Osupuko Primary
We had another wonderful visit at Osupuko Primary school. One of our tasks was to meet with 9 new sponsored children.
Tuko Pamoja has a great relationship with Osupuko. We have been there many times. This isn’t a school that gets much attention due to being remote. It’s out in the bush, as Virginia put it. The roads to get there are beyond lunar. The school has many needs, due to lack of funding, being largely ignored by the government for years, and the remoteness.
Below is a shot of the school, while class is in session. At the far end, you can see construction going on. Two classrooms are being built next to each other, one by the national government and one by the county government. There is no coordination between the two. The county one is for pre-primary students. The national one is for 9th graders.
Virginia and I were introduced to the school several years ago after teaching a self-defense class there. We were asked to go there by girls at the Cara Girls Rescue Center, where we taught. They have to walk 5 km each way through the bush to get to school. They were concerned their classmates had to walk the same paths and hadn’t gotten the same training.
In the first class at Osupuko, we had a visibly pregnant 13-year-old girl. After the class, we asked the head teacher about it. Virginia asked if it was family or rape, the most common sources. The head teacher said neither. The girl had been selling herself for food money. I asked how much she would get for a “date”: 50 KSh, or about 40 cents. What will happen to her now? She will probably be married off to an older Maasai man as a second or third wife. What will happen to the baby? No one could answer that.
We also asked if the school had any food for the kids. They didn’t, and couldn’t remember the last time they had any.
As soon as we got back in the van, I said to Virginia, “We are coming back and we’re bringing food.” No self-defense classes can solve that girl’s main problem: hunger. Putting food in her belly will.
Once we formed Tuko Pamoja, the first project we did was to start a porridge program at Osupuko.
We spoke to the head teacher on this visit—a different person than the one we first met. The school now gets lunch provided by a large multinational nonprofit working with the government, and porridge provided by us, starting in June 2024.
Now that the school provides two meals a day, parents in the area are moving their kids to Osupuko. Their enrollment went up 10% this school year—the first year they’ve had two meals a day.
In addition, the pregnancy rate in the school has dropped since they have the food. The head teacher didn’t have statistics on this, but said it was a significant drop.
Above, old and new. The outhouses are the teachers’ (and for guests, like us) restrooms. These are in active use. In the background, one of the Ngong Hills, with many wind turbines.
I mentioned the paths the kids walk to get to and from school. The view below is through the head teacher’s window. This is a rough, remote, challenging path some of the kids must walk, going over the ridge. The kids visible on the path are young. They are released from school at noon. Other kids walk left to right, in front, on a better road.
Below, a closer view of some of the kids going over the summit. Getting to and from this school is no easy task. And they are now up to 550 enrollment.
The kids in the school are almost all Maasai. Their first language is Maa, their “mother tongue.” Many of the older generations don’t speak anything else. The school teaches Kiswahili and English. It is sometimes hard to get the kids to communicate in anything other than Maa, although they are theoretically required to speak Swahili at school.
On previous trips we have visited all the classrooms. Except one. I’ve never visited the Special Needs room. Below are Anne, Timothy, Leia, and David, with their teacher.
Most schools do not have special needs capabilities. Osupuko is one of the rare ones in the area. They have 8 enrolled learners. Only four were in attendance. They are mostly learning basic life skills, in order to help them have productive lives.
We were told David, on the far right, is over 35 years old. Anne, far left, has a child.
One lofty dream the teacher has is to get two treadle sewing machines for the learners to practice, hoping to learn marketable skills. That dream is quickly becoming a reality. Claudia’s mother, Marilyn, immediately donated money for the first sewing machine. It is now in the back of Thomas’s truck, so we can deliver it on Wednesday.
Time for porridge! I took tour photographer detail, so I could look for the two kids we had previously sponsored. Claudia, Sean, and Virginia are in the window serving.
I was surrounded by kids the entire time, hoping not to get drenched in porridge by the young man in the very first picture in this post. Shaleen found me quickly and we chatted for a while.
Below the porridge, Virginia and Shaleen.
Below, Virginia is with Francis. We have two young men named Francis in the program. This Francis, and Shaleen, are sponsored by Nathan.
We also met a few of the kids’ mothers at the school to pick up some beadwork from them to sell. Below, I’m with Joyce, who is Francis’s mother.
Below, we met Gabriel’s and Lenny’s mother, Sheila. We hadn’t met her the prior trip, as they were staying with their grandmother. Lenny and Gabriel are sponsored by Tracy and her family. Her beadwork is incredible. Very creative.
After school we went to Agnes’s home. She is the mother of Shaleen, Stephen (sponsored by Peter), and Abigael (Nicole and Ben). I told some of her story in a post a few days ago. Here, she is making jewelry to sell.
Above is their home. Three rooms, plus an outside kitchen. Once a young man is circumcised, he can’t stay in the same home with women anymore. So they are required to sleep elsewhere. Families will often put beds in the kitchen to accommodate this.
On our last trip, we got some jewelry from Agnes to sell. The proceeds were a big wad of money, by her standards. She used some of it to buy a mother goat and baby. I love to hear that she is using the money to provide a better future for the family.
