Dormitory

In December 2004, the boys’ dormitory was in a terrible state, and really needed replacing. We could not afford to give anywhere near the amount required to do this so, in the short term, sent enough for temporary renovations. The cardboard ceiling was painted, along with the window frames, the outside walls were whitewashed and the floor was cemented.

Clearly this was not satisfactory, and government officials had warned the school authorities that the building was not of a good enough standard, and would need major repairs, or a replacement.


	The interior of the old dormitory, in poor condition

In November 2005, we sent the first tranche of money to begin the building of a new dormitory. We were only able to send between £400 and £800 at a time (every two or three months) and this would not have produced much in the way of a building in the U.K. but the money goes much further in Kenya, and steady progress was made.



Work has begun

By the time Tina and Jean visited in April 2007, the dormitory was almost complete, and the labourers were plastering the interior walls. During our week’s stay, they finished plastering both interior and exterior walls, as well as completing the floor. All that remained to be done was the ablution block and painting the walls of the main building.

We discovered that the work was being done by parents of some of the pupils at the school. This was much cheaper than it would have been if a contractor had been brought in, and also meant that the men took pride in the work they were doing for their children, in addition to work being provided for local people.