School Books, Desks, Uniforms and Supplies

Books

At Pennington Day and at other fund-raising events, HKA and the WHO Club sell “Book Plates” for $10 each to create a fund to purchase textbooks for the schools in the Keroka area. There is a place on each book plate for the name of the donor and each plate is pasted in one of the books purchased by a school using the money collected. The program went dormant for a couple of years since it appeared that the Kenyan Government had taken responsibility for providing curriculum textbooks. However, during our July 2012 visit to Keroka, we found that textbooks were still not being funded at the rate needed to provide each student with the necessary books. Many of the textbooks are very old and tattered and are in need of replacement. As a result, we are resuming Book Plate sales.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Desks

HKA and the WHO Club have also funded the local manufacture of simple school desks to reduce the amount of desk sharing needed in the overcrowded schools. We have had enough desks made for one of the classrooms in Nyanchonori High School and would like to continue this program.

Uniforms

HKA and the WHO Club have purchased uniforms for students from poor families so they may attend primary school without feeling stigmatized.

 

Supplies

There have been six student trips from Hopewell Valley Central High School to Kenya, in 2007, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2016. All students and chaperones pay their own expenses for these trips. A tradition has been to maximize the use of the airline’s luggage allowance by each bringing two 23 kg (50 lbs) suitcases, and most contain supplies for the various schools and orphanages visited during the trip.

The total number of suitcases of supplies taken to Kenya so far is about 240, or about 12,000 lbs (6 tons) of supplies, consisting of books, sports gear, clothes, medical supplies, laminated posters, pencils, art supplies, science equipment, laptop computers, solar-powered calculators, Lego and Duplo sets and more.

About 90% of the suitcases are delivered to schools in the Keroka area and are presented by the HVCHS students to each school.

 

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