Nan's donation to Senior Chief Onunga School for the Deaf

My Nan, Marjorie, entrusted me with a couple of hundred pounds to put towards a worthy cause during my 6 months in Kisumu, Kenya. I decided to donate it to the Senior Chief Onunga School for the Deaf.

The school is situated on the edge Nyalenda - the second largest slum in Kenya. They teach the state school curriculum, with 5 teachers, one unpaid volunteer to 25 deaf students.

All the students are fully deaf; half are Orphans and most live in the slum. Before the school opened in 2011 some of these kids suffered abuse as, due to their disability, they are perceived as less valuable. The school not only educates the kids but also sensitizes the community towards understanding the importance of treating them fairly and understanding their disability.

Students, Staff and me showing off much of the donation

Courtesy of the government, their current budget per student for teaching materials and other costs is 1500 Kenyan shillings, which is about 12 British pounds, per year (although students under 7 years old receive no funding at all). In addition to this meager budget the school survives on donations from the church and individuals in the community.

The school has numerous challenges such as: no water supply, no electricity, no computers, lack of teaching and learning resources, lack of dormitories, classrooms and school van. In fact with some additional investment in capacity they could easily attract 75+ more deaf children, from Nyalenda slum, who currently don’t go to any school at all.

In consultation with the Head teacher, Jane, and teacher, Barack, based upon our budget and their priorities we invested in the below items…

Students using the new laptops

• 4 mini laptops with pre installed learning aids and games designed for deaf children
• Fee’s to switch on the electricity
• 60 Exercise books
• Geometry equipment
• Coloring pens and pencils
• Atlases
• Dictionaries 
• Text books
• A Football & Colour co-ordination games
• Office supplies (staples, stapler, pens)
• A Kettle (currently they must build a fire to boil water to make a cup of tea!)

Mr Collins Otieno Okeyo (Education director for the National council for children’s services) was present to officially accept the donation, and on behalf of my Nan I was pleased to receive a letter of appreciation from the Head teacher, see it scanned at the bottom of this blog. It goes to show how a relatively small amount of money for us Westerners can make a very big difference to those working for a worthy cause, on a tight budget.