Voice of the ASSETS child!

The ASSETS project has so far been the most reliable scholarship program in the north Coast of Kenya. It's uniqueness knows no limit as it was tactically set to satisfy two needs at the same time. Apart from providing educational opportunities to some of the brightest minds in this region, It has successfully transformed the attitudes of  the locals regarding the protection of Mida Creek and Arabuko Sokoke Forest which are two extremely precious habitats threatened by human activities here. ASSETS has been enjoying a great deal of both financial and material support from well wishers: Turtle Bay Beach Club,  Ocean Sports Resort, and guests who have been visiting our Eco-facilities; the Gede tree platform and the Mida Creek boardwalk and bird hide. Funds from these sources have been comfortably sustaining the project for the period it has been operational.

However there has been lots of economic uncertainties over the recent past that has weakened our financial sustainability as a project. School fees in Kenya have extremely risen leading to a subsequent increase in our budget. The tourism sector which we significantly relied on has deteriorated leading to consequent decrease in the number of visitors to our two Eco-tourism facilities at Gede and Mida, this has seriously compromised our financial sustainability.The number of  eligible students has also been rising leading to an expansion in our budget.This has been as  a result of the consistent campaigns among the communities on the importance of formal education .

As efforts are being put in place to deal with the situation,   we really need to stand up for next year's beneficiaries  to ensure that we retain them at school.This project has been providing hope not only to the benefiting  families but to the society as a whole, it is a perfect manifestation that restoration of the lost beauty of nature is achievable! It is such a beautiful thing to see the enthusiasm and initiative taken by the be

neficiaries including their parents in spearheading the conservation efforts at the local levels. We want to heed to God's call of caring for creation and empowering the communities we work with in the process. The ASSETS project represents hope to the African child, it is the 'logo' of opportunity and the symbol of empowerment.

The ASSETS children have great potential if given the chance, they have a way of getting to the top and that is all thanks to your esteemed support!

The best Christmas gift you can ever give out this Christmas season is a donation to the ASSETS project to ensure that the it stays operational next year. We need to raise 2 million Shillings  by the mid of January 2014 to be able able to keep our students in school next year.

You can make a donation through www.arocha.org/donateassets

No amount is too small to make a difference!

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It’s PATIENCE yet again!

 Following the departure of Patience Malombo, Our ASSETS Volunteer on completion of her volunteer period with us, Patience Nyevu joins the team for a three month volunteer period to take up the position

Patience Nyevu was a student at Nyari primary school and then to Kombeni Girls secondary school between the years 2007-2011 and this is where she benefitted from the ASSETS scholarships.

After completing high school, she volunteered as a teacher at Nyari Primary School (her former school) for about one and a half years. In the course of this period, she applied for a teaching course where she secured admission at Kitui Teachers Training College. She however could not take the opportunity due to some financial constraints.

She joins the team as a general volunteer, but specifically stationed at the Kitchen learning how to prepare the delicious meals that we serve at Mwamba!

We wish the “Outgoing Patience” the best of luck in all her future plans, and thank God for the wonderful time we shared with her.

We also welcome the “incoming Patience” and look forward to having a great time with her as she takes this opportunity to learn and meet people from all corners of the world at Mwamba!

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A unique Program, Great Results!

“A Pound, A Dream!” Campaign  

It is our responsibility to care for God’s creation in whatever ways suitable. The well fare of the generations to come will significantly be affected by our activities today and how much effort we put into conserving and restoring nature. It is in relation to this call that A Rocha Kenya; a Christian Conservation Organization based in Watamu, felt the need to help in conserving the neighboring ecological hotspots. Here is a story by one of A Rocha Kenya staff showing how his association with the Organization has enabled him respond to God’s call and made Him feel really good about it.

Stanley Baya

My interest in nature led to my appointment as the wildlife club’s patron for the school where I was teaching. I had recently graduated from a teacher training college and just started working at Sawa-Sawa Academy in Watamu before I was promoted to be the head teacher of the school. This position reunited me with a long-time friend who was then working as Environmental Education Officer for Arabuko-Sokoke Forest. Mr Tsofa Mweni introduced me to A Rocha Kenya and to Colin Jackson, the founder.

In 2001, I took up an appointment as the Co-coordinator of the Arabuko-Sokoke Schools and Eco-tourism scheme (ASSETS). This new challenge was both exciting and overwhelming. It exposed me to the very high poverty levels in the area, which led to a very high school drop-out rate. In our first meeting with the project stakeholders, it was revealed by the District Education Officer that more than 90% of the students who graduated from primary school the previous year did not join secondary school. After conducting a rapid survey to get some baseline information, we found that many students did not even pick up their results and admission forms from the school, as they felt there was no hope of them joining secondary school anyway. This put a lot of pressure on the parents to exploit the natural resources around them, like cutting trees to sell as timber. The result has been the degradation of the Arabuko-Sokoke Forest and Mida Creek.

Today, however, with over 450 students having been supported by the ASSETS eco-bursary scheme, it is evident that the trends are changing. The transition rate of children taking up secondary school places has very visibly improved and hope for the future almost restored. This renewed hope has influenced a change of attitude and behaviour among the students and parents who benefit from the program. An independent survey established that there is quite a significant improvement in understanding about the role of the forest and the creek in sustaining the livelihoods of the local people.

I am really proud of this program that has made it possible for over 200 students to attend universities and diploma colleges. It makes me feel that ASSETS was a step in the right direction towards redeeming the local people and creation.

This is just some of the many stories that A Rocha Kenya staff and associates have to say about the ASSETS project and its effect to the community. Currently we are on a 3 month fund drive dubbed “A Pound, A Dream!” campaign, aimed at raising funds to sustain the ASSETS projects.

Look at it, just by saving one pound a day you will be able to pay for a child’s school fees for a whole school term, better still you will have played your part in caring for God’s creation. (The writer is actually a successful graduate of this project currently in University)

You could be part of this noble mission and give a child an opportunity to achieve their dreams by making a donation online see:

http://www.arocha.org/int-en/you/donatespecific.html?d=KE-ASSETS. Make sure to choose "Kenya; ASSETS bursaries.

To donate to our bank Account please emails us on: [email protected] for our details.          

ASSETS- The Theatre of Dreams

  Our prime objective at A Rocha Kenya is not only to conserve and care for nature but also to help the communities living around us in the best way we can. We care and work with the communities living around us, because the community forms part of the core principles that we at A Rocha believe in. Through the ASSETS project we have provided an opportunity for the African children to nurture their dreams some soaring to greater heights than we could have ever thought.

Johnston Fondo. Johnston is one of the most outstanding ASSETS graduates of all time. He hails from Boga where he attended his Primary School at Bogamachuko and was a beneficiary of the project between the years 2007 to 2010 at Lenana School. In fact he was in the same class with our ASSESTS Liaison Intern both at Boga and at Lenana School.

After successfully completing his high school at Lenana, he was lucky to secure a scholarship to pursue an International Baccalaureate diploma at The Agha Khan Academy in Mombasa. He graduated from Agha Khan in August 2013 and two weeks later he was on board Kenya Airways to Canada. He had won a scholarship to study Investment Banking at the University of British Columbus (UBC) in Vancouver, Canada. Finally, a dream comes true!

This is just a single case among many of how hopeless African children have been rewarded with a chance to realize their full potential through education. Just by visiting our tree platform at Gede Ruins and the boardwalk at Mida creek you can help pay secondary school fees for a child and maybe be part of a mission to send another child from the neighborhoods of the Arabuko Sokoke forest to the Oxford or Harvard University who knows!!

Be part of this noble mission and give a child an opportunity to achieve their dreams by making a donation online see: http://www.arocha.org/int-en/you/donatespecific.html?d=KE-ASSETS. Make sure to choose "Kenya; ASSETS bursaries".

Johnston’s graduation day at Agha Khan.

A Visit from an ASSETS Beneficiary

We were delighted to have David Nyundo Charo come down to the A Rocha Centre in Watamu, to come and tell the ASSETS team that he had just graduated from Secondary School, with impressive marks. He was pleased to have a quick interview about his background, and how ASSETS has affected his life. David was born and brought up in Mijomboni (a small village near Gede). He’s part of a family of 10 - 3 brothers, and 4 sisters. He’s in the middle - 3rd oldest. Both his parents are farmers, growing maize at a small shamba where they live.

He went to Mijomboni Primary School up until the age of 16, a school he greatly enjoyed being part of, and the place where he first heard about ASSETS. He says he remembers when the ASSETS team came and spoke to his class about it, and how he might have an opportunity of going to secondary school, as he knew his family wouldn’t be able to afford it.

He also explained about a day when people from ASSETS came, and helped his class, and their parents plant Kasarina (indigenous) trees in a tree nursery at Mijomboni Primary. He says they’re still growing well there! The seedlings will be given to the parents, to take home and plants at their own shambas.

He explained how he had been to the boardwalk at Mida Creek, and learnt more about ASSETS there, and was very keen find out more about the scheme, and become a beneficiary.

David did very well in his assessments at Primary School, and ASSETS started to sponsor him to go to Secondary School. The school he went to was Godoma School, in Bamba. He loved his time there, and said he worked very hard, especially enjoying maths and the sciences! His final grades were impressive, and gave him an aggregate mark of 64 - a ‘B’.

To go to university, the required mark is 61. David is now 20, and hopes to go to study Maths or Chemistry at Kenyatta University - he showed real passion for these subjects. He said he would love to be a teacher of Maths and Chemistry when he is older. He said - ‘I really want to thank ASSETS for pushing me, and helping me through secondary school - giving me the opportunity to study and achieve good enough results for university.’ David is now trying to raise money to go to university.

Robin Harris

At Last ASSETS Finds one of its own

Finding the appropriate person to employ can sometimes be a tough task bearing in mind how many applications you always expect for any job advert you put up. This time round however the same task was made a lot easier by an application we noticed from an ASSETS graduate. Jonathan Charo graduated from Sokoke Secondary school in 2008, having received support from the ASSETS Eco-bursary scheme and came to volunteer at Mwamba Field Study Centre for seven months in 2009. It is at Mwamba Field Study Centre that he met a couple who were willing to sponsor his college education.

Jonathan has recently graduated from The Mombasa Polytechnic University College with a diploma in Environmental Community Health. Mr. Charo has now been employed by A Rocha Kenya as a Community Assistant, taking over from Patrick Kaunda who moved jobs in December 2012.

When he was in college, Jonathan was once attached to the Kenya Medical Research Institute as a field assistant where he gained good experience in community mobilization.

We welcome Jonathan back to the ASSETS programme; not as a student needing support but as a colleague. We all wish him well as he begins his career.

ASSETS GRADUATE INTERNS WITH A ROCHA KENYA

Grace Rehema Kahindi , who is an ASSETS graduate just joined A Rocha as an intern in the accounts department.Grace is the second child out of eight in her family. Her parents are jobless and have a small piece of land on which they grow cassavas to feed the family and barely have surplus to sell  for cash for their children's school fees.

Thanks to the ASSETS bursary scheme,however, Rehema became the first child to get a complete secondary school education in her family. In Kenya, secondary school is the most expensive to afford  unlike university or college where there are many different organisations that give grants,scholarships and loans.

Rehema, through a loan by higher education loans board(HELB) is currently in her second year of study at Bondo university college where she is pursuing a degree in international tourism management.

She hopes to support her family upon completion of her studies and that some of her siblings will also benefit from the ASSETS scheme. It is through donations and support from local and international well wishers that this program is able to give people like Rehema, the audacity to dream of and hope for a better future.

Beneficiary meetings

Over the last couple weeks,The Assets team has been going all round the forest to have beneficiary meetings.The meetings was to remind the students benefiting from the scheme of the conditions for their bursary to continue. Along with that,parents were also in the meeting to hear and also have a meeting about the CFA structure and how they will slightly change the way they do things.

All the beneficiaries had been visited after six days and on 18th the meetings, ended with Bogamachuko being the last one.

It was quite interesting to see how passionate the parents received the CFA news and how it would make a positive difference in their activities.

The meetings brought alot of debates and discussions especially about students    discipline. MrSuleman Bakari gave alot of inspiring examples of how the parents and the students can work together and how both can improve .

Assets Second camp

The assets second camp was on from 28th of August and ended yesterday 30th August.It was a three day camp with alot of activities just like the first camp.The students who are first year beneficiaries got to learn about the environment and conservation.A total of 20 students and a teacher and a parent were in this camp. The first day the students were taken to the Mwamba nature trail where they learnt more about tree species and the general biodiversity of the mwanba little forest.

Thereafter there was an introduction part and this second camp was lucky to have two Assets university graduates who gave alot of encouragement to the students.

Later that day there was a talk on education and discipline by one of the Assets committee members(Mr Julius Mwawiswa).Mr Mwawiswa talked and quoted verses from the bible to give emphasis on his talk.Again the students were lucky to get a talk fromMr Rafael Magambo, the National director of A Rocha Kenya.Mr Rafael gave them sound advice on being morally upright and conservation.

It was time for games and two groups were formed,SIMBA(lion) and NYATI(buffalo).The first game was filling an empty bottle with water using hands from one member to the last.This was by giving water using the hands, then to the other member the same way until the last member who takes the water in the botlle. Nyati emerged the winners.It was then football where we had a great encounter and simba won 1-0.

In the evening the students watched a movie (finding nemo) before they went to bed.

Day two of the camp saw the students going for snorkelling after the morning glory and a powerpoint presentation from Benjo.Snorkelling  was a great experience for the students whose majority had not been in water.Mr Robert Sluka and Benjamin cowburn who are the marine biologists at mwamba led the students on this wonderful part of marine life.Students were able to see corals and different types of fish.

After snorkelling Mr Stanley gave a powerpoint presentation on drugs and HIV Aids.We later went to the Watamu turtle watch(WTW) where the students learnt alot  about turtles. We later went to games.After a tough match which ended on a 1-1 draw we went to penalties.Nine penalties were taken from both sides and Simba won 2-1.In the evening we had a session of bible study and a session of quiz in which simba won, before they went to bed

After a bird ringing session led by the director of conservation and reserch,A Rocha Kenya, Mr Collin Jackson, the last day was full of movements.The students were taken to the two eco-facilities where the bursaries come from.Mida creek was the first place they visited and were happy to learn the various species of mangroove.They were very amazed by the different species and their long biological names .They went on to climb the boardwalk. Few of them were very afraid of its shaky nature but got encouraged by their fellow students.

The second movement was visiting the Gede ruins tree platform. Here the students had a lot of fun on the platform after a tour of the ruins.

The students returned to mwamba for lunch.After lunch we had a recap of the camp and a short final quiz. The points were calculated and Simba became the overal winnere with 23.5 points and Nyati had 23 points.Prizes were awarded to the winning group.The losing group also got consolation prizes.The teacher and the parent who attended the camp were also awarded prizes. The camp ended with a prayer from one of the students and then they were shown a slideshow of all the photos taken during their stay.At 3:20 the students left mwamba.

Mijomboni seen by a professional photographer...

Last week, we had the visit of a professional photographer Matt Brandon, who followed us throughout the week taking pictures of our activities.On Friday morning we went to a Muvera Wa Assets meeting in Mijomboni, to meet the parents of the beneficiaries. While we were interviewing a few parents, Matt was having fun with the kids...