Page 20 - February 2013 Spire

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Mission Ministry continued...
The long-range goal of the project is to continue the de-
velopment of a high-quality primary school through eighth
grade. The school will also provide a forum for dialogue
and capacity-building to empower the general public to
determine its destiny through informed discernment and
skills training, to create the potential for income-generat-
ing activities, increased self-reliance and more responsible
citizenship.
While the primary beneficiaries of the project are its stu-
dents, the approximate 70,000 residents of the Nambale
District (which includes the town of Nambale) will also
benefit from the operation of the school, which serves
as a symbol of development and innovation in an area
traditionally disempowered by the extreme poverty of its
residents. On a more tangible level, the school has pro-
vided and continues to provide employment opportunities
for local citizens, and has already become a showcase for
exemplary animal and plant husbandry, conservation and
recycling of rainwater and active community service by its
student population.
Sufficient space exists at the existing facility to allow for
the capital expansion necessary to create additional class-
room space for grades five through eight, as well as the
corresponding boys and girls’ dormitories to house the
students in those grades. The grant enables the School to
complete much of the construction work associated with
these expansion plans. Within three years, sufficient space
will exist on site to educate 330 children through eighth
grade, and to house a large percentage of them who will
be boarding on site.
This grant enhances the School’s abilities to meet the fol-
lowing objectives:
• Enabling children orphaned or otherwise rendered
vulnerable by HIV/AIDS to access a quality education in a
nurturing residential setting
• Acting as a center of excellence in primary school and
artisanry curricula in the Nambale District in the Western
Province of Kenya by creating an environment conducive
to both teaching and learning
• Supporting the general population, but especially desti-
tute children, by providing marketable apprentice skills to
enhance opportunities for self-sufficiency
• Empowering the general population, but especially
destitute children, to take control of their futures through
informed decision-making
• Providing a suitable venue for conferences, retreats and
capacity-building seminars
The success of this venture is and will be measured in a
number of ways. The most immediate outcome is the
vast improvement in the lives of the children selected for
admission to the school. The scholarship student recruit-
ment process uses a questionnaire, containing a number
of objective, empiric indicators to rate the level of need
of prospective students. Essentially, the worse off a child’s
home situation is, as reflected by these indicators, the
lower his overall score will be. The children with the
lowest scores are the ones selected for admission. The
transformation in the lives of these children is nothing
short of monumental. They go from living in absolute
squalor, sleeping on mats on earthen floors and eating
one small meal a day to living in a world-class facility,
receiving individualized attention in small classes (30 stu-
dents or less) with three nutritious meals and two snacks
each day, retiring each evening to sleep in a real bed in a
safe environment.
The second most immediate outcome is the successful
mainstreaming of impoverished, disadvantaged students
with paying students, something that is quite rare in Ke-
nyan society. Because of the meteoric rise in the school’s
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