It is with great joy and gratitude that I can announce that the Four Classrooms for 2020 campaign has successfully completed. We raised just over the $15,000.00 we needed to in less than two months.
The school opened on January 6, 2020, the Feast of Theophany. The children are back in the classroom, continuing their education right on schedule. Thanks be to God for your generosity and prayers.
There’s still plenty of work left to do. We have been given seventeen months to complete the remaining six classrooms. Additional latrines need to be installed. We need to put in a kitchen (basically a room large enough for pots, pans, food prep, dishes, and a cooker of sorts; no appliances or running water here) and a dining hall and a boys’ dormitory. The Ministry of Education wants us to build a playground (yay!) also.
The past three years have been an incredible period of growth at St. Tabitha. Three years ago, Fr. Agapios and his wife, Dora, moved the orphanage from the slums of Kibera to Malava, a much safer home. Two years ago, Fr. Agapios purchased a huge plot of land and began building a new home for the children. Now the home is finished. The school, just meters from the house, is open. None of this would have been possible without the generosity of our donors.
What’s next? St. Tabitha will enroll local students who will pay tuition to help cover the expense of running the school. The long-term vision includes a new church and a medical clinic for the community. Most importantly, St. Tabitha needs to continue on the path to self-sustainability. Farm animals, croplands, solar, and even bio cookers are some of the self-sustaining efforts underway.
Again, thank you all! And glory and thanks be to the Father and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. Amen!
– VRev Peter Tobias