Kenyan Quakers seek to expand Friends School

The Orphans School on Mfangano Island ‘urgently needs funds for necessary work on its dormitory and classroom provision so that it can become a junior secondary school in the course of 2024'

Local Quakers in Kenya want to build another classroom at Friends School Mfangano (FSM) and reforest their island. The plans are aimed at creating ‘a beacon of hope for our world’, they said.

The Orphans School on Mfangano Island ‘urgently needs funds for necessary work on its dormitory and classroom provision so that it can become a junior secondary school in the course of 2024 and its growth can continue’, said David Bale, of Cambridgeshire Area Meeting, who has supported the school for some time.

‘This school is now over ten years old and already has a great story to tell. Then, two years ago, the school’s co-founders asked how they could “be Quaker”. And from this moment on, their great story has become a great Quaker story too.’

The school began after Lavender and Sam, two young Kenyan teachers, started a health education project across the fishing communities on the shores of Lake Victoria, where there have been exceptionally high rates of HIV/AIDS for over thirty years.

‘So many children had lost their parents, that, as they were campaigning to dispel myths and publicise good information about medical facilities that could offer help, a growing number of very young orphaned children starting hanging around them, wherever they went,’ said David Bale. Lavender and Sam shared their food, as there was no one else who could feed them, and eventually started a small nursery school as the number of children depending on them grew.

‘That is where they were, when my late wife and I first found out about them… sending whatever household savings we could make,’ said David. ‘Lavender and Sam used that money to build a second classroom. By that time, they had sixty-eight children in their care.’

Friends are urged to help Friends School Mfangano in any way they can, whether through regular or one-off donations.

Quaker Kirsten Hills, a BBC-trained photojournalist from Florence Meeting, made a film about the school which can be viewed at https://vimeo.com/575990588, or on the Quakers of Mfangano Island Facebook page.

---

Comments

Donations to support Friends School Mfangano can be sent to the UK bank account of “Friends of Mfangano Island”.  This is a UK account. The details are Lloyds Bank, Huntingdon Branch at 99 High Street, Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire PE29 3DU.
The Sort code is 30-94-47 and the Account Number is 03283385.  Or email David Bale at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) if you have any questions.  Funds in this account are for all the Quaker projects on the island including FSM, the island’s reforestation plan, growth of the Quaker churches and Goshen community supermarket (See Genesis 45:10. where Goshen seen as a safe land of plenty and comfort.  A very appropriate environment for an orphanage school!

By David Bale on 24th January 2024 - 10:40

---

Please login to add a comment