Destiny Garden School Volunteers

On 16 and 17 June 2010, children from Destiny Garden School competed in the Mombasa Divisional level School Choirs competitions achieving remarkable results for a school that has only been in existence for 13 months. 7 out of the 12 songs qualified to go on to the District level, which took place on 23 and 24 June.

At District level, it was mainly the nursery children (5 to 8 year olds) that qualified to go onto the Provincial level, where they competed against 50 other schools with more than 5000 children performing, gaining first place in one category and second in another and this was against the ‘rich’ kids from Nyali, Bamburi and Mombasa.

Jacob, the school’s director, was proud to see his pupils outshining others not only with their singing, but also with their performance and their appearance. Fortunately volunteers’ contributions enabled Jacob to have new costumes made up for the occasion.

Destiny Garden School’s performance in the Provincial competition has qualified three groups, 24 children in total, to compete in the National competition of the Kenyan Music Festival, which is to be held in Kakamega , Western Kenya, about 14 hours drive away from Mombasa, and is taking place on 6th & 7th August 2010. This is a great achievement from a small school in a poor suburb of Mombasa, who only formed the choirs in March this year, and a huge opportunity for these children, many of whom have never traveled away from their villages before. 

*** Latest News - DGS came 6th and 7th in the Nationals

Kenyan Provincial Music Festival

Rehearsing at the Festival

Competing at District Level

The £700 needed to cover transport, food and accommodation costs has now been very generously met by the Martyn Donaldson Music Trust, MDMT We believe the children will benefit tremendously from the experience and will post the results of their National entry on here as soon as it is known!

Competing at District Level

Dr and Mrs George, their daughters Chloe and Cassidy, and their Grandparents, all from the USA, visited Destiny Garden School to open the new Nursery building that they have most generously funded.

A concert was performed by the DGS children and great celebrations took place for the grand opening of the new Nursery. The red ribbon was cut and a plaque unveiled, which read " Nursery Section Building Kindly Sponsored By The Chloe and Cassidy George Foundation, U.S.A. 08/04/2010"

The Georges brought with them gifts for all the children, together with some educational and medical supplies. The photo below shows the family distributing some of these to the children.

A full report is on our sister website.

Volunteer Guy    Christmas and New Year 2009-2010

Guy Tolhurst from the UK escaped the cold and snowy UK Christmas and New Year spending it in Mombasa, working at Destiny Garden School, and having, in his words, ‘the most rewarding time of his life.’ 

Guy brought with him Christmas presents of Magic Slates for each of the 180 children and also provided the school with a goat, which gave them a delicious and nutritious Christmas dinner. 

After the Christmas celebrations and during the school break, the school became a holiday camp. Guy therefore had plenty of playtime with the children, teaching them many different games. Two football matches were organised against other schools, the first one being lost but the second one was won by Destiny Garden School! 

One day the children were taken to Nyali beach, many of them had never been to the beach before let alone swam in the sea.

Prize Giving and Graduation Day       11th December 2009 

On Friday 11th December, parents, guardians, teachers and local dignitaries joined us at the school to celebrate the graduation of Kindergarten Class 3 and to see children presented with their Awards for their end of year achievements.

Those honouring us with their presence and presenting the prizes were, the local government Education Chairperson, Mr Yusuf, the Funds Coordination C.E.O. for Projects, Mr Changoma, together with Madam Mishi Juma. They also provided drinks/sodas for the children and arranged a PA system for some music, making the whole event a memorable and an enjoyable celebrati on. 

Two volunteers from the USA, Suzy and Kathryn, and another from Germany, Anika, all currently working at the school, helped to make this possible by providing much of the funding for the event. They arranged for the hiring of the gowns and bought the prizes together with special gifts for the teachers to thank them for their dedicated work during the year. Small gifts were given to all the children and the prizes were given to those who had achieved an award for performance or shown special talents during the year.

Jane visits Destiny Garden School Again           

1 December 2009
The children had a special afternoon when Jane, from the UK, visited Destiny Garden School.
There was great excitement amongst the children when they received a party bag containing a pencil, pen, rubber, lollipop, sharpener and a small diary book. She bought fruits - mangos and bananas - for everyone.

Jane also donated some drums to the school - one with taps for handwashing, one for drinking water and a drum with a tap to use for sanitation.

These gifts were from pupils of a UK school, Westende Junior School in Wokingham, which Jane’s daughter attends. Jane also brought with her 50 letters written by the pupils at Westende and some of Destiny Garden School children had a special lesson where they wrote letters back. 

This is Jane’s second visit to Destiny Garden School, she visited the school earlier in the year and donated gifts that were used for the Mid Year Awards in May.

Staff & Students of Kenya Methodist University visit DGS:      20 October 09

On 20th October 2009, which is a holiday [Kenyatta day], Destiny Garden School received a visit from 36 staff and students from the Kenya Methodist University, Mombasa. They also very generously brought foodstuffs to help with the School’s feeding programme.

Destiny Garden School played games with the University, beating them in volley ball first round 25-12, and second round 25-6, but the University beat DGS 2-1 in football. see photo. of the team.

Destiny Garden School gave 35 tree plants to the University for planting in the University grounds. These had been grown by the school as part of their environmental project. 

The staff and students from the Kenya Methodist University have promised to visit the school again and help with the childrens’ training on environmental studies.

Mount Kilimanjaro Trek    Saturday 3^rd  – 10^th October 2009

Kathy James, a UK nurse,  spent some time volunteering at Destiny Garden School in May 2009 whilst doing a nursing placement at a local clinic in Mombasa. She has done a sponsored climb to the summit of Kilimanjaro, which stands at 3550 metres (19,341 ft) high.  She raised 50% of her sponsorship for Destiny Garden School and the other 50% for the Mombasa clinic where she worked.

Kathy said the climb of Kilimanjaro was the hardest thing she had ever done.  Well done Kathy!

Farewell to Volunteer Jackie:            Friday 16th October 2009

A special celebration was put on by Destiny Garden School in honour of Jackie Price who has been doing voluntary work at the School for the last 6 months. The teachers put on a performance of singing and dancing and, not to be outdone, the Children in each class also put on their own show. A special cake was made and the whole school said a big thank you to Jackie who has contributed so much during her time in Mombasa. 

Jackie returns to Australia on Monday 19th October. It was hard to say goodbye to all the friends she has made and to the wonderful children at the School to whom she gave a special farewell present. 

The celebration party to thank Jackie for her
great contribution to the school.

Jackie says "working at Destiny Garden School has been a truly rewarding experience and I cannot speak highly enough of what Jacob is doing to help these poor and vulnerable children. The teaching staff are dedicated in ensuring they all receive a good standard of education and they firmly believe that a way out of the poverty trap is through education".

Friends of DGS visit the School:                Monday 21st September 2009

On 21st September, which was an IDD Muslim holiday, 13 well wishers came to Destiny Garden School prior to their ‘facebook’ meeting. They were accompanied by the renowned writer Ms Maureen Mudi (with the Standard Newspaper) and 4 tax officers (Kenya custom officials) and Miss Mombasa University Campus, with few of her friends. Destiny Garden School won the soccer match against these visitors 1-0!

Click this link to read Ms Mudi’s report on the visit in the Kenyan Standard 

Special ’Sports’ Morning:       Friday 18th September 2009 

Judy Roper and her friends from the UK raised funds to buy some sports equipment for the Children at Destiny Garden School.  There was great excitement on Friday when the Children were introduced to the equipment. They had the opportunity to play some of the sports with a special mid morning break of orange juice and biscuits. 

A sad farewell was said to Judy who returned back to the UK the next day. She spent 3 weeks photographing the children at Destiny Garden School for the sponsorship programme and the new website.

Building of new Office/Storage Block:             September 2009 

Judy Roper’s fundraising event in the UK has enabled the office and storage block to be completed - pictures of the work in progress

Mid-Year Prize Giving               August 2009

Prizes were given for the best three pupils in each class – these were based on exams taken during the year, Further encouragement awards were given for ‘Most Improved’, ‘Best Sportsman’, ‘Best Dressed’, ‘Best Behaved’ etc to ensure all pupils had a chance to be included in some way.

Destiny Garden School, Mombasa, Kenya.  Volunteer, Sponsor or Donate to help educate and feed children.