The quality of education at Kenya 2020’s link primary schools is very good, but the lack of a local secondary school prevented most children accessing education beyond age 13.

Kenya 2020 , the community of Alara and Alara Mixed

Secondary School.

Alara Primary School is our ‘hub’ school. It has an excellent track record in helping students achieve their potential. With Kenya 2020, it hosts a teacher’s centre which spreads good practice and shares resources.Alara Mixed Secondary School was set up in Jan 2012 in a classroom at the primary school. The community has led this development: employing staff and providing some basic resources. They have bought two acres of land for the secondary school but lack the money to provide buildings and develop the site.

David Sabare, headteacher at Alara PS with the cup for best pupil results in Kobama Division (5th consecutive year)

Alara Primary School

The support of Government officials is essential for the smooth running of the projects

The Area Chief of Aora Chuodhu

The Area Education Officer visited Alara to discuss progress at the secondary school

Books for the library at Alara Mixed Secondary School – donated by schools and colleges in the UK

Sophie delivering the laptops donated by her old primary school: Four Lanes PS, Basingstoke

Data projector donated by Peter Symonds 6th Form College, Winchester

Alara Mixed Secondary School is the only school in the area to have computers. The proposed library/IT room will be a resource that can be used by all schools in the area.

A bottle of drinking water – from the river

The projects Kenya 2020 supports focus on education. This includes improving the community infrastructure so that children have time to go to school and are healthy enough to do so.

Many pupils drop out of school because they have to spend several hours each day collecting water and wood.

The Area Chief visited in August ‘12 to try out an irrigation pump

The new well at

Ratanga community

farm

Gutters and rainwater tank at Kombe Primary School

Providing wells or rainwater catchment tanks increases food supplies, saves time wasted collecting water and reduces the risk of water-borne disease.

Traditional 3-stone stove, Alara school kitchen, April 2012

High efficiency jiko stove installed at Alara June 2012

Traditional 3-stone stoves waste a lot of wood and are very smoky, increasing respiratory disease. Jiko stoves produce very little smoke and use half as much wood, reducing collecting time and deforestation.

Most tree nurseries fail because the seedlings die during the dry season.The new wells at Ratanga and Kombe will allow the seedlings to be watered until they are big enough to be planted out. The target for this year is 20 000 trees.Rainwater catchment at Alara will allow a new tree nursery to be established at the secondary school.

18 month old Silver Oak trees. They grow quickly.

Installing a sewage/manure biogas digester at Alara Mixed Secondary School will produce methane for cooking in the school kitchen. Enough methane will be produced to allow community members to come and cook their food, reducing wood use even more.The digester will produce disease-free fertiliser which will be used on the school farm to boost food yields.

Before treatment – April 2012

After treatment – August 2012

Chiggers (Chigoe fleas) live in soil and burrow into skin, especially on the feet. They become painful and prevent many children from walking to school.All the children in our 6 link schools have now been treated. Their feet are checked every 4 months and treated if necessary.

Alice removing chiggers, July 2012

Disinfecting feet before treatment

Giving out Albendazole pills to get rid of gut parasites

This little girl has a protein-deficient diet and has the disease Kwashiorkor.The school farm at Alara will provide school dinners for the pupils. Delivering ringworm cream to

God Poko Primary School

Primary health care projects are a very cost-effective way of improving health.Healthy children have better school attendance and learn more effectively.

Irrigation header tank

Irrigation pipes

An irrigated greenhouse reduces water losses, so crops can be grown throughout the year, even the dry season when farming normally stops.

The ‘Alara Olympics’ August 2012

Children

Thankyou