Hi Ildiko,Ron,estelle,Heather,Jacqueline and all,
Ihope all of you are doing fine as Ildiko has mentioned we need an H.M's office,Teachers room and an eighth classroom as we already have seven classroms after changing H/M''s office and teachers rooms into a seventh classroom.Becouse Kenyan primary education goes upto the eighth classroom and we only have seven that is why we are asking for the eighth class.In otherwards we still need three rooms.
Hi Mary,
Please be informed that i managed to send our proposal as i had promised to the Kitchen table organization.
Neighbours we are on the couse of finishing the first phase of our project.And becouse the eighth classroom,Teachers room and H/M's office are equally important we are concidering it to be the second project of Matopeni.Kindly join us to bring the bright change we desire in Matopeni.
I don't know how you do feel about the new site, I am still very confused, I try to learn how does it work.
I want to inform you that I have removed all those earlier Matopeni neighbours who haven't been online in more than at least one year, some of them were away in two years! If they come back some day again they are welcome, but now it seems if we had hundreds of neighbours but it isn't true. We have now a more realistic number of neighbours.
We also have several neighbours who were online once or maybee twice and promised to take care of some task but they never returned. I will contact them and ask if they still do want to help Matopeni children or not. If they don't want, we must find other people to take care of their tasks.
Have any one of you heard about Estelle?
We are so close to get finnish at least the building, we must now go ahead with new energy and power.
Apologies for not replying earlier but I did not see these postings.
I thought I was looking in the right place but clearly I wasn't!!
I am not sure where to find things on this site these days.
And I do not understand why a message needs a star rating. I'd best be quiet - If I keep this up I'll get a job on the Grumpy Old Men TV series!!
Anyway I am a bit hazy on exactly what has been finished and funded etc.
I think it is:-
Phase 1 - all fully funded.
First 4 Classrooms block completed.
Second 3 Classrooms block completed.
Toilet block started but not yet complete.
Phase 2 - only a rough estimate available so far, and nothing funded.
Third block consists of 1 Classroom, one H/M office and 1 Teacher's office planned but not yet started.
Ron,
At the moment we are looking forward to start the second phase of our project after the one got funded as we had budgeted it.However apart from building the named rooms we mostly need text books to equip our library.
I know several schools who have had boxes of books from Biblionef, although these are general reading books not school text books. I will have a look through the sites and see if I can complete any of the application forms. I will then post them here for you to check and send if you wish.
Ron
Several of us have been having a few difficulties finding our way round the new website. More info at http://www.nabuur.com/en/group/nabuurcom-website-development/project/tas... where you can also add comments. The more people who find and report issues, the more likely they are to be corrected. Notifications of new posts should appear on the My Nabuur page. This was not working for a few days but appears to have been fixed now.
According to the website, a lot of local schools already use the library and they would like more to do so.
"The library currently (November 2007) has a membership of 4018. The following institutes use the library: 3 nursery schools, 34 primary schools, 57 Secondary Schools, 15 colleges/universities. It is also being used by 12 different communities, from Kayole to BuruBuru."
"Visiting classes regularly come to the the library from the community centre and from the rest of the Kayole Community. We are trying to get schools outside the community centre to come to the library."
"Stock- 4174 volumes"
Did you get in touch with them to see if Matopeni school would be able to use the library? If not, then provided the library is close enough to the school, it would probably be a good idea.
Although it would be good to have more books of your own too, using an existing library as well would give your students more choice.
The website does not give local contact details, but I am sure you will be able to find them. If not, there is an email address for KidsLibs trust, the organisation behind this and other community libraries in Kenya. It is kidslibs@hotmail.com
I went through that list of potential book donors and pulled out details of those that appear mostly likely to be able to help Matopeni. Can't fill in any of the applications as I don't have enough information on the types of books you want. The attached document gives more information on the types of books they send, the details they will need from you, and where to send the application. I hope that helps! Let me know if you need any more info or you can't open the doc.
thank you for your lists, I really tried to save them under our resources but it didn't work. I am feel a bit stressed and sad about it. I don't know how to use the new site, just try to figure it out.
I have no idea how to get it into Resources either. It may be by setting the Content Type on the posting page to 'Resources' but I don't know.
Its possible that it is there somewhere - there are so many pages now, its difficult to find anything, especially as the descriptions are not very clear.
According to the Web Development group, Nabuur are going to create a guide to using the site, but I don't know when.
The original list that it came from is in Resources - I have just taken some of that and added more info to it to make it easier for Stephen to put in the applications for books.
I concur fully with your views on the site.
I also do not find it easier to use, or better in any obvious way.
I cannot find the few threads, each of which, in our case, had an owner/someone taking the lead on things. We seem to be all over the place now.
In fact our usual project comments have reduced to virtually zero - I suspect that might be because we do not know how to get to the places we know exist, but can no longer find them!
Why on earth do we need an option to upload 4 videos? or am I missing something?
Why do I have to scroll past eight entry boxes to get to the SUBMIT button.
We need one buttom marked Attach; that brings up a box with those options in it. We do not need to see all these other options every time we use the page!
I think we will end up relying on our own e-mail addresses to exchange information in the future rather than trying to grapple with this.
Hi Ron,Mary and Ildiko,
Thanks for all your information.Its true the new website is abit complicated in away.I know the guide that mary has mentioned will realy help people explore all corners of Nabuur website with alot of ease.
Mary thanks for your findings about community library located at bethelehem.For your information i know where its and i will ask them how we can use their facility.The only barrier could be the distance betwen Matopeni and Soweto village where bethelehem is.But still i will try to reach them and ask.Still on the Text books,i would like to inform you that we managed to send a request proposal to Kitchen table charities trust we asked them to fund Text books project.They have asked us some questions of which we managed to answer.We still wait for their response.I will update you on this.
Good luck with the application to Kitchen Table, and with the local library.
If you are not successful getting funding from Kitchen Table, check out the other book related info I posted at http://www.nabuur.com/en/village/matopeni/project/task/project-room?sort...
The majority are focused on reading and general education books rather than the specific text books you will use in Kenya, but they all appear to offer free books and don't charge for shipping.
Another thought - is there any possibility of linking Matopeni with any of the better-off schools in Nairobi? Maybe they would have equipment, books etc that they no longer need and would be willing to pass it on to you. Also, maybe some of their staff and students would be interested in helping at your school?
It may also be possible for you to link with other schools around the world - I know a school in Uganda (Masaka Nabuur village) who have a successful link with a school here in the UK. This would probably start with exchanging information between students/teachers at the two schools but, depending on the location and intereests of the partner school, could also lead on to fundraising in the future.
How are things going with the building work?
Yes, many of us have commented on how complicated the screen for posting comments is. For anyone who hasn't done so already, I would suggest posting thoughts to http://www.nabuur.com/en/group/nabuurcom-website-development/project where there is quite a lively discussion going on!
I recently had the pleasure of meeting Stephen and visiting both the existing school and the one being built. Unfortunately, school was not in session so I didn't get to meet the students.
However, I was very impressed with the work Stephen and this project have been doing! I have taken a number of photos and tried uploading them, but they show up as huge, so I will have to find a way to get them on.
Hi Ildiko,Ron,estelle,Heather,Jacqueline and all,
Ihope all of you are doing fine as Ildiko has mentioned we need an H.M's office,Teachers room and an eighth classroom as we already have seven classroms after changing H/M''s office and teachers rooms into a seventh classroom.Becouse Kenyan primary education goes upto the eighth classroom and we only have seven that is why we are asking for the eighth class.In otherwards we still need three rooms.
Hi Mary,
Please be informed that i managed to send our proposal as i had promised to the Kitchen table organization.
Neighbours we are on the couse of finishing the first phase of our project.And becouse the eighth classroom,Teachers room and H/M's office are equally important we are concidering it to be the second project of Matopeni.Kindly join us to bring the bright change we desire in Matopeni.
God bless you all,
Stephen.
Hi Stephen
Thanks for the update. Good luck with the application - was it for more building, or to fund equipment for the classrooms?
Do we have a budget/plan for the remaining rooms?
Mary
Dear Stephen and All!
Thank you for your update, Stephen!
I don't know how you do feel about the new site, I am still very confused, I try to learn how does it work.
I want to inform you that I have removed all those earlier Matopeni neighbours who haven't been online in more than at least one year, some of them were away in two years! If they come back some day again they are welcome, but now it seems if we had hundreds of neighbours but it isn't true. We have now a more realistic number of neighbours.
We also have several neighbours who were online once or maybee twice and promised to take care of some task but they never returned. I will contact them and ask if they still do want to help Matopeni children or not. If they don't want, we must find other people to take care of their tasks.
Have any one of you heard about Estelle?
We are so close to get finnish at least the building, we must now go ahead with new energy and power.
Have a nice weekend, kind regards from
Ildikó
Hi everyone,
Apologies for not replying earlier but I did not see these postings.
I thought I was looking in the right place but clearly I wasn't!!
I am not sure where to find things on this site these days.
And I do not understand why a message needs a star rating. I'd best be quiet - If I keep this up I'll get a job on the Grumpy Old Men TV series!!
Anyway I am a bit hazy on exactly what has been finished and funded etc.
I think it is:-
Phase 1 - all fully funded.
First 4 Classrooms block completed.
Second 3 Classrooms block completed.
Toilet block started but not yet complete.
Phase 2 - only a rough estimate available so far, and nothing funded.
Third block consists of 1 Classroom, one H/M office and 1 Teacher's office planned but not yet started.
If I am wrong can someone please let me know?
Well Done everyone we are well on the way!
Ron.
Ron,
At the moment we are looking forward to start the second phase of our project after the one got funded as we had budgeted it.However apart from building the named rooms we mostly need text books to equip our library.
Kind Regards to you all,
Stephen.
Hi Stephen
Good to hear you are making progress! A while ago I posted a link to a list of potential book donors - http://docs.google.com/View?docid=dgs9fnp6_0g5zp8p3n#BOOK_DONATIONS
I know several schools who have had boxes of books from Biblionef, although these are general reading books not school text books. I will have a look through the sites and see if I can complete any of the application forms. I will then post them here for you to check and send if you wish.
Ron
Several of us have been having a few difficulties finding our way round the new website. More info at http://www.nabuur.com/en/group/nabuurcom-website-development/project/tas... where you can also add comments. The more people who find and report issues, the more likely they are to be corrected. Notifications of new posts should appear on the My Nabuur page. This was not working for a few days but appears to have been fixed now.
Mary
Hi Stephen
A while ago I posted about the UKenya library at Bethlehem Community Centre in Kayole. See http://kidslibstrust.org/kayole.html
According to the website, a lot of local schools already use the library and they would like more to do so.
"The library currently (November 2007) has a membership of 4018. The following institutes use the library: 3 nursery schools, 34 primary schools, 57 Secondary Schools, 15 colleges/universities. It is also being used by 12 different communities, from Kayole to BuruBuru."
"Visiting classes regularly come to the the library from the community centre and from the rest of the Kayole Community. We are trying to get schools outside the community centre to come to the library."
"Stock- 4174 volumes"
Did you get in touch with them to see if Matopeni school would be able to use the library? If not, then provided the library is close enough to the school, it would probably be a good idea.
Although it would be good to have more books of your own too, using an existing library as well would give your students more choice.
The website does not give local contact details, but I am sure you will be able to find them. If not, there is an email address for KidsLibs trust, the organisation behind this and other community libraries in Kenya. It is kidslibs@hotmail.com
Mary
Hi Stephen
I went through that list of potential book donors and pulled out details of those that appear mostly likely to be able to help Matopeni. Can't fill in any of the applications as I don't have enough information on the types of books you want. The attached document gives more information on the types of books they send, the details they will need from you, and where to send the application. I hope that helps! Let me know if you need any more info or you can't open the doc.
Mary
Dear Mary,
thank you for your lists, I really tried to save them under our resources but it didn't work. I am feel a bit stressed and sad about it. I don't know how to use the new site, just try to figure it out.
Thanks!
Ildikó
Hi Ildiko
I have no idea how to get it into Resources either. It may be by setting the Content Type on the posting page to 'Resources' but I don't know.
Its possible that it is there somewhere - there are so many pages now, its difficult to find anything, especially as the descriptions are not very clear.
According to the Web Development group, Nabuur are going to create a guide to using the site, but I don't know when.
The original list that it came from is in Resources - I have just taken some of that and added more info to it to make it easier for Stephen to put in the applications for books.
Mary
Dear Mary!
Thank you for this information!
I am very unhappy about the new site. I can't work with it yet.
Thank you for your efforts!
Kind regards from Ildikó
Ildiko,
I concur fully with your views on the site.
I also do not find it easier to use, or better in any obvious way.
I cannot find the few threads, each of which, in our case, had an owner/someone taking the lead on things. We seem to be all over the place now.
In fact our usual project comments have reduced to virtually zero - I suspect that might be because we do not know how to get to the places we know exist, but can no longer find them!
Why on earth do we need an option to upload 4 videos? or am I missing something?
Why do I have to scroll past eight entry boxes to get to the SUBMIT button.
We need one buttom marked Attach; that brings up a box with those options in it. We do not need to see all these other options every time we use the page!
I think we will end up relying on our own e-mail addresses to exchange information in the future rather than trying to grapple with this.
Ron.
Hi Ron,Mary and Ildiko,
Thanks for all your information.Its true the new website is abit complicated in away.I know the guide that mary has mentioned will realy help people explore all corners of Nabuur website with alot of ease.
Mary thanks for your findings about community library located at bethelehem.For your information i know where its and i will ask them how we can use their facility.The only barrier could be the distance betwen Matopeni and Soweto village where bethelehem is.But still i will try to reach them and ask.Still on the Text books,i would like to inform you that we managed to send a request proposal to Kitchen table charities trust we asked them to fund Text books project.They have asked us some questions of which we managed to answer.We still wait for their response.I will update you on this.
Kind regards,
Stephen.
Hi Stephen
Good luck with the application to Kitchen Table, and with the local library.
If you are not successful getting funding from Kitchen Table, check out the other book related info I posted at http://www.nabuur.com/en/village/matopeni/project/task/project-room?sort...
The majority are focused on reading and general education books rather than the specific text books you will use in Kenya, but they all appear to offer free books and don't charge for shipping.
Another thought - is there any possibility of linking Matopeni with any of the better-off schools in Nairobi? Maybe they would have equipment, books etc that they no longer need and would be willing to pass it on to you. Also, maybe some of their staff and students would be interested in helping at your school?
It may also be possible for you to link with other schools around the world - I know a school in Uganda (Masaka Nabuur village) who have a successful link with a school here in the UK. This would probably start with exchanging information between students/teachers at the two schools but, depending on the location and intereests of the partner school, could also lead on to fundraising in the future.
How are things going with the building work?
Yes, many of us have commented on how complicated the screen for posting comments is. For anyone who hasn't done so already, I would suggest posting thoughts to http://www.nabuur.com/en/group/nabuurcom-website-development/project where there is quite a lively discussion going on!
Mary
Hi Stephen, Mary and everyone,
I recently had the pleasure of meeting Stephen and visiting both the existing school and the one being built. Unfortunately, school was not in session so I didn't get to meet the students.
However, I was very impressed with the work Stephen and this project have been doing! I have taken a number of photos and tried uploading them, but they show up as huge, so I will have to find a way to get them on.
Regards,
Barb