Update from Gabriel – Nov 2023

Dear friends

I hope this short note finds you and families well. My sincere apologies for not writing sooner. As is always the case, we came back to a very busy six months since we returned to Kenya in June. It is only now that schools have closed that we are able to attend to long overdue reports. We prepared 7 photo collages which may be viewed here in high resolution.

• Furniture for Schools
• Transporting the Furniture
• Shipping the Furniture to Kenya
• Introducing TRLF Abodes
• Improving Infrastructure of Tan Delta Schools
• Life Vests for School Children
• TRLF Formation Programs

In addition we also prepared two short videos. The first video is a thanksgiving message from our fully sponsored secondary school students to our donors.

You may also turn on captions and set the video quality to HD for a better viewing experience.

The second video shows our students and youth in their fish pond where they rear tilapia and catfish for home consumption as well as to generate some income to supplement our meals. First harvest is expected in January 2024.

TRLF Youth rearing fish for food and income

We now have seven weeks remaining to our closure for the year on 21st December. Now that the academic year has ended, we intend to use this time to make much progress on the Hostel building, although the rains started yesterday and it may hamper progress. We also plan to use this time to carry out repairs at the community centre and school, like painting works and furniture repairs. As is our practice, all repairs and upkeep doing the school holidays are carried out by our students, youth and interns in return for them to receive some allowance to provide for their families at Christmas.

The youth will also use this lull to work on their farm projects, which includes vegetable farming, aquaculture and bee keeping projects.

This year our youth developed two income generating projects on a small scale, namely pressing moringa seeds for oil, and concrete brick making. We hope these projects can be developed in time to be sustainable local income generating projects.

Finally, here is the link to our 2022 Audited Financial Statements.

We end here with apologies once again for the delay is writing this, and wish each one of you much blessings as we head towards the end of the year. God bless.

Gabriel Teo and all TRLF beneficiaries,

Idsowe Village, Tana Delta, Kenya

Project Report: May Update on Solar Lanterns for Tana Students

May 21, 2018 May Update on Solar Lanterns for Tana Students By Oscar – Volunteer Patricia studying at home Greetings all, This quarter of the year we have been affected with floods where 70% of Tana River County is being covered with water due to the current floods problem in the Country. Being in the Delta, we have been the most affected county. However, we managed to get testimonials from Patricia and Ali as quoted below. "My name is Patricia from Vumbwe village. I am 15 years old. When I was still a student at Kulesa primary school last year I received a solar lamp from Tana River Life Foundation. I am taking this opportunity to say thank you to all of you for assisting me with the solar lamp. Before I had the lamp, it was not easy for me to wake up in the morning for preps because there was no available source of light. It was difficult to use the lamp because of the cost of paraffin and it was a daily expense my family could not afford. Besides providing more study hours, the solar lamp also helped my parents earn some income in charging our neighbours hand phones, which helped them pay for my exam fees. I did well in the primary school leaving exams last year and am now fully sponsored by Tana River Life Foundation in Form 1 (Year 9) in Sacred Heart Girls Secondary School in Mpeketoni, Kenya. Thank you all again. Patricia John" And Ali wrote "I am Ali from Bubesa village in Mwina Location of Tana River County Kenya. My mother and brother are farmers. My father is mentally not well. I had many challenges when studying in primary school. We live in a small mud hut. Where we live, when it rains, our walls may be washed away and need to be repaired. After school I have to help my mother look for firewood and fetch water and so have little time to do my homework until night time but there was no light at home. I continued with those challenges until by good fortune I received the solar lamp from Tana River Life Foundation. I was now able to do night preps and complete my homework. So even if I could not do my studies during the light time, but at night I was able to study without fail. It also helped my parents as I was studying at night, the lamp allowed my mother to cook and do other things at home like weaving mats. After my primary school exams, I did not do as I expected, but the results was still good. I am now in Form 1 at Tarasaa High School and am partially sponsored by Tana River Life Foundation. I now know that in all hardship there will be relief. I want to be a lawyer to help my people know their right. Thank you all very much. Ali" Ali completing his homework using solar lantern On a scale of 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend this project to a friend, family member, or colleague? 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Not at all likely Extremely likely GIVE NOW Updates are posted directly by Project Leaders, and to make your experience as authentic as possible, GlobalGiving does not alter these updates – they are the real deal. About this project: Solar Lanterns for Tana Students by Tana River Life Foundation Kenya, Education Rural schools in the Tana Delta have been usually left out from development plans the communities live off the grid as the power infrastructure doesn’t reach their villages. Without light, students are unable to study nor do homework when the sun goes down. Providing solar lanterns will be enable students to do their homework in the evenings, providing them the opportunity to do better in national examinations. Beneficiaries are upper primary students in Class 7 & 8, aged between 12-15 yrs update email preferences – unsubscribe – privacy policy GlobalGiving – 1110 Vermont Avenue NW, Suite 550, Washington, DC 20005, USA GlobalGiving UK – 6 Great James Street – London, WC1N 3DA, UK Contact Us GlobalGiving @GlobalGiving

Project Report: New Year, New Solar Lanterns

Feb 11, 2019 New Year, New Solar Lanterns By Oscar Raha – Volunteer Ozi Primary Students with Solar Lanterns Happy 2019 to our donors over the world and Gong Xi Fa Cai to our donors in Asia as you usher in the year of the pig. Your donations on this project is making a huge impact to many students in our community as so far over 200 households in Tana Delta Sub County have benefited since 2017. This year we were at Ozi Primary which is one of the most rural parts of the county as the nearby village is only accessible by boat and by motorbike during the dry seasons. Ozi village is situated at the mouth of the Tana River where it flows into the Indian Ocean. The school has a population of 461, with the highest enrolment being from the lower primary level. The Government has installed solar in one of the classrooms to support its Digital Learning Programme to the lower grades during the day but parents are not willing to send their students to school during the night due to security concerns as well as worries about safety of the female students. It’s for this reason that the Foundation has donated 52 solar lanterns to the students of class 7 and 8 to ensure that they can conduct their night preps. This particular type of Solar Lanterns have a component that enables parents to charge phones during the day hence serve as an income generating resource to cover some basic necessities. This year’s class 8 comprises 17 students, with 15 of them being girls and boys being only 2. It is a unique scenario in the area as mostly the number of boys in classes is usually higher than that of girls. This had a negative impact towards studying at the school at night as their class teacher Mr. Ngoka was quoted, “The community don’t want to bring students to school especially the female pupils. I have a hard task of convincing the parents on the benefits of letting their students do night preps. It wasn’t making sense to give students homework over the week as I was sure they can’t do it at home. Now I can give them assignments that I am confident they can do.” After donating the solar lanterns, Bakari a class 7 student had this to say, “Although I scored 200 /500 for the last exams, I am very confident that I can improve my performance to at least 300. This is mainly because at home usually I don’t study at night but now I have the resources to. I have a sister also in this primary school and we will help each other study.” While Aisha a class 8 student said “I am grateful to all donors who had a hand in this project, as my results are somehow poor and I do hope that this year I can do a lot of personal studies at home to ensure that I improve significantly come the end of the year. Oscar conducting an interview with Aisha Demo on how the solar lantern works by TRLF Youth Bakari receiving his Solar Lantern Road to Ozi Primary On a scale of 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend this project to a friend, family member, or colleague? 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Not at all likely Extremely likely GIVE NOW Updates are posted directly by Project Leaders, and to make your experience as authentic as possible, GlobalGiving does not alter these updates – they are the real deal. About this project: Solar Lanterns for Tana Students by Tana River Life Foundation Kenya, Education Rural schools in the Tana Delta have been usually left out from development plans the communities live off the grid as the power infrastructure doesn’t reach their villages. Without light, students are unable to study nor do homework when the sun goes down. Providing solar lanterns will be enable students to do their homework in the evenings, providing them the opportunity to do better in national examinations. Beneficiaries are upper primary students in Class 7 & 8, aged between 12-15 yrs update email preferences – unsubscribe – privacy policy GlobalGiving – 1110 Vermont Avenue NW, Suite 550, Washington, DC 20005, USA GlobalGiving UK – 6 Great James Street – London, WC1N 3DA, UKContact Us GlobalGiving @GlobalGiving

May Update on Solar Lanterns for Tana Students

Greetings,

Thanks you for your continuous support. It is the second term in Kenya and students just began the second term. This period instead of just giving the solar lanterns to the students, a small team of youth volunteering at Tana River Life Foundation was selected to give an encouragement talk to the students. By doing this, the youth could also get a better insight of what the Foundation does as well as give a chance for them to share their experiences to the students. We were at Onwardei Primary School and donated 24 solar lanterns to the class 7 students.

Although we will continue giving out solar lanterns to the students, in the next month we will be revisiting the schools where we donated and check whether the lanterns are still functional as well as monitor the impact it has on the students performances as well as their families.

The foundation is very grateful to your contributions and we do hope you can continue sharing about the project so that we can be able to reach the goal of lightening the lives of many students and families in the county.

Regards,

Oscar – Volunteer and former beneficiary

Bringing Light to Students in the Tana Delta

Students from Kulesa Primary School receiving their lamps

Rural schools in the Tana Delta have been usually left out from development plans. The communities live off the grid as the power infrastructure doesn’t reach their villages. Without light, students are unable to study nor do homework when the sun goes down. Providing solar lanterns will be enable students to do their homework in the evenings, providing them the opportunity to do better in national examinations. Beneficiaries are upper primary students in Class 7 & 8, aged between 12-15 yrs.

The foundation is working with schools to offer the students in the nearby villages with lighted classrooms, as well as take home lamps to do their homework and evening self-study. Many of the villages lack electricity and as a result students are not able to do their homework at night. The solar lanterns will provide electricity for lighting classrooms at night. Students in these rural communities are able to study and compete with students from other parts of the country who have better facilities.

Since 2017, we have been helping more than 200 students per year who are preparing for their primary school leaving exams. This will improve their results & chances to advance to secondary school.

At Bubesa Primary School, the solar lanterns had a tremendous impact on the performance of the students in the national exams last November. The graduating class emerged top for the first time in the Garsen North Zone which comprises of ten schools. The mean grade obtained by all the graduating students showed an improvement of 20.44%.

It has been shown that young people who have had more years of education are less likely to engage in behaviors detrimental to their communities eg. Join tribal militia that engage in tribal violence, teenage pregnancies but help their families. Health of these families will also improve due to less smoke inhaling.

Read about the progress of the project :

https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/solar-lanterns-for-tana-students/reports/#menu

From 9pm Wednesday 18th July ( Singapore time ) funds raised will be matched. Be the light ! 

 

 

 

 

Ubuntu : An Evening in Aid of Tana River Life Foundation

A big “Thank you” to all who supported us at the Amara Hotel on Friday 19th April at “Ubuntu: An Evening in Aid of Tana River Life Foundation“. Your generous support has enabled us to raise the amount needed to build the community library that is part of Phase 2 of the Emmaus Center Project. Our heartfelt appreciation also goes out to those whose sponsorships help us keep the cost of the evening low, and those who worked for months to put the evening together. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXjzVDe6xrA&feature=youtu.be

Thanks to Mr Milenko Prvacki and Mrs Delio Prvacki for curating the art works for the evening and getting their friends and associates to contribute their works to the event. The catalogue is available for download at https://tanariverlife.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/a5-tana-booklet_130326_full-set-low-res.pdf. Please contact tanariverlifefoundation@gmail.com if you would like to view the pieces of Art Available – 22 April 2013. Here are some photos of the evening as well as some behind the scenes pictures. And here are some photos of the evening :

Students at UTAR meet Dr Ling

Thanks to Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman, 6 youths from Tana River are currently on scholarship at the Perak campus. The 6th student Prisca Habuya Mbaru joined them in January this year. She is the first female student from the foundation to be sponsored at UTAR and will be persuing a Bachelor of Arts in English Education.

Last December 5 of the students had the honour of meeting Utar council chairman Tun Dr Ling Liong Sik. http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2012/12/12/metroperak/12441045&sec=metroperak

Click here for a downloadable version of the article. The Star Online_ Kenyan Students Share their Experiences with Dr Ling – Dec 2012

ECP Phase 1 Construction in progress

Construction of Phase 1 comprising a two-storey school building started on Monday, November 26th, 2012 after a two month delay due to clashes that affected some parts of Tana River District in August and September 2012.

Thank you for your support and prayers.

ECP Construction – Day 1

ECP Construction – Phase 1 Day 2

ECP Phase 1 Construction – Day 3

ECP Construction – Phase 1 Day 4

ECP Phase 1 Construction – Involving the local community in and around Idsowe

Phase 1 Construction in progress

Buy delicious cupcakes and support Tana River Life Foundation : Nov 2 2012

Thank you for supporting Tana River Life Foundation.

We continue our mission to raise funds for the Education Centre Project with the second Bake Sale of 2012.  The project aims to provide affordable quality education to the communities in the Tana River Delta.  Facilities include a kindergarten, a primary school, a community centre with library, computer lab, seminar rooms, meeting areas, designated areas to house income-generating projects for the foundation and offices. The buildings which are oriented to benefit from natural ventilation and lightning have been designed to be environmentally sustainable incorporating solar power and rainwater harvesting. This 3-year project will cost S$2,000,000. To-date S$700,000 has been raised.

We’re targeting to raise $3,000 which will be matched dollar for dollar by Jonaran Trust, based in Malaysia. $6,000 will cover about 27% of the cost of a classroom. 10 classrooms will be built.

Thanks to the mother-daughter team of Norliza Jalil and Maria Chung together with Oh Chew Khoon, we will be holding the sale on Friday 2^nd November. Cupcakes will be the theme of this sale. Once again we thank Esther Wee of Halia Restaurant and Gina Choong of Kitchen Capers who will be sponsoring our ingredients and packaging materials & kitchen space respectively. All proceeds from this sale will go to the foundation. It’ll be great if you could order a box or 2 of cupcakes and support our efforts to help educate the young in Kenya.

Cream Cheese Frosted Carrot Cupcakes, Chocolate Cupcakes with Espresso Swiss Meringue Buttercream , Cream Cheese Frosted Banana Cupcakes

The following are available :

• Cream Cheese Frosted Carrot Cupcakes – $45 per dozen
• Cream Cheese Frosted Banana Cupcakes – $40 per dozen
• Chocolate Cupcakes with Espresso Swiss Meringue Buttercream – $40 per dozen
• Mixed dozen – $45 per dozen

In the name of raising productivity, we are now using online order forms instead of emails. Please order through this form by Friday 26th October and I will provide you with payment instructions and details on where and how to collect the cakes.   If you are unable to access or submit the forms, please email tanariverlifefoundation@gmail.com for assistance.

In addition, thanks to Tiew Peng, we have a series of framed monochrome and infra-red photos of the Singapore skyline and street scenes.

Singapore skyline and street scenes by Tiew Peng

 

2 framing options are available  :

(1)   20.5×28.5 cm Matt print board mount with either White or Black capping

(2)   8R (8″x10″) Matt print with wooden frame

They are available at $120 each. Click here to view the photos available. They make excellent gifts ( even to yourself ) with Christmas just around the corner. Please email me if you’d like to purchase them and support the foundation’s efforts in educating the young in Kenya.

Once again, thank you so much for your generosity.

Iris on behalf of Tana River Life Foundation

Online Order Form – Tana River Life Foundation Bake Sale 2012