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WHAT WE DO
Project activities
The day to day running of the
orphan support programme is carried out
by members of the Upendo Methodist Church
Women’s
Group. The team contributes to activities
in the following ways:
- Running the nursery school. Three retired
teachers provide teaching. This activity is under
the auspices of the education committee.
- School uniforms are purchased locally by
members of the procurement committee. The nursery
school has adopted the same uniform as the local
primary school to reduce costs when pupils advance
to primary level.
- Exercise books, pencils, pens etc are purchased
by members of the procurement committee from Kilifi
bookshop. Teaching aids are home made or donated.
- Food is sourced locally by the procurement committee
members and a week’s supply kept at the church.
Children have porridge at 10 am, a hot lunch at 1
p.m. and a hot meal at 6 p.m. Children attending
primary school return to the church compound for
lunch and dinner. This is prepared within the church
building by the lunch attendant which is either one
of the UMCWG members or orphans’ guardians.
- Counselling takes place either in our new building,
the church or under a tree. Counselling is by a
National Aids Council trained person and is with
the orphans, their families and the wider community,
individually and as group discussions. The guidance
and counselling subcommittee are responsible for
this activity.
Project Management
- Group Members. Thirty members of UMCWG run the
project. Our skills base includes primary and nursery
school teachers, social workers, nurses, secretaries,
clerical officers, accounts clerks, housewives, a
nutritionist, a church minister and trained HIV/AIDs
counsellors. The group holds meetings every Sunday
afternoon.
- Group Structure The group manages the project via
an executive committee and five sub-committees.
- Executive committee. Responsible for overseeing
and integrating the activities of the five sub-committees.
Composed of chairperson, vice-chairperson, secretary,
treasurer and one member elected.
- Education sub-committee. Responsible for maintaining
good standards of education for the orphans. This
is achieved through liaising with teachers, local
education office etc. Composed of primary and nursery
teachers, social workers and nurses.
- Finance sub-committee. Responsible for proper
accounting of the project finances and any grants
received. Their role is also to look for ways to
raise funds/generate income to improve project sustainability.
Composed of accounts clerks, secretaries, teachers,
social worker and nurses.
- Public Relations and Welfare sub-committee. Responsible
for holistic development of the orphans (physical,
mental, social and spiritual). Composed of social
worker, nurses, research assistant and clerks.
- Guidance and Counselling sub-committee. Responsible
for planning and implementing counselling activities.
Counselling is carried out with orphans, family members
and the broader community. Composed of HIV/AIDS counsellors,
church minister, lay preachers, teachers and nurses.
- Procurement and Feeding sub-committee. Responsible
for planning and implementing orphan feeding programme.
They maintain proper accounts which are forwarded
to the finance sub-committee quarterly. Composed
of nutritionists, accounts clerks, clerical officers
and house wives.
Monitoring and Evaluation
- Monthly returns by nursery teachers to
Ministry of Education inspectors. Some of the orphans
we support have poor attendance records before coming
to us. This is for complex reasons. In some cases
the children are not encouraged to attend by the
extended family as they are required to run errands,
work in the shamba (farm), or beg for money. If we
can show that children have good attendance at our
nursery school then this is a positive outcome measure.
Attendance records, subjects covered and pupil performance
records are submitted to the inspectors monthly.
- Primary examination. Numbers of children who pass
the primary school entrance examination and progress
from nursery to primary school education. In 2004,
our nursery school obtained 5 of the 10 top places
out of 200 examinees.
- Feedback
during counselling sessions.
Often when children first
come to us they find it hard
to communicate. With
gentle guidance they really
begin to mix with the
other children and enjoy their
schooling. Clearly, this improvement
is hard to measure but is reflected
by school attendance and performance. We feel that
by integrating the orphans into the other children ’s
nursery that the stigma associated with AIDS orphans
is reduced.
- The numbers of orphans brought to us for help.
Currently a forceful measure of our need to do more
for the community is the number of times we, as UMCWG
members, are approached for help with orphans. If
we could support more orphans these petitions should
reduce.
- Weekly meetings of the Committee and Sub-committees.
Notes are taken at our weekly meetings and submitted
to the executive for quarterly reports.
- Nursery education quality taskforce. This group
is made up of the education sub-committee plus parents/guardians.
It is their role to raise any concerns regarding
the quality of the schooling that the children receive.
One example of their work was to raise the concern
that nursery pupils did not have proper seating/desks.
They were required to kneel on the floor and use
pews as tables. The group found that school work
was suffering as a result. Fund raising (using an
innovative approach with a local creative group,
see in ‘Sustainability’)
was commenced and the pupils now have 30 small chairs
and 5 tables.
- Parent Teachers Association. This group meets
once a month. Parents are elected on a yearly basis
at the AGM of the UMCWG.
- Community Supervision. Members of the community
and the administration are invited to attend the
nursery. Local chiefs visit about once a month to
offer feedback from members of the community. The
most common feedback we receive is that the community
are approaching their chiefs asking why we cannot
support more orphans.
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