Kapeddo is a location in Turkana South District, which is in the North-western frontier of Kenya. It is inhabited mainly by the Turkana people, a pastoralist tribe that mainly herds goats. They also engage in weaving and basketry. The area is also in close proximity to the Pokot tribe, who share many similarities with the Turkana people yet at times exchange pleasantries with them over livestock!
Some two extremely adventurous nuns came in traipsing on their camels and set up shop here in the 60’s. These brave sisters opened up this frontier to the rest of us who are able to travel here today. The location has an army post, church, three primary schools and an upcoming secondary school.
There are also several facilities present such as: - A mission hospital
- Hydroelectric power from the Suguta River (the broken down generator was amazingly fixed by a young man with no engineering experience, only with knowledge of motor vehicle engines gotten from his mechanic uncle as a boy)
- Piped water in the vicinity of the hospital
- A guest-house
- A workshop
EDUCATION IN KAPEDDO:
The school currently has forms one and two (grades 10 and 11) in single streams. It hopes to progress to the next two classes by 2011.The location has had a dedicated CDF (Constituency Development Fund) committee that has been able to put up most of the secondary school infrastructure. Boarding school accommodation is present, awaiting connection of electricity to begin operating. The Desert Rose Trust was able to assist in getting water to the school. The school has a few challenges. It lacks adequate teaching staff and has only four teachers. It also lacks necessary teaching aids, with only a single complete set of textbooks that the teacher uses to teach the class.
WYC© EDUCATION:
The Kapeddo situation was brought to WYC©’s attention by the Desert Rose Trust®. While WYC© lacked the financial capacity to support such an initiative, it had the ability to source for youth who are capable of training teachers among locals. This would go a long way in reducing the great shortfall of teachers. So on the morning of Wednesday, 11th April of 2009, WYC© got four very able graduates from Nairobi to train the locals in curriculum implementation, as well as communication, administration, HIV/AIDS and life skills. There was also the very engaging segment for teamwork on peace building. The aim was to establish a foundation for peaceful co-existence with the Pokot. The jury is still out on that one…
The graduates went to Kapeddo confident and suave. They left there (much) wiser and willing to serve. They also got to enjoy the natural beauty of the place while not on their busy training schedules. They ended up with spa treatment for their worthy sacrifice! All in all it was a successful exercise which they managed to complete two weeks ahead of schedule. In the process, they trained 30 locals who today teach in the primary and secondary schools.
LOOKING FORWARD:
For a pilot project, WYC© could not have asked for a better initiative. While going to Kapeddo to empower, we ended up empowered ourselves. There are a number of initiatives that require support in Kapeddo; felt needs that we believe would make for a better learning environment:
- Upcoming projects such as the comm-dev tourist resort and teacher accommodation would aid in getting non-local teachers with a varsity education to teach in the schools.
- There is a dire need of books and teaching aids to make teaching easier. It would also keep the students engaged and discourage idleness.
- Sponsorship of local form-four leavers into teaching courses would allow them to return and empower their communities.
- Sponsorship of B. Ed graduates to attend one-term rotations would aid in meeting the shortfall of teaching staff. These graduates may be locally sourced or be from overseas and looking to do some work within Africa. An acknowledgement and accreditation should be established within their institutions for participating in such initiatives.
- The existing workshop should be boosted so that it too can become a vocational training centre for local youth. This will give them an opportunity to earn some income.
- There needs to be a concerted effort to have the infrastructure leading into Turkana South developed. This includes the road, national electricity grid and our all-time favourite, the bridge to nowhere!
CONCLUSION:
WYC© hopes to work in partnership with the Desert Rose Trust in future to ensure that the secondary school in Kapeddo is well established and consistently produces students with good grades. Since less than 1% of Kenyan go to university, this is by no means an easy task. We need your support because this location is on the precipice of success, looking for just a little more help to move it into the definition of an oasis. We hope to be back from October 11th. Please share in our hope. |
