Our trip to Kitenden has reinforced our commitment to this extremely important and worthwhile project.

Having spent time with the children, the teachers, the administrators and the families of this small community at the foot of Mt Kilimanjro we have a far greater appreciation of the importance of education in this highly job competitive country.  This is especially so for the Masai children of Kintenden who are additionally disadvantaged because they do not speak or write the nation’s official language.  We have seen first-hand how your support of this programme teaches the children to speak and write Swahili and in addition to speak and write English.

But your support does a lot more as it provides much needed nutrition to the children through the provision of breakfast and lunch each school day.  A typical day includes a cup of porridge for breakfast and a very adequate serving of rice and beans for lunch.  The combination of these foods contains carbohydrate, protein and iron which are essential for brain development and therefore learning.

We have spent time in the classroom and have observed the quality of the teachers and their skills.  We were highly impressed by the standard of teaching and their ability to manage a classroom of 48 children all of whom were 4-5 years of age.  We also spent time speaking privately with the teachers and were highly impressed with their fluent English.  This also afforded us the opportunity to understand their daily challenges in meeting the objectives of the programme.  This included much needed resources such as adequate, cups and plates, tables and stools, handwriting and mathematics exercise books, chalk, blackboard ruler, small blackboards for children, skipping ropes, paper for drawing and painting, text books for reading and writing and lesson plan books for teachers and African themed story books in both Swahili and English.

We also met with the head of the primary school who has received the first year of graduates from Kitenden.  He expressed great delight in announcing that they were in the top of their class in their new school.

We were accommodated in the new building which is approaching completion – a few finishing touches are required.  It is a multi-purpose building with a bedroom, bathroom, kitchen and dining/lounge area.  In our meeting with the Masai community leaders they expressed their surprise that it was actually possible to have one building which incorporated each of these rooms …  the combination of food preparation and hygiene incorporated in one building is completely foreign to them.  The building has the potential to play a major role in the future of the community as it has the potential to generate income – it can accommodate volunteers who would  pay for the privilege of being part of the community.  This is not a new concept as it is used throughout the third world in many situations including game parks and animal welfare organisations.

Personally, it has been very fulfilling to see first-hand the difference that can be made to a small child’s future for such a small sacrifice.  We commend this programme to all existing and future sponsors and on behalf of the community we pass on their thanks and appreciation. Paul and Marcia Armstrong.