There where two inhibiting factors that prevented girls being educated away from their home; distance and safety, which led to us campaigning to raise funds to build THE KEFA MUKOOTA MEMORIAL HOSTEL. In 2010 we saw completion of the first stage of our hostel and soon after the first girls were registering their place. The buildings of the dormitory, matron’s house, office and latrines have been completed to a high standard. We have also built a semi-permanent dining room, kitchen and store. The compound is fenced, gated and secure. All of the local people and the parents who have registered their girls are very impressed with the standards we have set. They feel that the girls will be well looked after and safe with every opportunity to study and be well fed and cared for.
 
We soon appointed the staff, the matron, the cooks, askaris (security) and grounds man. We have provided uniforms, utensils, water containers, paraffin lamps (for when there is no power) food, firewood, curtains (for the matron’s home) stationery, clothes lines and so on! Every day there is something else either needing to be purchased or replaced; slashers, hoes, wheelbarrows and more…. The strangest was the arrows and bow for the night askaris! We have also brought the water into the building and wire the dining room so that it can serve as a study room as well.

The latest large building we hope will accommodate around eighty girls is almost complete. The girls will be able to move into a larger dormitory, which will accommodate the growing numbers. Thanks to funding from The Jephcott Trust and the work of an excellent volunteer we now have a shallow well for the use of the girls in our hostel. We have already provided a rainwater harvesting tank at
the hostel to back up the water supply for our girls, which gave us one or two challenges. However, we are now as ‘water independent’ as is possible.
 
Continuous updates take place every year to help improve the sustainability of the buildings and facilities both inside and outside of the hostel. In our kitchen we have just fitted a new eco-stove and the solar lighting has been installed. The new stove reduces the soot and smoke so we can have a much cleaner and healthier environment for the cooks. With no more firewood our new stove cooks, it lights, it irons and it charges phones! Most importantly it saves the cost of normally used fossil fuels.
 
With help from a local man and his digger we have been able to level part of the garden making way for a netball/volley ball court as well as being able to plant eight trees to provide shade for the girls in-between their studies and sports.
 
The hostel has achieved a good local reputation and demand for places is increasing. The staff are virtually unchanged which says much for the management of the hostel over the past years.

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