1. Children’s Conference, Monday 21 st November St John’s Catholic Primary School

2. As a school we are in the process of gaining the International Schools award. To gain this award we need to have links with schools abroad. In the past we have been linked with schools in Kimilili, Kenya. One of our past head teachers is heavily involved with the Kimilili trust. We have now forged our links with Kimilili once again!

3. Kimilili is a small market town in the Western Province of Kenya close to the Ugandan border. The town itself has a population of 10,000 people although some 67,000 people live on tiny farms in the surrounding areas. The majority of the people who live in Kimilili are poor. Many children are orphaned at a young age and live with foster parents or distant relatives.

4. Here is a map of Kenya You can see Kimilili circled. It is in the west of Kenya.

5. A rural school in Kimilili

6. Schools in Kimilili are basic. They do not have all the facilities we are used to. Primary education is free but the government offers only minimal help with building and resources costs. This means that the children do not have the same education experience as we do. They also come from a long way to get to school. Often walking for many hours. The Kimilili trust provides assistance to these schools to help the children get the education they deserve.

7. Here you can see a classroom, a toilet block and the inside of a nursery. The children have no furniture at all!

8. Namboani is a Catholic Primary school in Kimilili. It is this school that we are aiming to support. The children go to school from an early age and leave primary school at 14 years old. The classes are mixed ages as they work in ability age groups. There can be anything up to 60 children in one class. Can you even imagine that?

9. We are very lucky. We all go to school. It is our right to do so. It is also our responsibility to help other children that are not as lucky as we are. We have uniform, some children do not as they cannot afford it. We have a nice lunch, most children will go without lunch and we go home to a warm comfortable bed, most children do not. When they get home they will help with the chores. As a school, through the School Council we decided to look at two key questions: How can we help these children? Why is it important to help them?

10. Mrs Gribben who is a previous head teacher of our school came to talk to us about her current projects with the Kimilili trust. The trust was set up by her and her husband some years ago now. With money raised from a variety of fundraising efforts they have built extentions on schools, provided much needed desks and books for many, many children. We wanted to help. But what could we do?

11. A new nursery building in Namboani, new desks and an eagerly awaited book delivery!

12. As a start to our fundraising efforts for Kimilili our School Council decided to hold a cake sale where all the money raised would go to Mrs Gribben and then on to Namboani Catholic Primary school in Kimilili. All the children, staff and parents were given the task to bake cakes for the sale held on Tuesday 8 th November 2011. It was a marvellous success and we managed to raise £120.

13. After the success of the cake sale we will now think of other ways in which we as the community of St John’s school can help the children in Kimilili. We have only just begun on our journey to forge greater links with the communities there and we hope to do a lot more for them in the future.

14. We would like to end our presentation with a question Why should we help, support and respond to the need of others? We think the faces of these children answer that question. Don’t you?