The photograph is of a well equipped classroom in one of the best government schools in northern Kenya. Every time I visit such a school I always wonder why it is that everybody accepts such ridiculously low standards for education here. Or indeed in most countries across the African continent. The prevailing ideology of development …
Well not quite, not entirely unreachable but not far from it. I don’t know why but for months now we have been unable to get a mobile signal at our home base, and mobile is also how we get internet. Olng’arua School doesn’t have mobile coverage either, nor do most of the other places we …
Sarah and Fergus Brown have donated football shirts to help our program of supporting youth football teams in Isiolo County. Football is a useful tool in conflict resolution and reduction. A healthy alternative for young men who may otherwise find themselves dragged into conflict. However most teams in northern Kenya play with plastic bag balls …
It is still a struggle to persuade pastoralist communities to send their girls to school, even when schooling is provided for free, as these two end of term photographs from Kipsing Primary School, Isiolo District, graphically show. Countless studies have shown that women who have had at least some education have fewer, healthier and better …
There has been heavy rain over much of northern Kenya for the last three weeks. The land is slowly transforming from desert to pasture. First come the weeds but then the grass takes over. If the rains continue then, in a few more weeks, there will be swathes of white, yellow and blue flowers with …
On Friday Kitonga distributed food to the community near the Olng’arua School. The food was bought with the support of Katrin and Jochen Heeskens and their friends in Germany and elsewhere who had raised money to help with the food crisis. The community themselves decided how the money should be spent, who needed help and …
Last Thursday a young girl arrived at Kipsing Primary School just as it was getting dark. She was alone and she had walked a long way to get here. Her serious expression made her look older, world weary, but her height and skinny build fitted exactly with her age. She was ten years old and …
Today Jonny leaves Cairo to start the African leg of his cycling journey from Edinburgh to Isiolo. He had the opportunity to get to know Cairo while he waited 3 weeks for his Sudanese visa. “I think I must have been ‘profiled’” said Jonny “because I met a Dutch family who received their visa in …
With the global media focusing on the famine in Somalia many people have been asking us what is happening in Kenya so I have put together some of the most common questions and answered them. Q. Do you have drought where you are? A. Yes northern Kenya is suffering from the same long running drought …
This afternoon a large thunderstorm developed over Isiolo and the surrounding area. The land is bone dry from months of drought, the soil is dust and the sudden downpour carries it away depositing it elsewhere. Deep channels are cut a spontaneous rivers appear. People watch as the water washes through their houses, grabbing at possessions …