15/11/2024
Equity Brilliant School opened in April 2013 to provide education and care for primary school aged AIDS orphans and others too poor to go to school, living on a small barren island called Rusinga on Lake Victoria in Kenya.
It was begun by two friends, one Kenyan and the other a New Zealander who have never met each other because any money raised has been more usefully needed for the immediate care of the children.
It opened in a corrugated iron shed on land owned by its founder teacher, Hellen Ogodo and welcomes children from all tribes and religions.
Over the past 12 years it has been steadily moving towards self-sustainability and has provided education and care for over 800 primary aged children, until 2years ago, when at last the Kenyan government allowed children too poor to pay entry fees and provide their share of school maintenance costs, to enter state schools.
This was in 2022 and Equity now pays the cost of entry fees, uniforms and stationery for its primary aged children to enter state schools. On its own land it caters for 90 pre-school children, from 2 days old to five years. It provides education, care and socialisation, allowing carer mothers to accept work when it is available, knowing that the children for whom they are caring are being well looked after. It also runs a girls sanitary programme to allow 200 very poor secondary school aged girls in local schools, to maintain regular school attendance. In the evenings Hellen runs courses for teenagers and adults in literacy, hygiene and mental health and offers tutoring for past pupils to ensure they keep up with their state school work. All teaching is in English to give Equity students an advantage when they move through the school system.
Hellen has given her life to this project without salary. She is helped by a team of qualified teachers and unqualified staff who work for minimal pay. The school now owns a solidly built two storey school building, two thirds completed, and two houses that are rented out to provide a basic income, and for the past three years the school has rented a section of land on the lake edge to provide vegetables and fish with which to feed the children that is now producing excess to sell locally.
The school has become a highly valued asset to the community.
Food supplies, teacher's salaries, teaching resources and girls underwear for the girls' sanitary programme are funded by a small team of eight NZ donors and fund raising efforts in New Zealand.
The opportunity has just arisen to buy the "lake garden farm" rented for the past three years at 600 NZ dollars a year. The land is growing banana and mango trees and a wide range of vegetables and has a well-stocked fish pond.
The cost of buying this land on the lake edge, is one million Kenyan shillings . This converts to 12,840 New Zealand dollars at today's rates. It is a once in a life time opportunity that would help to make the school securely self-sustaining if the money could be raised to buy it.
To donate online, please use this link: http://equity-brilliant-school.weebly.com/store/c11/Donate_here.html
To donate in person, please visit SilverdaleVillageMarket and ask to talk to Lynn or Heather
