Hill-Wheeler Preparatory School

On Mombasa's north coast, very close to the 5-star hotels which attract international holidaymakers spending hundreds of pounds a day is a school for local children. It is trying to give a very basic level of education to local kids aged between 3 and 14. The school gets no government funding so it has to find every cent itself. The director is a local woman, Madame Loice, who is a volunteer with big ambitions for these kids but she needs ideas, advice, money, teaching aids....pretty much everything.

Many of the kids are orphans with noone to look after them or help pay for them. Parents are meant to pay £3 a month but few parents can pay. So there's no money for the teachers, or school facilities. Many parents can't afford to feed their kids so they arrive at school hungry and fall asleep.

Classrooms & Fundraising

In 2009 the first priority was to provide adequate and safe buildings for the school to teach the kids in. The older parts of the school had fallen apart and were very unsafe but they were all they had. What buildings there were had no roof, no chairs, there was no canteen and there were 80 kids in a class because there was nowhere else to put them. There was the beginnings of a kitchen and canteen area but work had stopped when they had run out of money.

Construction engineers calculated the cost of doing the work at £3,000 and the fund-raising began. Rhydian helped in the fundraising and was one of those who went out to Kenya (self-funded) to help with the next stage, the building work.

Building Work

In January 2010 the building work was done and the school now has 8 new permanent classrooms. No money was spent on fancy plaques or engravings. The next stage will be to ensure that the kids get an education which will help equip them to find work when they leave.

Ways to Help

This is not a registered charity. It's just people who have decided to get stuck in and do what needs doing and trust each other. You can join in and sponsor a child direct through a direct debit, paying money into the school's own bank account. Just £10 a month would go a very long way out there. You can also make a single payment straight into the school's bank account. (a/c 0152 5228 7446 00 Standard Chartered Bank (K) Ltd, Maritime House branch, Mombasa PO Box 90670 SWIFT code SCBLKENX)

If you can spare the time you can also volunteer as a teacher, for as little as a few days at a time. All teaching is in English at the school. The baby classes learn simple english and maths whilst the older classes learn more advanced maths and science and social studies for those more experienced in teaching.

Find out more here