Humble experience

After having a good nights rest, we woke up feeling fresh and excited to start our day.
We arrived at the Church (which is situated at the school in one of the classrooms) and could hear the singing from outside, straight away it gave us goosebumps. We were greeted and made to feel very welcome and had front seats as we were the 'guests of honour'.
During the service (which was 3 hours long!!) children come and go and the Kenyan people arrive at any time and join in. It is a very laid back environment, even the singers and Pastor had their phones in their hands when performing during the service.
We watched the children sing and dance, and WOW they can move! We then got called up and had to dance, to which i think it was more of entertainment for the community, they had their phones out videoing us with huge grins. To say the least we were extremely hot, with a temperature of 35 degrees outside and we are in a iron shack!
After the service, James, took us to each classroom and talked through all the recent developments and improvements. Later we talked through what plans we have in place while we are here and what outcomes they would like to achieve.

James drove us around the local area, we stopped at the rubbish site. James told us the story of how he finds children looking through the rubbish for food or materials to sell. We could see some people on the top of the rubbish dump searching for things. James encourages the children who he finds there to attend school and get their one meal a day as well as an education which helps them to return to their home as their parents are able to look after them knowing they have eaten at least once during the day. There were also huge vultures on the rubbish tip, and we mean huge!!

Today was a humble experience, and was nice to get to know some of the children who attend the school. Tomorrow we are looking forward to spending quality time with teachers and look at their ECD (Early Childhood development) which is the equivalent of our EYFS (Early Years Foundation Stage).

Arrived Safely

Our journey started off with being over weight with our bags due to all the donations , we didnt want to leave anything behind and had to flutter our eyelids to ensure everything came - which it did!

The flight from UK to Nairobi was a hot one, our air con above us did not work - we didnt get much sleep due to this. We also managed to sit in the wrong seats so we had to move after we got comfortable. We have met some lovely people along the way who helped us with our journey, well mostly with our 8 bags of luggage, which we could hardly lift ourselves.
We made it to Kisumu and were greeted with open arms by Alice and James, although they did turn up yesterday to pick us up!! James and Alice took us to our little hotel and ensured we were comfortable before they left. We have rested today and having a very early night ready for our Church experience tomorrow.
Goodnight.

Hayley's reflection 2016

I feel so fortunate to have been selected to visit the life centre school in Kisumu, I have been truly inspired by the positive attitude of every adult and child I met whilst in the school.

My personal highlight of the trip was teaching the adults how to make the play dough and seeing their enthusiasm and excitement of learning something new. All the children reacted in the same way and their faces lit up with fascination when we handed out the dough. Every child and adult in the room spent time exploring the dough and showing each other the different models they could make. The thought of something that's so simple and so readily available to us in nurseries here, bringing this level of excitement was a great thing to witness.

After the first day I felt truly humbled by how warm and welcoming each and every person had been towards us and how proud they were to show us what they had learnt, even though each person faces a daily struggle that we in the UK couldn't even imagine.

I was amazed to see how the day care had transformed from the teams visit last year and it was great to spend so much time with the children in the day care. They all got stuck straight in with the sensory pouches and were also very keen to make their own sensory bottles that they then spent the next 30 minutes or so exploring. I was impressed at how quickly the children picked up the actions and some words to nursery rhymes that we sung to them, within a couple of times of hearing a song every child there was having a go and joining in.

I loved absorbing the local atmosphere and getting to know and understand the culture that we would be part of for the week.

The day James showed us the dump site where it had all started was hard to comprehend. I can only imagine how hard both James and Alice have work with the support of the Asante coffee shop and now yellow dot to create the fantastic nursery and school that ranks in the top three for the region! I'm proud to have been a part of that and I want to continue supporting the school and nursery

I hope that James and Alice continue to keep us updated with the development and progress of the children at the nursery and school.

My reflection on the trip to Kisumu. ‘A transforming trip’.

There seems to be many things to reflect on after being part of such a great trip. As we arrived in Kisumu there was a different culture and lifestyle to take in to account, and indeed a different climate (very hot with a couple of thunderstorms thrown in!). We were shown great hospitality and welcome here.

It was a privilege to represent Yellow Dot here and share some of our knowledge with the teachers. We were able to share experiences with the children in day care, such as the sensory bags and bottles. To see their interest, curiosity and enjoyment in playing with these was rewarding.  We sang nursery rhymes with them too. We also shared Froebel activities and Boogie Mites with the children at the Life Centre School. The children showed great imagination with the Froebel resources, and had a great time singing and tapping out the rhythms of Boogie Mites; a nation with a natural rhythm.

The teachers at the nursery and school have such a willingness to teach, and to support these children in achieving their potential, and giving them an opportunity for an education. They are fully committed to what they do. The children are really keen to learn, and enjoy their time at the school and nursery. They always came to greet us.

Alice and James have worked hard to support the teachers at the nursery and school, and have a strong faith. Even when the circumstances were very different, and the school which was originally on the slum was bulldozed, they didn’t lose sight of what they wanted to achieve. The children are making good progress at the nursery and school, and they are within the top three in the area. What an achievement!

The trip made me reflect on my own life and what I take for granted, what I am grateful for(no matter how small), and how I manage my finances and resources. I would like to continue to support the work at the Life Centre School, and to be a part of how Yellow Dot is changing lives. 

Carolyn's reflection for 2016 "Inspiring Potential in Kisumu"

What a wonderful opportunity I had to go back to Kisumu this year to see the difference that has been made. Last year we did lots of shopping to equip the day care nursery for 0-2 year olds but the building hadn't been built yet for us to see it all set up. This year I could see it up and being used with all the equipment we bought in it. The beds and mattresses, the chairs, the toys and everything else we bought were there. The children were in the day care nursery and having a great time playing with the toys. They have named the day care YD1 and are all very proud to call it Yellow Dot Nursery.
It was great to spend more time in the nursery classrooms this year doing the activities with the children that we had taken over. All the children were very keen to join in with everything we did with them even the teachers were very enthusiastic to learn and join in. You could see the excitement in the children every time we arrived at the school which made me feel very overwhelmed at what I was doing and very proud of what we as Yellow Dot are doing for them.
Seeing the difference in a year I am confident in saying that Yellow Dot being involved is definitely making a difference to the children's lives. Alice and James, the teachers, the parents and the children are all soo appreciative and grateful for what we do and they can't thank us enough everyday. In church they all prayed for us which I must admit made me cry this year as i found it very emotional.
When the school on the slum was bulldozed last year by the government they didn't let this stop them. If anything it made them stronger and more determined. They rebuilt the primary school on the nursery school site and carried on. Even with the set back the school still ranked in the top 3 for their grades in their region and only 1 child didn't get the grades to go to High School. This is a brilliant achievement for the school.
I feel soo privileged to have been a part of this the past 2 years and will continue to support Yellow Dot in this very worth while cause that is now so dear to my heart.

Presentation day 2016

The school term ended yesterday so they had a presentation day at the school today. We arrived at the school at about 10.30 this morning and sorted out some prizes from the collections we had take over. Prizes were awarded for the top 3 pupils in each class. There are 11 classes in the school altogether so we had to organise 33 prizes.
We then went into the large classroom for the presentation to begin. All the children and a lot of parents were in there waiting. First all the teachers stood and and introduced themselves then the microphone was passed around to all the parents to introduce themselves and say the name of their teacher and what class they are in. We were all introduced to the parents. Next we were given some entertainment where the children danced for us. They had made use of the face paints we brought over by painting yellow dots all over their bodies. They also pulled us up to dance with them.
After the entertainment they started speeches. All the teachers, the head teacher, the administrator (Alice), the manager (James) and Paul made speeches. The teachers mainly talking about making sure they send their children to school in the correct uniform and supply their children with books, pens and toilet paper. Also they explained about the importance of paying their school fees and on time.
It was then time to do the presentations. The top 3 children in each class were called up and we presented them with their prizes. Number 1 was given a Yellow Dot bag, a toothbrush and toothpaste, a pencil with rubber, a pencil sharpeners and some colouring pencils. Number 2 got toothbrush and toothpaste, pencil with rubber and a pencil sharpener and number 3 got a note book, pencil with rubber and pencil sharpener.
After the presentation we took lots of photos of us with the nursery children outside the day care nursery and handed balloon out to the children. They were really excited about these right from the small children to the oldest ones.
We then came back to the hotel at about 3.30 to prepare for our long journey home.

Shop shop shop

After spending time in the nursery and doing an audit on what they have and what they need we went shopping today. All the toys we bought for the nursery last year are still being used every day and the children love them so we thought it would be a good idea to get some more, especially as there are only 7 children in day care at the moment and they can take 20. In the garden the boys love to play football but they only have a make shift ball made up of lots of plastic bags. When we checked on the sewing machines they are all still there and being used but the one they need most which has an overlock they have to rent at 6000shillings a month. The sewing machines are necessary to make the school uniforms. If we bought the sewing machine they needed they would save this money every month and they would be able to sell one of the other machines.
Our first shop was into town for the sewing machine. We were able to by one for 32000 shillings. We stopped off at Kens coffee shop in the town afterwards for a quick drink before we carried on.
We then went to Mega City supermarket and bought some more toys for the day care. We bought:-

Mega blocks
2 Inset puzzles
Phonics puzzle
2 puzzles with domestic animals and emergency vehicles
Soft balls that rattle
Items for the treasure basket

We also bought a football for them to play with in the garden.
After a short break back at the hotel we went to the Massai market. Here we bought more items to take back to our nurseries. We tried to buy items that were Froebel. All of the things sold on the market are hand made by the stall holder. They are sat on their stalls making the items. We did barter with them for the items we bought which is very hard knowing the hours of work that must go into making the items.
Tomorrow is the last day of school for the children, they have a two week break. To celebrate the end of term exams that the whole school have been taking they have a presentation morning. All the children and their parents are invited to attend and then awards are given to the highest scoring pupils plus a veriatey of other awards. We are all looking forward to attending as this seems a great way to end our trip.