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Thanks to our generous donors and dedicated events organisers, we have had a very successful 2015, sending over £40,000 to Kenya to help the children of Mukuyu School and their families.

In 2016 we plan to consolidate the work of the last five years, supporting the children at Mukuyu School in Ruiru. Since Kipawa was established in 2010, the school roll there has increased from 400 to over 700 and the Headmaster puts much of this down to the work of Kipawa.

We also have two exciting new projects planned for 2016. We will be establishing a 'Kickstarter Class' at Mukuyu Primary School this year, funded by our Christmas appeal. The Kickstarter class will provide focussed educational and social work assistance to children who have dropped out of school or have never attended school, with the aim of supporting them back into mainstream classes. We will keep you updated on how this is progressing once the class is up and running.

We are also very excited to announce that in 2016 we plan to branch out to a completely new school. Oaklands Primary School is located not far from Mukuyu School and faces many of the same issues that Mukuyu did when we began supporting them five years ago. We are still waiting to confirm the necessary arrangements at the new school but all being well, we will be able to establish some vital programmes there soon. Over the course of 2016 and beyond we are confident that, with your support, we can achieve similar results to those at Mukuyu - increased school roll, better attendance rates and improved student performance. We'll keep you posted!

We will also continue to focus on our core business at Mukuyu School:

• The feeding programme which provides breakfast and lunch for the children, who receive 80% of their recommended daily nutrition from these two meals. Children living in poverty are far more likely to attend school if they are being fed there and they will concentrate and perform better too.
• Health and counselling projects which help to educate the children about keeping themselves safe and improving their health and well-being. For example, de-worming reduces illness and absenteeism among children and the provision of sanitary towels to girls also improves attendance at school.
• Our family empowerment programme which supports the families of some of the neediest children at the school. We provide initial funds and other assistance which enables parents to set up a small business, such as a fruit and veg stall, giving a much needed income and a sustainable way to support their families in the future.
• Funding for an additional teacher for the nursery class, which allows to school to provide more early years education to pre-school children at this crucial stage of their development.
• Funding a number of scholarships to enable needy children identified in Year 8 at Mukuyu Primary School to continue their education at secondary school.

 
None of this will be possible without your ongoing support. Thank you for all you have already done for the children and families we work with in Kenya and we look forward to your continuing support throughout 2016.

Thank you to the 27 donors who dug so deeply and donated over £3,600 for our new Kickstarter class. There were a few donors who were exceptionally generous – McGinness Associates, Main Street Consulting and Sam McGinness - so a special thanks to them.
 
For those of you who don’t know, the Kickstarter class will aim to help reintegrate children who have dropped out of school or who have never attended school in the first place, back into the school environment. These are often the kids who are least well off and they will benefit from a smaller class size, focussed intervention and dedicated social worker support. Once they are ready the children will rejoin their peer group in regular classes.
 
The great news is that we have raised more than our target and so we will be going forward as quickly as possible to get this new class off the ground. The first step will be to build a new classroom for the class – our success with the feeding programme has meant that the other classrooms are very full. At the same time, our partners in Kenya will be identifying children who would benefit most from the programme. We will keep you posted as the work progresses.

In the meantime, here’s a message from the kids.