Obingo Primary School

Obingo primary school is situated on the borders Nyanza Province and the expansive Rift Valley Province and is approximately ten kilometres from the tarmac road, Kisii – Kisumu highway. The school was founded in 1976 by the local community to ease over-crowding in local schools and reduce the long walk taken by many young children to reach a place of learning.
The school at the moment has a population of 170 boys and 150 girls totalling 320 pupils plus 80 Nursery aged kids. Of these about 100 children are orphans.
General income for the members of the community is very low given that many of the most productive people in the community have passed away due to HIV/AIDS.
Despite the challenges and to the credit of a very committed Head Mistress the school has managed to achieve an academic position of 42 out of the 63 schools in the region.
‘Footsteps’ has promised to build four new classrooms to replace the condemned classrooms and to finish off and repair the remainder at a cost of around £40,000.

Unfortunately Cable & Wireless have recently withdrawn their commitment to fund this programme but we are determined not to let the community of Obingo down and will work hard to raise the funds to meet our promise.

One of the condemned classrooms at Obingo - it's often safer to sit outside!

Children's Ward at the Medical Centre in Katito

In 2008 we opened a medical facility (see below) which is targeted to the effective treatment of HIV/AIDS. Children are affected by HIV/AIDS in a variety of ways; in the worst cases children are born with the disease – in fact we have 2 sponsored children who are receiving anti-retroviral treatment thanks to our programme – but in most cases children are affected by the loss of one or both parents, and the community as a whole suffers when the generation that is supposed to be most economically active is depleted. The average life expectancy in this part of the world is around 44 years.
Now we wish to expand our facilities at the Katito Health Centre and invest in a similar sized building to the HIV/AIDS medical centre. This time the building will serve three purposes:

A children’s ward with a capacity of 20 beds will deal with in-patient children who currently have to travel several kilometres to access such services.
A laboratory to test for all the most commonly seen diseases in the area. A current laboratory already exists, but with pitiful equipment in a tiny space of 3m x 3m.
Accommodation for 2 nurses to sleep overnight.

We have been to see the local medical authorities and the local MP to discuss our plans and subsequently we received a letter from the Medical Officer of Health for the district, a Dr. James Otieno who wrote:

“The catchment population of children is 22,500 for those under 5 years of age. The population of age under 1 year is 4,800. The Out-patients’ children seen at the facility are 100 daily and those referred for in-patients’ admission to the District Hospital are averagely 90 children per month. The District Hospital is 8km away, and most mothers rarely have enough money to make the journey. Cases of malnutrition requiring in-patient care are on average 15 per month and of pneumonia requiring referral are 40 per month, malaria averagely 98 per month. Thus these figures have informed us to prioritize a children’s ward at Katito Health Centre.”

We believe that this project is worth of being adopted by Footsteps and to this end our November dinner aims to raise £30,000. Once we reach our target we expect building to start in the first quarter of 2011 ready for completion in the second quarter.

Completed Building Projects:

Wenwa: Footsteps is delighted to confirm the completion of 6 new classrooms and an administration block at Wenwa. The classrooms here were in such a poor state of repair that you could see through the buildings from one end to the other. The building work was completed on schedule and the school was formally re-opened by Suzanne and Rupert during Rafiki 2010 in July.

Wenwa school before the Footsteps building programme

..... and afterwards

Kanyalwal: Even in comparison to our other projects, Kanyalwal is an extremely deprived community. Our plans were ambitious; we wanted to completely replace Kanyalwal school’s existing classrooms which were constructed from corrugated iron, mud and dung. In the hot sun these were very unpleasant to work in and in the rain they simply fell apart. This was the fourth school rebuilt by Footsteps. The work began in early 2010 and was completed by the end of June. Here's a slide show of the progress made by late March, March slide show, and photos of the Water tank repair which was completed following connection of the school to a mains water supply. The school now has 8 lovely classrooms and a beautiful garden with its very own fishpond - all the fish are destined for the pot!

The new school at Kanyalwal and the garden planted during Rafiki 2009

Magunga Nursery block

In 2007 work began on a pre-school nursery for Magunga. The money to pay for the project was raised by the boys, staff and parents of Rokeby school in Kingston-upon-Thames. After some delay due to the political and social unrest around the elections in 2008 the 'Rokeby Nursery' was opened in July 2009. For more details see our news page

The commemorative plaque on the wall of the new nursery

Rae School

Situated about 10 km from Katito this school was destroyed by storms and local people were unable to find the funds to re-build the school. Of the 453 children in the primary school 146 are orphans. In early 2009 Footsteps provided the community with 5 classrooms and an administration block and provided a water connection to the school.

In July 2010, as a result of a bequest from Mike Barnsley (sadly deceased), a new nursery classroom at Rae was completed. Here's a photo montage of the building going up. The classroom was officially inaugurated by Mike's wife, Lynwen Barnsley, during the 2010 Rafiki trip.

Medical Centre

In November 2008, Footsteps opened its first medical centre, in the village of Katito near Lake Victoria. The centre provides comprehensive care in the field of HIV/AIDS. It is already helping 600 patients a week and more than 40 babies were born there in the first few months. Those who are tested HIV positivee are able to access free drugs at the centre.

The centre was inspired by Benson Okall who had a dream to build a medical facility in his home community in rural Kenya. As well as providing primary medical care, the centre he envisaged would help people to live with HIV/Aids. Sadly the terrible disease took Benson in 2003.

The centre was built in partnership with the local Ministry of Health who equip and provide medical staff to run the centre. It provides medical care in an area where many people previously had none and will help prevent deaths from easily treatable illnesses such as diarrhoea and malaria.

The project took 6 months and cost £50.000 to implement; a major source of funding for this project came again from the parents, staff and children of Rokeby School.

Thank you to everyone who contributed and thank you Benson; without you none of this would have happened...

Magunga School

In early 2004 we focused our activities on the small community of Magunga in the Nyanza Province of Kenya near the shores of Lake Victoria. After a 45 minute drive in the dodgy transport from Kisumu, the third city, you arrive at a small market town called Katito. This is where, 5 minutes outside the town, we find the area that is known as Magunga, from which the primary school takes its name.

Magunga School is one of 6 in the area. It has 485 pupils, more than 200 of which are orphans. Many children cannot go to school, especially the girls, and many families cannot afford a school uniform. The school itself was devastated by a cyclone and so leassons were taking place outside. By the end of 2006 Footsteps had built 8 classrooms, provided access to clean water and helped develop a community orchard. Click for more information on Magunga school