By Richard Montgomery with reports from AK in Kenya | Executive Director
We are proud to report that our flagship food program in Kenya at Matulani Elementary School is doing excellent. Our spring gardena nd chicken egg farms continues to help our local team provide a healthy lunch for over 250 children at Matulani Elementary School. Our chicken egg program is being expanded this month by 100 chicks!
We have attached photos of Matulani produce, the chicks that were purchased for our hen house and a letter of thank you from the schoolmaster of Matulani.
The monthly allowance has enabled us to feed the school with the following quantities in a term
Note: corruption is rampant in Mtito Andei (an impoverished truck stop town between Nairobi and Mombasa) so transparency and oversight is constant challenge. Fortunately, we found that a high degree of transparency with a school food program is possible anywhere in the world with a galvanized PTA. No matter how poor the school, we have learned that there is always a PTA and they want one thing: the best of everything for their son and daughter.
The following reports were written by Kenyan staff of Global Roots. They are published with little editing.
Matulani- The results here has made parents, teachers and students happy. They have the best marks ever, The best student got 399 marks which was better of compared to the best student in 2013 who got 325 marks. Their mean score is 254.06, this is far above average compared to 2013, they had 242.58. This is an increment of 11%. The first 2 students are likely to join National school and the rest are eligible of joining provincial schools. The parents and teachers believe this is a direct impact that has been brought by the hot lunch that has created more contact hours between learners and teachers. Minimal absenteeism has been another tool that has taken us to this step. Students got good marks in sciences due to provision of demonstration field in some chapters,eg pests identification, weed controls and safe using of chemicals.
Iviani- though our project is still new there but the provision of water has played a part in improvement in the National exams. The best student emerged with 372 marks, in 2013 they had 351 marks. This is due to minimal absenteeism. The provision of piped water has played a big part in Minimizing waterborne diseases.
They've a meanscore of 252 compared to 248 of the previous year.
Matangini- They had a slight improvement in the exams. The distribution of vegetables on the school has boosted the no. Of students in the school. Their best student had 408 marks. Their mean score is 248 compared to 218 of 2013.
All the hard teachers have hopes of gape toting a higher enrollment due to the interest of hot lunches in these schools.
Appreciation from the community has been noted, I personally thank the Global Roots fraternity for their continuos support and coordination.
Water receipt oversight. Email from AK — GR oversight officer, Kenya
The Matulani headmaster has emailed you a new receipt or payment made for the May water bill.
Earlier last week he explained to me that for the April expenses report the school had emailed us an INVOICE for the water consumption. The colour and numbering sequence for the invoices is different from that of the payment receipts that the water company issues.
We agreed that he would forward the water invoice for May so that it could back up the water receipt that has appeared questionable. In the end he sent a new receipt that was issued by the water company. As the water consumption reflected is not unusually high given that there are now 100 chicks to watered at the school, I will give the school the benefit of doubt and assume that the earlier receipt was the result of a lazy clerk at the water company.
However we have agreed that subsequent accounting documents must be consistent. Receipts for actual payments made and not invoices.
The school now is well and truly aware that documentation forwarded will be scrutinised closely and they have to ensure it's authenticity.
I have briefed the headmaster on the funding offer for the chicken project and he has promised to have a proposal ready by this Friday. I have advised him that this is a one time offer and that the proposal should be able to be sustained by the regular monthly allowance the school receives.
Regards
AK
Tracking of spending in Mtito
Due to the monthly practice of reporting on expenses, the two school project management committees at Matulani and Matagini have come to learn what is expected of them in preparing their expense summaries.
Every month on my informing them that their operational funds have been deposited into their respective bank accounts, the signatories to the account travel to Mtito Andei town in order to withdraw the money. During this trip they can also have the expense receipts and the expense summary report scanned at a cyber café and then forwarded to both of us by email.
A backup option is to have photocopies of the relevant documents placed in an envelope, addressed to me and sent on the parcel service provided by the bus companies. The cost of an envelope to Nairobi is just slightly over US$ 1.00. I can in turn scan the documents in Nairobi and email them to you.
On those occasions when a GR representative is on an inspection visit from Nairobi, these expenses documents can be physically handed to them.
Now that Iviani is now receiving a stipend, the head teacher will be instructed too on the system.
Ritchie and Matulani have both stated that they consult a qualified agriculturalist to advise them on the necessary inputs for the gardens and I will get his telephone contact so as to counter check on the purchases made, to avoid excesses or the diversion of these supplies.
Summary
We are thrilled by our project at Matulani but concerned that the construction of a new railway by a Chinese corporation will disrupt our oldest garden at Matangini and newest irrigation project at Iviani.
A Global Roots oversight team will visit Matulani next month with the funds necessary to expand the chicken egg program and begin developing a dormitory that will help the school take in stragglers. In this part of Kenya, a straggler is a child whose parents die and he or she is forced to hit the road looking for help.
The team will also meet with the local construction manager of the Chinese corporation to negotiate relocation funds for our two threatened food projects.
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