The quality of education at Kenya 2020’s link primary schools is very good, but the lack of a local secondary school prevented most children accessing education beyond age 13. Kenya 2020, the community of Alara and Alara Mixed Secondary School.

Alara Primary School is our ‘hub’ school. It has an excellent track record in helping students achieve their potential. With Kenya 2020, it hosts a teacher’s centre which spreads good practice and shares resources. Alara Mixed Secondary School was set up in Jan 2012 in a classroom at the primary school. The community has led this development: employing staff and providing some basic resources. They have bought two acres of land for the secondary school but lack the money to provide buildings and develop the site. David Sabare, headteacher at Alara PS with the cup for best pupil results in Kobama Division (5 th consecutive year) Alara Primary School

The support of Government officials is essential for the smooth running of the projects The Area Chief of Aora Chuodhu The Area Education Officer visited Alara to discuss progress at the secondary school Books for the library at Alara Mixed Secondary School – donated by schools and colleges in the UK

Sophie delivering the laptops donated by her old primary school: Four Lanes PS, Basingstoke Data projector donated by Peter Symonds 6 th Form College, Winchester Alara Mixed Secondary School is the only school in the area to have computers. The proposed library/IT room will be a resource that can be used by all schools in the area.

A bottle of drinking water – from the river The projects Kenya 2020 supports focus on education. This includes improving the community infrastructure so that children have time to go to school and are healthy enough to do so. Many pupils drop out of school because they have to spend several hours each day collecting water and wood.

The Area Chief visited in August ‘12 to try out an irrigation pump The new well at Ratanga community farm Gutters and rainwater tank at Kombe Primary School Providing wells or rainwater catchment tanks increases food supplies, saves time wasted collecting water and reduces the risk of water-borne disease.

Traditional 3-stone stove, Alara school kitchen, April 2012 High efficiency jiko stove installed at Alara June 2012 Traditional 3-stone stoves waste a lot of wood and are very smoky, increasing respiratory disease. Jiko stoves produce very little smoke and use half as much wood, reducing collecting time and deforestation.

Most tree nurseries fail because the seedlings die during the dry season. The new wells at Ratanga and Kombe will allow the seedlings to be watered until they are big enough to be planted out. The target for this year is trees. Rainwater catchment at Alara will allow a new tree nursery to be established at the secondary school. 18 month old Silver Oak trees. They grow quickly.

Installing a sewage/manure biogas digester at Alara Mixed Secondary School will produce methane for cooking in the school kitchen. Enough methane will be produced to allow community members to come and cook their food, reducing wood use even more. The digester will produce disease-free fertiliser which will be used on the school farm to boost food yields.

Before treatment – April 2012 After treatment – August 2012 Chiggers (Chigoe fleas) live in soil and burrow into skin, especially on the feet. They become painful and prevent many children from walking to school. All the children in our 6 link schools have now been treated. Their feet are checked every 4 months and treated if necessary. Alice removing chiggers, July 2012 Disinfecting feet before treatment

Giving out Albendazole pills to get rid of gut parasites This little girl has a protein- deficient diet and has the disease Kwashiorkor. The school farm at Alara will provide school dinners for the pupils. Delivering ringworm cream to God Poko Primary School Primary health care projects are a very cost-effective way of improving health. Healthy children have better school attendance and learn more effectively.

Irrigation header tank Irrigation pipes An irrigated greenhouse reduces water losses, so crops can be grown throughout the year, even the dry season when farming normally stops.

The ‘Alara Olympics’ August 2012

Children Thankyou