Tag Archives: school

The United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) last month donated assorted educational and other materials to our school in Buchanan.

Students and staff posting near the still packed donated items

The items included chalk, reams of paper, folders, markers, school bell, book bags, posters, geometric sets, copybooks, pencils, pens and soap.

Staff displaying some of the donated items

The pencils were distributed among the kids, while the pens were distributed among the teachers and the kids. The book bags, which were fifteen (15) in all, were also given to the kids.

Students displaying their donated book bags and copybooks

This is not UNICEF’s first time donating instructional items to the school. We are grateful to UNICEF for its periodic donations to the school.

Kids and staff posting near the unpacked items

Our two-classroom annex for whose construction funds were raised last year was put in use last year, and the parents, the kids and the community appreciate its construction.

K-5 students with their teacher (Annie) in their new classroom in the annex

The kids started using the classes of the annex last year when the school year began. Although the annex didn’t have doors and paint, the building had been zincked, the windows fixed, the walls plastered, and the floor done. So there was no major pitfall to prevent us from using the annex.

A K-4 student doing mathematics on the blackboard

The only things remaining are the painting of the building, the installing of the doors and the fixing of the ceilings. As we indicated in our previous article about the stealing of the kitchen roof, we have not placed installed doors on the annex for fear that they could be stolen.

Franklin (teacher) teaching in one of the classrooms

The kids currently using the classrooms of the annex are those of K-4 and K-5.

Teacher and students interacting in the K-4 classroom in the annex

Again, we are thankful to all those who helped us make the starting and completion of this annex a reality. We also wish to, on behalf of the kids and the Parent-Teacher Association, extend special thanks and appreciation to Mike Nilsson and Marijke Silander (two siblings of the late Tauno Silander} for the extra humanitarian effort they applied in the process.

The two doors of the annex, with students in the classes in the background

The two-room annex seen behind kids during devotion

Last year, because one of the conditions set by the World Food Program (WFP) before giving food to our school was that we construct a kitchen, we decided to construct a little concrete kitchen.

Cook sharing food in the kitchen with its tarpaulin roof

The laying of blocks was started and completed, and the little structure was roofed and zincked. However, just around the time school could reopen, some criminals came at night and removed the entire roof, along with the zinc, and took it away.

The kitchen with tarpaulin on top of it

Following this incident, we bought a tarpaulin which we use on top of the kitchen whenever the cooks are preparing food for the kids, but which we remove and keep in the main school building once the cooking is finished and the kids have eaten.

The kitchen with its zinc roof

As a result of this criminal incident, we were advised by the community not to install doors of the classrooms of the annex, since the security guard sits in the main building at night and does not sit outside to keep watch over the annex.

Kitchen with tarpaulin

In fact, in the morning, we bring desks from the main building to be used by kids in the annex, but we take them back to the main building after school. We are scared that if the doors are placed on the annex, they will be stolen at night.