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Welcome to the summer edition of the KES newsletter. Here are some of things we cover
So far in 2015 we’ve been able to sponsor 7 new students and 6 of those started in January/February this year (the start of the school year).
All the school reports from term one are now distributed to the various sponsors and we’re delighted to see how well most are settling in.
It’s a big change for the students to find themselves in a boarding school – and in some cases a long way from home.
Here are the new students:
 Josephat came from a primary school in Kathonzweni where he was a prefect, his home is about 200 miles from BDA. He scored well in the national exams but was waiting for 12 months for a sponsor to enable him to join BDA. He went straight into form 2 and came 14 out of 23 in his class.
 Harriett has no knowledge or contact with her paternal family and her mother abandoned the family, disappeared and has never been traced, leaving Harriett and her grandmother behind. Harriet’s grandmother is sickly with diabetes, hypertension and in her mid-70s. She was referred to us by John Macharia of the Child Welfare Society of Kenya. She achieved a B+ in her first term (this is the university entry grade).
 James is one of the two sponsored scholars resulting from Matlock Rotary’s 2014 Dovedale Dipper (with help from a Rotary District Grant) and supported by Rotarian Tony Forsyth and Sandra Forsyth. He comes from the Masai village of Namuncha and was referred to us by a contact at Anglia University who have been trying to find places for bright students from the village primary school. In Form 2 James was 3 out of 17 students.
 Stephen came in at 2nd with another A grade. Described as co-operative and courteous he came from Githima primary school near the Aberdare National Park. His dad died in 2011 and his mum is severely learning disabled. He has 5 siblings.
Rachel entered the school for the May term so no reports as yet. She’s an orphan who was living in Gilgil near Naivasha. Her mum died last year and she was being looked after by her guardian, Dolly. Dolly has terminal cancer and sought a placement for Rachel as she could no longer look after her.
Joseph is the other student under the Rotary banner and supported by Rotarian Albert Ripamonti and Rosie Ripamonti. Joseph was 7 out of 17 in his first term, with an A grading. Unusually for our students both his parents are alive. His father is 52 and mum 48. Neither are in full-time employment, they’re casual workers, doing very small-scale food crop farming on their small piece of land. Joseph has 4 siblings, 1 of them is in school and the rest are casual workers. The family was greatly affected by the 2007/8 post election violence.
Samuel is personally sponsored by Trustee Steph and has hit the jackpot and come top of his class of 17. He’s a local boy who came from the Olbonata primary school, where despite his family’s poverty (no working parents and 8 siblings) he scored highly in the national exams last year. Keep it up Samuel!
All in all 7 scholars with lots of potential.
It’s credit to the scrutiny of the selection process that the new scholarships that we were able to award this year, seem to have started extremely well.
Simon and Nicky are looking forward to meeting the new scholars when they visit BDA in September.
And even more great news - we have commitments from sponsors for 2 new scholars for the September term.
Thanks to everyone who participated in our supporters survey, the comments and feedback was very useful. The majority of responders said they were happy with 3-4 newsletters per year and mainly email correspondents. If you didn't fill it in, you still can by clicking here. Your feedback really is important to us.
It may seem a long way off, but we're thinking of creating some KES charity Christmas cards for 2015 using student designs. Would you be interested? And if so, how much would you be willing to pay? We're hoping to cover the production costs with sponsorship to help ensure 100% of KES funds to go to to students. Let us know your thoughts by emailing news@kes-charity.co.uk
Remember lots of holiday providers and travel agents are registered with easyfundraising.org.uk so you can raise money for KES, simply for going on holiday! It won’t cost you a penny more, but KES gets vital extra funds and as the name implies, it’s so easy to do.
We have 29 supporters, and so far they have raised nearly £1,000 by shopping online. If you could spread the news, that would be great.
And they've even just started accepting high street purchases, simply register your card and each time it's used in a participating retailer, KES get's a donation.
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