Ole Keene is a Maasai community just 3km from the Sekenani gate of the Maasai Mara National Reserve. The community is home to around 1200 people and the local school, which has an enrolment of around 220 students, receives very little support from the government in terms of development.
Mara Explorers, with the help of our clients, friends and partners, have been supporting Ole Keene and its school since 2012 with various development projects and with our Porridge Program for the kids.
In early 2020 the world shut down, schools closed and tourism stopped. This has had a huge negative impact on the whole community, as without tourism, funds to help the school dried up and development projects have slowed down. Funds for our porridge program are now at a critically low level and classrooms which we were involved with building prior to the pandemic have never been fully finished.
Now 3 years later it’s time to pick back up and get things moving again!
A recent meeting with the school principal highlighted several urgent matters which we now need your help to fundraise and get this school to the level it should be.
1. Porridge flour funds are urgently needed. A 90kg sack of porridge flour costing $50 can provide all the students a nutritious mid morning meal for 2 weeks.
2. Classroom windows. There are no glass window panes in one of the finished classroom room blocks. There is a need for 150 panes of glass with the putty, silicon and labour to fit them at a cost of $1200
3. Classroom doors. There are two classrooms which do not have main doors, they require metal doors fitting to be secure at a cost of $395
4. Book and bag shelves. Currently there are no shelves for storing books or student bags, they are all put on the floor. The cost for shelves and compartments would be $1600
5. Classroom painting. The interior of the new classrooms has never been fully completed with some plastering and full painting still required at a cost of $1315
6. Guttering. There is a need for exterior guttering to harvest rainwater to provide the school with an additional source of water. They already have a tank which is currently not being used. The cost for this has been quoted at $1125 for all the guttering pipes, fittings and labour.
Aside from the porridge flour which is an ongoing expense costing around $1000 per year to run, the total cost for the above construction work is going to be around $5635 fully inclusive of all the materials and labour.
We are kindly asking you to dig deep and spread the word to help us!
