Wagwer Secondary School
Moving Mountains has been working in partnership with Wagwer Secondary school in Western Kenya since 2002.
Overview
Before we got involved there were no students and no teachers. Working with the community we established a shared long-term vision to develop the entire facility in order to enable it to provide secondary level education to all children in the area. In order for Wagwer to compete with other secondary schools in Kenya and attract fee-paying children from far and wide, the school needed to present itself as a high-performance institution.
Wagwer is now a successful community-run school with excellent facilities and a full complement of teachers. The headmaster is Maurice Odindo who has been involved with Moving Mountains since 1995. Our responsible volunteering programme continues to fund teaching resources for the staff and help our social workers to provide support to some of the most disadvantaged students.
History of the Project
2002 – Moving Mountains started supporting the school and set out a five-year plan to build six classrooms, a library, laboratory, and kitchen.
2007 – Wagwer Secondary School has developed into a community run, successful school which now educates over 200 children at the secondary level and is attracting new pupils all the time. We now no longer need to provide continual funding for Wagwer, other than child support, since our principle is to leave the place to be run self-sufficiently.
2010 – Refurbishment work and provision of more chairs, desks and teachers materials.
Main Donors
Daniel Wright and King Edwards School, Bath
Granaghan Community Outreach Programme, Swatragh, Northern Ireland
Moving Mountains Ireland Trustees
Get Involved
Volunteering – teaching non-examinable subjects such as music, sport, arts, ethics, plus running extra-curricular clubs and providing small group reading lessons, mentoring and group therapy work.
Future Aims
Our commitment is to work with the education authorities and school management committee to attract Government support for more teachers and improved facilities. We are looking into the possibility of developing boarding facilities and aim to continue to provide educational support for disadvantaged children who continue to show academic excellence.
Wagwer Secondary currently has the shell of a building which they have earmarked for use as the dining hall for all the students. This will be a priority project for Moving Mountains in 2015 as the hall will help to keep Wagwer as the central focal point of the whole community. The school will also be able to gain an income from the hall by hiring it out for functions, meetings and community events.
Support the development of Wagwer Secondary School by making a donation to Moving Mountains today!