St Charles Lwanga Secondary School is located in Nairobi, Kenya. Inverness County Cares (ICC) and Chalice Canada (chalice.ca) celebrate the many accomplishments made possible at St. Charles Lwanga School (SCLS) through our mutual partnership during the past year. ICC is proud to have reached its $60,000 fundraising goal, which was matched by Chalice Canada. Representatives of both organizations have met twice to plan and develop our partnership and provide maximum benefits for SCLS.
ICC continues to work co-cooperatively with students at Dalbrae Academy who have contributed to SCLS for the past five years. ICC member and native of West Mabou, NS, Betty Jane Cameron, a nurse/midwife and music teacher, spent six weeks at SCLS mentoring, teaching music and organizing ground work for a school safety policy. In addition ICC member, Rev. Duncan MacIsaac, then parish priest in Inverness and Broad Cove, NS, spent ten days at SCLS, celebrating Eucharist with staff and students as well as counseling and mentoring. While in Kenya, Betty Jane and Fr. Duncan participated in a school evaluation day with representatives of Chalice and SCLS with a vision of future development.
SCLS received a monthly budget from ICC and Chalice to cover simple and healthy food and nutrition for the students and provide much needed new toilets and wash areas and upgrade older ones. We are thankful to the Brothers of St. Charles Lwanga who constructed a new chapel for the SCL students on the school grounds. This year SCLS mourned the death of student of Stanley Wanjala, who died in March 2017. His funeral expenses were taken care of by our two organizations. Forty-three students graduated from SCLS and three merited Kenyan government scholarships to continue with university studies. In addition to this ICC members and associates provided scholarships to some SCL graduates for further studies. A formal Child Protection Policy was created by the SCLS administration to ensure the safety of students.
ICC and Chalice budgeted $1,500 for preliminary architectural planning to develop a school in an area, which is much more suited to provide an agricultural program for the SCL students. In addition to our regular fundraising, sufficient funding was acquired to purchase five acres of land for this property. A proposed new school site of ten acres will cost of $30,000.
ICC has developed its own website (invernesscountycares.com) as well as the SCL website (lwangachildren.com), keeping both current on a monthly basis.
Thank you to all our generous supporters.
