The reason this project is badly needed is that the very poor community of Namboani has lost access to affordable secondary education for its girls subsequent upon the local school becoming boys only. Many bright girls will be denied the opportunities only available to graduates froms econdary school. We are informed that the nearest secondary to which the girls might gain access on a daily basis is a 14km walk away - far too far to be practical and incredibly unsafe for teenage girlsl The parents are, with the help of the local MP, in the process of acquiring some land. They are prepared to make bricks, fell trees for wood and provide labour. They do not have sufficient money for cement, window and door frames, roofing materials, paint and water harvesting equipment (guttering and tanks). Each double classroom, or structure of similar size, would require a grant of around £5,000 from a benefactor. The parents have had plans drawn up for a two form entry secondary school. With land, with bricks, with wood, with some labour all as inputs the parents still need around £160,000 to complete the buildings. The goal is a government registered secondary school for the local girls, initially as a day school but later with some boarding facilities so that girls from surrounding villages can join the school. The government will register the school, pay for staff and provide funds for the school to run once the parents hold the title to the land they have acquired, once a start has been made on building some of the classrooms and once more than 30/40 pupils have been enrolled. capital funding for buildings will probably not be available even after registration. That will be down to the parents who must find a benefactor. The current situation - apart from land registration which is currently proceeding and expecting to be completed in a couple of months - is that over 50 pupils have been enrolled and four teachers employed on very low-cost contracts by the parents. For accommodation they are using the nursery buildings of a nearby primary school and the operation is being run with the headteacher of that school having general oversight. The Kimilili Trust is providing furniture and books and has promised a £5,000 contribution towards the first double classroom. The area is 70% Christian and half of those are Roman Catholics. Virtually every school has a sponsor which is normally a church or similar organisation. The sponsor has a seat on the governing body and provides from external sources funding for pastoral care. The sponsor has no role in appointing staff - which is in the hands of the Teachers' Service Commission in Nairobi as teachers are government employees, no role in the admission of pupils and no role in the curriculum. The sponsor does provide additional oversight of the whole operation of the school and has a monitoring role to ensure financial probity. Namboani Girls' Secondary School has already secured the sponsorship of the Roman Catholic Church the local representaive of which is Fr Peter Makokha who is also heavily involved in the development of the town of Kimilili. The first phase of the school will be four classrooms, a library, a laboratory and an administrative block. The estimated total cost for this phase is £50,000. Phase 1(a) is for the classrooms. Phase 1(b) is for the library, the laboratory and the administrative block. The parents are almost all subsistence farmers – some not even that – and have little money. However as mentioned above they have enthusiasm in great quantity, the ability to make and fire bricks, to fell trees for timber and they are willing to help with their labour. Their contribution will amount to approximately 35% of the total leaving outside sources with the task of raising something around £32,500. Total Parental From The Kimilili Trust Cost Contribution Phase 1(a) 4 classrooms £16,000 £6,000 £10,000 Phase 1(b) Library, Laboratory, Admin. Block £34,000 £11,500 £22,500 Phase 2 4 classrooms, £110,000 £38,500 £71,500 kitchens, Laboratory, Art/Craft area Dormitory Addit.admin The community has been through this process three times already in partnership with ourselves. As a consequence two double classrooms and a nursery block have been built at the local primary school. The community has a good track record and has shown that it can manage a project of this size. The overall management would be in the hands of the headteacher of the primary school, that school’s management committee (Chairman Mr John Wanyonyi), and the parents of the embryo secondary school. The whole would be overseen by Fr Peter Makokha, Parish Priest of the Catholic Church of St Leo the Great in Kimilili. He represents the Catholic Bishop in this enterprise and also sits on the town’s Education Committee and on its Development Committee. Fr Peter has managed several projects in Kimilili for us already and we know and value his honesty and his readiness to communicate both good and bad news objectively. Whilst the school will have the Catholic Church as its sponsor it will be open to the whole community, without discrimination, to those of all faiths and none and when the school is registered and teachers appointed by the government these, too, will be appointed on merit without regard to faith. The maintenance of the building and the continuing development of the school would be in the hands of the new school’s governing body which would be formed as soon as the government registers it. For these purposes the Governors would receive an annual grant from the government. As noted above there are currently 53 students in the yet-to-be-established secondary school working in the nursery school buildings on the primary school site. The parents are currently meeting the costs of the four teachers employed to teach them and they are also meeting the small daily running costs. Funds that The Kimilili Trust has allocated are being transferred electronically through the banking system to Fr Peter’s church account – in which account they become subject to diocesan audit – and thence to the school when they become subject to the oversight of the District Educational Office. All disbursements are made on two signatures and everything is kept as transparent as possible. In addition trustees of The Kimilili Trust will personally monitor and evaluate the project on regular visits which will be undertaken at their own expense every eighteen months. Thus the whole project will be closely monitored and our confidence level in the integrity of the system is at a high level. The local MP has already shown himself very involved and supportive. The project will also be designed to help the community. We are told that currently adult literacy is a problem in this area with about 70% of adults unable to read and write. Discussions with the local community have shown that the local people are keen that the school facilities are used by the community as an adult literacy centre and library.