The Free-Lance Star’s Cathy Dyson did a fantastic write-up on all the schools in Fredericksburg, VA that are raising money to help build the kitchen and library at Royal Kids School as well as sponsor students. They all have ambitious goals—all the school groups combined are trying to raise more than $60,000 before this summer.

Read the article here.

The Freshly Painted Royal Kids School

School building under construction

Newly painted side of school building

All the boarding students moved into their new dorms.

Girls Dormitory Before (July 2010)

Girls Dormitory After (July 2011)

Both boys and girls dorms have two toilets and showers.

There is now running water to the 2nd floor toilets.

Working pipes to the 2nd floor sinks

Water tank installed on the 4th floor

The old girls dormitory was turned into the library.

Old Girls Dormitory

8th graders make use of the new library

Several classrooms were plastered and painted.

4th Grade Classroom Before (July 2010)

4th Grade Classroom After (August 2011)

Volunteers repainted the nursery and added a new mural.

New mural painted in nursery school

All this construction was made possible by our summer volunteers and our dedicated monthly sponsors. If you’d like to contribute to the ongoing building projects click HERE.

Start your shopping by clicking HERE.

Steps to give e3 credit:

1. Click on Shop Online at the bottom left.
2. In Box 1, type in e3 Kids.
3. Then select e3 Kids International, and start giving.

Orders must be placed by October 30^th for e3Kids to receive credit!

Make sure you’re ordering under e3Kids as the organization. And spread the word.

If you have any questions please contact us.

A SMALL ACT Trailer 2010 from Jennifer Arnold on Vimeo.

Ngao hates deserts. He plants trees wherever he can. We walked over to Jomvu and discussed his future plans for the site. He’s standing in the midst of cypress trees he planted to eventually sell as timber.

Royal Kids has a plot of land in Jomvu, in which they’ve built a small schoolhouse (pictures of it during a weekday coming soon). One day they hope to build a high school on the property to continue providing education to students in need. In the meantime, they grow corn and have invested in trees that can be sold as timber.

This is an unfinished house on the property, that’s already lived in by Royal Kids staff. The property line of the farm ends at the bottom of the hill on the left, before the next hill rises. Walking down the hill, you pass several small trees that Ngao has already planted.

On Saturdays, Royal Kids is still in session. However, the lower primary has a half-day. This is Class Three, in one of the classrooms that was finished last year.

This room was finished shortly before the students left for holiday in August, so I was unable to see it filled with students. The white paint makes the room look so bright!

On the back wall is a poster discussing the importance of washing hands and brushing teeth. It was donated by a representative from Colgate who donated many tubes of toothpaste as part of a promotional campaign.

Teacher Elisha, the school’s headteacher, told me today that government curriculum textbooks would be donated to the school for each class in every subject area. An organization that had been donating textbooks to government funded schools discovered that corrupt teachers had been selling the books to students. As a result, they’ve been seeking out private schools that educate needy students to donate the books. Which works out well for Royals, since having enough textbooks to go around has always been a struggle.

Both of them are in their second year of high school. Nelly, who also attends Waa Girls, should have come home this weekend, but she’s joined a handful of girls who were selected to attend a math symposium. I saw Njoki when I visited her school last July, but this is my first time seeing Wawira since 2009. They’ve both turned into such young ladies! Wawria has always been confident, and it’s impressive to see how much confidence Njoki’s gained. She was very shy while she was in primary school, and usually had a sheepish smile on her face.

Njoki loves working with small children and looks forward to becoming a pre-school teacher one day. And Wawira is still holding onto her dream of becoming a doctor. And she has the grades to make it, she’s fourth in her class after the mid-term exams.

I wasn’t expecting to see them before my return to the states, and it’s wonderful that they’ll be here for the weekend. I’m hoping to get my hands on some bootleg movies for us to watch tomorrow night.

While reviewing student English compositions, I spent some time in the staff room. Teacher Timothy listens as Teacher Wazome animatedly discusses yesterday’s football match between Royal Kids and another local school team.

This staff room is for the upper level primary teachers, for grades four through eight. These teachers rotate between the classrooms, while the lower level primary teachers stay with their classes. The upper level teachers come to this room to mark papers, take tea during morning break and their lunch. All the teachers were gathered in the room since lunch was about to arrive (which was rice and beans, the most common lunch meal at Royals).

I’m amazed at how comfortably all these teachers work in this room. There’s usually a constant stream of students entering the room to add to the already wobbly stacks of notebooks about to be graded.  But the camaraderie is great. I commented on Teacher Emmah’s very purple nails today and she couldn’t understand why I don’t paint my own. And the male teacher’s conversation about yesterday’s football match was hilarious. Most of it was in Swahili, but they were challenging some of the calls Teacher Samuel (second picture, on the right) made as a ref during the game over a disputed goal. Teacher Mambo argued that if there’s a discrepancy, then a ref should ask the spectators. To which Teacher Wazome emphatically said that there was no ref on earth who would do such thing. If they did that, they wouldn’t be a ref.

I look forward to the day these teachers all have comfortable chairs, have bookshelves to organize their materials, and have easy access to basic supplies. Teacher Wazome shared with the rest of the teachers some of the scientific diagrams and maps he’d drawn earlier in the week. And then he started lamenting the fact that there weren’t any felt pens to color in the drawings. Fortunately, some markers were part of the donated items that I had brought over. And I was able to give a large pack of markers to him today. He was so appreciative when I told him the markers were for him to keep, and that there wasn’t a deadline for him to finish coloring in the drawings. I’m used to the students’ excitement over colored pencils and crayons. But Teacher Wazome’s excitement over markers truly surprised me.

One day, these dedicated teachers will have a staff room that adequately meets their needs. In the meantime, all of you who have donated chalk, notebooks, pens, and pencils, and other school supplies, please know that your support is greatly appreciated.