ACTION THIS DAY

ACTION THIS DAY is a charity registered in 2009 to help extremely disadvantaged children in Kenya.

In 2010 ACTION THIS DAY established, and now funds and operates, the Kookaburra Community School, which offers free primary education to disadvantaged children from an extremely poor part of the Bamburi suburb of Mombasa, Kenya.

The Kookaburra Community School has 144 students, and employs 8 local teachers and a local deputy head.

• July 2009: Charity registered
  ACTION THIS DAY registered as a charity in Australia by Brian McIver to fight extreme poverty in Kenya.
• 2009-2010: Funding
  2009-2010: ACTION THIS DAY raises AUD 45,000 / GBP 30,000 to launch operations in Kenya, choosing a very poor community in Mombasa as the location for its first project.
• March 2010: Registration in Kenya
  ACTION THIS DAY registered in Kenya as a Community Based Organisation (CBO).
• May 2010: Kookaburra Community School opens
  10 May 2010: ACTION THIS DAY opens the Kookaburra Community School providing free education for 144 extremely poor children from a community of the Bamburi district of Mombasa. The charity hires 8 local teachers for the launch of the school.
• September 2010: Meal programme
  Meal programme initiated at the Kookaburra Community School, providing the students with a big meal at lunch time, which, for some, represents the only meal of the day.
• November 2010: School library
  School library opened, encouraging the students to read more and enhance their English reading and writing skills.
• January 2011: School uniforms
  Students provided with school uniforms.
• January-March 2011: Expanding the team
  ACTION THIS DAY hires Ritah Mathenge as deputy director of the Kookaburra Community School. Daleen Begg joins the local management team of the Kookaburra Community School to further the charity’s goals. In March 2011 Jakob Ravnborg joins ACTION THIS DAY as Head of Strategy and Development.
• Term 1 2011: Music and Drama
  In term 1 of the 2011 school year the Kookaburra Community School introduced electives in drama and music.
• April 2011: Life Skills
  Kookaburra Community School introduces “Life Skills” lessons into Term 2 curriculum to address the gap in personal development, often overlooked in educational, social and family environments. The school also starts an after school book club to improve English reading and writing skills, extra mathematics tuition, and a chess club to encourage children to think strategically.
• May 2011: 1 Year Anniversary
  The Kookaburra Community School celebrates its one-year anniversary.
• June 2011: Community Survey
  In June 2011 Calvin D’Souza, an experienced researcher in developing nations, conducted a survey with 15 of the 70 households that have children benefiting from our free education program at the Kookaburra Community School. See the results here.