CURRENT UPDATES.
We greet you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and we pray that the Lord has kept you and your families safe. Here in Huruma we are all safe and healthy and we thank God for His continued protection over our lives. The children are all doing fine and they are enjoying this long break from school.
In Kenya we are currently experiencing a second wave of the Covid-19 which is more severe than the first wave of the pandemic. The disease has now swept across all the regions in Kenya, that is both urban and rural areas. Since the outbreak of the disease in March, Covid-19 was mainly concentrated in the capital Nairobi and Mombasa, the tourism bedrock at the Coast, but now it has spread to all our rural areas. Currently the statistics show that we have 71,729 cases where 47,262 are recovered cases, 23,165 active cases and 1,302 fatality cases.
The government has announced that the country might go back to the initial restrictions put in place if the numbers continue to rise. That is, closing down the borders as well as shutting down re-opened businesses and sectors. The rise in infections has seen the disease capture people’s attention for once since its outbreak in Kenya. People have started to put more seriousness in wearing masks as well as putting extra caution in hand washing and sanitization.
Schools are still shut down except for grade 4, grade 8 and grade 12 who are scheduled to sit for the National Examination in March 2021. The three grades have been fairing on well and the students are really happy to be back to school. The teachers are also excited to have their students back in class and they are really working smart on catching up with the 2020 school syllabus. As a school we have added more hand washing stations in various points in the school compound as well as outside every class. A few years ago we received a lot of mask donations which were in our clinic and they have really come in handy this time round as all students are expected to have their masks on at all times. We thank God that none of our students who returned to school from home have fallen ill of the virus, and for this we are grateful to God for good health.
For the remaining grades, the teachers have changed from online learning to a different style of learning. The Ministry of Education allowed schools to do outdoor classes and we as a Home tried that out where our teachers are utilizing the grounds and holding lessons in different spots here in the compound. It is an exciting way of learning and the children are really enjoying the fresh air as they undertake their different subjects. E-learning was quite beneficial to our students as they learned how to work in groups as well as do research projects on their own without the help of their teachers. It also brought out leadership skills in some of our students as they managed their peers on how to go about the academic assignments given by their teachers. As schools remain closed we are grateful to God that we as a Home and School have not halted on our learning schedules despite the disruption of the school calendar this year.
We are sad to report that we lost our school Librarian, Mr. Alex Muchesia, through a hit and run accident in one on our major towns here in Nairobi. He apparently did not report to work to work on the 19th October 2020 and we as an institution together with his family started a search for him as it was unusual for him to miss work. Sadly on 5th November 2020 we finally found his body in one of our major morgues and he was laid to rest on 9th November 2020. His demise is a blow to all of us here in Huruma but we trust that he is in a better place. We loved him but God loved him more.
Our university and college students have also resumed back to school and we are happy to see most of them back to class. Most of the students who were on online learning have resumed back to class and they are also excited to be back to school and interact with their instructors. All students are being urged to wear masks at all times as well as to constantly wash their hands with soap and water. We pray that by the end of year most of them would have covered their coursework which they may have missed out in the earlier months when they were not in school.
We as a Home are thankful to God because our children have not lacked food on their table despite the ongoing pandemic crisis. God has been using different people to donate foodstuff and toiletries to the Home and for this we are grateful to all our local friends and partners. We also thank God for all our international friends and partners for ensuring that our kids are well taken care of during this pandemic through their selfless sacrifice shown through sponsoring our children. May God bless all of you our friends and partners and always know that we appreciate you. Let us all continue keeping safe and let us not cease in prayer for this pandemic to be curbed and controlled. We love you and we as Huruma Family are always praying for you and your families.
