There’s a lot been happening at the school in August to December 2025

There’s been a huge amount going on in and around the school in the last few months, lots of news and lots of progress. Just as a flavour, the school building is going well, we’re up to three floors, the recent set of national exam results were very encouraging, one of our trustees took on amazing fundraising challenge, and there was an uplifting visit to the school from a number of our supporters. That visit included one of the team from our super new corporate supporter DTRE, they are real livewires. And there’s more. If you want to read the full details about what’s been happening, you can see our complete newsletter update here.

The proof is in the exam results

As our initial school intake from 2023 successfully completed the Kenya Junior Secondary Assessment, a national exam, this marked the end of their junior school journey and prepares them for senior secondary school in January 2026. The results were released without rankings, as the national education department want to reduce unhealthy competition between schools and students. So they place learners into four performance bands. 5 of our children hit the top grade and they all stayed out of the bottom grade. Given the background of our kids we think that’s a super result all round.

Our Masai student is making great strides

Rina, who lives happily in our safe house, loves making jewellery, and was seed funded by our trustee Paul Graham and his wife Angela to start her Maasi bead project. She made her first delivery to the UK for just £25.

Rina returned to her Masai village in the school holidays with her father Lekoko, who is our night security guard (he’s a big chap). While in the village she met her old school friend, who at 13 has an 11 month old baby. It’s a stark reminder that back in their community girls are usually married between the ages of 10 and 13.

Mwaka takes a creative hand up out of poverty

As our students already look to creating their own income for the future, Mwaka is a passionate young artist, another current resident of our safehouse. During our sponsors’ recent visit they were so impressed she made three sales. Together with support from the Your Smalls Appeal charity, who support women and girls globally in all sorts of ways, Mwaka now has funds to buy more materials and follow her creative journey.

The school building is almost complete

As you can see from the photos we’ve gone up in the world. The 2^nd floor is almost ready for the new senior secondary school to start the new term it January (it will be ready). As well as the building fabric, the staircases have been made extra safe and the outside corridors have been protected from the very adjacent residential buildings.

Almost inevitably safety inspections have added some essential features to the cost, so we still need to raise further funds to complete the buildings on the roof, sadly that includes the safehouse for the boys. All contributions are gratefully received.

A very personal visit to the school

In September, Shereen and her husband visited the 5 children they sponsor and chose a further 5 to sponsor too. While they were there they treated every student to a pizza and gave the school a whole range of indoor and outdoor games.

The kids love to debate

On 4 October the school did very well at the Interactors’ Debate Contest hosted by the Rotaract Club of Mombasa. Our students were led by Mwaka Katana, who fully deserved to win her full sponsorship to study a foreign language of her choice starting in January 2026.

Ben’s amazing 405km wild terrain, hills and forests bike ride challenge

Ben raised an amazing £20,000 (yes £20,000) that will provide food and clean water to everyone at the school for a whole 12 months. Ben’s one our Kenyan trustees and a school director. He covered the distance from Tsavo West to Watamu on the north coast, with Helen and  Andrew Jackson, in just 5 days. That’s a lot of hills, and roads were definitely a luxury.

We don’t have all the photos to show qute how tough that was, but we think the super amount raised indicates how hard that was. Huge thanks go to Ben, Helen and Andrew.

Next? The team are planning to walk up Kilimanjaro and cycle back down. That sounds even tougher.

We’ve got a super new corporate partner

We work closely with several businesses who give us invaluable support and now we’ve agreed a first “formal” corporate partnership agreement with DTRE, an award-winning commercial real estate advisory company. We recently met with some of the senior people and a large group of their team. They’re delightful, they’re hugely supportive and we’re very excited about working with such a vibrant, positive business.

Tears and laughter as Sally and 6 UK sponsors visited the school

There were tears when the team visited the homes of some of the children, and hugs and laughter with the kids at the school. The welcome from the school staff was special, the welcome from the students was something else.

We don’t think anything quite prepared our group for the environmental project that Rotary had arranged. One mangrove tree has 5 times the environmental climate change impact than a terrestrial tree, and the challenge was to plant 3,700, working with the staff and the kids. Mangroves like mud, and everyone had to just get stuck in (pun intended). And in that mud there were a lot of small crabs. Yuck!

The group were there to see the students coming back to school for the start of term 3, with the children singing to the group. Several sponsors had provided gifts for their sponsored children, the cause of much delight.

It’s tough to see some of the home conditions

The group found the home visits tough because of the degree of abject poverty, and the contrast between home conditions and the happy faces they see at school. It does go to prove the resilience of a lot of our students, but the conditions led to more than a few tears for our sponsors.

There was more fun as Paul and Angela Graham treated the school to a visit to Haller Park, a zoo in Mombasa. There were magical moments for the kids and the sponsors, the kids especially liked feeding the giraffes.

The trip included a visit to the Akamba wood working community to see some amazing woodwork being created in very basic conditions. Rotary arranged a karaoke social evening ,with several clubs joining the group, where they discovered some of the group could sing and others weren’t quite so hot.

All of the group spent some time with the students in class, including sponsor and UK primary head teacher Cheryl who gave the kids a maths lesson. Finally Mia, a 17 year old student in the UK, buddied up with school student Sharlene and became a pupil for a day. It was great for the kids to be able to talk to someone their own age and share experiences.

Pen pals with the children at Sheerhatch Primary School

After Sponsor Cheryl, Head teacher at Sheerhatch Primary, visited in August, she told her pupils and the kids at RotaKids all about it. They sent our students some lovely letters, and in return our students sent back some beautiful paintings. Now they’ve agreed to exchange letters and photos every term. And now the RotaKids are aiming to raise funds for the school. Thanks Cheryl.

Rotary having fun with the kids

RC Mombasa Downtown brought learning to life with a Reading & Fun Activities event. It was a mixture of study tips, pronunciation, and games for an unforgettable day with teachers and students. It’s super to see so much local support from Rotary.

In summary

The school is growing in size and recognition in the community and beyond. We give thanks to all our sponsors, supporters, teachers and staff. Special thanks must go to our amazing students who respond so well to the opportunities they receive. It’s not so easy to be happy and work hard at school when life at home can be so tough. Remember you can see our complete newsletter here.