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Dormitory for the Berry School in Kenya

Unfortunately the project hasn't met our fundraising goal.

Project SummaryAfter the collapse of a large dam in Dundori province in Kenya in 2018, many children tragically lost their parents. These children currently have no access to education and some live on the streets. Elisa and her team want to change this and are now planning to build a school with a dormitory for the children. Help to finance the construction of the dormitory!

Background

In 2018, a large dam collapsed in a village in Kenya's Dundori province. As a result, some children tragically lost their parents and became orphans (Dam burst in Kenya: Number of dead rises to 47 (nzz.ch)). Many of these children have since been living on the streets and have no access to education. The rest of the rural population in this province lives in extreme poverty and therefore cannot support these children financially. Therefore, they are dependent on generous donors.
Elisa Beretta, the initiator of the project, travelled to Kenya for the first time in 2017. She was accompanied by Sister Rose, a family friend with Kenyan roots. During her stay, Elisa stayed in a school and spent a lot of time with the children. After this first trip, others followed in Dundori Province. When Elisa and Sister Rose realised the scale of the disaster, they knew they had to act.

Idea

The idea was born to build a new school for the children in this region, the Berry School. The land needed for this has already been found and purchased. It covers two hectares and is ideal for building the school. The school will include some classrooms, a laboratory, two dormitories (one for boys and one for girls), a library, a kitchen and canteen, administrative and staff rooms. The project plan has already been realised and the first small construction works have already started (see photos). The "Berry School" will have space for about 135 children.
With this donation project, the initiators want to finance the construction of dormitories to enable children who live far away from the school or who are orphans to attend school. The dormitories will have space for 130 children. Bunk beds will be purchased to make the best use of the available space.

Implementation

In July 2022, the land was blessed and the foundation stone was laid in the presence of Elisa, her parents and the villagers.
The future headmaster of Berry School, Mr Patrick (currently working at Davis Junior Academy), commissioned a trusted architect, Mr Moses, to design the school. They will carry out the construction of the school under the supervision of us and Sister Rose. We expect to start building the school in January. As soon as the classrooms are ready, the children will be able to attend the school. If we manage to raise enough money, the whole project could be completed in about one and a half years.
The school itself is to be financed by a foundation (clarifications are underway). Elisa and the children are dependent on donations for the construction of the dormitory.

Initiators

At the age of 17, Elisa Beretta accepted the invitation of Sister Rose, a family friend of Kenyan origin, to do voluntary service in Kenya. She was enthusiastic and impressed by the African culture: "The people from Africa have a special heart and adapt to every situation with incredible ease. This experience taught me to be more aware of all the things we are confronted with in our daily lives."
Since then, thanks to the help and generosity of many people, Elisa, together with her family, Sister Rose and the headmaster of Davis Junior Academy, Mr Patrick, has already carried out several small projects:
- Funding the purchase of two rainwater tanks.
- Purchase of chairs and desks for a school and beds for a dormitory for students.
- Supporting urgent medical treatment for a young mother who has fully recovered
- Contribution to the opening of a family business, enabling a family to live independently
- Supporting school fees and whatever is necessary to enable some children to attend school

What you give always comes back!

06/26/2023

Thanks to the support of a young couple and a non-profit association, 30'000 CHF could be collected for the project. Now 10'000 CHF are still missing so that the dormitory can be built.

A young couple invited us (CIEL Kenya) to their wedding to celebrate with them and to give us all their proceeds. You don't know how happy we were about this! We had the honor to briefly present our project during the celebration and the guests were all very interested and generous.

After this great news, a second-hand store in Ticino, composed of volunteers, contacted us to get to know us better. When they have money to spare, they look for associations to donate it to. They don't keep a cent for themselves and invest their time in others for free. After a few meetings where we introduced them to our project, they decided to donate their money to us. Thanks to these two generous sponsors we are now “only" 10,000 francs short to realize the project.

Help us too, because as Mother Teresa of Calcutta said: "What we do is just a drop in the ocean, but if we don't do it, the ocean will have one drop less."

Alice Carpi	50,00 CHF
Werner Tobler	400,00 CHF

Currently, there are still no project partners if you are interested, please contact us via info@there-for-you.com.

Status of the project

450,00 CHF

10'000,00 CHF

We will send the donation receipt (for Switzerland) in January of the following year.

Impact analysis by there for you specialists

The people in the Kenyan province of Dundori are still suffering from the consequences of the dam burst in 2018, which killed at least 47 people. Children in particular are severely affected by the impact. They have no access to education and many of them have been living on the streets as orphans since the dam burst. With the construction of the school building and the dormitory, these children can be offered a perspective. Attending school improves the children's future prospects considerably and the Berry School also offers the orphans a place to live. Therefore, we are convinced that the project will make a meaningful contribution to the development of Dundori Province.