DOES TESTIMONY FAITH
HOMES NEED A SCHOOL...?
What is the point of it? How did it come about? Is it still necessary? After all there are dozens of Govern-ment School in Eldoret area..!
TO BEGIN WITH, in January, 1981,
we had commenced a small nursery school in the compound of Testimony House. It began because we could find no nursery or pre-primary places for our under sixes. There WERE schools but the children were just there to play whilst a superviser read or knitted!!! In our opinion this was a waste of time and money, since no child could enter Primary School Grade 1 without having passed a test in Reading, Writing and Arithmetic. OUR little Nursery School was soon inundated with requests from local parents to take in their children! The result of this was that we began to consider starting our own Primary as well. At least it was part of the reason for doing so. But one day in 1983 I was asked by the Headmaster of a primary school some of our boys were then attending, to go to his Office. I went immediately, and settling myself into one of his office chairs, I asked what the promblem was. He look most upset. He began "It is a very heavy matter Mr. Green, and I need you help and co-operation in order to solve it! Your boys, Daniel and Joseph have been found smoking ciaargettes in the school field. I shall have to suspend them from classes, with your permission of course!"
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| Where we began Standard 1 - 3 and where the present Nursery School is. |
He told me that the boys should return their books to school the following morning prior to their official suspension, which he proposed to announce before the assembled school - with me present.
The next morning we were there, the three of us, for the morning Assembly. The two boys were grabbed roughly and marched to the front, where they were forced to lay down on the tarmac in front of the 700 or so students and all the staff. They were then given a homily on 'ungrateful orphans' who having no parents, misspent public money. They then received six strokes of the cane - still lying prostrate on the ground.
There were to my certain knowledge others there, quite undelt with, who were smoking Marijuana.
This and other incidents like it now made us feel that OUR children could not expect to be treated the same as other children in a normal school, coming as they did from what was considered to the 'that Orphanage!
We started 1st to 3rd Grade of Primary in January 1985. Anthony Ndungu, now Asst. Director overall, and Principal over the whole school. was one of our first three teachers. Also Mrs. Susan Iraya, and Mr. Titus Mbatiah also were on the team - I stood as Administrative Headmaster from 1985-88.
In 1986, with the help TEAR Fund U.K., we were able to put up a new double storey building of EIGHT classrooms which allowed us to have complete a full Stream of Primary Classes from 1-8. The 8th year being the final Primary Year before entering Secondary. The School now comprises TWO Primary Streams of 8 Classrooms each, and FOUR classes of Secondary School, with the Nursery section still in place as the filter from which the 1st Primary Grade is filled up annually.
From the start it has done well academically and proved itself. BUT it has also an unexpected 'downside' for the ministry of TFH as a whole. Certainly our children are well taught without discrimination of any kind, and in a well ordered environment where discipline is administered fairly and according to the dictate of the Ministry of Education. Nevertheless since its creation the School has somehow obscured the Orphanage, and diminished the public's sympathy for this side of the Work. All outsiders now tend to see IS the School, which of course is more visible, and eyecatching seeming to proclaim the apparent wealth and profitability of Testimony Faith Homes totally. Whereas previously we were often visited by well wishers with gifts of used clothing, food and even cash, since the new School Buildings have gone up, this interest and charity has slowly been removed. It as if people have the feeling that the School now supports and finances the Children's Homes. In FACT the School DOES allow for each orphan in our four Homes to attend the school FREE of charge. This IS a very big fasility for us. BUT it does not contribute to the general cost of running the four Homes in any way, THUS, in this sense we are the poorer, because of the School tends to take away from the public eye our dependance upon their charity, by the Mercy of God. But we are not poor academically.
We still see the School as necessary to us, and to the children we care for. It ensures the highest possible educational standard and foundation, and thus the best possible future for our children who have no other hope if they do not make educationally. With a rising 60% unemployment in Kenya jobs are at a premium - and finding employment has become the biggest challenge to us. We must help our children all we can to ensure they will in fact be able to find a job and LEAVE us safely into the wide world.
BUT it is harder and harder to maintain what we began with - a strictly disciplined and ordered student body. In 1987 we did not have to contend with immoral temptations, alcoholism or drugs. Neither did we have a problem with obtaining the respect and good behaviour expected from a minor. But since then almost explicit 'sex education', the removal of corporal punishment in the most harmless proportions, the lack of respect for elders, and the influx of drug and alcohol peddlars and consumers has increased alarmingly. So alarmingly that the situation is no longer the same. Society is changing, and the NEW standards of behaviour both morally and socially are causing endless problems. BUT Testimony School continues to do its best to ensure sound morals, a studious mind, and a sound respect for one another. Yesterday in the Kenya Daily Nation it was again reported that more and more students are taking hard drugs. The Lobbyist Secretary (Amina Abdalla) wrote -
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| School Round a bout. |
This and other incidents like it now made us feel that OUR children could not expect to be treated the same as other children in a normal school, coming as they did from what was considered to the 'that Orphanage!
We started 1st to 3rd Grade of Primary in January 1985. Anthony Ndungu, now Asst. Director overall, and Principal over the whole school. was one of our first three teachers. Also Mrs. Susan Iraya, and Mr. Titus Mbatiah also were on the team - I stood as Administrative Headmaster from 1985-88.
In 1986, with the help TEAR Fund U.K., we were able to put up a new double storey building of EIGHT classrooms which allowed us to have complete a full Stream of Primary Classes from 1-8. The 8th year being the final Primary Year before entering Secondary. The School now comprises TWO Primary Streams of 8 Classrooms each, and FOUR classes of Secondary School, with the Nursery section still in place as the filter from which the 1st Primary Grade is filled up annually.
 |
| 1st double storey Tuition Block |
From the start it has done well academically and proved itself. BUT it has also an unexpected 'downside' for the ministry of TFH as a whole. Certainly our children are well taught without discrimination of any kind, and in a well ordered environment where discipline is administered fairly and according to the dictate of the Ministry of Education. Nevertheless since its creation the School has somehow obscured the Orphanage, and diminished the public's sympathy for this side of the Work. All outsiders now tend to see IS the School, which of course is more visible, and eyecatching seeming to proclaim the apparent wealth and profitability of Testimony Faith Homes totally. Whereas previously we were often visited by well wishers with gifts of used clothing, food and even cash, since the new School Buildings have gone up, this interest and charity has slowly been removed. It as if people have the feeling that the School now supports and finances the Children's Homes. In FACT the School DOES allow for each orphan in our four Homes to attend the school FREE of charge. This IS a very big fasility for us. BUT it does not contribute to the general cost of running the four Homes in any way, THUS, in this sense we are the poorer, because of the School tends to take away from the public eye our dependance upon their charity, by the Mercy of God. But we are not poor academically.
 |
| Primary School Class |
BUT it is harder and harder to maintain what we began with - a strictly disciplined and ordered student body. In 1987 we did not have to contend with immoral temptations, alcoholism or drugs. Neither did we have a problem with obtaining the respect and good behaviour expected from a minor. But since then almost explicit 'sex education', the removal of corporal punishment in the most harmless proportions, the lack of respect for elders, and the influx of drug and alcohol peddlars and consumers has increased alarmingly. So alarmingly that the situation is no longer the same. Society is changing, and the NEW standards of behaviour both morally and socially are causing endless problems. BUT Testimony School continues to do its best to ensure sound morals, a studious mind, and a sound respect for one another. Yesterday in the Kenya Daily Nation it was again reported that more and more students are taking hard drugs. The Lobbyist Secretary (Amina Abdalla) wrote -
We cannot just sit back and watch
our children being destroyed
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| Secondary study group |
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| School Scout Troup |
ACTION is needed. We need to make up for lost time, and per-haps restore what has been deceiptfuly taken away from us both as teachers and parents.
TESTIMONY SCHOOL IS STILL NEEDED.......still viable.
TODAY we have, including all the children in the four Children's Home, more than 750 children in school daily. Nearly 200 are also Boarding in what is currently rented property. Truly God inspired us to build the School and has done all that has been needed to make it prosper.
DARYL together with his assistant and School Principal Anthony Ndungu need your prayers as they deal with daily needs of the school in all wisdom and understanding. The 43rd Anniversary of the Founding of Testimony Faith Homes combined with the 31 School Parents and Prize Giving Day will take place on Saturday 28th July. May it be a Glorious Day that will Glorify our Father in Heaven.
Ever with our love and prayers for YOU
John and Esther
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