The school in Chwele

Titus Sikangulule and his wife are both trained teachers.  Titus has invited us to visit his family home, church and school in the town of Chwele, about a 30 minute drive from Kamukuywe.  Titus teaches with me at the Agape Academy. His wife works in a school in Bungoma , 45 kilometres away. They have no private transport.

Titus lives in Bungoma on the weekend, but during the week he rents a room closer to Kamukuywe. They have two young children.

 

Continuing a passion initiated by his parents, Titus also coordinates a primary school that his family has built with their own hands. This school caters for orphans, children of poor families and children who are HIV positive. At times they also hold seminars for parents who are HIV positive – teaching them about ways to improve their health and manage their disease.

The school caters for over 200 students, and is an act of love rather than a money-making concern. Ten of the children have no family or home, they live with Titus’ parents. “We have picked most of them up after their parent’s funeral” Joseph tells me. In Kenya, when a child becomes orphaned, they rely on the compassion and love of the local community. In the Sikangulule family love and compassion are abundant.

 Other children “board” at the school. Sometimes 10-12 children squeeze into a small room with three beds. Once again, the conditions are sub-standard, but the alternative is much worse.

The education and health authorities have frequently inspected the school. They complain about the standard of services supplied and threaten to close the school if improvements are not made. “That room does not have enough ventilation” they say. Without this school many of the children would be on the street with no home, education or food. The government wants to set high standards, especially when they are not paying.

The school provides a breakfast of porridge each day, made from maize, sorghum and millet. Lunch and dinner usually consists of beans and maize. Fresh fruit and vegetables are sometimes obtained from the family farm.

I ask Titus how much the teachers are paid and if, in fact, they are trained. He tells me that all are trained teachers that have not found a position within the Kenyan public or private education system. Instead of working outside their vocation, they choose to teach at the school. They are not paid a salary, but are given remuneration when something is available. I suspect that these teachers also have hearts of gold.

The classrooms are spartan to say the least. Each room is about the size of a normal Australian bathroom. Most floors are concrete - they were raised to protect against the annual flooding that occurs during April. Stormwater used to overflow drainage ditches and inundate the classrooms. The toilet block was levelled during such a downpour. There has not been available finance to re-build.



Where the toilets used to be

Each classroom has a roughly-painted chalkboard, a collection of home-made desk/chairs too narrow to hold an A4 exercise book, and one or two dilapidated posters on the wall. I did not see any text books or reading material. The corners of each room are piled with red dust and discarded paper.

This day has challenged me greatly. For the first time in my life I wish I were rich. There is such a desperate need for funds to improve the living conditions and educational opportunities of these children. I am simultaneously horrified by the conditions of the school and uplifted by the tireless efforts of these wonderful people to help those who cannot help themselves.

There is a valuable lesson that I have learned in Kenya. If you have all you need in life (and 99% of Australians do), then you should be thankful. That thanks should not be limited to the glib “gee, thanks Lord for providing for my needs”. Thanks needs to be demonstrated by action and help for others. Just consider the example of the Sikangulule family.

I wonder how much a new toilet block would cost?