Promoting Education, Health and Enterprise in a Maasai Community
Girl's Rest Room (Namuncha Primary School)
150 Bright blue new chairs for the Girls’ Room, be comfortable and learn. Watch them being unloaded from the pickup.
A REPORT ON THE USE OF THE NAMUNCHA PRIMARY SCHOOL GIRLS’ ROOM
INTRODUCTION.
Namuncha Primary School is a rural school, approximately 14 Kilometers from Maai Mahiu town in Naivasha Sub-County. It has a population of 700 learners. The school performs well in the sub-county. The girl child has been well catered for in terms of their personal needs for them to remain learning throughout without missing school.
The school is privileged to have a girls’ room from which the following girls’ activities take place:
- GUIDANCE AND COUNSELLING
The room provides privacy to the girls while receiving guidance from their teachers.
They regularly receive general guidance on topics such as good hygiene, self-awareness, organization and relationships with one another in and out of school.
Besides common guidance, girls meet in the room as peer groups to discuss matters concerning performance and family matters.
- STORAGE OF SANITARY MATERIALS.
The girls’ room offers sufficient storage of sanitary towels for the girls.
This has helped the school with safe custody of such basic necessity for the girls. Besides, the girls use the bathroom when need arises during menstruation. This boosts the girls’ self-esteem in their studies therefore not skipping school during their monthly periods.
- HEALTH MATTERS.
It’s in the girls’ room from where we give the girls the Weekly Iron and Folic Acid Supplements (WIFS) to all girls aged ten years and above.
The girls receive the HPV vaccination in “their room” which is done by the Namuncha Dispensary nurse.
- DRESSING ROOM
During co- curricular activities such as games and sports, the room serves as a changing room for the girls to change into proper attire thus enhancing confidence as they play.
- CONCLUSION.
In a nutshell, the usage of the girls’ room has so far given the girls a sense of belonging, health support, and health guidance which has boosted their morale to continue with their education.
Cases of school dropout have not been experienced for the last two years.
RECOMMENDATION
The school is highly grateful for the provision of the room which comfortably accommodates over 150 girls.
However, the school is humbly recommending for the provision of seats for the room as the girls rely on the few unoccupied desks in the school which mostly are not in good condition. Therefore, during guidance and counselling sessions most of our girls find themselves standing, which is quite uncomfortable.
Compiled by Teacher Mary
Namuncha Primary School
20th January 2024
Solar Photovoltaic panel
Has been fitted to the roof of the Girls’ room to enable full electrical supply to all rooms.
Being a Girl in Namuncha - An Art Project
A Nairobi Artist, Joan Otieno, is spending three days with 40 girls from class 7 and 8 to produce on canvas “what it is to be a Girl in Namuncha”. The pictures will adorn the walls of the Girls’ Room training room. Day 1 planning and preparing the canvases.
Girls' Room Art Workshop Day 3 -Winding up
Girls Room Art Workshop Day 3 - Hanging the paintings on the wall.
Day 2 - 19/5/22 - Pen and paint to canvas
The Stitching Crew sewing together wrappers from Sanitary products and having fun, what are they making? See later today.
Day 1 - 18/5/22
22nd February 2022, the Girls' room opens for the parents and the girls.
28th October
The ceilings are fitted, the water tanks are in place and we wait for the solar panels to provide the heating for the water in the wash rooms and the shower.
10th September
The roof is on, the doors are hung and the window frames are in place. There remain some external finishing touches before we move inside. The next steps are internal fittings, water tank, plumbing, and solar panels.
For those of us that know the site you can see that the room is set alongside the Early Learning Classrooms.
6th September
The walls are upbuilt and the roof is being constructed, Good thing too as those clouds look very full of rain. Valene is on site and on the job. See her mixing cement and climbing on the walls in the video section.
Note her setting the good example by wearing her helmet.
2nd September,
The floor is laid and most of the walls are up. The doors and windows are being made and the roof is planned to be built next week. Valene our Namuncha Girl Builder spent some time on site this week before getting ready for college.
18th August, School Board and the primary school girls visit the works
The Primary School board and some of the girls came to visit the site and the learn how to use the composting toilets and to see how the work is progressing.
The ground is broken and the building starts.
On Friday 23rd July, Madame Elizabeth, chair of the Namuncha Primary School Board of Management, breaks the ground to start the building of the Girls’ room. We have raise £6,000 and the Community are providing the stones, the hardcore and the ballast to enable the building to be constructed. Starting with the composting toilets.
A woman starts the work, one of the ex-pupils Valene, will work on the construction and the programme when built will be led by Mdms Lucy and Carol. But more of that later. for now share the excitement of a project really getting underway.
A big thank you to the Searle Street Cake Club who have raised £4500 and to the private donors who have raised a further £1500
11th April 2021, £3401 raised for the building of the Girl's room.
There are many difficulties that you have to face if you live in Namuncha. Not the least of these, if you are a girl is menstruation. It is still the major reason for missing school and probably one of the reasons that girls in rural communities do less well than boys in their school assessments.
In the past few years the Government of Kenya have supplied Sanitary Pads to primary and secondary schools. Namuncha has benefitted form this. However, there are no facilities beyond the girls’ open drop latrines, and these lack privacy. Primary school age is up to 14 in Kenya and most girls will start their periods at about 12.
To improve the attendance rate for girls the Friends of Namuncha with the Community, plan to build and furnish a Girl’s Room. Where with dignity and comfort they can change, wash, and rest.
The facility will have a room with a couch, a locker room for supplies and extra clothes, a shower facility and composting toilets. In addition there will be a small room for the nurse to used for education and training and a place to run a small creche. The later will support young girls who have had a baby to bring it while they attend class. Whilst this is less common now, one or two primary school girls per year will become pregnant and potentially drop out of school. The schools have made every effort to welcome them back into school and a crèche facility could provide an opportunity for this to happen.
It is also a public statement about being a girl for the boys to observe and respect.
As part of the sustainability agenda we plan to use solar panels on the roof to provide energy to heat the water, and provide electricity for computerised teaching aids.
The plans have been agreed with the community, who will provided the stones from the local quarry. The total cost will be about £10,000.
We will start fund raising with Searle Street Cake Club. We will apply to Kenyan and UK funds and funders an well as seeking private donations.
Measuring up the plot for the Girl’s Room on the Primary schools site.
A job for the pupils and the staff.
If you wish to donate to this project please click on the button opposite that will take you to the donation page, and mark your donation “Girls Room”
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