Mombasa Primary School With Out- Reach Slum Program. Inc Gift Primary School.

The school is situated in the coastal town of Mombasa. It is based in the heart of a slum in a place called Bombululu. The school was started by an amazing humble lady called Mary Andrew Kopolo. Mary is a trained teacher living in this area. She saw the need to start an informal school in this area because she realized that most of the children were roaming the streets and their parents either were sick with HIV/AIDS or they had lost them in the pandemic. Others were too busy trying simply to make a living, that was unable to take these children to school. The area also had a very big problem due to abject poverty. Many parents in the community ended up brewing the local brew known as ‘mnazi’ to drink and sell and left all the children unattended to. Due to these problems the children were exposed to dangerous vices like sexual abuse, alcohol abuse and child labor where parents are unable to work due to either lack of work or due to the rampant alcohol abuse. These problems led to the opening of this amazing and productive, yet needy center. The center has also provided a safe haven for these children to come to and at the same time get an education.
GENERAL ENVIRONMENT OF THE SCHOOL
The school is made of iron sheets and wood. The general overview is very poor as the area though next to affluent neighborhoods, it is in real need for development. It consists of one large building which is sub-divided into smaller classrooms. The children have to share classrooms due to lack of space. The teachers have tried to put children who are in beginner classes together despite the ages and are able to work around this constraint.
They do not have ample playing ground but one gets the feeling of joy and satisfaction when you see these lovely children using the little space the community would provide.
The school has a population of 182 children between the ages of 3years to 10years. The classes are divided into grades which include:
a) Baby class 35 children
b) Kindergarten 1. 40 children
c) Kindergarten 2. 26 children
d) Kindergarten 3. 13 children
It has 5 teachers to all these children with 1 administration/head teacher, and a watchman who doubles as a cleaner. Mary started this center initially as a feeding center to attract the children to the center but as time went by she has been unable to sustain these programs due to lack of funds. She has now literally resulted to going house to house trying to talk to the children to come to school.
DAY TO DAY ACTIVITIES OF THE CENTER
a) 8.00am – 8.10 am Assembly and prayers
b) 8.10 – 10.00am Lessons
c) 10.00am-10.30am Break time and play
d) 10.30am – 12.30pm Lessons
e) 12.30pm – 2.00pm Lunch time and play
f) 2.00pm – 4.00pm Lessons
g) 4.00pm School closes and the children go home in most cases the teachers and volunteers will always make sure that the children get home safely.
It should also be noted the center uses Kenya Curriculum of Education to teach the children. The basic subjects are English, Mathematics, Social Studies and the national language Kiswahili. The language of communication however is English. Singing and playing is also a mode of education so the center has put it in their time-tables.

FUNDING
The founder of the school initially used her own savings to start the center. Currently the only funding that she gets is from a small water business that is run by the parents’ of these children and from well-wishers. She encourages the parents to buys the children school books and uniforms when they can but in most cases she tries to provide as much as possible.

NEEDS OF THE CENTER
SHORT TERM NEEDS
a) Books which include exercise books and drawing books.
b) Teachers stationery
c) Desks and chairs for both teachers and children
d) Feeding program to be revived,
e) Cups, plates, cooking pans, spoons
f) Cooking stove
g) Food which would include flour, beans, oil, salt, sugar, etc this would be bought in Kenya.
h) Sports Equipments which would include footballs, skipping ropes, nets, basketballs etc.
i) Text Books Kenyan Curriculum
j) Story books to enhance reading culture.
k) Better blackboard
l) Water tank as the children have to fetch and carry water everyday.
m) Toilet under construction that needs to be finished.
n) A shelter for staff room
LONG TERM NEEDS
a) Electricity
b) Piped water
c) Permanent classrooms
d) Library
e) Staffroom

SLUM OUTREACH PROGRAM
Around the school is a community where the children of the Vilwakwe come from. The area is a slum and full of abject poverty. The Vilwakwe community center decided to also start a program in these slums to sensitize the parents the importance of education for their children and to help them to fight the HIV/AIDS vice.
When walking in the slums one is able to really understand a lot of social problems, and thus able to give these children quality education. When walking in the slums which are named with such exotic name like ‘Moroto’, ‘Kidzandani’ and ‘Kwabulo’ one is left with a feeling of mercy and helplessness but hope because of the happy children.
Every 2 days in a week the Vilwakwe community which includes the founder and teachers go into the slum and has a meeting with the parents and guardians and try and educate them on the social problems that affect the slums. They come up with new innovations of leading a better life and sensitize them on the need of education for these children. This has helped because it has made the community to take ownership of the school.
Most of the problems that the community encounters is usually brought about by poverty and most prevalent is their cultural beliefs. Kenya in the recent years has concentrated on HIV/AIDS pandemic that family planning and reproductive health has become neglected. Thus there are a lot of women who are giving birth to many children and are unable to take care of them. Most of the households have very many children who have malnutrition and have only one meal a day because the parents are simply not able to take care of them. Most of these parents therefore loose hope and involve themselves in anti-social activities. Some of the problems include:
a) Prostitution
b) Child abuse
c) Alcoholism
d) Theft
e) Domestic violence

The community is therefore taken through sessions of discussions on how to overcome these vices. This includes:
a) HIV/AIDS protection and management of the diseases associated with HIV.
b) Attending testing and voluntary clinics
c) Teaching them on reproductive health which includes family planning techniques and helping them overcome cultural beliefs
d) The need of attending hospitals for safer birth and training midwives on safer and cleaner methods of helping the mothers
e) Better job innovations like selling water instead of illicit brews, opening small grocery shops, vegetable shops, etc. This is done by the women coming together where they contribute some money every week and using the merry-go round concept the women are able to start their small business.
f) Eradicating stigma of HIV/AIDS with the community by sensitizing and creating awareness on the disease. They also teach the community as a whole the dangers and also how to treat the people infected with the disease.
g) The teachers also try and give these people hope as most of them have resigned to accepting the poor state of their lives leading to apathy. They try and make them move on positively with life.
The slums are vast and the teachers make a point of visiting the homes to assess the situation on a regular basis. This helps in the teachers giving the children a better education because they know where they are coming from. The volunteer working in this placement will get a feeling and experience firsthand the lives of the community. Abject poverty although prevalent there is a will to survive and make life better. The volunteer can also come up with the help of the teachers with innovations on how to make the lives better.

Caring, flexible volunteers from any background. If you have teaching or childcare experience that will be of great help but not essential . Providing your willing to muck-in with all the tasks involved with the running of a  school you will have a wonderfully rewarding time. Of course, if you have specific skills and abilities you wish to put to use then let us know at time of booking so we can customize your experience.

The founder of the school has constructed a very comfortable house in the compound and the volunteers can live there very comfortably. The home can also comfortably accommodate 3 volunteers at a given time. Alternatively, Inspire would provide a carefully selected host family with ample space and good levels of comfort. For bigger groups of between five and twenty we Inspire will get the group a nice secure beach hotel. (extra cost) Superior accommodation also available.

As the first Inspire volunteers to teach at Gift school, we were overwhelmed by the welcome we received and their gratitude towards us. The school has been plagued by problems since the 2007 post-election violence, but there is a great atmosphere of hope and massive potential at Gift. It is run by Madam Linah, a very kind and driven woman, who feels called to offer the chance of education to children from Mombasa’s most deprived neighbourhood.
With some attention and effort, the school has great promise. The teachers and children are extremely dedicated. All the staff are working as volunteers until the school can regain strength, and we were immediately made to feel part of the team. Whenever we had finished a day at Gift, we always felt as if our time there had been truly worthwhile. We were given the opportunity to work with the whole range of classes, so that we spent time with all of the children fairly. In each class we were greeted with great enthusiasm, which also spilled out to the school yard during break times. Their delight at just playing and talking with us was evident, and really did brighten our day.
The school compound itself is small and quite cramped: classes 5 and 6 are forced to share a classroom, as are classes 1 and 2, and sometimes three or four children share one desk. Few of the pupils have text books, and sometimes the children do not have much energy because their families cannot feed them lunch. However, despite the trying circumstances faced by the school it remains wonderfully positive, with a caring and humble atmosphere. Gift neither presumes nor demands anything of its volunteers, but it is clear that the presence of visitors gives them a symbol of hope.
 Anna Volunteer 2009.

It is usually said of Kenya that, “A visit to Kenya without a stop at Mombasa is no visit to Kenya” The city is a wash with activities ranging from swimming to basking on the White sandy beaches. For a memorable swim, a trip to Kisite Marine Park. Imagine taking a swim around  a perfectly white sandy island at the middle of nowhere. Mombasa is surrounded with a number animal parks including Tsavo National park that is three hours away. Shimba hills game reserve where some of the biggest elephants in the world are found is also a couple of kilometers away from the city. For nature lovers, there are loads of aquatic flora and fauna, and topography to marvel at. The southern coast of Mombasa is full of lagoons to snorkel in as well as a visit to the Mangrove swamps where you can canoe and spot the crocodiles! In Mombasa the party never stops for the out going people. The placement and accommodation is a short taxi ride to the white sand beaches where you can spend your time off. Mombasa has a thriving shopping center where you will find bars, cafes and banks.
( We can add on a Safari when you are in Kenya. You don't have to book in advance if you have not made your mind up.)

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