PROMISE MADE – PROMISE KEPT

With the support of the International Ministries of American Baptist Churches USA, The Association for Integrated Mission – AMI in French—has just completed the Kibati Basic School project which had three following phases:

1. Construction of a block of 3 classrooms and toilets for both the students and the teachers.
2. Rehabilitation of 8 classrooms
3. Equipping the entire school with bench desks for students, tables and chairs for teachers, and a training for the teachers

After the completion of all the phases, AMI organized an official inauguration of the buildings on September 14, 2024, and presented that beautiful gift to the parents, students, and teachers of Kibati. For me, one of the highlights was presenting a gift of notebooks and some cash to a girl who scored the best not only at the Kibati Basic School but also in the entire district. This showed how much the training of teachers has been effective; to see that girl in a very remote area like Kibati to have such spectacular results on the National Competitive Exams.

We believe this project will be a remedy for massive dropout rates caused mainly by the conditions of the school. Kibati is only two miles away from the border with Rwanda. Again, with the training of teachers and the motivation by AMI training organizers, 90% of the 9th grade (equivalent to middle school) students successfully passed the National Competitive Exam to high school. This is truly incredible, considering that so many schools on have 5% or fewer students going on to high school.

While we rejoice for this achievement, we have noted a big need for electricity at Kibati. With electricity, the school could make use of computers and printers. Unfortunately, it will take years for such a remote area to get access to electricity from the national power grid. We have made a study for the feasibility of solar energy. At this moment we need $12,000 to install solar power equipment powerful enough to provide energy not only for computers and printers; but enough to make available to the local community a charging station for mobile phones and other small electronics at a small fee, the proceeds of which would help maintain the solar equipment.