Minutes:
Minutes of meeting at Loldia Primary School, Head teacher’s
office, 16th of August 2021.
Present:
·
Head Teacher: Mr. Joseph Njeru.
·
Chairman of Board of Management (BOM) for Loldia
Primary School (LPS): Jackson Kateri
·
Builder: MbuguaKimani
·
Trustees: Wanja and Ben Arentz
Introduction to new participant (Chairman of BOM).
Ben &Wanja explained the role of Trustees to the
Chairman emphasizing that we are representatives of TAS (Trustees for African
Schools), based in London. As such we coordinate all projects at LPS funded
through TAS. We agree with the school management which projects have highest
priority, we prepare tender documents for these projects, get quotes from
various potential builders, select which builder should be awarded a contract (based
on quality/reliability and price) for a project and try to secure funds from
TAS for each of these projects. Once approved by TAS and received commitment
for the funds, we administer the funds on behalf of TAS and pay direct to the
builder whenever agreed milestones of the project have been reached. During the
project we visit the building activities to ensure that the activities are
carried out as agreed in the contract (no shortcuts). Upon completion of a
contract, we retain a certain percentage of the funds (usually 10%) for a
period of a month or more till convinced that the project was delivered as
agreed and everything is working fine.
Projects completed so far include rainwater harvesting from
all buildings on the school’s compound, new water supply line from Shalimar farm
to provide lake water to the school, fencing of the playground, grass planting
on the same playground, building additional class rooms and toilets, repairs of
windows and floors in classrooms, additional furniture for the classes, teaching
materials (books and sporting materials), computers, new staffroom extension to
the office block to cater for the increased number of teachers, new long drop/showers
combination for the teachers’ accommodations on site etc, etc.
The latest project we are now involved with is the
construction of a kitchen plus dining hall for the students. This project was
initiated by the County Development Fund (CDF) and initially funded by
donations from the Member of Parliament (MP) Hon. Martha Wangari for the
kitchen (completed) and again the MP Martha plus Kenya’s deputy president (DP) MrRuto
for the dining hall. These funds resulted in the dining hall foundation and
walls being erected up to some 1.5 meters high. That is when the funding money
ran out. We were then requested to get
involved to see if through any funding from TAS, the dining hall could be
completed. We agreed to assist, however insisted that the project would be
dealt with like all previous projects sponsored by TAS. That meant no money
changes hands other than direct from the LPS trust account to the builders and
no administration fees or other ‘miscellaneous’ payments to other parties
involved. This was eventually agreed by all. We reiterated that we as Trustees
work totally on a voluntary basis on these projects and pay for any incurred
costs and time spent.
The
Kitchen cost a total of Ksh 2,000,000 and the initial funding for the dining
hall amounted to 2,500,000. It is now estimated, that the completion of the
dining Hall will require an additional Ksh 4,500,000.
Meanwhile we have received big donations from a lady in the
UK. Her name is Grace Gray. This donation has been supplemented by funds from
TAS and identified for projects at LPS. We now have sufficient funds to
complete the building of the dining hall in due course.
MrNjeru mentioned that he was very pleased to see building
activities restarted, after a period of no activity due to the lack of funds.
The dining hall is scheduled to be completed by the end of
October.
MrNjeru and MrMbugua have been requested to come up with an
estimate of what will be required as furniture for the hall and utensils for
feeding the students. We have already some potential sponsors locally who may
be willing and able to take care of these requirements for the hall.
Ben and Wanja suggested that for a fee, the dining hall
could also be used as a community hall for the township of Kasarani. It should
be made available for big events like meetings, weddings, social gatherings etc.
with the idea that it generates some funds for the school.
It was agreed that the dining hall will be named: ‘AMAZING
GRACE HALL’. This is a name with
different connotations for different people. As far as we are concerned, we
show great appreciation to Grace Gray from the UK for her very generous
donations for this project. Others will see it as a reference to a gift from
God.Mbugua will arrange for a big sign to be put up, showing the name of the
hall and reference to the various sponsors for the project like MP MarthaWangari,
DP Ruto, Ms Grace Gray and TAS.
We also discussed the presence of goats and sheep always
seen on the playing field. This is obviously not a good development as these
creatures are known to damage grass fieldsuprooting and leaving everything bare. MrNjeru promised
he will look into this and try and prevent reoccurrence for the future.
We also discussed another ongoing rain water collection
project. The last two classrooms built and sponsored by Bilashaka farm, have no
water collection included. The Great Rift Valley Lodge (GRVL) pledged that they
would provide materials and manpower for this to happen. Unfortunately, the
project was not completed and the GRVL is at the moment not capable of
providing funds to make it happen. The plastic tank for water collection and
the concrete basis for the tank have been done. All that is required now are
gutters on the roof. We (Trustees) will try and find funds to make this happen
as a small project.
MrNjeru thanked everyone for attending the meeting and
stressed the need for close cooperation and communication between all involved.
Recorded by Ben &Wanja
Trustees