Mustard Seed Project Kenya

"Bellingham cheered on by Kenyan schoolchildren". Our school children in Mgongeni in Mombasa, Kenya are all excited for Sunday's Euro Football final against Spain on Sunday. Read the fantastic article by the BBC about how Jude Bellingham has been supporting our school.

https://bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx029y97np8o

I just nominated a charity to win £1,000. You can nominate your favourite too. I just nominated a charity to win £1,000..

£6,015 matched funding left to buy a playground - https://donate.biggive.org/campaign/a056900002TPTWMAA5
Matched funding campaign lasts until midnight Friday 28th June 2024. This playground is so important to us. Quite apart from the direct benefits it gives to our children it will enable us to keep our children until they are 15. This playground has become a government requirement for schools to become a junior secondary school. Thank you so much for your support.

We've found a playground! We hadn't spotted it before because it has a high wall around it. The great news is that we have bought one third of the plot but we need to urgently buy the rest before the owner sells it to someone else.
The other great news is a Matched Funding Campaign on the Big Give starting midday on Tuesday 18th June. You cannot donate until then but the link will be here on Tuesday. This has made a huge difference to our children.
A big thank you to everyone who supports us. I hope you will pass the next message on to everyone you know.🙂

Buy a playground for 300 disadvantaged children We need a playground for the school we have built for 300 disadvantaged children in a deprived area of urban …

Amazing news, this Donation Day The Mustard Seed Project (KENYA) has been paid! Thank you to everyone who supports us through easyfundraising - you're incredible! Want to get involved? Sign up for free and turn your online shopping at over 8,000 brands into free donations for our cause! Sign up now: https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/mspkenya/?utm_medium=email-share&utm_source=Facebook&utm_campaign=dd-may-24&utm_term=Q1241&utm_content=socialshare

Two athletes from Kenya: Peres Jepchirchir and Alexander Mutiso Munyao bring inspiration to the 300 poor children at in Mgongeni, Mombasa. Peres and Alexander made Kenya proud on Sunday 21st April 2024 when they each won their respective women's and men's races at the London Marathon. Fantastic achievement for them personally and a source of national pride for all Kenyans. 🌠

Supporting us and spreading the word about the work of our school https://mustardseedproject.co.uk/ means we will be instrumental in helping more young Kenyans to achieve success through quality education.

Find out more news from Kenya https://www.aljazeera.com/where/kenya/

Yesterday was so I delved into the photograph archive to share some very smiley past and present volunteers : Becci, Lillian, Helen, Anne, Rebecca and Charlie.

Every person who gives their TIME, SKILLS, KNOWLEDGE and often MONEY to the benefit of others in the community near and far are SPECIAL PEOPLE.

Thank you for everything you have done for it is much appreciated and the legacy of your contributions live on in the young people and staff at our school in Kenya.

Make the world a better place and do something kind for someone else today. 🫂

https://mustardseedproject.co.uk/

Here at we celebrate learning in English as well as our native Kiswahili. The goal of English Language Month is to create an ongoing celebration of this global and constantly evolving language. Many common English words have diverse cultural origins, including shampoo (Hindi), waltz (German) and ketchup (Chinese)!

Understanding English will equip our children 🫂 with communication skills👌 for life.

Did you know about Test of English as a Foreign Language? https://www.facebook.com/TOEFL/about

is our Core Aim. Find out more ways to support on our website https://mustardseedproject.co.uk/

Photograph by https://www.instagram.com/moniaantonioli/

Education 📚 📖:

- At Miche Bora
- Story start the seed to grow
- Where does it take them?

Our wonderful teachers at are growing the shoots of life-long learning and love of stories, poetry and language. is a charity making a difference to the lives of all it's children, their families and our staff.

Image accredited to https://moniaantonioli.com/
JB.

Great £1,000 raised and 36 hours left - https://mailchi.mp/45625aefdc4a/great-1000-raised-and-36-hours-left
https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/feed/

Great £1,000 raised and 36 hours left A huge thank you to those of you who have already donated and a huge apology to those of you you have discovered the the link is now broken. Fortunately there is still time left to donate and funds left in the match pot.

Here is the link where you can match your donation. https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/feed/

The Little by Little Campaign on Global Giving is sharing out $200,000, where any donation up to £40 is matched 50%. This means that a donation of £40 is worth £60 or a donation of £10 is worth £15 etc.

Matched donations ends on Friday 12th at midnight.

Thank you to all our supporters - we appreciate your help towards our feeding programme meaning our children eat, learn and thrive at school.

The Trustees at

Feed 🍲 our children - The Little by Little campaign is now open
All donations up to £40 matched by 50%
Until midnight Friday Wednesday 12th April.

Our children have just commenced the Easter holidays in Kenya. For 29 families we are providing dried food during the holidays - otherwise they will starve. The Little by Little Campaign on Global Giving began TODAY sharing out $200,000, where any donation up to £40 is matched 50%. This means that a donation of £40 is worth £60 or a donation of £10 is worth £15 etc.

This is the last time Little by Little will operate. Our charity’s feeding programme has benefited for several years from their matched funding and your generosity.

Here you can see our younger boys and girls tucking into their school lunch made on site in our school kitchen by our hard working cooks. 👩‍🍳 Your help today will support our feeding programme both in school and for those few poorest families that we support in the holidays. Eat, learn, thrive at .

Fun fact: jiko is the Kiswahili word for 'kitchen' and 'stove'.

Colvice's story.

Our former pupil left in November 2023 aged 14 - his next step should have been Secondary School. A good student, he had attended our wonderful school with his siblings for the previous 10 years.

Our deputy head teacher Edward only recently discovered, to his horror that Colvice had been tricked into slavery in Nairobi since leaving school. His home circumstances changed drastically soon after leaving Miche Bora.

This is what happened : sadly his mother died recently and in true Kenyan fashion they shared out the children but no-one wanted Colvice (because he was born out of wedlock!) . Then someone appeared and said he was a friend of his father and they sent him up to Nairobi to live with family there. It turned out that was untrue and he was just being used as a slave. Colvice contacted his mother’s sister in Mombasa by borrowing someone’s phone. She was trying to get the money together to pay for his coach fare to get back to Mombasa (about £15). Anyway, we paid for his fare back and have promised to find someone to pay his school fees for secondary school.

He came to school with his aunt to thank us and I felt very emotional about it and so glad that we had managed to track him down.

" Colvice karibu nyumbani kwa familia yako ya Miche Bora "🙏🙏🙏😌

Hurrah for this lady with a mathematical brain and great teacher potential. Emaculate has just joined the teaching team at .
She blew away the [male] competition in her recent interviews and lesson observations at our school. Following the Easter break she will be teaching alongside our existing mathematical genius - Amos. Her first remit will be to teach the older children.
Our school is always progressing and looking for ways to improve the outcomes for all our children and our staff.

"Karibu Emaculate!" (That's one big Mustard Seed Project "Welcome Emaculate").

You could raise BIG donations including up to £150 for The Mustard Seed Project (KENYA) when you use to purchase insurance, your broadband & TV, upgrade your mobile phone and invest in your future with ISAs. MoneySupermarket, BT Broadband, giffgaff, Foresters Friendly Society and many more will donate to us for FREE! Visit: https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/offers/big-donations?utm_campaign=pmc&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_content=bigdonations-fb1

Booking a short getaway or holiday? All of the major travel brands are on ; TUI, Booking.com, Expedia, First Choice, Hotels.com, Cottages.com, James Villas, easyJet holidays, Eurocamp, Opodo, P&O, PurpleParking, plus 250+ others! The average family holiday could raise over £110 for The Mustard Seed Project (KENYA)! – and it’s all completely FREE! So please remember to use easyfundraising when you book so we don’t miss out! To find out more, visit: https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/travel-hub?utm_campaign=pmc&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_content=travel-fb1
👍🏖🏖🏝🏝🏜🏜🏔🏔⛱⛱

You can turn your weekly grocery shopping into big donations for The Mustard Seed Project (KENYA) when you use . They've even put together all the latest donations and offers from your favourite supermarkets in one place! Find out more: https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/grocery-hub?utm_campaign=pmc&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_content=groceries-fb1

Join The Egg Hunt to help The Mustard Seed Project (KENYA) to win £5,000! Solve the daily clues and find the hidden egg to enter us into the daily prize draw to win £100 plus Easter Sunday's grand prize draw! If you're not supporting us on easyfundraising yet, now's an egg-cellent time to get involved: https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/mspkenya/?utm_campaign=pmc&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_content=theegghunt-fb1

You can enter every day until 31st March, so let's do this for for the next 10 days please, please, please. 🐤🐣🐥🍀🍀🍀🙏🙏🙏 Thanks to TUI for their sponsorship of the Easyfundraising prize draw.

As I have already joined , I found the egg on the RSPB page on the website (today's clue) and automatically entered into the daily £100 draw. It was actually quite fun. And you might even be tempted to buy some birdseed whilst on the RSPB website! JB.

Please support The Mustard Seed Project (KENYA) on this year, you can raise FREE donations when you shop online with over 8,000 brands. It's simple and only takes 2 minutes to sign up! This will make a BIG difference to us. Sign up here: https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/mspkenya/?utm_campaign=pmc&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_content=2024-fb1👍

In Kenya last week Rita was negotiating with Osman the owner of 3 adjacent plots of land. The Junior Secondary School playground came a step closer this week when Plot 1 was purchased by the charity. With plans ongoing for purchasing the remaining two plots.
👏👏👏👏👏

"Precious Roots" - I found a wonderful radio article some young students had done whilst fund raising for in November 2022. Lois Lillie and her fellow students talked to Christian Jones on Manx radio about the challenges our children face in Mgongeni.

I am teaching myself Kiswahili in readiness for my first visit with Rita to Miche Bora school in September. In listening to Lois' radio interview, I learned that the name of our school translates to 'Precious Roots'. Somehow that beauty had escaped me - despite being a Trustee since 2015...
Do listen to Lois' interview, it's so encouraging when our young people help young people in another part of the world.👩‍💻👩‍🎓

https://www.manxradio.com/news/isle-of-man-news/pupils-take-on-charity-awareness-challenge-for-kenyan-project/

latest ....

We just about have the funds to purchase one third of the largest plot and Osman, the owner of this plot, is prepared for us to pay in installments when we have the funds.
A Rotarian from the Bahari club in Mombasa has volunteered to help me though. (It's times like this when I miss Geoff so much. He would have loved this task).

Next Rita needed a lawyer to handle all the legal bits.🕵🏿‍♀️

At her hotel she asked: "Does anyone know a reliable lawyer?" "Yes", says Jackie, "one I have known for 13 years, my sister". Yay! She rang her sister to explain the situation and I rang her straight back. Sometimes it really does feel as though someone is looking out for me.🥰

Some Good News
Our new status as a means buying land for use as a school . Rita is on a mission to secure a suitable plot from local landowners. Solomon, the Rotarian came down to see the plot of land we are buying for a playground at . He said it was a great plot and well worth the money.

The perimeter walls and roadside verge alongside mean this is a safe space to play, learn and access.

just need to raise the money to purchase the land - in the meantime we are renting it at a reasonable price.💲💲💲

The Kenya government, having decided in 2022 that children would leave primary school at 12 years rather than 14 years have just made a U-turn! Now our children can remain here at Miche Bora. See these 12 year olds in their new Junior Secondary School uniforms. 🤩🤩🤩

🔎📚📖🔍This trip Rita took some of the children's reading books donated by Deeping St James Community Primary School to Kenya . See some pupils in one of our younger age groups enjoying these books on International Book Day. Thanks to local children in Lincolnshire for helping children in Kenya to read. Thanks also to Books Abroad SCIO - another good reading news story today. 7th March 2024.

Big Give ends tomorrow Tuesday 5th December at 12 mid-day. https://bit.ly/BigGiveMSPK Still £2,000 of matched funding left. Please help us to raise the final £4,000. Every penny matched and it will make such a difference to our children and their families.

One of the most important aspects of our school is the feeding programme we provide to the children.

Educational changes from the government mean that 60 of our students will have to join a government school without a feeding programme, unless we can make the necessary improvements to our facilities.

Your donations are matched up until midday on Tuesday, so please donate now ❤️

https://donate.biggive.org/campaign/a056900002RXrv2AAD

Big Give Christmas Challenge 2023 has begun!! - https://bit.ly/BigGiveMSPK

All donations made by the link above will be matched until mid-day Tuesday 5th December.

Please share this link with everyone you know to help feed our children.

Posted by Michael Connolly