By Jud Reis, Vice Chair KCEF Board
I’ve just returned from my third trip in the last two years to visit the schools we support in Nairobi. I’ve become almost accustomed to the significant day to day challenges there, but every now and then an extraordinary event presents an extraordinary challenge.
As many of you know, our schools serve some of the poorest families in all of Africa. Parents who are primarily day laborers struggle to pay even modest school fees. And, outside of the safety of school walls, many dangers lurk for young learners. These are daily realities.
Beyond the daily challenges that face all seven of our schools, Gospel Victory Academy faced an existential threat earlier this year. In April, torrential rains flooded Nairobi for days. Gospel Victory Academy, built on an old riverbed in the Mathare slum, had never flooded. But, on April 25th, a massive wall of water destroyed part of the school and left a huge pile of mud, trash and human waste in the first floor of the building. Most of the school’s desks, computers, books and cooking equipment were washed away. Fortunately, the school was on break at the time. But founder and director Pastor Jennipher and her husband had to be rescued by ladder from the second floor of their heavily damaged home. You can see the horrible results of the flooding in the photos here.
Gospel Victory Academy is in an “informal settlement” under Kenyan law. While the residents recognize the right to own their homes and businesses, the government does not. After the flooding, the government decided that for safety’s sake all buildings in that old riverbed in Mathare had to be torn down. In a matter of days, all the years of hard work by the Gospel Victory team were reduced to rubble and carted away. With the start of the next term looming, the situation seemed hopeless.
That is when Jane Mwikali, KCEF’s country director, sprang into action. Working with the school’s director, Jane found a temporary space for the next term in a local church building. Remarkably, the school held on to all its teachers and all but a handful of students in the midst of its move. While it was very kind of a local pastor to let Gospel Victory use the space, the school’s 11 classes were separated only by plywood barriers along a narrow hall, making for a very difficult environment for teachers and learners. Jane, who continued to work with local leaders in searching out a better long term option for Gospel Victory, identified a building for rent that had the necessary number of rooms, space for a kitchen to prepare the kids’ meals and even a nearby field for recreation and sports. After Jane helped negotiate a long term lease, the teachers and staff worked tirelessly over the school break to renovate the space into classrooms in time for the final term of the year.
On our visit in September, we were greeted by an enthusiastic group of teachers and students who are very pleased to be in their new location. They are already receiving inquiries from local parents about sending their children to Gospel Victory. Now, after an incredibly difficult six months, the school can look forward to improving and growing.
KCEF is not normally in the business of disaster relief, but we have learned over the years to be flexible in our work with schools facing a myriad of challenges. Without your prayers and generous donations, KCEF would not have been able to help sustain the good folks at Gospel Victory Academy.
During our visit, the school’s director made it very clear that without KCEF’s support the school would have gone under, leaving its teachers and students facing very uncertain futures in the slum of Mathare. Thanks to you, Gospel Victory has moved from devastation to rebirth—a powerful illustration of how your help means more to these schools and their communities than you can imagine!