Communal Living and Youth Formation Programs

Dear Friends

At the outset, I would like to express our sincere thanks and gratitude to all of you who have taken the time to meet with me and my student Salati during my first trip to Singapore. Your continued support and help are very much appreciated. I am now back in Singapore for a second stay until 20^th May 2023 and look forward to meeting up with more of you.

Allow me to provide you a brief update on two of our programmes – both of which are aimed at empowering our students and youth with more than just academic opportunities. The Communal Living and Youth Formation programmes also build character and nurture good values, while developing skills and competencies of the young people being assisted.

Communal Living for secondary school students and youth volunteers

The TRLF Community in Idsowe has grown over the years. We now have 55 fully sponsored secondary school students living together with 15 youth volunteers, for whom I act as guardian.

The TRLF Hostel to permanently house the Idsowe Community is under construction and is scheduled for completion by December 2023. The Hostel will also house the guest rooms for visitors.

Over the years, the older youth and students living at the TRLF community home in Idsowe have matured to become responsible mentors and role models. This has enabled us to increase the number of students we can accept into our community each year.

Youth Formation Programme

In January 2023, we welcomed 15 youth to this 2-year full-time live-in formation programme, which provides the path to full tertiary level sponsorship commencing January 2025.

Besides the different skills they learn from their varied tasks, e.g. house management, catering, financial literacy and project management, the youth also internalize values and good work ethics, such as diligence, focus, planning, target-setting and time management. They also learn how to engage respectfully and empathize with the communities we assist, crossing barriers of tribe and religion.

In carrying out their income generating projects, such as vegetable farming, livestock keeping, fish farming, bee-keeping and moringa oil production, the youth are encouraged to blend ancient wisdom with new knowledge.

The exposure they get from all these tasks helps them to learn how to give adequate and just responses to difficulties and challenges faced by communities around them, while sensitizing them to the importance of maximizing the impact of donor funds.

At the end of the day, the formation they receive helps the youth become more complete persons, maturing into capable and caring young men and women who are able and willing to look after, and to look out for those who come after them.

Aside from these programs, the foundation supports secondary school students through two other programmes, i.e. General Bursaries and Tana Delta Merit Scholarships. We will be sending out a separate report on the Secondary School Programmes.

Your kind support enables us to carry out all these works and we thank you. God bless.

Gabriel Teo Kian Chong

Singapore, 20^th May 2023

Whatsapp / Telegram : +254723521774

Email : gabrielteo@yahoo.com

Easter Message from Gabriel

Jambo! (Swahili for Hello!) to all our friends from all of us here in Tana River. I am very happy to inform you that I plan to visit Malaysia and Singapore again in June and July together with one or two of our youth. It’s been a long absence and I am so looking forward to seeing all of you once again. Dates are being finalized and I will send them out as soon as they are confirmed.

Dear friends, although we will NOT be organizing any collection of Mitumba (used clothes/shoes etc) this year; we will be making a special appeal for used school furniture for which our village schools here in Tana Delta are in dire need of.

Specifically, we are appealing for:

(1) Classroom desks and chairs,

(2) Metal cabinets,

(3) Canteen tables and benches and

(4) Teacher’s tables.

One of Tana River Life Foundation’s (TRLF) core tenets is in education, both academic as well as in values formation. This is our key method in realizing our stated objectives of building individual lives and thereby entire communities.

Today, TRLF is a major development partner of the Tana Delta Sub County Education Department in Kenya, helping to provide quality, affordable education for many reaching even the most rural villages. We assist all the 72 public primary schools and 17 public secondary schools in the Delta. The furniture that we receive and ship to Tana Delta goes to help furnish these public schools.

I am accompanying this short note with some photos portraying our recent activities. We hope to have our annual report ready for distribution by the middle of the year. Thank you once again for journeying with us, and to all our Christian friends, we wish you the hope and great joy of the Easter resurrection.

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May God continue to bless and protect us all.

Gabriel Teo
16th April, 2022

Click here if you’d like to download the letter to forward to your friends.

A Letter from Evans Haron

Evans is a beneficiary of Tana River Life Foundation. The foundation sponsored his secondary school education in the Tana Delta, followed by his undergraduate studies at UTAR in Malaysia. We are happy to report that he has graduated. To thank the foundation and his sponsors, Evans wrote the following letter. He hopes it’ll inspire other young people on their journey in life. We hope it’ll inspire you to lend a hand to others in need and hungry for the opportunities we take for granted.

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It’s my hope that you are all doing well during this tough time. All is well with me. I am writing to inform you that I have completed my studies in Bachelor in Petrochemical engineering. Thank you for the sponsorship you offered me from the beginning of my secondary school days till the completion of my studies. Thanks to all the staff at TRLF for the time they invested in advising and coaching me throughout my studies, the time they spent in helping me budget for my living expenses both in Kenya and here in Malaysia, correcting me when I was on the wrong path and thanks to all the donors who have contributed to positive changes in my life directly or indirectly.

Just to give a brief background on how I joined TRLF. I completed my primary school education was placed among the top 3 in my class. Unfortunately my parents were not able to afford the school fees for my to continue on to secondary school. At the start of the term, my friend Komora Benedicto, who also graduated recently from UTAR, shared his notes from school with me so that I could study them on my own at home. He was being sponsored by TRLF then and he advised me to apply for a bursary at TRLF.

The first bursary that I received was worth KSH3000 which is equivalent to RM114 ( ~S$38 ). It did not cover my whole school fees for that semester but it instilled hope and determination in me. I pushed myself to the limit as I knew that with good results I could be awarded another bursary. And that is how my life with TRLF started and here I am today with my bachelor’s degree in Engineering.

RM114 may not be that much but it can change someone’s life as it did mine. There are many young people going through what I had experienced. Some won’t be strong enough, they may be discouraged at a young age and their efforts and life might completely go to waste. Thanks to sponsorships from TRLF through the kind donors and staff, young people receive an education and opportunities in life which were previously unavailable to them.

So thank you once again for the opportunity and I can’t wait to continue giving my services when I’m called upon.

Yours sincerely
Evans Haron

 

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.

If you received this email from a friend who is a supporter of our foundation, and would like to receive emails directly from us, please sign up here.

Cancellation of Jumble Sale 2016

Due to unforeseen circumstances, the Tana River Life Foundation 2016 Jumble Sale has been cancelled. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience we may have caused.

If you would like to support a good cause and thank Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary for their unwavering support to the foundation, please join us at their Bazaar.

4 pm – 8 pm Saturday 4^th  June 2016

8 am – 8 pm Sunday 5^th June 2016

St Joseph’s Pavilion (outside Casa Maria Hall)

Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Entrance to carpark via : 98 Hougang Avenue 8,
Singapore 538791

 

Once again thank you for your generous support, and we hope to see you at the Bazaar.

If you have any questions or comments, please send them to gabriel@tanariverlifefoundation.org

TRLF Mitumba 2016

Dear friends

I hope this note finds you and your families well.

I am now tying up matters over here in Tana as I prepare to make my trip to Asia at the end of March. It has been extra hectic because of the on-going construction of the new school ( Emmaus Centre Project Phase 1) which restarted late last year and also because we expanded our bursary programme to assist students from Term 1, especially those who performed well in the primary school leaving exams and were not able to continue to secondary school because of financial limitations. Thank you very much once again for your support for our work here in Tana Delta.

I expect to be at my mum’s place in JB by 1st April and in Singapore by the evening of 3rd April. I hope we can meet up sometime in April or May. I will be in Singapore the whole of April and again in the last two weeks of May. I will be in Malaysia during the first two weeks of May as well as the first two weeks of June before returning to Kenya by mid-June.

We will have our Mitumba Project collections again this year from 8 – 16 April at Nativity Church Kindergarten, the same venue as last year. Collection details and wishlist are available for download here.

• Collection details : https://tanariverlife.files.wordpress.com/2016/03/mitumba-project-flyer-2016-short.pdf
• Wishlist : https://tanariverlife.files.wordpress.com/2016/03/2016-mtb-request-list.pdf

In the last year, together with a few volunteer friends from Singapore and Malaysia, we registered Tana River Life Foundation Pte Ltd. One of its activities is the sale of Kenyan handicrafts in Singapore & Malaysia, with all profits going to support TRLF projects in Kenya. Soapstone carvings featuring safari animals and Christmas figurines have been the first products. If you would like to view or find out more, please contact Iris Tay at tanariverlifefoundation@gmail.com.

When in Asia, I will be contactable at +65-98338401 (Singapore) / +6012-6237040 (Malaysia) or Whatsapp to +254723521774. I look forward to meeting you during our time in Asia.

Until then, may God bless you and your families.

5^th March 2016
‘Like’ us on Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/tanariverlifefoundation/
Follow our blog : https://tanariverlife.wordpress.com/

Happy New Year from the Tana Delta – a note from Gabriel

Dear Friends

I pray that you and your loved ones are well, and wish all of you a belated Christmas and a very Happy New Year 2016. May God bless you with grace, joy, peace and inner strength in the year ahead.

It has been really hot over here in Tana for the entire month of December, despite the heavy rains. Thankfully the weather has cooled down this week and we are hoping that the hottest period has passed. The river broke its banks as a result of the heavy rains upcountry and some villages along the Tana River were flooded. Our village was not affected though our farm and many others along the river were flooded causing some loss of crops. Nevertheless, it was not as bad as we were expecting with all the dire predictions of El Nino in the press since September.

We continued extending our reach to the most interior villages this year, giving a lot of students opportunities they would otherwise not have. We managed to organize the first Tana Delta Secondary School Debate sanctioned by the Ministry of Education. We held it at Kitere Secondary School, the most remote school in the Delta. The entire school comprises a single building with 3 classrooms, one of which is used as staff room cum principal’s room cum store.

Kitere Secondary School is situated in Ndera Location. It is the most remote secondary school in the Tana Delta

It takes two hours to get there during the dry season and even longer during the rains, if at all the roads are passable. Normally such events are held in schools situated closer to the tarmac road, and at most just a few student representatives from the interior schools are able to travel to attend such functions due to lack of means.

Every debate participant received a dictionary donated by St. Theresa’s Convent in Singapore

Holding the event at Kitere Secondary School gave that entire school population a truly unforgettable experience. It also enabled students from the less remote areas who participated in the debate to appreciate the challenges students in the remote areas face.

TRLF – improving Literacy Skills in the Tana Delta

Our school, Delta Mustard Seed Academy had an enrolment of over 150 students this year. Our children are able to read from the time they are 5 years old, whereas the norm in the Delta has always been that kids even as old as 9 struggle to read simple words. We would like to assist more children develop in this way and have identified 6 primary schools in the most outlying locations for special assistance. We are developing a program together with the school teachers from these schools for implementation in 2016.

School Building under construction; Community Centre in the background

Work restarted on construction of the school building of the Emmaus Centre Project (ECP) in late November. The delay was because the contractor Mr. Li was tying up another project in Ethiopia and was unable to release his site manager until mid-November. The site manager Mr Yang is a very skilled and dedicated builder and his service is worth the wait. He undertook the community centre construction and completed that with utmost professionalism and much passion. The school is expected to be completed by May 2016.

The community centre building is complete with the exception of the internet connection. We are working on getting the external works completed, i.e. waste disposal, water supply and storage etc. All such works are expected to be completed by mid-2016.

TRLF youth, Nancy and Esther explaining the use of reusable sanitary napkins to students from Kitere

We continue nurturing our youth, both at secondary school level as well as post-secondary level, helping them form and internalize moral values. We also involve them in all the community work we do so that they become more integrated in the real lives of their own communities and neighbours. Many of them mature to become more passionate and aware of the needs of others and of their responsibilities to assist.

TRLF donated desks, chairs and textbooks to Oda, Buyani and Kitere secondary schools in 2015

As we leave the gift of 2015 behind, and look forward in wonder and faith to 2016, I thank you very much for journeying with us as we build individual lives, and thereby entire communities. You are remembered in our prayers today and I ask that you too keep us in yours. Once again, Happy New Year 2016, be blessed.

Idsowe Village – Tana Delta, Kenya
1^st January 2016

Watch Our Latest Video

Watch a video of what the foundation has been up to lately. Gabriel Teo speaks about the work being done in Education, Sustainable Agriculture, Entrepreneuship, Youth Formation Program and the Emmaus Centre.

Thanks to Alen Nikolovski, Soh Lai Leng, and Sister Delphine for agreeing to be interviewed. Thank you Wally Tham and Esther Chan for producing this video !

Kenya through the eyes of a young Singaporean – by Lyanna Lim. Part 2 of 3

27 Sep 2014, Ndera, Tana Delta

The Road to Ndera -Traffic Jam Delta Style

The Road to Ndera -Goat Jam in the Delta

Driving to the interior – The trail to Ndera

The road to Ndera was bumpy and dusty. After one hour of travelling on mud roads and battling with the potholes, we finally reached Ndera village. Ndera is located in the interiors, north of Idsowe, where the Foundation is based.

Families from Ndera waiting for lunch at the PTA Meeting

Mothers at PTA Meeting

We were visiting another village with the foundation to conduct a bursary meeting . Students in these schools had high aspirations, as they shared their ambitions to be politicians, lawyers, doctors, clinical officers, engineers and early childhood educators. It was most heartening to hear them speak about their future with such fervor.

Lyanna and Sarah with the students at Ndera

 

The toilet at the school in Ndera

A tour of the school premises led us to the toilet. The pit toilet was supported by wooden branches and flanked by several corrugated steel sheets . As city dwellers this was a rude awakening to the privacy and hygiene issues these students faced.

Currently working in India, Lyanna Lim always had a soft spot for developing countries. Her trip to Nepal as part of her graduation trip motivated her to work in South Asia after she graduated. Inspired by her father who went to Kenya to lend his construction expertise to  TRLF’s Emmaus Centre Project in 2013, Lyanna decided that she wanted to volunteer for this organization. She spearheaded a Global Giving campaign in the beginning of 2014 to raise funds for a mobile library and subsequently visited the foundation for 2 weeks in September 2014 to implement a library software and to coach the youths on how to catalogue and maintain a proper bookkeeping system of the library using the software.

Together with two other volunteers, Iris and Sarah, they traveled to Kenya .  It was an hectic and exciting 2 weeks of implementing a library software system, speaking to student beneficiary and their parents, studying the feasibility of provide solar powered lighting to the students, exploring various reusable sanitary napkin solutions for schoolgirls  as well as sourcing for local soapstones and kitenge (African garment) for fundraising purposes

In her free time, Lyanna loves running, reading and experimenting with raw food recipes. She will be pursuing her MBA in Duke Fuqua School of Business in 2015 and hopes to leverage on her network and business skills and continue contributing meaningfully to TRLF.”

Kenya through the eyes of a young Singaporean – by Lyanna Lim. A 3 part series

26 Sep 2014, Chara Location, Tana Delta

As I alighted from the matatu, I spotted a blue tentage with the words ‘Holy Innocents’ High School’ . Parents were making their way towards the PTA meeting at the Chara location. Parents from the Christian Pokomo community were seated to the left, the parents of the Muslim Orma community on the right with the students from Buyani Secondary School in the middle. Buyani Secondary School was closed in 2012 and part of 2013 due to damage incurred during the violent ethnic clashes in the area. Thanks to the peace talks led by NGOs including Tana River Life Foundation peace has since prevailed.

Volunteers and foundation walking towards PTA meeting at Chara Location

Students in class at Buyani Secondary School

The foundation accepts applications for bursaries at the start of each school semester at PTA meetings . Students submit their academic transcripts to support their applications, while parents have a channel to appeal for financial support for their children based on extenuating family circumstances. The chiefs and headmen of the surrounding villages kicked off the meeting with rousing speeches in a mixture of English and Swahili, the national language of Kenya. Parents from both communities then took to the stage thanking the leaders and foundation and encouraging their children to do well in school. Finally, Student President Bahaiyesa Ali Batuo and Headgirl Mwanahamisi Jakofa of Buyani Secondary School addressed the crowd. A common theme ran through their speeches – that education was paramount, it equips students for their future and shapes their lives, and that all of them should continue to strive in the face of adversity. In spite of not understanding Swahili I could feel the burning aspirations of the community, and the passion and drive of the students . I felt guilty about having taken education for granted in my teenage years.

We then spoke to some parents as well as students to understand their lives and struggles to break out of their circumstances . Living in a community without electricity, the students needed lights to complete their homework and revision in the evenings, many did not have access to textbooks , girls skipped school one week every month as they could not afford sanitary napkins. Many of the students woke up before dawn to make it to school on foot, a walk that could take over an hour, braving the elements and wild animals in the bush. The walk could take over an hour. A woman in her 30s with 8 children told us about being recounted how she sold as a child bride so that her brothers could go to school.

Village women cooking a feast of goat stew and pilau for the PTA meeting with the foundation

Lyanna washing her hands before enjoying the feast prepared by the villagers at Chara

A lunch of roast goat and pilau cooked the traditional way over coal fires was lovingly prepared by members from both tribes. Food and hope for a better future bring communities together and help them to look beyond irrelevant differences. Having children of different ethnic backgrounds going to school together help cultivate mutual respect and promote racial harmony.

UPDATE : 

We are raising funds for Buyani Secondary School. It is a 3 room school house located in an area doesn’t have running water nor electricity and we are raising funds to bring solar energy into the classrooms, provide students with sports equipment, sponsor their participation in school events, build a multi-purpose room as well as provide shelves, tables and chairs for the room. Would be great if you and your friends could help spread a little Christmas cheer to the students. Thanks for your generosity and have a Merry Christmas !  Please click here to give : https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/rebuilding-buyani-secondary-school/

Lyanna’s Profile :

Lyanna, Sarah and Iris learning to use traditional bush toothbrushes

Currently working in India, Lyanna Lim always had a soft spot for developing countries. Her trip to Nepal as part of her graduation trip motivated her to work in South Asia after she graduated. Inspired by her father who went to Kenya to lend his construction expertise to  TRLF’s Emmaus Centre Project in 2013, Lyanna decided that she wanted to volunteer for this organization. She spearheaded a Global Giving campaign in the beginning of 2014 to raise funds for a mobile library and subsequently visited the foundation for 2 weeks in September 2014 to implement a library software and to coach the youths on how to catalogue and maintain a proper bookkeeping system of the library using the software.

Together with two other volunteers, Iris and Sarah, they traveled to Kenya .  It was an hectic and exciting 2 weeks of implementing a library software system, speaking to student beneficiary and their parents, studying the feasibility of provide solar powered lighting to the students, exploring various reusable sanitary napkin solutions for schoolgirls  as well as sourcing for local soapstones and kitenge (African garment) for fundraising purposes

In her free time, Lyanna loves running, reading and experimenting with raw food recipes. She will be pursuing her MBA in Duke Fuqua School of Business in 2015 and hopes to leverage on her network and business skills and continue contributing meaningfully to TRLF.”