Akamba Children's Education Fund (ACEF) is advancing the education and health of the 900 plus vulnerable children that attend the Brainhouse Academy situated in Mathare North, Kenya Akamba Children's Education Fund (ACEF) is looking at innovative ways to raise funds for Brainhouse Academy. ACEF - Akamba Children’s Education Fund was setup to help the Brainhouse Academy. Brainhouse Academy receives no Government funding or development support. Brainhouse Academy is a school crammed from wall to wall and floor to ceiling with 900 plus kids who have a passion for life and learning.

RECENT FUNDRASING



Many of these advances have been achieved through the visits that volunteers make out to the Brainhouse Academy. Volunteers offer a huge range of skills – from painting classrooms, to fitting solar panels, from building a “shamba” to working with teachers and the community.

Click here to read more about one recent trip made by teachers from the Manchester Communications Academy.

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What we do

Food

To ensure the wellbeing of the students we provide a monthly allowance to the school to support their feeding programme of providing one basic meal a day to over 900 students.

Two vegetable gardens or “shamba” have been established to supplement the basic diets of the children. The Seeds for Africa charity have provided huge support donating plants and funds to build an irrigation water storage facility.

Physical environment

We make improvements to the environment and the facilities of the school in many ways, for example:

  • Installing donated solar power panels to provide lighting for the school and basic access to electricity
  • Installing a small pump to draw water into a tank providing limited running water
  • New classrooms have been built, painted and decorated
  • Lighting has been improved in the classrooms
  • In the dormitories new beds have been purchased

We will continue to make grants to the school for general supplies such as pots and pans, tools, bedding etc.

Health and Wellbeing

In additional to the key improvements in nutrition provided by the feeding programme we also provide medical assistance for children with severe health issues

We have preventative interventions such as support scheme established with the “Special Parents” to educate and support students through issues such as relationships, sex, HIV and bullying.

We support day to day health and wel-being issues such as providing shoes plus other items such as mugs and condoms and in particular our ‘Campaign for Dignity’ provides sanitary wear for the girls.

Educational Opportunities

Many teachers have been involved in trips to Brainhouse4 and have exchanged ideas and techniques on effective teaching with minimal resources.

We have provided many educational resources such as reconditioned laptops, Overhead projectors, and we have created a small library of books for the students,

Art and craft materials have been provided and sport have been enhanced for the students and staff including some football, volleyball and netball equipment.

Solar Power

Thanks to the wonderful donation of solar panels from Mitibushi Electric In October 2011 a team was able to install sun generated power into Brainhouse Academy.

Mitsubishi Electric has a mission to make a world of difference to peoples’ lives by helping them heat, cool, ventilate and power their environments through the use of advanced technology. This donation of solar panels has provided the school with a limited but reliable source of electricity ‘A dream of our school’, as the staff told us.

Originally the plan was to provide lighting to enable the children to carry on with their studies on cloudy days and at night but it has also improved security at the school as a security light can be left on at night. Having light to read books into the evening has been amazing for students and has lead to the request for a library on-site so that their thirst for reading can be refreshed!

The Headteacher said “We have continuous lighting in the school now, children now can read anytime. They can come very early in the morning and switch on the lights, and the lights go on and stay on! We have a very big thank you to Mitubushi for donating the solar to us”.

Water supply

Water is a very limited resource in the slums of Nairobi. Because they are unplanned settlements there is no network of clean water pipes. Yet providing for the water needs of 940 plus children is essential for hygiene and cooking as well as drinking. The children drew up water with a bucket from an underground source for some of these functions, but in October 2011 ACEF was able to transform this. Working with staff, ACEF volunteers installed a 10,000 litre water tank, laid pipes and used energy from the solar panels to drive a small pump. Water can now be pumped to the tank, stored where it is needed and drawn off by tap - a huge benefit for the hygiene of all the children.

Andy Wrennall who played a major role in this work commented “I’m so pleased that the improvements we made around the school will make a real difference to everyone there.”Aggrey – Principal of Brainhouse also enthused “Just look around – you can see the difference you have made in ten days!"