsTalk Future Leaders Programs focus on the needs of students and schools within impoverished areas (domestic and international) to provide every child - regardless of social standing - with the opportunity to excel and reach his or her potential.

Through the Future Leaders Programs, KidsTalk: 1) creates vocational and in-school programs (such as the Kakamega Art Club); 2) awards scholarships; and, 3) funds large projects that involve the construction of classrooms and school medical facilities as well as the ongoing funding of school medical services and student vaccinations.
Currently, a special project is underway to raise funding for the construction of a high school. In Kenya, high school is not free. As orphans, these children cannot afford to attend. Without a school of their own, these children will be left without an education. For a donation of $25 a donor can purchase a brick for the high school and change the life of a child.

Future Needs

KidsTalk Foundation has taken on a project in Kenya whereby hundreds, soon to be thousands, of orphans attend an extraordinary school: a safe haven. They are protected, nurtured, & educated by people who care and love them.

These children rely on the generosity of others for their survival.

We need...
• Ongoing support for grades K-8
• To build a high school
• Scholarships for college education
• Medicine
• Vaccinations
• A school nurse
• Food
• Shoes

Every dollar counts...
Your tax-deductible donation or volunteer hours will radically change the lives of these children.  It is not often that your donation may directly save the life of a child.

KidsTalk supports 3 schools in Nambale, Bunyore & Kakamega, Kenya, East Africa with a total of 950 students. The student population consists of orphaned or extremely destitute children who would otherwise be unable to receive an education. On a quarterly basis: organize and execute multi-day, multi-school medical camps. Coordinate with the Kenya Ministry of Health for doctors to participate in the medical camps. Every child receives a complete medical exam and treatment for existing illnesses. At the first medical camp, 750 children & 50 teachers were vaccinated against Typhoid.
                          

Constructed a permanent school medical clinic at the Kakamega School staffed by a full-time nurse, and 2 nurse’s aides. On average, between 150 and 200 children are treated at the clinic each month. In the 16 months prior to the establishment of the medical clinic and the execution of the medical camps, 7 children died of malaria and typhoid. In the 16 months since the establishment of the medical clinic and the medical camps: not one child has died of a treatable disease

                 

Purchased a 4 wheel drive vehicle to be used as a mobile medical unit. On a weekly basis, this vehicle will provide transportation of medicine and the medical staff to the two outlying schools. This will allow students at ALL schools to receive medical attention every week.

                        

KidsTalk supports 3 schools in Nambale, Bunyore & Kakamega, Kenya, East Africa with a total of 950 students. The student population consists of orphaned or extremely destitute children who would otherwise be unable to receive an education.

KidsTalk purchased a piece of property for a residential nursery/nursery school. 32 orphans live at one end of the building and there are classrooms at the other. The youngest orphan living here is 4 years old. The building (living quarters & class-rooms) has been refurbished. Beds were built to increase the comfort for the children. New desks and blackboards have been provided for the classrooms.

                     

KidsTalk has converted all classrooms at the Nambale & Bunyore schools from mud-floored rooms with no windows to new classrooms with concrete floors, windows, & blackboards.

At all three schools, Kakamega, Nambale & Bunyore, all students and teachers now have desks. They no longer sit on mud floors.

           

Each year, as the students graduate from one grade and move to the next higher grade, classrooms must be built to accommodate the next higher grade. KidsTalk undertook the construction of the 5th grade classroom at the Nambale school. During the December 2006 trip, Ninon cut the ribbon and dedicated the classroom.
Ninon talking with Alice Atemo Mwaro the school Superintendent and Founder. KidsTalk also provides all of the school books, teacher’s guides, and classroom supplies for every grade at all 3 schools. KidsTalk established a student Art Club at the Kakamega School. The painting at the right was done by a 12 year old orphaned boy who was grateful for having a place to live and a school to attend.

        

The students are learning to paint, carve wood animals, and use many other materials to create multiple types of art. The art is also being used in mainstream classes such as math to learn the basics of counting, sorting, and grouping.

                             

In December 2006, the students of the 8th grade class at the Kakamega school successfully graduated to the 9th grade. However, it will be at least another year before Alice will be able to expand the Kakamega school to include the 9th and 10th grades. Thus, in the interim, the students will need to attend boarding schools throughout the area. These schools are expensive and, as orphans, these students don’t have the financial means to attend. KidsTalk is sponsoring 5 students to attend high school this year.



Ninon interviewing in Kakamega



Margaret Asiko Apwoka, 2nd from left, received the first KidsTalk educational scholarship.


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