The school which opened its doors in February 2006 is situated about half a kilometer away from Mahyoro on the RENA grounds. At the moment 98 students (56 boys and 42 girls) attend the classes. These are given not only in the common subjects of English, Maths, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, agriculture, history, political education, geography and religion but also in three vocational qualifications: dress making or tailoring, secretarial studies and brick laying. In future it is planned to also provide a program on carpentry and computing for which an IT room is necessary, which will also provide for other trainings. However especially for the successful use of the IT facilities it is necessary to find a solution for the now only sporadic power supply. Solar power is available however it only suffices for light in the evening and the sporadic use of one computer!
Lessons start at 8am and end at around 4:40pm. Students are therefore provided with lunch in school, which for a lot of them is the only regular meal they have. Outside of lesson time sports are on offer, however the sporting grounds still have to be built. Plans are being made for football pitch and a basketball court.
A lot of the students have to walk a long way to school, some more than 15km one way! The provision of dormitories and other measures is therefore more than necessary to make the use of the school as a boarding school possible. They will be the next investment to improve the school and its facilities.
UAAH funds provided two water tanks for the school (and the whole of the RENA center). At the moment rain water from the school's roofs is being collected in the tanks. A connection with the larger and higher lying tank in Mahyoro is in planning, measures are being made at the moment to estimate costs for such a move. Extending the water supplies is necessary especially in view of students boarding at the school in the near future.
As a help for the vocational trainings four type writers and four sewing machines could be bought with UAAH funds.
As even those members who live nearby are affected by the chronic lack of public transport in the area the provision of a motorcycle was suggested. It would facilitate the necessary official visits at far away bureaus and other transport. It would also make a lot of sense to invest in the acquisition of a mechanical copying machine, with which it would be possible to copy lesson materials.
Update, July 19th 2007:
There are plans to install a small health unit next to the school – in order to easily provide basic medical services to students and the surrounding villages. A first donation for that purpose (€ 5000,-) was sent to Fr. Fred in July 2007.
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