ACTION THIS DAY

PE Just Got Colourful

Action This Day — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 17:11:45 +0000

On return to school for the new year we provided our children with PE uniforms.

To be used for PE and on Sports days (we close every week with a sports competition for the older classes) these uniforms not only give the children a further sense of pride and identity, they also protect their school uniform from damage when engaging in their normal fully committed sports and games.

Now You’re Walking

Action This Day — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 16:15:05 +0000

Hardly any of our students had any closed shoes to wear. Most wore sandals offering questionable protection, some just came to school in bare feet. This causes hygiene problems, especially in the heavy rain season, and one of the most common injuries we treat at school are cut feet, sometimes so bad stitches are required.

Thanks to the generosity of our supporters we have been able to provide shoes to all 144 of our students.

We obtained a discount from a local shoe outlet, Bata, and had all the children sized and shod, resulting in many smiles, a school full of very smart looking students, and hopefully much better protection for their feet.

Thank you Gena Parrott & Ole Magnus Helle

Pen Pals from Glen Waverley Primary School

Action This Day — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 08:42:18 +0000

Our Standard 6 students have been exchanging letters with children from the same grade in the Glen Waverley Primary School in Victoria. On his recent trip to Australia, founder Brian McIver had the privilege of visiting the school and speaking to around 100 students there.

The program was established to improve the English reading and writing skills at our school in Kenya and to promote engagement in our student’s education experience. However, the impact on the students and staff at Glen Waverley has been also been significant, as they learn first-hand about the conditions our children live in. This is an exciting program that we hope will grow and strengthen as our two schools get to know each other more.

Fundraising can be Funny

Action This Day — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 08:22:56 +0000

On his recent trip to Australia, charity founder Brian McIver organised a comedy fundraiser for the school.

The Comic’s Lounge in North Melbourne generously provide charities with tickets to their events, with all proceeds going to the charity. $4700 was raised for the Kookaburra Community School. Thank you to all who helped to sell tickets and all those who attended to support our work in Kenya.

Charity Marathon

Action This Day — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 08:14:00 +0000

Claire Mullan from the UK recently completed a marathon speed walk, that’s 26.2 miles of hard slog (plus all the required training for such an event) and a fitting fundraising endeavour on behalf of children from the country of some of the world’s best runners over that distance.

Claire raised a total of $747.85 for the Kookaburra Community School. Thanks Claire for pushing yourself to the limit in your generous support of our children.

Christopher’s Chocolate Challenge

Action This Day — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 08:11:05 +0000

16 year old Christopher Noble from Adelaide, South Australia, decided he wanted to do something practical to assist the children at the Kookaburra Community School, so he arranged to sell fund raising chocolates at his school.

Christopher raised $273, which is enough to provide school lunches for our 144 students for 3 weeks. Christopher showed great initiative and motivation in organising this by himself and all at the school thank him for his amazing effort.

Clothes donation from Eva & Oli

Action This Day — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 16:39:43 +0000

In August 2011 Eva & Oli, a French/Danish clothes company for children, donated a large number of t-shirts, skirts, shorts and trousers to the children of the Kookaburra Community School.

The clothes was presented to the school by Soren Hannestad, the husband of one of the founders of the company, Jeanette Christiansen.

A big THANK YOU from ACTION THIS DAY and the students at Kookaburra Community School to Eva & Oli for their generous support.

Priority in the distribution of the clothes was given to the children known to have the least.

Laptops for IT training

Action This Day — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 13:04:22 +0000

In November 2011 ACTION THIS DAY will launch a pilot program in IT training at the Kookaburra Community School. The vocational training program is designed to enhance our students’ future employment chances by equipping them with in-demand skills.

Launching the pilot program will require 10 computers, and after the generous contributions from the volunteers and supporters below we are now more than half way there with 6 laptops in total.

A big THANK YOU from the Kookaburra Community School goes to:

St Mary’s Anglican Girls’ School, Western Australia, who donated two second-hand laptops
The Notebook for Teachers Program, Education Department of Western Australia, who donated one second-hand laptop
Christian Egenfeldt, UK Board Member of ACTION THIS DAY, who donated two second-hand laptops

When we roll out the full IT training program in 2012, we are looking to gather a total of 15 to 20 laptops.

If you any second-hand laptops or any good ideas of how to get some, please do contact us here.

ACTION THIS DAY is currently being advised on security measures for the laptops by a local security company.

Triathleting for charity

Action This Day — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 14:59:53 +0000

Triathleting for charity

In July 2011 David Garton competed in the Hamburg Triathlon in Germany to raise funds for ACTION THIS DAY. David finished the 1.5 km swim, 40 km bike ride, and 10 km run in an impressive 2hr 59min 36sec.

David’s colleagues at Max Fordham supported his efforts very generously, pledging £531.25 for ACTION THIS DAY and our work with severely disadvantaged children in Kenya.

On behalf of ACTION THIS DAY and all the children benefitting from your support, a big THANK YOU from all of us to all of you!

Roadworks

Action This Day — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 18:18:17 +0000

The Bamburi community suffers during the heavy rain season as the mud pathways and roads become waterlogged. There is no drainage. Pictures cannot portray the difficulties people have getting around. Travel times increase, footwear and clothing suffer, and when it’s really bad you just cannot get about.

Our school is on a path that most of the local community travel upon every day.

We recently arranged for three truck loads of soil and rock to fill the worst of the potholes and provide a covering for the clay based soil that sucks you into it when mixed with rain. The area around school is now much easier to navigate after a downpour.