St Mark’s School, Awendo, Kenya
A very exciting project for SPT the last few years has been the construction of St Mark’s School in Awendo. In 2019, the Kenyan government began enforcing regulations requiring major improvements in school building standards. SPT has helped to mend walls, add rooftops, and redo floors. The school services over 300 local primary school children, most of whom have lost parents to AIDS. Over the last 3 years, SPT has sent over £12,500 to fund construction and upkeep of buildings, help the school stay open and continue their important work.
Filling great needs:
St. Mark Guild Top Academy has a total population of 312 children, ages 4-13 years, undertaking the competency based curriculum. This school population consist of mainly the needy and vulnerable children of whom most of their parents died as a result of HIV/AIDS, some of the parents of these children are suffering from HIV/AIDS and some of these pupils themselves are infected by HIV/AIDS. This makes life difficult for these pupils that if not given special attention which they cannot get either at home or just in the ordinary public schools. St. Mark’s works in collaboration with public health to offer voluntary testing of HIV/AIDS and other management programs which has helped most of the children from these community have a sense of belonging and a lot of hope in life,
It is also important to note that in Kenya, someone can only be allowed to join any college/university when he or she has certificates of basic education(primary/secondary education). This same is also true when one seeks employment so life becomes unbearable for someone who does not get opportunity to get basic education.
The next steps for St Mark’s are to finish the block of 3 classrooms which are largely constructed, and to continue work on the final block of 3 rooms (classroom, computer room, staff room) where they have raised money to lay the basic foundations.
