Projects - I am working you know!

I had a few texts over the weekend asking me what exactly am I doing. It seems that some of you are sceptical that I am doing anything except playing football and making impromptu speeches. Shame on you and your western cynicism!

So, doubting Thomases, here is the list of projects/activities we currently have on our to-do list. Please note, these are the projects linked directly to the school and not those for individual community members e.g. rebuilding Jane Wanjiku’s washed away house.

i. Child sponsorship: Find sponsors for the 10 children who have been on the waiting list for ages – Status: 90% complete (thanks to many of you)
– Cost: €17/month/child
ii. Rabbits: Establish a rabbit colony (is that the collection noun?) to teach the children the importance of looking after their animals, and to produce meat for the school & excess to be sold.
– Status: 50% (rabbit hutch designed & commissioned), rabbit supplier identified.
– Estimated Cost: €100
iii. Workshop: Set-up the metal- & woodwork shop
– Status: 60% complete (work shed partitioned, ventilation ducts added, power sockets installed, 3 phase electricity supply needed for the some of the more complex machines & welders remains to be acquired; estimated cost
– Estimated Cost: €10k (Aaaah! We are hoping our amazingly generous Swedish sponsors will help us out on this one)
iv. Library: Convert the container on site into a library for the school & community
– Status: 10% (at best). We have the container and tomorrow morning I am speaking to a gentlemen called Josh from a company called Stack based Rhode Island, USA who are experienced in designing and fabricating efficient, sustainable structures from shipping containers. They are keen to helps us on this and the 2 next projects.
– Estimated Cost: €TBD
v. Clinic: Open up a container clinic/dispensary/pharmacy on the school site accessible to the surrounding community as well as the school
– Status: 0%: Container to be located & project to planned and kicked off
– Estimated Cost: €TBD
vi. Teachers quarters: Many of the teachers work until late and cannot then get home. The idea is construct quarters for them, possibly by converting another shipping container, allowing those teachers to stay comfortably over night
– Status: 0%: Container to be located & project to planned and kicked off
– Estimated Cost: €TBD
vii. School Flag: The school currently does not have its own flag so the objective here is to design, fabricate and inaugurate a school flag by the end of T1 (to be chosen from drawings made by the children)
– Status: 33%: Short list of designs chosen from those submitted. More detailed design to be made by each of the chosen children and the winner to be chosen by the teachers and governors. We will then find someone in Nairobi who can design & produce it for us.
– Estimated Cost: €50
viii. Solar Power: Set-up a local solar cell sufficient enough to power the lights of the classes, dorms, assembly hall & kitchen when the national grid cuts off.
– Status: 20%: Competitive quote received. Next steps to be discussed with supplier in France and project plan to be defined.
– Estimated Cost: €3,5k
ix. Waterhole 1: Complete the first waterhole which was never cased properly
– Status: 0%
– Estimated Cost: €TBD
x. Waterhole 2: Drill and furnish a new waterhole
– Status: 0%
– Estimated Cost: €TBD
xi. School Choir: Establish a school choir which can eventually participate in festivals and competitions
– Status: 10%: First practice held last Saturday with Mr. Kuranja (the man in the video on the blog). Practices to be held every week
– Estimated Cost: €0
xi. Musical Instruments: Some of children (especially the boys) are not so keen on singing publicly and therefore hide at the back of the room drumming on desktops, bottles and bits of wood. We would like to procure some proper percussion instruments for them (tom-toms, maracas, triangle etc) and they could then support the choir.
– Status: 0%
– Estimated Cost: €150
xii. School Football Team & Kit: Select a school team which can then play other local teams and in local, regional and why not national competitions.
– Status: 10%: First trials to be held this Thursday, practices to be held every week thereafter. Hopefully there is a kit we can use on the parcel my Mum is sending.
– Estimated Cost: €50 (to adjust kits if needed)
xiii. Videos: We have started to make some short videos to show those outside the school different aspects of the childrens’ lives. I will put these on the blog (when I can get a decent connection) and the school website when it is complete.
– Status: 5%: Weekly video planning established & first subjects listed. Students to participate to in each video are being identified.
– Estimated Cost: €0
xiv. Biogas: Use the natural waste of the 200+ children and teachers (+ me now that I have stocked up on baked beans) to produce methane to fuel the school kitchen stoves
– Status: 0%: Contact made with a company who has already completed a similar project at Meru prison. A first discussion to be organised to learn more
– Cost: TBD (a pretty penny I imagine)
xv. Small scale fruit farmer’s project: Through a project sponsored by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, we are trying to get our local passion fruit and mango farmers included in supplying their produced to Coca-Cola. This project is from June 2010.
– Status: 0%: Awaiting information including criteria for selection & recruitment to the project
– Cost: €0
xvi. Dry fruit production: Use the surplus mangos & bananas in the area to produce dried fruit which we can give to the children and if possible sell at market
– Status: 0%
– Estimated Cost: €150 one time set-up cost, €10/month recurring cost (for lemon juice)

There you go. Clearer?

Projects do have a habit of being added to the list quicker than they can be completed, so we are applying a certain cost-benefit analysis to them (we have already disregarded the landing strip and the swimming pool). Should any of you (or your companies) wish to help us towards any of them, your assistance is more than welcome.

Love to all,

Geshangi (the boy who likes to wander)