Kindfund

A young moslem mother selling fruit to Pamela through the window of our landrover as we left Isiolo every evening in 2005 persistently enquired if we knew anything about the school for the deaf. It subsequently transpired that she had a deaf daughter at the school.  We made enquiries and on a trip into Isiolo Ken called into the school and introduced himself. What he found impressed him and it was not long before he was back with Pamela. A remark by one of the teachers that, 'the Turkana and Samburu villages had many deaf children who could greatly benefit from their specialist learning facilities if the resources were available to send them there,' alerted us to a great need. Within a week we discovered our first profoundly deaf child Esther at one of the Turkana nursery schools we support and with the agreement of the parents we sponsored the child to board at the school. The cost was 3000ks(c.£25) for each of three terms plus supplying mattress, bedding, uniforms and personal effects for boarding. A small cost when you experience first hand the amazing transformation that takes place in these children when they learn to communicate with one another and are in an environment where they are loved and developed.

A short time later a young Samburu boy became our second child at the school.

Into the third year of our relationship with the school we have 7 pupils sponsored to the school and each year we have taken their best pupil to a Secondary School for the Deaf in Central Province. We have three children boarding at this Secondary School. Our relationship with the Deaf does not stop there. Two years ago we met Elizabeth a graduate of the deaf primary at Zebra another Turkana village where we support a nursery school. We bought her a singer sewing machine and arranged a 12 month training course with a tailor at Archer's Post and three months with a sewing business in Isiolo. She is now working for Kindfund since January 2008 making uniforms for the many children on our programmes.

After Liz Crook visited in 2006 she gossiped the story of the school to a neighbour and out of that what was then Sperrin Hospital Trust donated an audiometer to the Kenyan School. A local transport company in Kesh transported it to England where the Army arranged for it to be delivered to Kenya in January 2007. The school has now been connected to the mains electricity supply and the machine is a great asset.

Every Friday a member of the Kindfund team is welcomed into the school to bring the Good News of the Gospel through bible stories. The staff assist with the presentation and bible leaflets are worked on by the children.

If you would like to help these doubly disadvantaged children living with their handicap in the poorest tribes in Kenya you can sponsor a Deaf Child from £15 (€22) per month 

All sponsorship funding goes to Kenya. Local administration and overheads are covered by personal donation.