Stories

Ndiani Primary in Kenya, Africa

Ndiani Primary School is located in Thika, Kahawa Sukari, 15 km from Nairobi city in KENYA. The school has 610 students and 17 staff and caters for K-8 (Primary School in Kenya goes up to year 8).

The school is spread over approximately 500m sq of land and belongs to Kikuyu people (a tribe).

Classrooms are solid brick buildings and classes are split into year groups. The school has no electricity and students are lucky to share a desk with another student. Students get water from a water-way that is approximately 500m away and there are crocodiles and hippos there but children don’t get hurt very often.

Classrooms have padlocks to keep people out. However, the small windows that are in the classrooms have usually been smashed and people can climb through them so there are no posters or other smaller resources in the room. If there was, they would be stolen.

The school caters for children from a range of backgrounds. Lots of orphaned and poor children are included and the school provides porridge every day to all students. This is made in the school hall (a larger building) which is also used for prayer. It is a Christian school.

The children enjoy school although by Australian standards it is strict. They are always smiling. Students enjoy soccer (and are very good at!) and handball (which is similar to Australian netball).

The school is trying to develop students’ awareness in the environment and has recently planted lots of plants and trees. Goats sometimes wander into the school and eat them though!

The students enjoyed making the friendship bands and are excited to receive the responses to their mails.

Jaye W.
Volunteer, Ndiani Primary

The Northern School for the Blind, Chiang Mai, Thailand

 The Northern School for the Blind  provides education for the blind in Kindergarten, Primry and Hish School.

 The school Policy is

  1. To get childen used to a school enviroment,
  2. To get children prepared for the world and provide them with information they may need,
  3. To help chidren with disabilities become independent,

Facilities

  1.  Health care,
  2.  Food  and boarding rooms,
  3.  Clothing,
  4.  Educational equipment and transportation.

There are 216 students 26 teachers and 39 other staff.

Some of us really like cooking and listening to historical stories about our country. Most of us learn to give massage and we like massage. We even gave Peter one when he visited. We like using beads and sometimes make beaded key rings which we sell for our school. Our teachers helped us with the beads for the bands we sent to you for the longest friendship band in the world.

You can look at our photos under here. [Photos to be uploaded soon!]

Oone, Ar Chiang, Arnan, Jub Jang, Boo Sue, Pop, Dream, Teerawut, Jub-Jip, May Sa
Some of the Senior Students of the school ( Aged 14-18)

Maroubra Bay School

At Maroubra Bay School we have dance group, sport, Spanish, art, library and of course the other usual subjects. Our favourites are library and dance group because we like to read and move our bodies. Library is fun because we get to enjoy reading in peace and listening to stories being read to us. We also like cricket and soccer. We are putting on a show of all our dances and song for Christmas !

In our school there are children from lots of different countries; South Africa, Papua New Guinea, France, New Zealand, Russia, Korea, Vietnam, Indonesia, Brazil and Chile.

Our school is very close to a beautiful beach – Maroubra Beach.

Zoe and Alyssa