Namarei

Term 2, 2022

Receive warm greetings from the Namarei center and the community we serve! We have come to the end of another school term and it is our joy to share some highlights with you. Thank you for your continued support and partnership as we work together to transform lives and bring hope to the people we serve.

Blessings,
Benard Muthi Misembo,
Headteacher, Namarei

Total Enrolled: 234 students
Total Unsponsored: 72 students

*Michael is a kindergarten student at the Namarei center. In a class of 41 students, the 10-year-old stands out as the oldest, but this does not bother him in any way. Michael is just a jolly child who loves being in school.

Before he joined our school, Michael would tend his mother’s livestock at the grazing fields. When he was back home, he could be seen roaming around the village looking dirty and very unkempt. Many of his age-mates joined school as he watched; nobody knew that he too harbored serious ambitions to join school one day should an opportunity present itself. This did not take long.

One day, our social worker toured Michael’s village looking for new children to recruit. The boy was home at this time and soon became our social worker’s shadow. He would follow the social worker around without uttering a word (possibly due to the language barrier). The recruitment exercise took almost two months and the boy was never left behind. It wasn’t until the time he talked to the translator, who was helping the social worker, that we got to know that he too wished to join our school.

Following the boy’s unwavering interest, the social worker went to Michael’s home. We found that his mother was of a contrary opinion and she could not even imagine having the boy join any school. She was not ready to listen to anyone and at some point, she became hostile and threatened to discipline the boy if he kept on insisting on going to school. The social worker had no option, but to leave. We kept on visiting the home, but each time Michael’s mother would not even listen; she stuck firmly to her very first decision.

Despite her objections, Michael remained undeterred in his determination to join the school.

One day the mother left very early in the morning to an unknown destination. Michael also woke up and quickly made his way to school where he happily told the social worker that he had come to learn. The social worker told Michael that they needed to get permission from his mother before putting him in class. He told Michael they needed to go to his home and talk to his mother, but the boy would not hear of this. He wept at the social worker’s office saying he would not go back home. He feared that once the mother learned he had actually come to school, she would send him back to the grazing lands and he would never be allowed to go to any school. The social worker went to Michael’s home alone.

He found a distraught woman who had been searching for her child the whole morning. When the social worker told her of her child’s whereabouts, the mother – for the first time – was willing to listen. The discussion lasted for about two hours and in the end, she agreed to have Michael join the Namarei center, but on one condition. She did not want to be asked to pay even a penny for his education. We agreed to this and Michael was immediately enrolled as our student.

Frequent follow-up visits to this family have really paid off since the mother has now seen the benefit of having her child educated. She has stepped in to cater to whatever her child needs and she is willing to support his education to the highest level possible. Michael aspires to become a lawyer and we pray that this dream will be realized. Mother and son have also become active members of the local church which they attend regularly.

We really thank God for the transformation witnessed in both the parent and the child.
*Name changed

• his term we carried out recruitment for our kindergarten class and 41 new pupils have now come on board. They are settling well into the school activities and schedules.
• All our academic calendar activities went on as envisioned and we are grateful that there were no interruptions. Our students were able to cover the syllabus as well as receive assessments to determine their progress. We give glory to God as we see them embracing education so wholeheartedly.
• Praise be to God! We were able to rescue one of our learners who had been taken away from school to become a herder by his parents.  The headteacher visited the grazing lands one night and fortunately found the boy. After engaging him, we were pleased to learn that he wanted to come back to school. We engaged the parents, but at first they would not listen to us. However, as we persisted and also engaged the community elders, the parents agreed to bring the child back to school. We thank God that the student is now attending school on a daily basis.

• We were pleased to have a team from Crossroads Christian Church visit us this term. They blessed our students with their first VBS!

• Pray for rains at Namarei so that our parents can have green pastures to graze their animals without having to travel far off distances
• Pray that our center will have a permanent solution to our water problem. We need to have a reliable source of clean water.
• Pray for the good health of our students, staff, parents, and the community at large. They are losing their lives at a high rate due to lack of well-equipped health facilities.
• We thank God for the ongoing construction of the students’ bathrooms. Join us as we pray for resources for the construction of additional classrooms.