Nygambenyi: our second partner school
Our second Partner School is Ngambenyi Primary School in Kenya. The first investment in the school came in the form of the Trust’s largest-ever “Educational Project”. We provided a grant to build a whole, brand new school. We are incredibly proud to have funded the £110,000 build. It took 18 months starting mid-2015. We worked with UK charity African Promise, one of our long-term partners. They had already been working in the area for many years. We have been able to offer longer term financial support, making Ngambenyi our second partner school. This has all been possible thanks to our kind and generous supporters, in memory of Hazel. Here is the story of the school.
A long term partner in African Promise
Hazel’s Footprints has been working with UK partner African Promise since 2012. We funded classrooms and toilet blocks at two schools – Kisimenyi and Bungule. The schools are part of a cluster of African Promise schools in an isolated rural community – Kasigau – in the south east of Kenya.
The majority of the children in the area are from extremely disadvantaged backgrounds and – having seen the impact of funding we had contributed before – Hazel’s Footprints made the huge decision to fund one more school for African Promise, this time in its entirety.
Ngambenyi school would become the seventh school to join the group of African Promise schools in Kasigau. In early 2015, the school had a role of 130 children but its classrooms were dilapidated and other buildings (e.g. the kitchen, admin block and toilet blocks in the photos here) were inadequate. The local community had started the process of improving the school but had insufficient funds to complete the project.
Ngambenyi Primary School – from vision to reality
Hazel’s Footprints was able to fund the project for a rebuild of the school – an investment of £110,000 and our biggest grant to date by some distance. Work started in June 2015 and over the following 18 months, African Promise delivered the entire project. This included construction or renovation of eleven classrooms, a computer lab-cum-library, dining hall and kitchen, staffroom and offices, as well as new toilets and rainwater storage capacity. The school is now one of the best-equipped in the south-east of Kenya. It has been officially recognised as a “model” school in its region.
We could not be more delighted with the results!
Watch the video!
Pledging our ongoing support to the school
Hazel’s Footprints Trust is a long-term supporter of Ngambenyi. Since 2018, we have provided an annual grant to support the running costs of the school. Grants were initially £5,000 per annum and have now increased to £6,000 per annum. We are sure that this funding will be invaluable in creating a thriving and happy future for Ngambenyi and all of its pupils.
