Welcome!

In the second week of January, Teach a Child - Africa selected 6 new students. We cordially welcome them to the sponsorship programme! We are excited to have enrolled Jecinter and Janet in St. Francis Rangala Girls, the school which did so well in the exams in 2010! Our new boys, Francis and James as well as Fredrick and Alphonce were enrolled in pairs of two in Sawagongo and Ramba respectively, another two of the well performing schools shortlisted for further cooperation during the evaluation mission in 2010.
The six scored between 351 and 376 marks in KCPE, many of them without having books to study or paraffin to read after sunset! All of them come from extremely poor backgrounds; some of them probably have lost count on how many relatives they have buried. One boy has lost his entire family and now stays with a neighbour. The gate of his homestead is shut. We thank the wise woman who took him in for having brought the boy to the selection venue in Ukwala! Most of the children went to bed without food on countless days, some depend on the irregular handouts by chuch members or neighbours. This has now changed for the six: there are four years of learning and safety ahead of them. Those children are so determined, I have no doubt they will make it far.
And the best part about the selection 2011 is: none of the applicants was left without a perspective. Our cooperating partner OGRA absorbed 8 orphans into their OVC programme, while the remaining 4 could be referred to other sponsoring bodies, such as Equity bank, Palmhouse Foundation and Aiducation International. One even found a private sponsor. 18 talents with a perspective! 18 lives turned around 180°...

Please sign here... and here.

Wednesday was a big day for Teach a Child - Africa. We signed our first official co-operation with a strong local partner in Kisumu! TaC and OGRA Foundation started co-operating in July 2010. OGRA greatly assisted us in the area of teenage health by carrying out a medical check-up for seven of our students who were found sick. During the annual gathering, OGRA's Jack inspired our students by giving them ample information and ideas about higher education. And since yesterday it's official: we are partners! The documents are signed and we can now fully engage in a promising partnership in the areas of health, secondary and higher education as well as holiday attachment and career exposure. We are no longer alone! And one thing we know for sure: many good things will come out of this partnership.

Shosho and babu (grandmother and grandfather)

Friday was the last day of the gathering 2010. We invited the guardians of the students to join us for a few hours, get to know us and share their views about the sponsorship program with us. Many came. And they came from far. I was really moved when I saw those old grannies and grandfathers coming to the venue. Most of the guardians are widowed grandmothers and they have no chance to retire. In many cases they lost all their children due to HIV/AIDS and now struggle daily in order to feed their orphaned grandchildren. Most of them never had the chance to go to school. I saw only one old grandfather who was able to read and sign the document we gave out. Other guardians are only a few years older then the supported students. Child-headed families are nothing rare here. The older brother or sister simply has to step in and take responsibility at a very young age. One boy still has his mother. He was accepted into the program because she is terminally ill. Imagine, it was her boy who got the award "Best performing boy 2010". You should have seen the proud smile radiating on her sunken face!
Awards were not the only thing we gave out. The students also received the promised revision books and were definitely very happy to have them. The books belong to TaC, which means that the students have to look well after them and hand them down to the next generation after one year.
It was such a wounderful time we had with the students, the local committees and the guardians. Three days of learning, sharing and contributing. The students surprised us with several performances on the last day: two poems, one TaC-song and a short drama about how hard it is for impoverished talents to access education. The shy students of the first day turned into a cheerful bunch of promising young people overnight. It was not all too easy to let them go...

Mentorship workshop 2010

The long awaited annual gathering 2010 took off yesterday! We gather the students at one of our cooperating schools for a three days meeting in order to get to know them, bond with them and have them experience inspiring role models. All students came! Yesterday's key note speaker was Jack from ISMAT (International school of Medicine and applied technology). The students sure had many questions concerning careers after secondary school! It's good they start making up their mind - there will be 22 candiates next year and it is high time to find a solution for them. The students got also highly inspired by Jared from Tembea Youth Group, who taught them the basics of entrepreneurship. They then had to come up with a business idea and work on it in groups. Later that day, I challenged the students by requesting them to compose a song for Teach a Child, write a poem, tell a story or play a sketch.

Today the students received a training in public speaking, listened to an inspirational speech about academic excellence and received valuable advice on boy-girl relationships. Our days are packed and long, there is almost no time to rest. But guess what I heard tonight after a late supper? When I passed by the students' dorms I heard many of them singing. The students were actually rehearsing the TaC-song they will present tomorrow! Now, I really can't wait to hear it...

How to transform phones into books

When I visited Switzerland in late September this year, many of you greatly supported the work of Teach a Child - Africa by donating equipment, such as scanners, a laptop, flash drives and mostly: mobile phones. I agreed with the donors to sell whatever is not needed for the work of TaC. After bringing most of the equipment to the field during the second mission in October, I was left with five quality mobile phones. But how would an obvious foreigner sell them on the local market? I didn't know the answer to that question until I started my 4 weeks training in Monitoring and Evaluation at AMREF. During the last week of the training I asked the most vivid class mate to assist me in selling the phones among the group. What a marketer! In only a few hours he sold all the phones and one flash drive for 19'000 Kenya Shillings! This is the equivalent of 150£ or 240$! Last Saturday I went to town in order to buy revision books for our students. With the help of our project-coordinator who happened to be in Nairobi, we purchased revision books for all the form 3 and form 4 students! With the money left, William and I bought three scientific calculators to award our best performing students during the annual mentorship workshop which will take place from the 15th to the 17th of December.
We are still fundraising for more books and more calculators. Kindly visit the current fundraising event on betterplace.org:

http://emailinvited.betterplace.org/groups/simone-haeberlis-spendenaktion

Giving revision books to our students will make them so happy! By now I interviewed most of them and there was not a single student who did not ask for books. Would any of us deny water to someone who is thirsty?

Fundraising event!

Dear friends of Teach a Child - Africa!

I just created a fundraising-page on betterplace.org. Would you take a moment to support the project I'm raising funds for?

betterplace.org is an online platform for social engagement that connects people who need help accomplishing their mission with people who are eager to help.

With this fundraising-event "Simones Spendenaktion" I'm supporting the Project "Teach a Child - Africa". Getting involved is really easy. Click now on the link below to find out more:

http://emailinvited.betterplace.org/groups/simone-haeberlis-spendenaktion


Best,
Simone Haeberli


Simones Spendenaktion

The way forward!

Since returning from the field I have spent three days in Kisumu, the capital of Nyanza province. It is one of my tasks to find strong local partners for co-operations. The number of NGOs operating in Nyanza is very high, the potential for synergies is enormous. TaC is currently exploring possibilities of co-operation in the following areas: health, holiday attachment, and higher education. In 2010 only one girl will graduate from form 4, but next year TaC will present 22 candidates! That means, there is only one year left to come up with a strategy for what I like to call "phase 2". What was the impact of the work of TaC, if we abandon the children after form 4? What have we then really done in the end of the day?
I therefore established contact with a good college in Kisumu that has a lot of experience in educating orphaned youth and assisting them to create a meaningful and bright future for themselves. The director has agreed to give a career talk during our beneficiaries' annual gathering in December! That will enable them to start thinking about their way forward.
The health co-operation will be the easiest to set up, Tac will soon have a solid policy and a reliable medical partner to refer her emergency cases to. At the same time, I was exploring possibilities for attachments and career exposures during holidays. The time off school is such a high risk area for our beneficiaries. Their homes can be hazardously dangerous for their mental and physical health, we better find alternatives for our harshest cases, before the schools close again by the end of November. And lastly - what to do with future drop-outs? There is no way to guarantee that all beneficiaries will clear form 4 and make it to university. But there are at least two wonderful NGOs around here, who are specialized in absorbing and empowering drop-outs by training them in life skills. It's all there, TaC doesn't need to reinvent the wheel! Isn't that good news? Partnership is the way forward!

What happened to Marceline?

During the first M&E mission in July 2010, we came across the harsh case of Marceline, a highly talented total orphan and well performing student who was abandoned by relatives and sponsors equally. I have mentioned her in my post on the 14th of July. What happened to her since then?
Many people were touched by her story and contributed specifically for her, so that we could start considering TaC-sponsorship for her. William, our co-ordinator, talked to the school several times, until they were ready to waive the largest amount of Marceline's astronomic balance of about 50'000 Shilling. Yesterday we visited the school again and I insisted on new negotiations. We were quite tough and managed to convince the school to waive all outstanding balances in 2009 and 2010. TaC would only step in from 2011 onwards. Eventually, they agreed to share the burden! Once we received the consenting document from the school, we called all our TaC-girls in, informed Marceline about her scholarship and welcomed her to the TaC-family. At first, Marceline didn't say much, as she was probably too surprised by the events. But when she sat down with the five other girls for the photo-shooting, she quickly opened up and gave us her most beautiful smile.

A few success stories

Today was the last day of the second Monitoring & Evaluation field mission. All in all we visited 13 schools and interviewed 22 TaC-beneficiaries. Most schools were visited for the first time, only two were visited in order to follow up our measures taken since the first visit. For example: in August, seven of our beneficiaries who struggled with diseases were taken to hospital for a medical check-up. I have by now seen four of them again - and you know what? Those four are all in good health, energetic, and in most cases even their performance has improved! I was most impressed by one boy in Yala, who didn't perform well back in July and made a lethargic impression on me. When I met him again today, I almost didn't recognize him: a smart young man with a cheerful smile and an impressive report form in his pocket. His teacher complimented highly on the increased performance and thinks of the boy as a promising case. Three girls, who struggled with eye problems, have also received treatment and are no longer disturbed nor distracted by sickness. One of them proudly presented her new glasses to us...
During the first visit we found that one boy had run away from his boarding school and was even suspected for theft. It was not easy to track him down and when we eventually managed, we were very disappointed by his behavior, but decided to give him a last chance: if he manages to inscribe himself in a different school on his own and doesn't misbehave anymore, we wouldn't drop him. The boy apparently grasped the seriousness of his situation. He indicated the school he would attend and promised not to let us down a second time. I must say, I didn't quite believe him back then. Today however, we paid a surprise visit to his new school. We found the boy in class, friendly and relaxed. The principal and his deputy praised him and his performance and proudly presented the results of the last exam-cycle, where he scored the second best result. We told the principal to keep an eye on him and bid good-bye to the school with a smile of relief on our faces.

Q&A

Q&A sounds very harmless. But at times I am really afraid of my own questions and even more so of the answers. Today was such a day. After the NRHS gave me a lift to Siaya, the project-coordinator and I drove to Mbaga Girls', where TaC sponsors two young ladies. The deputy talked to us and urged us to sponsor a third girl at their school, a pathetic case, as she puts it. I agreed to at least talk to that girl. The girl is a total orphan, an aunt, who is a widow and a mother of four herself, took her in. The girl is very well performing at school and until last year, an uncle paid her fees. However, he suddenly stopped paying and moved away. He is not even picking the phone when she tries to reach him. The girl has a younger sister, but hasn't seen her for over 4 years, as she was taken in by an uncle in a remote place.
Those questions are already quite tough on the children, as they have to go through their losses with me. I then normally ask about how the guardian generates income and where the children spend their time off school. Turns out that this aunt, who is by now very sick and bedridden, brews and sells alcohol in her house. I get quite alerted and ask who uses to consume that alcohol. The girl says, that there are always drunken men at home, i.e. the customers. I then want to know where exactly she sleeps, while she is at her aunt's place. Well, there is no choice, as there is only one room. By now, I am horribly uneasy. I try to find out from the girl how those men behave towards her. After a while of me going round in circles, she simply says: there is no way they would leave me alone...
The only thing I can do for this girl right now is to tell her, never to lose hope. I kindly remind her that there is a way out and that this way is called education.
A story like this can have two effects: it either really depresses you or it does the contrary. I'd always opt for the contrary. Carry on!