It's been seven years since Springs Alive Community School (SPACS) opened its doors and we have overcome many challenges and enjoyed many victories. We started in tree shade, then moved into papyrus thatched, partially walled class rooms, and finally through friends and well-wishers like Mr. Colin, Madam Sue Bishop, Dr. Nunley and many others, we now have 2 permanent classroom blocks.
Most of our children come from very poor families which are unable to afford an education. We have however managed to expose them to foreign cultures and a lot of new things which take place in non- African countries. This was achieved by partnering with foreign schools and exchanging letters.
Some of the things our pupils have learnt include;
•Putting on a happy face and smiling - regardless of their hardships.
•How to speak respectfully to others
•Types of plant that suit a foreign environment, we have exchanged plants and seedlings grown both here and abroad.
•Local politics, laws and children’s rights.
•And then of course the school curriculum.
Much of what SPACS has achieved today is as a result of having partner schools. We are extremely grateful to everyone who has supported us with looking after the well-being and good education of our children and the school at large. We are especially grateful to the people who have helped us get through term two 2012 (May – July). We believe that God is working through them. Our recent challenge was a letter we received from the Kakiri Town Council – requested that we close the school due to the state of the school’s pit latrine (which was formerly meant for a home setting and now had become for a school of over 150 pupils) see picture of former pit latrine and the new pit latrine.
We pleaded with the council and were given two weeks to construct a new pit-latrine. There was no money available, but with the Lord's help, we found enough money to put up a new pit- latrine (though still incomplete) in the required time. We therefore did not need to close the school.
During the same term, feeding our staff and students became very difficult as we had to use funds to build the new pit-latrine as well as repairing part of the classroom blocks. The drought that persisted for some months meant we could not grow food in our garden and many of our pupils braved being hungry at school. The drought also reduced the parents and guardian’s contributions toward the pupil’s school fees. We are proud to announce that we managed to keep all our eight teachers for the complete term. This is a great achievement as usually we would lose two or three teachers due to a lack of funds. We did however have to cancel the school house competitions. We managed to hold parent’s meetings twice, staff meetings took place weekly and management committee meetings were held twice. Thanks to everybody that has contributed to the success and wellbeing of our school. God bless us all.
•Putting on a happy face and smiling - regardless of their hardships.
•How to speak respectfully to others
•Types of plant that suit a foreign environment, we have exchanged plants and seedlings grown both here and abroad.
•Local politics, laws and children’s rights.
•And then of course the school curriculum.
Much of what SPACS has achieved today is as a result of having partner schools. We are extremely grateful to everyone who has supported us with looking after the well-being and good education of our children and the school at large. We are especially grateful to the people who have helped us get through term two 2012 (May – July). We believe that God is working through them. Our recent challenge was a letter we received from the Kakiri Town Council – requested that we close the school due to the state of the school’s pit latrine (which was formerly meant for a home setting and now had become for a school of over 150 pupils) see picture of former pit latrine and the new pit latrine.
During the same term, feeding our staff and students became very difficult as we had to use funds to build the new pit-latrine as well as repairing part of the classroom blocks. The drought that persisted for some months meant we could not grow food in our garden and many of our pupils braved being hungry at school. The drought also reduced the parents and guardian’s contributions toward the pupil’s school fees. We are proud to announce that we managed to keep all our eight teachers for the complete term. This is a great achievement as usually we would lose two or three teachers due to a lack of funds. We did however have to cancel the school house competitions. We managed to hold parent’s meetings twice, staff meetings took place weekly and management committee meetings were held twice. Thanks to everybody that has contributed to the success and wellbeing of our school. God bless us all.
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