A number of primary schools within Homa Bay County have received furniture from a Non-Governmental Organisation to address challenges children face during early years of education.
Through its programme, the humanitarian organisation Vestergaard Frandsen East Africa Company aims to donate equipment to schools to ensure children are comfortable during lessons and enable them to stay in school.
The furniture which includes chairs and tables were given out to eight institutions among them, Mirembe (Karachuonyo), Pala (Kabondo Kasipul), Ondiko (Kasipul), Rabuor Ponge (Rangwe), Nyarach (Ndhiwa), Aringo (Suba North) and Olodo (Homa Bay Town) primary schools.
Gerald Adhaya, the Life Straw Programmer at Vestergaard Frandsen reiterated that the NGO is concerned about the learning environment in schools and added that the donation will help improve learning in schools.
“Our programme will also assist the schools who produce sterling results to motivate their children to work hard,” he said.
The furniture was also a way of rewarding these schools for exemplary management of water filters donated to them by the organisation.
Apart from furniture, the organisation also engages in providing water purifiers to schools to encourage consumption of clean water for good health, and has so far given them out a total of 459 purifiers to schools through the programme.
Speaking during the donation exercise Thursday, Adhaya said the water filters will ensure good health among school going children since they will now have purified and safe water to drink.
“We are rolling out this programme to improve the health of school going children by providing lifestyle purifiers that convert dirty water into safe drinking water to protect the children from unnecessary illnesses that can easily be prevented to enable them stay in school,” said Adhaya.
The County Executive for Education, Martin Opere who flagged off the exercise said that the county government was ready to work with partners to ensure children stay in school.
Opere stated that the rate of enrolment in schools has tremendously improved since the introduction of the water filters, something that has reduced illnesses which contribute to absenteeism.
By Brian Odhiambo and Sitna Omar
