Happy and Hopeful Autumn Season's Wishes to you and yours
from the whole Star of Hope Family,
Leonard, Gladwell, the teachers and staff in Kenya, the USA Board
(Vicki, Dana, Marsha and Bill), and most of all, the children.
Remarkably, school was in session the next day. Leonard and staff immediately set to cleaning up and ordering materials to repair the classroom roof, their highest priority. The kids were excited to help with the clean-up and saw it all as a bit of an adventure. You have to love the resilience of children!
Thanks to the on-going generous contributions of you, our supporters, we have an emergency reserve and we were able to send funds for repairs immediately. In addition, we applied for, and received, a grant from The Rotary Club of Roseville to help defray the significant costs.
What could have been a stunning loss to the school was, instead, a manageable problem. We couldn’t have done it without you!
As we sum up the last quarter of the year, we are delighted that we have accomplished so much. We had a good academic year; with our new clinic up and running, we were able to immediately treat children who became ill or got hurt; and we were able to bounce back from the windstorm! Thank you again. We are thriving because of your continued love and continued support!
Sincerely, Leonard
Providing your first and last names really helps us keep things straight!
A freak windstorm on Sunday, September 3rd caused significant damage to Star of Hope and the nearby village. Amazingly, not a single student or staff member was injured.
Star of Hope’s damage included the loss of a roof to one of the classroom buildings, a portion of the perimeter wall was knocked down, and Esther’s Pavilion (an outdoor thatched-roof gathering area named in honor of Leonard’s mother) was completely destroyed.
In addition, several trees were lost and most of the plantain crops was destroyed. Fortunately, the corn crop – the primary food source – had recently been harvested.
Star of Hope boys and girls soccer teams won the
Championship in a pool of 7 primary schools!
October 2023 Newsletter
In June, thanks to a grant from The Rotary Club of Roseville, the school was able to purchase three sewing machines. They are being incorporated into the kids’ coursework (reading, patterns, creativity and business skills). We hope to acquire more machines in the future and create a vocational training program.
You can see from the pictures how excited the children (and adults) are!
Clinton in hospital after the accident, recovering with crutch, standing tall!
Last spring, we reported in our newsletter that 7th grader Clinton Mukenya suffered a serious leg injury falling off the back of a truck on his way to school at Star of Hope. A severe compound fracture required surgery and hospitalization. From a hospital stay, to recuperating at home, to a pair of crutches…. to a full recovery! Clinton was able to keep up on his studies and is back to full attendance at the school. Yay for Clinton!
Dear friends and partners,
We feel so grateful, once again,
to send an update on our school’s progress. First and foremost, I am grateful for the successful visit to Seattle this August. I reveled in the break from the fast pace of running the school. More importantly, the
US Board and I had very successful planning sessions and it was so good to meet some of you and get
to interact. I wish I could have met every one of you!
starofhope@starofhopecentre.org
Star of Hope Centre USA
5015 Magnolia Street, Port Townsend, WA 98368
501(c)3 Tax ID: #45-3605509