It won't be long and the present construction at the Virginia M. Buena Memorial Center for the Needy in Nakuru, Kenya will be completed. After the construction of the orphanage - with the capacity of nearly 150 children - the present constructions includes a big kitchen, dining hall, (at the moment 500 children's meals are cooked the day) common hall and the first part of the vocational training center. When the construction is completed - probably by the end of April - the temporary wooden preschool classrooms will be taken down (the wood and fixtures will be re-used) and the common hall will be used for the preschool for the next few months. We will be building a new school - from preschool to 8th grade. The sturdy stone building will consist of 3 floors. The ground floor will be the pre-school with 3 large and friendly classrooms, teachers' conference room and the offices for LDK. The first through fourth grade will be on the second floor and the fifth through eighth grade will be on the third floor.
The funding for the present construction has already been raised. The logistic firm "Schenker" and the Rotary Club Fichtelgebirge have assisted us with container transport so that the rooms will be furnished and the kitchen is complete with wood/coal burning stoves and all other kitchen furnishings.
Now we have to get busy to find ways to raise the funds for the new school. We'll need about $70.000 to complete it with everything included - building materials (the price of cement has more than doubled over the past 1 1/2 years), workers, and transport of donated school furniture. We need all of the help we can get.
My idea is that schools could participate in activities and events (fairs, cake sales, car washes, tournaments, etc.) to raise funds for certain parts of the new school building - whether it's a piece of the roof or a door or a window or a few sacks of cement - every cent helps.
I think that a project like this can really show better-situated children what it really means to CARE! The children at the Virginia M. Buena Center for the Needy are really poor - not just poor - devastatingly poor. Their only hope for a future is through education. Their only possibility for a good education is through the construction of this school. We'll have far less children in a class than the average 100 to 200(!) I've seen that with my own eyes... Each child will have his/her own textbooks and school supplies. There are normally only 10 textbooks per subject (3 main subjects - English, Math and Kiswahili) per classroom. The situation must change if we really want to make a difference.
So - students, teachers, parents, everybody - please help us help these children by being part of this construction. Every school, private person and organization will be listed on a cornerstone of the school when it is officially opened in January 2006.