2020 Updates from TRLF

Dear Friends

Warm greetings from the Tana Delta in Kenya. I hope this message finds you and your families safe. It is a challenging time for all, and from here in Tana, we continue to be united with you in prayers. Kenya started reporting cases of Covid-19 recently, with closures and curfews nationwide, although there are no cases reported here in Tana Delta to date.

I was to leave for Asia by mid-April, but have postponed my trip indefinitely. As such, we will NOT be having a Mitumba collection this year. However, if we are able to travel later this year, we hope to proceed with our collection of school furniture and study aids.

Grade 6 pupils from Onwardei Primary School gladly transporting classroom chairs from Singapore to their school across the River Tana using a traditional dugout canoe.

Since we are not likely to meet anytime soon, I have prepared two reports to give an insight into what we were able to do with your support last year.
 
Please click here for the 2019 Tana River Life Foundation Annual Report. 
If you are reading this on a mobile phone or on any low bandwidth platform, you may access the compressed version here.
 
For details on the 2019 Tana River Life Foundation Activities and Achievements, please click here. 
If you are reading this on a mobile phone or on any low bandwidth platform, you may access the compressed version here.
 
On behalf of the many young people and their families, and entire communities here in Tana Delta, that have benefited in one way or another from your assistance last year, we thank you very much.

We hope you will continue to journey with us in 2020, as we strive to build lives of greater dignity, freedom and integrity for many.

May God bless and protect you and your families.

Gabriel Teo Kian Chong
15^th April 2020

P/S : Please add gabrielteo@tanariverlifefoundation.org to your address book so that our emails will not be blocked by your Spam filter.

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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: Lighting Up the Furthest Corners of the Delta

Nov 14, 2018 Lighting Up the Furthest Corners of the Delta By Oscar – Volunteer Assa Primary Night Studies The months of September and October were busy months for TRLF staff who were criss crossing the Tana Delta, distributing solar lanterns to the most far flung and remote villages. First we did raise over US $ 2,000 during the month for the GlobalGiving Matching Campaign in 12th September. Thank you to all this who participated and the rest who are always supporting our projects. A total of 135 students from 8 different schools and villages have since benefited from this assistance during this period, the majority of them in Grade 7, and who will be sitting for their primary school leaving examinations in Nov 2019. See the table below for the breakdown of the solar lanterns distributed during the months of October and November this year. Chamwanamuma Primary – 35 Serah Primary – 14 Odole Primary – 15 Shirikisho Primary – 25 Miticharaka Primary – 19 Assa Primary – 20 Kibokoni Primary – 7 All the schools are located in villages not connected to the National Power Grid, and unlikely to be connected in the forseeable future. Some of the schools have arranged for these students to board at school from Mondays to Fridays to minimize the time students spend travelling from home to school daily. This allows them more time for participation in games, as well as night studies under the guidance of their teachers. This arrangement has been possible because of the solar lanterns. With their classrooms being lit up by the solar lanterns, students from these schools can now do night studies easily. During the weekends when the students return to their homes, they carry their lanterns with them benefiting their entire families. Assa Primary School is located 90 kms from our centre. The headteacher there, Mr. Anthony Nyagah , was very grateful and sent feedback that “students in Grade 7 are benefiting so much from the donation of the lanterns, and have started showing good improvement in their rate of learning”. Another primary school which benefited from this assistance, Miticharaka Prmary School, is located in a very remote part of the Tana Delta, with the only access being dirt roads across the many islets leading to the school. These islets are connected by hand constructed wooden bridges. The Kenya primary schools academic year ended on 26th Oct 2018 and will restart in January 2019. TRLF will then continue distributing solar lanterns to students studying in schools in Ndera and Salama location by mid January. Onkolde Primary Students with their solar lanterns Demonstrating for Shirikisho Primary Miticharaka Primary Students with their lanterns Road to Miticharaka 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

 

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 !