Latest Newsletter December 2021
Friends of Mikoroshoni Newsletter
December 2021
Dear Supporter,
We hope you and your family are all keeping safe and well.
A very big Thank You to all our supporters who have continued to donate to Mikoroshoni Primary School during this very stressful time. The children at Mikoroshoni are now able to attend school again full time and both teachers and children are working hard to ensure lost time in school is being made up.
The children throughout Kenya lost 2 terms of education in 2020 because of Covid and the Kenya Government decided that during 2021 and 2022, school holidays would be drastically reduced in order to add an extra term each year to make up for the 2 lost terms. The normal school year in Kenya will resume in January 2023.
Just as in the UK, many businesses in Kenya were forced to close down and millions of people found themselves out of work. Unlike the UK there was no furlough scheme and there are no unemployment benefits. Coupled with the unemployment there were quite significant rises in the price of food and people who had regular employment found themselves suddenly without an income. Those living in real poverty, like those families who have children at Mikoroshoni, found their situation became even worse. The reopening of primary schools in Kenya was a welcome relief for the families whose children attend Mikoroshoni because our UK Charity provides a free education and we also provide the children with a free daily meal. The free education and the free daily meal ensures that our children have all been able to return to school unlike so many children from other families who have to pay school fees.
Just a reminder of the hours the children attend school at Mikoroshoni. School starts at 7.00am each morning and finishes at 4.00pm. The children have a 15 minute break in the morning and one hour for lunch. There is no afternoon break. Teachers are expected to be in school at 6.30am and stay at school until 6.00pm each day.
With the easing of restrictions in the UK it is now possible to start thinking about fund raising again. Middleton Rotary Club, of which Keith, Lee and John B are all members, once again held its annual Whisky Tasting Event at the end of November and 50% of the money raised is donated to our Mikoroshoni Charity. Also Lee is the current President of the Rotary Club and had chosen our Mikoroshoni Charity as the charity he wishes to support during his time in office and so further fund raising events will be held in the early part of 2022.
Middleton Rotary Club voted to give recognition to Joshua for his outstanding service to the school and the community. It was decided by all the members of Middleton Rotary Club to present Joshua with the Prestigious Rotary International ‘Paul Harris’ Award which is given to people for outstanding service to their local communities. As we were unable to present the award personally to Joshua, we linked up via a Zoom meeting and it was a delight to see his reaction at receiving this award. The ‘Paul Harris’ Certificate and Medal will be given to Joshua personally on the next visit to Mombasa by one of the Trustees.
In the absence of being able to make visits to Mombasa, Zoom has provided an excellent way for the Trustees to be able to have meetings with Joshua for us to keep up to date with the situation in Kenya.
With the good news that Kenya has been removed from the UK Red List, it means that our Trustees will now be able to plan visits to Mombasa in 2022. We have missed being able to go to Mikoroshoni and seeing the children and being able to meet with Joshua to discuss a wide range of issues, just like the Governors in UK schools do on a regular basis. We have had our vaccinations so will be able to obtain the Covid Pass that will allow us to transfer flights in Amsterdam and to allow us entry to Kenya. We hope that things don’t change and foreign travel is banned or entry to Kenya restricted. We are keeping a close eye on the current situation and are hoping that we be able to make our planned visits.
If it is possible for any of our supporters to organise a fund raising event for our charity ‘The Friends of Mikoroshoni Primary School’ we would be very grateful. As with all small charities we need to keep funds coming to continue to fully provide all the support to the children eg each new school year we provide all the children who come into the first nursery class with a full uniform including shoes as well as a compulsory PE kit of shorts and T Shirt and of course, a free midday meal.
Just in case you missed the news with regard to our change in funding platform we shall re-iterate here. Virgin Money Giving announced back in August that they would be ceasing to operate as a funding platform at the end of November, which gave us the slight problem of finding a new charity platform to get up and running by November 30th. Our treasurer, Keith researched this and found an alternative site that would do almost a like for like process that VMG had been giving us. So we have now switched over to JustGiving. All regular donors have been notified and hopefully been successful in switching. We have also changed all the notifications on our website & social media. You can see our new JustGiving site by searching on Google for www.justgiving.com then entering Mikoroshoni in their search box, this will display the ‘Friends of Mikoroshoni PS’ page and double click on this to see our site.
On behalf of everyone associated with Mikoroshoni Primary School we would like to wish you and your families a Very Happy Christmas and a Healthy New Year.
All our best wishes,
From the Trustees of the Friends of Mikoroshoni Primary School
www.justgiving.com then entering Mikoroshoni in their search box, this will display the ‘Friends of Mikoroshoni PS’ page and double click on this to see our site.