It’s something many parents in Jersey will have heard their children say – “I don’t want to go to school” – but for a number of poor children in a small town in Kenya it is their favourite part of their day.
They attend Malindi Bright Future Academy, a non-profit school for underprivileged children set up by Islander Ruth Smith MBE who spoke about how she finally managed to open it after years of setbacks.
There will be many reasons why the children are so excited to go to school, whether that’s to learn or see friends, but for many, she said it’s because it’s the one place they can get a nutritious meal.
In 2014, Ruth took a gap year to go travelling after her husband of 36 years, Peter, died. She travelled to Africa and embarked on a voluntary teaching project in the Kenyan town of Malindi.
She initially helped at a small church and school called St Clement’s – set up by the then-rector of St Clement, Reverend Canon David Shaw with the help of Jersey Overseas Aid.
When Ruth got there she noticed the children were struggling to concentrate. She said: “They were absolutely lethargic. I asked why and this teacher said ‘well they probably haven’t eaten anything for three days’.”
Determined to do something, Ruth rekindled a defunct scheme to provide porridge breakfasts for the children within the first week. Then after being sent some money, she set up a lunch programme.
“There were so many children not in school”
During this time, Ruth said she was visiting a number of villages and noticing that there were “so many children not at school”.
She contacted the local Education Department to ask why and was told there were “plenty of places”. However, she discovered classes sizes in most instances were much larger than in Jersey. “One class had 100 in the class, and another had 65,” she added.
This motivated her to set up an early years school in 2015 with a better student to teacher ratio – something that she says is important for a quality education that she will never compromise on.
Initially, she found some rented premises that were “big enough to have small classes in”, so they and taught there until they had more money to build a permanent school.
Then an intertrust donated some money and, while she had thought the figure would be around £5,000 or £10,000, they ended up giving her £172,000.
“That meant we had enough to build a new school,” she said, explaining that with the new-found money she decided that she would ask the person she had been renting from if she could buy the premises, and he said yes.
“I’ve never forgotten it”
In a dramatic turn of events, Ruth received a phone call from the Mombasa land registry telling her that the person she’d been renting the space from didn’t own it, and had in fact been squatting there for 40 years.
It turned out the real owner was an elderly lady who sent her son to the premises. He turned up with an assault rifle gun in his hands, telling them to leave the premises where they had been teaching.
“He turned up with a great big Kalashnikov, I’ve never forgotten it,” Ruth said. “And he said ‘this is my mother’s land. I’m going to bulldoze it on Friday’, and I’m like what? You know, all these kids, there’s like 300 children there.”
Because of the legal dispute over who owned the land, she decided that they had to move. It was around this time that a friend, Augustus, told her of a plot of land over the road from where they had been.
When Ruth went to visit it, it was promising, as it already had electricity and running water. However, it was only half an acre, and to get a school registered in Kenya, the land has to be at least one acre.
“So we knocked on doors around the plot and next door was an Italian guy called Bruno. He said ‘I want to retire to Italy. You can have this’ and that was half an acre as well, and it had just a dividing wall between the two plots so it was perfect,” she said.
He also let them have a nine-bedroom bungalow which could house offices and some classes, while large marquee tents were used for some of the other classrooms.
At that time, Ruth thought that they would only need to use the tents for around six months, but she later discovered they’d be using them for many years while the school was being built.
“You can imagine when it was the rainy seasons, the little ones and Alice the headteacher had to take their shoes off to get through the mud. There was also a temporary kitchen, and we had to throw up some toilets because we moved in a big rush,” she said.
They interviewed many contractors before settling on one who was a “marvellous artist” who painted pictures on the walls of the classrooms that were “proper works of art”.
Eventually, Ruth was able to buy the premises and now, the Malindi Bright Future Academy has “nine beautiful classrooms”, covered walkways so that the pupils have protection from the heavy rain season and a library.
For the “little ones”, Ruth added there is a big sandpit, water play and lots of toys. But one of the things she is most proud of is setting up a hygiene room that has a shower, wash basin and toilet, as well as clean underwear.
This is because, she explained, girls can start their periods much younger because of the hot weather, and many “take a week off every month” because “they can’t afford sanitary products”.
Ruth said that the hygiene room, which was created thanks to sponsorship from the Soroptimist International Jersey group, the girls will no longer have to miss weeks of education.
The 230 children – of which 60 % wouldn’t be in education without the school – also receive a porridge breakfast programme each morning, which Ruth said is “so essential”, as well as a “nutritious lunch programme” to ensure they are fed and able to learn.
After several years of hurdles, Ruth officially celebrated the grand opening on 27 February at an event attended by 800 people.
“It was a marvellous day”, she said, describing how the children from all age groups sung, dance and read poems, before they ate a traditional dish and had cake together.
Ruth said: “Looking back, someone said to me ‘you might as well give up Ruth. You’re never going to build a school in Kenya’ and I said ‘watch me’. It was actually the impetus I needed. I thought, I can’t let them down.”
The next project is to raise money for a computer room that will have 20 desktops that they plan to install in a space in Bruno’s house.
There are 68 children sponsored by people in Jersey and UK. which helps to pay the teachers’ salaries and monthly expenses. Anyone wishing to help can contact the Friends of Malindi Bright Future Academy by emailing ruthannsmith1950@gmail.com.
