Volume 1
September 2016
Friends of the Nkoilale Brighter Future Project:
This is the first of what I hope will be a quarterly newsletter on our efforts to help the students and families of Nkoilale. In subsequent newsletters I will concentrate on current activities but in this first issue I will provide some geography and a little history on how this project got started two and on half years ago.
The Brighter Future Project is led by the Lake Chelan Rotary Club supported by the Rotary clubs of Leavenworth, Wenatchee, Cashmere. All of these clubs are located in Washington State in the USA. We are also helped and supported by many of you for which we are most appreciative.
At the present time we are involved in enabling 24 young people (21 girls and 3 boys) to attend Nkoilale Primary School, we have a program to provide village homes with solar lighting – to date we have provided solar light to 24 homes, we have provided new desks, tables and chairs for the school and we have provided six new toilets for use at the school.
As we move forward we will continue to focus supporting the 24 young people as they progress through primary school and will put in place a program to help these young people as they graduate for primary school and go o to attend secondary school. We will also focus on providing solar lighting for more village homes.
There is also a long term goal to build a home so that some of the students can live outside of the schools boarding facilities. The plan is for a home that will be self sustaining and environmental friendly.
Fiscal Responsibility
The Nkoilale Brighter Future Project is a project of the Lake Chelan Rotary Community and International Fund (“The Fund”). The fund is a 501(c) 3 organization and is therefore able to receive Tax Free donations under provisions of US tax law.
“The Fund” has its own Board of Trustees responsible for ensuring the responsible use of the funds entrusted to “The Fund”. There are five Trustees who meet twice each year to manage policy and review the funds expenditures. Each of the Trustees is a member of the Lake Chelan Rotary Club.
The Lake Chelan Rotary Club was charted in 1926 as the 212 Rotary club. There are now in excess of 35,000 Rotary clubs worldwide.
Where is Nkoilale?
Not everyone reading this News Blog has visited Nkoilale in Kenya. Nkoilale is approximately four and a half hours southwest of Nairobi located in Narok County and a very short distance from the Maasai Mara wild life reserve. It has a population of
Solar Lighting
Today we have been able to solar lighting in 51 rural home in and around Nkoilale. The focus has been to provide solar lighting to families who can gain the most benefit and who have the greatest need.
Each lighting system is very expensive by Kenya standards. We are researching ways of reducing the cost so that we can benefit more families for less money. The objective is to reduce the cost by at least 50%. One way of doing this would be to set up a small company in Nkoilale to assemble the solar lighting system. This would potentially provide employment to two or three individuals. The result would be to double the number of homes where solar lighting is installed very quickly. Using this approach, we would be able to have local maintenance and support to keep the systems in use all of the time. The intention would be to purchase all materials in Kenya, from what we have been able to determine this will not be a problem
Scholarships
As of September 2017 we are helping to support 24 students that attend Nkoilale primary school. There are 21 girls and 3 boys. The help provided allows the students to live in residence at the school. In many cases this means they do not have to walk significant distances to get to school and are much more able to stay focused and improve their grades. Boarding at the school costs USD $300 per year per student this includes sufficient funds for school uniforms, personal items, books, school supplies and toiletries.
The money is provided by individual donors who have agreed to support a specific student individuals, and members of some of the Rotary Clubs of North Central Washington. The money is all managed by “The Fund” here in the USA and is distributed to Kosen Safaris (Hillary Kosen) at the beginning of each school term. Receipts must be provided for all funds transferred out of the “The Fund” so that a full and accurate accounting is available.
The intent is to have sufficient funds available to support all of the students throughout there Primary School education. We have stated to accumulate funds to support those students that are able to continue on to Secondary School. Our first student will graduate from the Nkoilale primary school in November 2016.