ACTION THIS DAY

Loss

Action This Day — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 19:12:59 +0000

Last weekend was a sad one for our school community as two families experienced personal losses. One of our girls lost her Grandma, who had been caring for her since both parents passed away a few years back. We also have three girls from another family who lost their Mother after a long illness; they are now orphans. So sad to see children this young trying to cope with such grief. Our thoughts and prayers are with them.

Blanket Day

Action This Day — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 21:02:36 +0000

Believe it or not it can get a little cool here during the heavy rains. Overnight the temperatures reduce to the point where I don’t actually need a fan six inches from my face to sleep. With the rains and the colder nights, our students suffer from ill health during this period, all second term basically, from April to August (the attendance registers prove this).

Some of our students live in homes that leak so badly when it rains overnight, that they have to move to the driest part of the house and cover themselves with plastic bags, waiting for the rain to subside.

Through the generosity of Gena, one of our on-site volunteers, we have provided blankets to all students to keep them warm during the rainy season nights

We Can See Clearly Now

Action This Day — Sun, 18 Mar 2012 18:30:51 +0000

Most of our students live in houses that do not have access to power, and even if there was power available, their families would not be able to pay for it. As we sit almost on the equator our days are constant with no sunlight after 7pm… ever. Our Standard 8 students are in their last year of Primary school and will sit their final exams in November, the results greatly determining their future opportunities. To assist with their homework we have provided solar lamps to all students in their final year who require them. They are simple desktop lamps that charge each day on top of our school shed and the lamp is taken home each evening by the students.

Continuing the Dream

Action This Day — Sun, 18 Mar 2012 18:18:12 +0000

According to estimates, 60% of Kenyans do not progress beyond Primary school due to the expense of High school. Last week we placed our final graduate from last year into a High school. All 13 students who graduated from the Kookaburra Community School have found a place to continue their education and a sponsor to provide for the costs. Sponsorships covered fees, books, uniforms and boarding expenses.

The pride and hope given to these children was evident as they paraded their new school uniforms around our school before leaving. It also acted as a source of inspiration to next year’s graduates who saw firsthand that their dreams of education beyond Primary school could be achieved with hard work and the generous help of our community of supporters.

Special thanks to our current volunteer, Gena Parrott, who has spent many hours assisting all these children (many with no parents or guardians to help them) with their school selection, shopping and travel arrangements

The Kookaburra is Official!

Action This Day — Sat, 25 Feb 2012 13:24:03 +0000

It is hard to explain how much this means to all of us here at the Kookaburra Community school but last week we received notification from the Kenyan Ministry of Education that our school has been officially registered in Kenya. The process has taken just over a year and we will be celebrating with a party at the school for the children and their families on March 10th. The registration not only secures our place on the list of official schools in the country but opens up new avenues of potential support from within Kenya and overseas. We have already started making strategic approaches to businesses here and hope the added credibility the registration offers will result in some much needed “local” support.

ACTION THIS DAY KENYA

Action This Day — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 19:30:42 +0000

After many false starts and coming at the end of a very steep learning curve, we are very pleased to announce that the Non-Govermental Organisation (NGO), ACTION THIS DAY KENYA, has been registered in Kenya. Many thanks go to Florence Wanjiku who assisted greatly in achieving this (it really has been a journey) and we now look forward to realising the benefits of this important step in our work here. The credibility this brings will better enable us to seek support and fundraising from other government and business organisations.

PE Just Got Colourful

Action This Day — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 17:11:45 +0000

On return to school for the new year we provided our children with PE uniforms.

To be used for PE and on Sports days (we close every week with a sports competition for the older classes) these uniforms not only give the children a further sense of pride and identity, they also protect their school uniform from damage when engaging in their normal fully committed sports and games.

Now You’re Walking

Action This Day — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 16:15:05 +0000

Hardly any of our students had any closed shoes to wear. Most wore sandals offering questionable protection, some just came to school in bare feet. This causes hygiene problems, especially in the heavy rain season, and one of the most common injuries we treat at school are cut feet, sometimes so bad stitches are required.

Thanks to the generosity of our supporters we have been able to provide shoes to all 144 of our students.

We obtained a discount from a local shoe outlet, Bata, and had all the children sized and shod, resulting in many smiles, a school full of very smart looking students, and hopefully much better protection for their feet.

Thank you Gena Parrott & Ole Magnus Helle

Pen Pals from Glen Waverley Primary School

Action This Day — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 08:42:18 +0000

Our Standard 6 students have been exchanging letters with children from the same grade in the Glen Waverley Primary School in Victoria. On his recent trip to Australia, founder Brian McIver had the privilege of visiting the school and speaking to around 100 students there.

The program was established to improve the English reading and writing skills at our school in Kenya and to promote engagement in our student’s education experience. However, the impact on the students and staff at Glen Waverley has been also been significant, as they learn first-hand about the conditions our children live in. This is an exciting program that we hope will grow and strengthen as our two schools get to know each other more.

Fundraising can be Funny

Action This Day — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 08:22:56 +0000

On his recent trip to Australia, charity founder Brian McIver organised a comedy fundraiser for the school.

The Comic’s Lounge in North Melbourne generously provide charities with tickets to their events, with all proceeds going to the charity. $4700 was raised for the Kookaburra Community School. Thank you to all who helped to sell tickets and all those who attended to support our work in Kenya.