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.
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