DOCUMENTARY : POSITIVE FOOTPRINTS - KENYA

This 25 minute documentary film was made by Trent O'Donnell for the Positive Footprints series about his experience on the Kiwanje Ndege  School. Join 16 travellers as they head into the heart of Kenya to give their time to build vital infra-structure to aid in the education and sustainability of this remote community.

Positive Footprints - Kenya from WorldNomads on Vimeo.

PROJECT REPORT

The World Expeditions community project travel trip to Kenya in September 2007 to carry out this project was highly successful. Here is a report from Clive Dougherty, World Expeditions Operations Manager, Kenya...

"The school kids and teachers were initially curious about us but soon came out of their shells and a genuine friendship developed between the school children, teachers and the trek participants. There was one deaf child at the school and the participants are looking into providing a hearing aid for her. This means that longer term communication with the school will continue long after the event by the participants.

What we achieved:

Over the 4 days the 17 participants split into 2-3 work parties and set about the tasks to do.

1. “The painters” - managed to paint all 6 classrooms made from stone. All of these classes were bare cement plaster – so this has brightened up these classrooms alot, making for a better learning environment rather than a grey dull environment.
2. “The carpenters” – made 23 school benches which were a lot sturdier than the existing ones and repaired about 10 of the existing school benches. These benches were distributed across the 6 classes which has made a huge difference, now providing extra seating capacity of 69 additional seats in the school. This alleviates the necessity for 4 children to share a bench, as it's now down to only 3 children per bench... and gives them enough space to actually write!
3. The football pitch now has two goalposts (before there was none) and the edges marked out. This was probably the most popular thing we did for the actual school children from their eyes.
4. A volleyball net and volleyball was supplied (replacing just a rope).
5. Water tank - Probably the biggest improvement was the installation of the 10,000 litre water tank. This was placed at the end of the classrooms on a sand/stone base. Every morning the kids have to come to school with 3 litres of water for the Kitchen and to drink. For much of the year the kids (or their mothers) have to walk to collect this before going to school and often the water was from poor sources and dirty. (The head teacher said that last year there was a typhoid outbreak coming from poor water sources).
   This tank will alleviate the need for water collection for much of the year and give peace of mind knowing that the water from the tank is clean, so the children spend less time walking to school, and drink less dirty water.
6. The painters also whitewashed the inside of the teachers' admin block and used the last of the paint to cover a wall per room – 3 rooms. So the teachers block which was pretty grim inside has also had a facelift too."

(Update posted 24 September 2007)