Shammah Children Centre Kangundo

Who are we?

Shammah children centre is a school located near Kangundo market Kangundo location, Kangundo district, Machakos county. It was implemented with the aim of poverty eradication, illiteracy eradication within its environments where there are many school dropouts who have indulged themselves in drugs and commercial sex. Most of the children in the area are not taken to school because their parents don’t understand the importance of basic education. Shammah was implemented to cater for such young children whose parents are illiterate and give basic education to eradicate poverty, illiteracy, and equip them with skills which will enable them to be independent in future and to earn a living for themselves. The school also organises awareness campaigns on drug abuse and HIV/ AIDS by inviting health workers during parents day to talk to them on dangers of drugs and the killer disease which is threatening most of the families due to the high death rate in the area of operation. At the moment the school is taking care of one hundred children between the age of three to eight years feeding and educating them at the same time, the school has four voluntary workers who take care of the children and work as a team.

Our vision

To educate, feed, and eradicate poverty , and eliminate drug consumption in Kalimani village, Kangundo location

Background

The founder, Florence Mwikali Mweu , had been a nursery school teacher for twenty six years, in a nearby school, where the school was charging a lot of money so the less fortunate could not afford the fees till 2008. Shammah started with only four children. Majority were grandparents bringing their grandchildren whose parents had died of HIV/AIDS. Before the first month ended, more than thirty children, mostly orphaned, had reported. Now a big problem arose, no where to keep the big number of children coming to school, for Florence had rented a very small room, the children were hungry and malnourished. She was taken by a friend to a lady who had a rental shop, negotiated rent and when she agreed, Florence transferred the kids to the new premises, this time a bigger room. Went to the area Chief to get assistance, but said he had supplied all the relief food to government schools so he could not assist her. Florence did not despair, went to a wholesaler , explained the problem, given ten kilograms of maize meal to make porridge for the children. She continued looking for food to feed the children from well wishers. The school is growing and it is currently taking care of two hundred and fourty children.

New Project in collaboration with Wilde Ganzen(approved 05-05-2020)

Education- A Future for all

Shammah started in 2011 searching for funds and approaching people and different organizations to help us to come out of the bad accommodation we rented. That is when we contacted FAPADAG, our Dutch partner who together with the Shammah board did fund raising and bought a piece of land which we have already started to develop aspiring to move the entire school activities to the new place .

We bought land and we are now doing fund raising here and there to be able to build a good building conducive for effective learning.

The situation worsened 2019 when the toilets sunk two weeks before school closing due to too much rain and the school was forced to be closed before the actual official closing date.

Project Aims

• Provide a permanent and conducive environment for effective learning.
• Provision of quality education to the learners .
• Register with the ministry of education and acquire an examination centre and get support from the ministry .
• Provide proper sanitation to the learners .
• Provide life skills leading to job creation and job opportunities to children and adults.