Chepnyal

In the mountain-top parish of Chepnyal,one of the sisters has been teaching in the Primary School since the beginning in January 2002.

Here the concentration in mainly on English, but also covers religion and other subjects. Additional time, including counselling, is given to the senior girls who face many difficult situations and decisions.

Preparations are also underway to extend the work already started for the pre-primary school children.  It is hoped to develop this Nursery, to a possible five locations around the mountain during the next few years.

Women’s Development, covering many areas such as cookery, knitting and sewing or other small income-generating projects, is carried out in the different villages around the mountain. This is mostly skill-based training and also affords the women, especially young mothers, the opportunity to come together and to share experiences and learning. There are plans to develop a Polytecnic Centre in Chepnyal itself where course leading to a qualification could be offered.

With a good Clinic/Dispensery already in place it was decided not to duplicate this work, focusing instead on Health Education. This is home-based and concentrates on nutrition, hygiene, disease control, promoting clean water schemes, natural family planning and taking care of handicapped children and people who are mentally ill.

Adult Literacy, particularly for the women, has also been identified as an important area of development. The remoteness of Chepnyal, the mountain road and the lack of public transport mean there is little communication with even the nearest town, Kitale, some 100 Kilometres away. The people belong to the Pokot Tribe and speak their own dialect. To enable them to converse, trade and interact outside their own area literacy in Kiswahili is necessary. Thirty eight Kiswahili-speaking people from the mountain villages were trained and then returned to their villages where they conduct literacy classes for the local people who are encouraged to attend.