Nkuyan | johnageddes

I am thrilled to report that I have heard from the CanAssist African Relief Trust Trustees that the recent Giving Tuesday campaign was successful in raising (over) the $30,000 that will be matched by the Frank Family Foundation in Toronto.

I want to thank friends and family who donated and I am particularly happy that the proposed Adam Nkuyan School Kitchen Project has been fully funded and will start construction early in the new year. Asante sana.

I hope donors are excited to know that their donations have barely cleared the bank and are already being put to use in East Africa. CanAssist gifts not only fund sustainable infrastructure but also provide employment and economic benefits to their communities as these various projects are realized. About 95% of what is collected by CanAssist ends up being spent in Africa.

When I was in Kenya in September I wandered past the Mbita Community Health Centre where this all started for me in 2005 when I visited the hospital (then a smaller rural health centre) with a group of McGill students. We were astounded by the condition of their delivery room and the fact that they had no sustainable water supply. I came home to Canada and gathered about $1200 from friends to supply a hook up to a municipal water source and a water tank to store it as the supply tended to be intermittent.

Little did I know where this would lead. In September 2022, Dan grabbed a photo of me in front of that tank – a “project” that was the seed for the CanAssist African Relief Trust that I started with friends the next year. From that beginning, CanAssist has steadily grown and as of 2022 has supplied about $1,800,000 in funding of infrastructure projects in East Africa.

Incredible.

My thanks goes to all who have supported CanAssist over the years and to those who have donated during this most recent campaign to help make the Nkuyan School Kitchen project a go. Thanks also to the Frank Family Foundation who have matched recent donations, adding $30,000 to the CanAssist coffers to fund new projects.

Meet Richard Frank of the Frank Family Foundation

I also want to express my thanks to Dave Kay who has made a significant donation in memory of his late father, to fund purchase of computers for the Hope for Youth School near Mukono, Uganda. (Dave and I visited H4Y together in 2013 so he has a special connection to them).

Nancy Grew, the current Director of CanAssist, is sending the MOU for the computer purchase to H4Y today and when the students return from their December/January break they will have a stocked computer lab. My first visit to this school was to a small dirt-floored set of classrooms with no windows or doors and rudimentary desks. It is so rewarding to see this progress and gratifying to know that CanAssist donors have played a significant part in helping with this growth.

I took this photo of Hope for Youth School in 2010. In 2023 they will have a computer classroom in a modern permanent structure. To see this school flourish, under the guidance of Peter Nsubuga with help from CanAssist donors (and others) is delightful.

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Driving to the Adam Nkuyan School deep in Maasai territory on the floor of the Rift Valley in Kenya has always been a bit of an adventure. Once, with a group of 20 CanAssist supporters in safari truck we ran out of gas, with no fuel available for miles. This time, my friend, Stephen drove me out to the school and once we got half an hour away from the main Magadi Road everything started to look the same. We took one (or maybe more) wrong turns and basically got lost in the middle of nowhere and with no phone service. We asked the few folks we saw for directions and eventually arrived at the school about 90 minutes late. On the bright side we did spot zebras and giraffes by the side of the “road”.

Video: Wildlife by the side of the road on our drive to Nkuyan School.

I had not been to the school for about 7 years and when I arrived I was very pleasantly surprised.

The Nkuyan School was CanAssist’s first project. We officially opened it in 2009. There might have been 30 students in the single tin classroom.

**Alex and Judith Adam open the tin sheet classroom that started the Nkuyan School in 2009. Now there are 8 permanent classrooms and three din sheet classrooms including this original structure.**

Gradually a couple of permanent classrooms were added as well as water tanks and latrines. Eventually the school became registered with the Government who ended up paying for 4 more classrooms. The school now has enrollment of 250 students and 11 teachers, four of them paid for by the government. There are another couple of tin structures for the very young kids and they have students from preschool age to class eight.

The school now has 250 students from preschool age to Grade 8

In the National exams last year for the Class 8 students they had the best marks of the 40 schools in their district. In addition, the enrollment at the school is equal numbers of boys and girls.

Fifteen more pupils have joined the Nkuyan school since this chart was made.

We were met by the Chairman of the School Board, the teachers led by the Deputy Head Teacher, a group of parents, including three that are on the parent’s committee. The whole community is involved and supportive and most grateful for this school in their very remote community. Without this school, children in this community might have to walk as far as 13 km to school each day which would mean many would go without their basic education.

The bottom line is that this school has grown incredibly, and has even received some government funding to help it grow. The community is taking care of the resources that have been given to them, is actively supporting the school and encouraging their children to acquire and education. The pupils are showing excellent academic performance. The help that CanAssist provided and continues to provide in partnership with two Kenyan NGO’s (MPIDO and MANDO) has kickstarted a school that is making a big difference for this remote Maasai community. This is the kind of success we dreamed about when we started the CanAssist African Relief Trust 15 years ago.

Video: The students of Nkuyan School entertained me with traditional song and dance.

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