Herewith an update on issues/projects at Loldia Primary School.
We have visited the school three times in the last one month to especially monitor the development of the grass field.
Diana Low also went to donate some T-shirts and footballs plus one basketball, kindly given by some Canadian guests at Loldia, to teacher Jimmy’s group. Jimmy has started a football academy for the children to have some sport during the school holidays and in their free time.
Some more good news to report.
The world Bank project is finally working. There is now continued water being supplied to the water filter and available to teachers and students alike. Also, a start has been made connecting the row of toilets to this supply of water. Should be finished soon. As a result the children will be able to wash their hands after using the toilets. Hope the supply stays. Apparently there is now a contract in place with the school, the water usage is metered and will be paid for by the school. We do not know the full details because August is a nation wide school vacation.
Also the line from Shalimar farm to the school has been restored and should be providing water to the school, free of charge. We tested the new line but there was no water being produced. We are following this up with Shalimar…..
In the past the water from Shalimar always came in a very low rate and pressure. This is according to James Nding’uri a the senior teacher who has been at the school for more than ten years.
We have asked Mbugua the builder to give us a quotation for the project 3.1 in the email below. A change in our request is to ensure that either water provided from the World Bank project or water from Shalimar line can be used to fill these tanks at any time. Also, there will be no imminent need to supply water to the toilets. However, we would like to keep that option open just in case there is a disruption in the supply of water through the World Bank project. This is just to be on the safe side. So the piping will lead to both big playing fields for irrigation purposes of the grass in the dry season and with a possibility to feed water to those toilets when needed.
We have enjoyed a lot of rain in the last two months. This week has seen very deep soil quenching rains also at the school. All water harvesting tanks are full, and the planted grass is developing really well and the colour of the field has changed from brown to green. We are now stressing to the teachers, the chief and the watchmen that the gates should remain closed at all times in order to keep sheep and goats away from the enticing green grass newly planted in the compound, no matter who the animals belong to and especially to those who should know better.
These animals can be very destructive to the grass plants if allowed free roaming around.
We have been in contact with the sub chief of the district and the lady Sarah Njoki has shown a keen interest in helping the school where she can. We are waiting for a meeting with her at the LPS premises to try and get some firm commitments for projects. We have been trying for a month now to get her to commit for a get together at the school.
We have stressed that it is very important to convene a meeting with all the parties concerned and especially now before the issue of splitting the school in two schools is even discussed.
The school does not hold or “own” a Title Deed as far as we know.
This is a potentially contentious issue.
The head of the CDF (Constituency Development Fund) has visited the school and has spoken with us and he has pledged some funds for projects related to water. We are thinking of using the CDF contribution for the project 3.1 described above. If insufficient money is available for that we could use some of the funds graciously raised by Grace to complete that project.
We are still awaiting a cost proposal from Mbugua on the same.
We are also still awaiting cost proposals for projects 3.9 and 3.10 in the mail below. Slow responses!
As for project 4.3, we will wait till we have a better picture of how much the other projects will cost. Only if sufficient funds are remaining will we go and purchase those computers and a printer for the teachers even as we realize that this is also crucial for potential academic excellence for our students.
Hope this informs you well about the projects at LPS.
