Report from Humble Hearts

Below you will find a letter from the Director of the Humble Hearts School, sumerizing the 2011 school year. Enjoy!

To Our dearest Sponsors:

I wish to take this time to highlight the 2011 events as I appreciate you all, our work wouldn’t be possible without you our sponsor who have a variety of backgrounds and skills you all bring something different and special to HH. No appreciation is enough for your great kindness and generosity, may the Almighty God richly reward you all.

As you all know our aims are simple and straight from the heart.
To create a safe, loving and nurturing environment for needy children.
To give them a healthy diet and a good education.
To release them back into the community as healthy, educated, and well adjusted adults so they better the lively of their families and the future the Kenyan nation.

HIGHLIGHTS

All of you have helped in ensuring that our aims become a success , in 2011 we came up with the ideas of farming which we implemented successful, with this we now have enough maize in our store to run us four to five months.
We also build a permanent class which we now use as hall during parents meeting and other gatherings
Our furniture has greatly improved at secondary level we have one child per desk.
Not forgetting the addition of new beds and texts books which has boosted the performance in the school over all we can now boost of two children sharing a book unlike when it used to be six to ten children per book.
All work and no play makes Jack and dull boy, yes we have been able to kick dullness out of HH by having an equipped colorful playing ground which the kids love with a passion.
The HH children who graduated from primary class were all able to get a grade above the pass grade this gives us great joy as parents, sponsors and educators, we have surely seen the fruit of our labour.
HH has continued to work hard in reducing the statistic that over 90% of deaf people in developing countries have no access to education, our doors are opened to admit needy deaf children who need an education, we have gone ahead to create smaller classes in which the teacher can have a one on one session with children with multiple needs.
So much has been accomplished in 2011; it’s been exciting times as we continue to pursue an agenda of change that will transform HH to an even better living and learning place.
See, we could not have come this far without your support.

The Future

Entering 2012, our focus has been honed as you all know we will be putting more effort in ensuring that the children are granted of meals each day, we will therefore be running a poultry and green house project in which we believe will generate food and generate income for sustainability.
We look forward to having more children being sponsored, constructing standard classrooms for both secondary and primary constructing more bathrooms for girls and boys and putting up a computer laboratory.
We believe that together we will be able to accomplish this step by step.
We thank you for letting Kari and Ida visit HH in 2011 it was great having them round, for together we were able to do a lot of work and brain storm on the future, we look forward to at least each of our loving sponsors visiting HH and meeting the children that they support.
Thank you for believing in all of us as we look forward to keeping intouch throughout 2012

With lots of love

Beatrice Anunda
Director
For Humble Hearts School and Angel Cottage, Kenya.

Field Trips

Last week my second graders went on a field trip with their classes to learn more about butterflies, various sea creatures, and insects. They sat in a very nice classroom and got to pick up Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches (yuck), hold a tarantula, and try to coax butterflies into landing on their shirts. Most of the kids had been to this facility before, and although they had a great time, this was the third of four field trips this year and none of the kids found it surprising to be there.

Children at Humble Hearts on the other hand, took a field trip into downtown Nairobi. Completely different from the slums in which they live, these children might as well have traveled to a foreign country. Most of the kids had never been to the "City Centre" or had the opportunity to learn about their country's history. They toured the parliament buildings, took boat rides at the Uhuru gardens, visited the bomb blast area by the American Embassy, and had their faces painted. Everyone was exhausted by the end of the day.

Seeing pictures from this has yet again pointed out to me how easy it is to take something as simple as a field trip for granted. Learning it not only a classroom event. Seeing and touching real monuments, memorials, and ecosystems is a huge part of learning that these children generally don't get to experience. But because of a generous Christmas gift from a sponsor, the children of Humble Hearts were able to go visit real objects they had only heard about in books.

Thanks to those who made this memorable trip a reality for these kids. They will be talking about it for many months.

Unrest in Kenya

First let me apologize for not posting in so long. Where does time go anyway?

Many people have emailed me recently about the violence in Kenya. Humble Hearts is very special to many of us. We have watched the children grow and become even more beautiful children than they were when they first came to the school. They are excited about learning and now have hopes and dreams they never dared to have before.

Fortunately, the current violence in Kenya won't put an end to those dreams. The Kenyan Government determines the country's school schedule. The beginning of the school year is January of each year and the children attend school on a 3 months in school, one month out of school pattern. School was scheduled to start on Jan. 7 this year. However, because of the violence, the opening of schools was delayed until Jan. 14. As far as I know, the school opened today without any problems.

There were certainly children and school staff who went to the country-side with their families during the holidays. Many of them were unable to return to Nairobi when planned because of roadblocks and violence. We are hopeful that all of the children and teachers will be able to return to school soon, and will have updated information about who has made it back to school and who hasn't by the end of the week.

We are thrilled to be moving forward with the lunch program, which was expanded this year to feed each and every child lunch at the school. For many, this is the first time in their lives they have been able to know without a doubt that they would eat each day. It's not possible to express the relief these children will feel.

Although Kenya is in turmoil right now, the children of Humble Hearts will be coming to school this week with the security of food, people who care about them, a safe place to live for those at Angel Cottage, and a strong hope for the future. In a city full of chaos, that's a comfort these children are not always privileged to feel.

Kari Fillmore