Children's Health Days - May 2010
From February 2010, a programme of mass de-worming of children and treatment for ringworm was carried out at 4 schools. This programme is run by our Children’s Support Centre under the supervision of its registered nurse. Four visiting Spanish medics assisted our local staff to treat a total of 1’250 children. De-worming children is an essential part of improving health as worm infestation leads to malnutrition, causes anaemia, lethargy, lack of concentration, increased vulnerability to other infections, decreased mental capacity as well as growth retardation.

All that can be remedied with inexpensive tablets and by educating the community on how to improve hygiene to prevent reoccurrence. At the same time, running this programme in primary schools allows the Children’s Centre to identify children who need more comprehensive rehabilitation for malnutrition, jiggers and skin problems and to invite their parents to bring them to the Centre for free services. 

Books for Kakemer Resource Centre - May 2010
The mother of a volunteer from San Diego (US) was so touched by her daughter’s stories and emails from Kenya that she started a book drive for the Kakemer Resource Centre that was opened by Community Outreach Centres in 2009. The students from Black Mountain Middle School in San Diego filled 13 boxes with books and raised enough funds to post the books. For the first time in its history, Kakemer village now has access to a public library. The book drive is expected to continue in 2010.

Artistic activities - May 2010
To a large extent, there are no resources available for arts education in the rural regions of Kenya. Working with Alta Mane foundation in Switzerland, ConnectSwiss has been able to launch various activities to provide children with experiences and instruction in the visual and creative arts in order to contribute to their balanced development and stimulate creativity. Some of the activities include texture drawings, paper-mâché (e.g. making puppets, face masks), play dough modelling, drawing and painting with different mediums.

School improvements - May 2010
Dr. Triplett’s Primary School in Hayes, London (UK) held a collection at their Harvest Festival Appeal and raised almost Ksh 95’000. Previously Kakemer Primary was cooking on open fires for their girls’ boarding-school meals and the pre-primary children’s porridge everyday. The school used these funds for new cooking stoves that will reduce consumption of firewood and now provide a smoke free kitchen. The two schools have started corresponding exchanging letters and photos and learning more about each other’s cultures and schools.

Karate Club - March 2010
The karate club has now been registered with the Kenyan Karate Federation (KKF). In August last year, 3 visitors from the Spanish NGO, Tushirikiane initiated a school holiday programme in Kakemer village, Teso. Students enjoyed karate, dance and football lessons.  However, the Karate was so successful that Tushrikiane committed to start a training school. Currently, young children and adults have lessons every day on an open field next to a church.

Seed Distribution - February 2010
Once again the Community Outreach distributed seed ahead of the planting season. This time sorghum was chosen as it gives two harvests from one planting. There were 4 distribution points in Emuhaya district and 2 in North Teso, benefitting close to 5'000 farmers. The NGO's agricultural engineer again spoke at public meetings and a handout in Kiswahili was distributed on optimal planting methods and how to make compost, in order to ensure the best possible harvest.

School Feeding 2 new schools - January 2010
ConnectSwiss started a new feeding programme of daily porridge at Ebbiba and Musinaka Primary schools in Emuhaya district in January as the school year opened. Between them the two schools have around 1'050 pupils. These are two of the poorest schools in East Bunyore.

Kakemer Resource Centre - October 2009
The Resource Centre in Kakemer opened on 9^th October. It offers free computer training to the community. It also has books and games that allow individuals to further their mental and creative development. Two local computer trainers were hired as the first teachers. The Centre has a waiting list of over 100 people to do computer courses. An American volunteer launched the very first chess activities in Kakemer and chess is held on a regular basis. Books have been donated from California for the public library service. 

Kakemer Primary School Library - September 2009
The NGO assisted Kakemer Primary School library to make bookshelves and tables. NGO volunteers helped with the reorganisation and classification of books in the library, and the NGO is also assisting in creating a database of all their books.

Sports activities - August 2009
Karate activities were held during the school holidays in Kakemer and, due to the overwhelming response, a club was launched and registered with North Teso Social Services.The NGO employed one experienced karate trainer for the Club. The Teso Abad Karate Do Club did very well in their first academy, winning both Kata and Kumite competitions. Football training also took place, as Spanish visitors kindly donated many footballs that were given to local schools in both Emuhaya and North Teso. Teso youth started a team that holds at least two friendly matches a month with surrounding villages.

Opening of the Children's Centre - August 2009
The Children's Support Centre opened on 1st August. Local schools were invited to send children with skin problems, jiggers, worms or malnutrition and the response was tremendous. Volunteer nurses assisted the opening but by the end of August, all services were staffed by Kenyans with an experienced Kenyan nurse responsible for the day-to-day activities.

Art lessons - July 2009
A Swiss volunteer introduced art lessons at Ataba Oburi in Teso District. It was the children’s first experience with practical art, since most primary schools in rural Kenya do not have the resources to teach art. The children are therefore normally deprived of creativity and expression through painting or drawing. They thoroughly enjoyed this new experience, which will be repeated by the NGO.

Seed Distribution - March 2009
From 23 February to 7 March, 86 bags of seed maize were distributed to needy families at 4 distribution points in Emuhaya district. These bags gave around 3'400 families, 2kg each of seed maize for planting on their farms. Our Community Outreach Agricultural Engineer spoke at several public meetings explaining the ideal planting methods for the type of grain and on the day, leaflets in Swahili were handed out to all recipients.

Completion of the
Children's Recovery Centre - March 2009
A volunteer engineer from Brazil assisted the final touches to be completed during March. He also made furniture and trained 4 local carpenters at the same time. Community Outreach is currently recruiting staff and registration is taking place. The Children's Centre is expected to open in July this year.

Spring protection - January 2009
Community Outreach completed the protection of a natural spring for the community in Bunyore. This is a cheaper alternative to digging a well and is useful in areas which have natural springs such as valleys and swampy areas. By protecting the spring, the water source is kept free from contamination as people and animals cannot step in or contaminate the water. It also requires less maintenance than a well.

International Village School Vumilia - January 2009
A total of 33 new students enrolled in January 2009 – some entering Form 2 from other schools as they had not been able to keep up their fee payments. International Village School is fast gaining a reputation in the community for excellent results, good materials, a positive learning atmosphere and the students enjoy the varied lunches as well. Our sports days with events like tug-of-war and egg-and-spoon races where the teachers join in as well, also make for a fun atmosphere which improves not only student morale but also the student-teacher relationship. The added self-confidence seen in the students now in their second year is remarkable. At the end of 2008 the class average was 76%.

Kakemer Primary School feeding - January 2009
ConnectSwiss launched a new school feeding programme at Kakemer Primary School in Teso. 120 children receive free porridge with milk every day. This project is part of the NGO’s overall objective to improve academic performance in Teso district (one of the worst performing districts in the whole of Kenya). The improvement in academic performance from school feeding has been proven at Kigama Primary school where the NGO has supervised school feeding since 2007.

As a result of this feeding programme and the renovation of their pre-primary facilities in October, their 2009 enrolment has more than doubled.

Jumpstart Pre-Primary - January 2009
On 26th January, our second intake of pre-primary pupils started with Jumpstart. Three out of 25 children from 2008, are repeating the year as they were considered not entirely school ready. As Jumpstart is free of charge and takes in the most needy children, most of the children come from very disadvantaged homes and several are developmentally behind. The free porridge programme also assists their concentration and development.

Renovation of a Pre-Primary classroom
- October 2008
Kakemer Primary School has the first pre-primary school classroom in the teso with good materials, which gives the children a good learning environment.

This classroom is also used for Community Outreach's Information Forums in the afternoons which focus on family issues.

Community Outreach recently opened their 13th water well to the public. The new well is at Esirabe in Emuhaya District and was dug and built by locally trained people under the supervision of a civil engineer.

» The International Village School is the only school in the district to give bursaries or subsidies to all its students.

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