As part of the DSWT Community Outreach program’s new ‘Schools4Schools’ initiative, Misani Primary School, located in Makueni County, was chosen to be the recipient of educational activities and a host of school resources generously donated by Fifth Grade children from Viewpoint School in California, USA. 

Misani Primary School was established in 1990 to cater for the growing number of children living within the remote and arid environment surrounding Misani village, which borders Tsavo East National Park.  Before this school was built, which was due to the determination of the community and parents, some of the children once walked over 8kms, morning and noon, to attend Ngiluni Primary School, which was lacking in the most basic of facilities and resources.

Since 2010 Misani School has planted over 300 tree seedlings in their school compound, which have over the years been donated to them by the DSWT.  Due to the schools success at caring for and nurturing their seedlings, whilst showing a great deal of commitment to protecting their environment, the DSWT chose Misani for this special grant reward through the Schools 4 Schools program.

Currently the school has an enrolment of 138 pupils between 8 standards. There are 79 boys and 59 girls, whilst there are only 6 teachers of which 3 are on government employment while the remaining 3 are employed and funded by the parents and teachers association (PTA).  There are four small permanent classrooms without flooring, doors or electricity, which are each partitioned by mud walls to make eight classrooms in order to accommodate the 8 standards of classes, offering very little light or space for the children creating a challenging learning environment.  Due to the lack of basic learning materials and a low number of teachers, Misani Primary School has been recording poor results in the national exams over the years. In last year’s 2013 exams the school achieved a mean score of 226 out of 500 with the best boy scoring 328/500 and the best girl 279/500.

With a very generous donation of US$ 4863 from Viewpoint School, the DSWT has been able to provide the following to Misani Primary School:

50 desks (These are custom made two-seater desks with hard wearing steel frames and sustainable sourced wooden tops)

2 Field trips (These day trips accommodate a total of 25 children per trip, with free admission into Tsavo West National Park in the DSWT community bus, with a picnic provided.  These field trips allow children access to wild animals, so that they can witness wildlife in its natural environment and learn about flora and fauna from the DSWT’s Community Officer and the Kenya Wildlife Service educational officers they meet during the trips)

Sports Equipment (20 footballs/6 netballs and 2 rings/6 volleyballs and 2 nets/2 ball pumps)

Study Books (60 study books covering Primary Mathematics/Science/English and Kiswahili including wall charts and maps) and 1 Mobile Wildlife Film Show delivered on site by our Mobile Cinema Unit

Misani Primary School has expressed its sincere gratitude to Viewpoint School for making this donation possible, whilst the DSWT would also like to thank View Point School for helping us in supporting these impoverished communities and in doing so spreading awareness of the importance of protecting the environment.

If you are involved with a school anywhere around the globe and think that you could help raise the US$4,800 needed to supply another disadvantaged school with this wonderful donation package, please get in touch with the DSWT at [email protected]