Glastonbury Festival - School of hard knocks

School of hard knocks

03 Dec 2003

In the final part of our exclusive series, TINA ROWE investigates how Oxfam is offering Kenyan youngsters a helping hand into the classroom. Pictures: STEVE ROBERTS.

Imagine you are a child walking up to 12 miles to get water for your family before you start school in the morning.

Imagine you are a woman with a difficult pregnancy having to walk down a mountain to reach a maternity hospital.

Imagine you are a cattle farmer whose herd has been totally wiped out by disease.

Imagine the difference when someone offers a helping hand.

Oxfam’s partnership with Kenyan communities is making a difference to thousands of lives, as Glastonbury Festival founder and major Oxfam supporter Michael Eavis found on a fact-finding tour of the charity’s Kenyan projects.

There is a thirst for education in Kenya and the new government is committed to free primary education for all. But there are still obstacles for many children. Vast areas of the country face problems in finding a convenient source of drinking water.

Student Irene Lotuk and her friends were walking up to 12 miles to bring home water – and missing college as a result.

But with support from Oxfam, Irene’s college, Chepareria Youth Polytechnic, in western Kenya has built a water tank on its campus which stores 38,000 litres of rainwater, channelled from roofs.

Community leaders were so delighted by its success that they invited Mr Eavis to declare the tank officially open.

He and Irene turned the tap and cupped the precious liquid in their hands, careful not to allow toomuch to drain away.

Teacher Regina Masibo told Mr Eavis: “We go eight months without rain in this region. Students had been spending a lot of time looking for water and so they had not been attending classes. Now students are able to come to classes on time.”

Irene, 16, said: “I used to walk six kilometres to find water and there was an extra risk for me and my friends in going so far because we were girls. We used to go in groups to make sure we were safe.

“It would mean we were late for class but now we can just get up and come to school, it’s much better.”

A few kilometres away, Oxfam has helped hundreds of villagers get easier access to water with a cheap and simple sand dam on the river Samor. It has raised the water table of the dry riverbed by 17 feet so now it lies just a foot below the surface.

David Macharia said villagers could now bring their cattle to drink at water holes at the dam, leave their own containers to fill with clean drinking water at other holes and go home to get on with other work. It is a simple solution costing £2,000.

In Turkana in northern Kenya, Oxfam is working with the community to make sure children of nomadic goat-herders get the best chance of education.

Kenya has a massive external debt and spends as much on servicing it as it does on its health care. The government cannot afford to provide the free boarding facilities that remote rural schools need.

At Kalobey primary education centre, Oxfam has provided money for a boys’ dormitory.

Teacher Joseph Edukon said: “We had a problem with regular attendance but now things are better. We have 311 pupils and performed well in the national examinations. Now we want to do the same for the girls. It used to be the case that only about half the number of girls came to school compared with boys, but this year has improved with 67 girls to about 250 boys.

“We have five girls from far away and they are living in the village but we want to be able to provide a proper dormitory here.”

The staff at Ortum Mission Hospital, high in the hills of western Kenya, are doing wonderful work to cut the death rate among mothers and babies in this remote region.

The hospital serves a population of 80,000 in scattered villages and staff cannot hope to keep a close eye on all expectant mums. Instead, with Oxfam’s help it is training traditional birth attendants to deal with mothers at home and, crucially, to spot early signs of complications which can be referred to the hospital.

Already, 64 attendants have been trained and when Michael Eavis visited, another 12 were well on their way to gaining their certificates.

The hospital, run by the Catholic order of the Holy Rosary, makes do with the most basic equipment. The wooden incubator, where Mr Eavis saw two tiny premature twin girls, is heated by solar power. Electricity is only available to the community between 6pm and 10pm.

Sister Ruth said a serious outbreak of malaria could lead to more than 60 children sharing 22 beds. Deputy matron Ouma Margaret talked passionately of the dangers of female circumcision, still practised in Kenya. It leaves scars which can make a natural birth difficult if not impossible.

The hospital’s new pre-natal house has made a huge difference. Mothers likely to have problems can stay for weeks before the birth. Mr Eavis, now preparing for Glastonbury 2004, was impressed by what he had seen. He said: “It shows that working together across boundaries and nations works. In the end it’s the only way.”

Reprinted with kind permission from the Western Daily Press. Words by Tina Rowe, and pictures by Steve Roberts.

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