Project Stedfast

Project Update Jan 2024

It is now just over seventeen years since our first visit to meet with the people of Oloolua Kenya. Our first venture into what was completely unknown territory took place in November 2006. the purpose of the visit quite simply to ensure that we were dealing with the right people for such a venture and to answer any doubts or concerns we had and finalise plans for the building of St Andrews School. The trip was a resounding success in every way possible.

We experienced the most sincere and heartfelt hospitality I have ever come across leaving my colleagues and I deeply humbled. Our Target here at home was to raise £33,629.00 to facilitate the building of three classrooms with electrical distribution, toilet facility and water sanitation. A heady task by anyone’s standards. Our target to achieve this was October 2008 to coincide with Founders day during the 125 Anniversary of The Boys Brigade. We reached our target in March 2007, the first pupils taking to the School in January 2008. We then made the decision to press on. Plans were drawn for the next three classes and also for the building of a Unit for Children with a Disability.

To give us all a reminder of the importance of this simple part of the Project, difficult to comprehend when we live in a Country that has recognised its responsibility to all of its Children, and, has worked very hard to ensure legislation protects the rights of all Children. I have included an excerpt from the original proposal document received from The Boys’ Brigade at Kerarapon:

"Life for a disabled person is very hard, difficult, and expensive, especially in Africa. Here disability is associated with a curse or bad omen that befalls a community or family. Some even think that to have a disabled Child is shameful and a punishment for a wrong done to an ancestor. For this reason most Communities would not wish to make the plight of their disabled Children public. They therefore confine them secretly indoors never to see the light of day. Thus subjecting them to live lives in extreme poverty, frustration, discrimination, stigmatization and denial.”

This was written by Mr Richard Lenana, Church Elder, local Councillor, and representative of the Disabled of the Eastern Region of Kenya.

Timeline

In order to bring everyone up to date as best as possible this is a rough timeline surrounding the main group visits to date

These are just the main items, each one a story I its own right, Sports field creation, sounds easy. In reality you take a BB group from Scotland, add in a Brigade group from Oloolua, shift 750 tons of soil and make it flat. Then you have a sports field!

Our young people have enjoyed a hospitality impossible to give justice in words, they have been closer to their counterparts 4500 miles away than any tourist could ever be. Many others have benefited on the way such as the Children of Suswa Orphanage, Oleshobor Orphanage, the rescue girls at AIC Kadjiado, the disabled centre at AIC Kadjiado to name a few. Not directly from the Project, but from the gifts and equipment sent to them by the People of Scotland and delivered during our progress visits to the Project as well as the personal gift packs given by each group member.

In October 2024 a Boys’ Brigade Group, made up from 5th Livingston, 51st Bonnyrigg, 1st Loanhead and 41st Edinburgh Companies will make the journey to Oloolua as we mark our 140th Anniversary of The Boys’ Brigade in Scotland.

Their targets are every bit as challenging as all who have travelled before them. Their achievements have already begun with the commencement of building a workshop for vocational studies. The foundations laid this month and building underway. Only 3 classrooms and a lot of hard graft on the ground to go!

Over the coming months, update flyers will concentrate on the 2024 group and the Project in Their hands. They may not yet deserve all of the help they need, however, by the time they return home they will have earned every bit of support they receive. Who knows, the final passage may even make sense to them!