As our regular followers will know, our strategy started off supporting first children, then primary schools, then we moved on to a medical facility and secondary schools and then, in our final phase of what we hope has been a holistic approach to community development, we have expanded our support to the former village polytechnic which now goes by the much grander name of the “Katito Vocational Training College”.
Until now we have refurbished existing classrooms and built three new ones and provided a shed load of training equipment to help with all the disciplines taught at the facility.
The success of this project has lead, as is so often the case, to new opportunities to resolve. The problem now is that there is an increasing enrolment and not enough space. So we put together an application for a grant to the ED Charitable trust, extracts of which are below.
Suffice to say that our proposal was convincing enough to obtain a grant of over £100,000 which will go a long way to building an incredible facility for the young men and women of the area who though may not be academically gifted enough to become a doctor or lawyer, certainly have the potential to learn a trade that will make them self-sufficient and independent human beings: more than fulfilling our expectations when we started this beautiful project in 2006.
Project expansion
The facility suffers from a lack of available land. It is set on plot of approximately 100m x 100m in the Katito town centre and there is enough space for the 6 rooms that the facility currently has, plus a makeshift kitchen and various latrines.
The remaining land on the site is not big enough even for a soccer pitch so physical education takes place at a local primary school a kilometre or so away from the facility.
The region of Kisumu enjoys some of the best and most versatile agricultural land in Kenya, hence agricultural and horticultural skills are sought after. However, the college does not currently offer any such courses. Their greenhouse and poly-tunnel failed as it was of poor construction and they could not rely on a regular water supply.
The interest shown in the facility by Footsteps has also led to an increase in demand by parents. Our facility, with its new buildings and latest equipment, is the best by far in the region but is suffering under the weight of extra demand.
Our proposal
Footsteps has identified another plot of land less than 1km away from the current facility on the way to the village of Magunga where we have already built a primary and secondary school. The land is about 1.5 hectares in size and is ideal for our needs. We have established ownership and confirmed title with the local authorities and agreed a purchase price with the owner who is willing to sell it.
The quality of the Katito Technical College facility since Footsteps’ involvement means that there is an increase in demand for places and parents are willing to send their children from further afield within the Nyakach district, than just the local town centre. Therefore there is a need for a basic accommodation block for both girls and boys wishing to attend the college. Our priority would be for a girl’s dormitory in the first instance as it is generally unsafe for girls to travel to and from school after sunset at 6pm. Such a block would be an important source of income for the facility as well as providing an appropriate level of security for students and an environment for education.
In order to provide a secure source of water for the facility there is also a need for a borehole drilled to sufficient depth to ensure a reliable and safe supply.
Therefore our plan to expand the facility consists of:
Purchase of additional land (£12k including the deposit of £4.5k)
Two dormitory blocks, one for boys and one for girls, with washing facilities, accommodating up to 50 students each (£30k)
One 150m borehole plus a modern electric pumping system, a water tower and a tank (£15k)
One poly-tunnel greenhouse with an additional water tank and irrigation system (£5k)
An administration block – there is currently no separate administration or staff areas at the college and it has become clear to us that improved teacher support facilities attracts and retains better teaching staff (£15k)
Therefore the total estimated cost to provide the new facilities would be £78k.
