Rotarians Bet on Mentorship to Boost Mlolongo School’s Performance

By Barrack Odero 

Education is the most widely acknowledged equalizer in today’s world. To enhance the chances of a child’s success in education essentially gives that child the opportunity to transform their lives in future.

It was against this backdrop that the Rotary Club of Syokimau visited Mlolongo Primary School in the outskirts of Nairobi. This school has been the club’s flagship project over the past few years. The club has been involved in different aspects including tree planting, water and sanitation. It was now time to get into the classrooms.

A fact-finding mission by the club observed several pupils sitting on the concrete floor in the lower primary classes. In some cases, pupils were seated on potholed, uneven floors. We also observed deformities in a few children because of extended sitting hours on the floor all day long, Mondays to Fridays, throughout the term.

It was time to act and so the Adopt a Desk initiative was born. The club moved swiftly to start fundraising, initially among club members, then to friends and partners and eventually through seeking a District grant. It wasn’t long before the needle started moving. We delivered the first batch of 50 desks. With each desk sitting three children,this meant that we impacted 150 children in phase one of the project.

Desks were adopted in good numbers; and in many cases, individuals came together to adopt a desk. This inspired us more. With the impact now well familiar, we got into overdrive and in the following couple of months delivered phases two and three; in total 285 desks impacting 855 children across the school.

Partners of the Adopt-a-desk initiative include Petrocity Enterprises Ltd, Gallagher Electric Fencing, Jabavu Village Ltd, Autoport Freight Terminal Ltd as well as our own District for coming through with a grant that enabled us to have 100 desks in this transformational initiative.