Scottish Friends donate to Quaker-built Kenyan school
'I have now managed to build a complete school with all the required infrastructure for more than 140 children. It has felt like a Quaker miracle.’
North Scotland Area Meeting has donated £500 towards a Quaker-built school on a Kenyan island.
David Bale, from St Neots Meeting, told the Friend that the donation to Friends School Mfangano means they now have enough money to purchase land to use as a sports field and international camp. The adjacent site will provide ‘a platform for younger Quakers and their international allies to visit Mfangano as volunteers’, he said.
The school for orphans was developed in 2018, when David Bale and his wife Christine Bale bought some land with access to fresh water situated on the coast. The goal was to replace school buildings that had been swept away in another location, or damaged beyond repair by a tropical tornado in 2017. The couple had been supporting the previous school for some years.
David said the rebuilt school came into existence partly inspired by the 2018 Salter Lecture. ‘A neighbour asked if I had ever thought of building a whole school. As he is a retired structural engineer, he agreed to go out to Kenya on my behalf to survey the land we had purchased. The unlikely result of this is that I have now managed to build a complete school with all the required infrastructure for more than 140 children. It has felt like a Quaker miracle.’
Kenyan Friend Rose Murunga travelled last month to Mfangano Island, where the school is based, followed by Paul Keeley of Sustainable Global Gardens.
David said: ‘Friends School Mfangano wishes to prioritise discussion about the use of permaculture in relation to their kitchen gardening and would also be keen to get Quakers involved in a re-launch of the stalled plans to re-forest the island. Paul’s brief will be to help us evaluate what resources there already are on the island.’
David Bale is organising an online ‘tour of ministry’ to share the story of the school’s beginnings and the ‘Quaker miracles’ that led to its creation. He hopes to take it to worldwide Quaker Meetings.
