Letter from A MacMillan

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I try to keep the progress reports on the Got Matar website www.gotmatar.org reasonably up-to-date, but I feel that time has again come round to report to you briefly by way of letter. My main purpose, however, is to thank you, on behalf of the Got Matar Community Development Group, for all your help and encouragement! The development of the school continues to move forward in line with the schedule on which I and the Community Development Group agreed in September 2006. It is extraordinary to look back over the past 3 years and see what an enormous amount they have achieved in such a short time under very difficult circumstances.

This year the school has a capacity of 450 pupils in 3 streams. When the fourth block of classrooms is completed within the next month or so, there will be basic classroom space for all 600 children for whom the school was planned. This year it was possible to start building earlier than in previous years, and so there is less of a rush to get finished in time for the next intake of pupils in January 2010.

You will recall that each year, a block, consisting of 3 classrooms and one “extra” room, has been built. In the first year the extra room was set aside as a school office cum teachers’ room. In the second year, it was a library and in the third year, an interim multi-purpose science laboratory. The building now under construction includes a room that will serve as a computer training centre.

The main problem that we are now facing is that, because of lack of resources, the library has few books and the science laboratory is still in need of fittings and equipment, for which at least Euro 6,000 are needed. My eldest brother, George, has kindly said that he will try to raise funds for purchase of 20 “Inveneo” low voltage computers and the installation of photovoltaic panels for the computer training centre, at a total cost of over Euro 20,000. He is trying to persuade the congregations of the church in Langbank and several neighbouring churches to lend a hand.

Even though most of the basic infrastructure for the school will soon be in place, further construction is still needed.. Immediate needs include additional washrooms, a separate school office, and some teachers’ houses. The Community is also very keen to build a girls’ hostel to enable girls from outlying villages avoid having to walk to and from the school in the dark. And they are placing high priority on facilities for practical skills training, developing these in such a way that they can also generate income to pay for bursaries: the first activity is expected to be school uniform manufacture to meet the demand from a number of different schools in the district. An Australian NGO – “Bricks & Cartwheels” – has shown some interest in improving opportunities for girls’ education and, hopefully, will be persuaded to help with the construction of the dormitory and the skills training centre.

As the building programme becomes less demanding, the focus of funding can shift towards “software”. The most immediate priority is to meet the costs of bursaries to enable orphans and children from very poor families to attend the school. Now the bursary programme pays for uniforms and school meals, but it may, in future, have to be amended to pay for the costs of teachers hired locally to supplement the work of the few government-hired teachers at the school, and to reimburse bursary holders for final year exam fees. Experience so far indicates that about one third of the pupils are only able to stay in school if they receive bursary assistance. At a value of Euro 100-200 per pupil per year, total costs for 200 children will run to between Euro 20,000 and 30,000 per year.

Queen Margaret’s School in York adopted Got Matar as its “charity of the year” for 2008-09, and I have been told will soon be able to say how much they raised. The school is looking creatively at ways that it can develop links with Got Matar that would be mutually advantageous for the pupils of both schools.

The development of the school owes much to the two charities that have kindly managed collected funds – SONIA, run by Vanda Altarelli in Italy, and PEAS in UK, run by John Rendell. Both have been enormously helpful in recording donations and arranging for their periodic transfer to Kenya.

Finally, John Curtin, a retired theatre manager, who has been successfully organising tours by the Osiligi Maasai Warriors for the past 4 years, has agreed to arrange one in early 2010 for a troupe from around Got Matar to raise funds for the school. The 3-month tour would be centred on East Anglia and involve performances in schools, churches, local theatres and other venues. The troupe is already rehearsing!

Andrew MacMillan
21st October 2009