On 12th November 2016, the FMA organized an event to help improve the learning environment at the Dr. Livingstone Primary School in Bahati Area Eastlands, Nairobi. On this day, parents, teachers and students of the school together with staff members of FMA member firms gathered to impact positively the lives of the school children to put the finishing touches on the refurbishments the FMA funded prior to the gathering. The FMA funded and helped to coordinate the repairs of two dilapidated classrooms by replacing the roof, flooring, lighting and windows as well as painting both the interior and exterior walls.
The school has a population of about 1,000 children (as of November 2016) drawn from Kiambiyu, City Cotton, Kosovo, Motherland and Mugunda slum areas of Nairobi. Some of these children only go to school to enable them to have their only meal of the day. They are required to pay Kes.100 per month – which is unaffordable for some. The school was in dire need of infrastructural support to reduce congestion in classrooms.
Standards 1, 2 and 3 classrooms housed 118, 116 and 120 children respectively in one room each (see size of classroom in the picture below). This was a challenge for the one teacher, who due to inadequate space, could hardly move around the classroom during lessons to give more attention to slower learners.
As a result of FMA contributions, the teachers and students are now able to use two additional classrooms to help ease the congestion. As the school still has other classrooms that are inhabitable, the FMA will consider additional support.
The FMA brought two classrooms into habitable condition by purchasing renovation materials, then worked together with the parents and teachers to paint the facilities after the windows, doors and the floors had been completed.
During the event, the industry colleagues also shared career guidance/character building talks and engaged in fun sports with the pupils.
