Ndogo Primary School
Date started: Ground Breaking Ceremony 2 September 2008
Date completed: February 2010
Cost of project: £82,000
Size of school: Single stream
school to be built for 320 pupils. In Sep 11 there were 187 on role.
Many more expected now that the school is completed and a feeding
programme has been started.
Pictures:
Ndogo Primary School taken just after the Handover ceremony. The staff quarters are on the left-hand-side of the picture and four of the former mud hut classrooms centrally placed on the left-hand boundary.
In February 2007 John Franklin, HM of Ardingly College, tells the parents and children of his plans to raise money for the new build. The mud school can be seen behind.
In September 2008 Hugh Dayton, President of the Langalanga Scholars' Association, 'breaks the ground' in a colourful ceremony.
More info: This beautiful, purpose built school lies in a most beautiful area of unspoilt Africa. It is, perhaps, the most dramatic school we have yet built thanks to its location, quality of workmanship and the hope it brings to a desperate community. The parent body consists of a number of tribes all eking out a meagre existence.
The project was
funded by Ardingly College, Sussex, England to commemorate their
150th anniversary since the foundation of that school by Nathaniel
Woodard in 1858. A group of eight 6th Form Leavers and three members
of staff visited the school when it was under construction in 2009.
Other larger groups visited in 2010 and 2011.
Because of
Ndogo's extreme remoteness, Kariandusi School Trust has converted
what used to be Eburru Railway Station, built in 1903, into seven
staff houses. Six of these are occupied. The Headmaster, himself an
internally displaced person (IDP), was given the first choice. Staff
absences are greatly reduced and thus teacher-pupil contact is
increased. Electric cabling has been installed in the new homes and
mains power is now available.
Thanks to
substantial donations from generous donors, a kitchen has been
constructed complete with a jiku (an economical wood burning
stove) and a feeding programme has been started. Money for food has
been raised from kind people in England and by Ardingly students.
To make best use of the expensive kitchen and jiku we plan to
feed the children for a minimum of five years. We will need more
funds for food from September 2012 to achieve this.
Two water tanks
collect any rain that falls onto the roof of the houses and the water
is used by the staff and for watering the veg. patches that are run
by the children themselves. The produce will be used to supplement
lunchtime meals.
We continue to
encourage the sparse local population to send their children to
school. Ardingly College 6th formers served the first meal ever
provided at the school during their visit in July 2011 (see photos).
“Lunch is served, children!” The first-ever cooked meal at Ndogo school.
Ardingly College 6th formers serve the first meal starting with the youngest in the ‘Early Child Development’ class to the oldest in Standard 8.
Ndogo schoolchildren happily receiving their first school meal. Learning will be so much easier with full stomachs.