Primary school close to Njoro

Very early on a Saturday morning in May a few Elfu Bob members set off to Njoro where we had been in touch with a small, but growing community of formerly displaced persons. The primary school in the community could certainly use some attention, the black boards did not deserve to be called just that, most class rooms did not have doors, the roof of the school was not properly fixed, which was a pain at times of rain. As early as 9 o’clock we arrived in Nakuru where the Elfu Bob-ers met some of the people with whom we had been in touch. Together we did our shopping in one of Nakuru’s hardware stores, filling a truck with rain gutters, doors, water tanks, black boards, black board paint, ridges, hinges, locks and so on. Upon arrival at the school (by then it was early afternoon) we painted some of the blackboards while one of the parents had climbed on the roof of the school to install the ridges, thereby closing the roof and protecting the class rooms from the rain that started to come down later that same day.
(The picture shows one of the best blackboards the school had)

Rhino Art Project

Rhino Art Project – Mkuru slums, industrial area Nairobi

On 6th of July I used a donation of the Elfu Bob (Ksh 12,000) to buy materials for the Rhino Art Project in Nairobi. This project is based in the Mkuru slums, a couple of informal settlements in the Industrial Area of Nairobi (off Entreprise road). It targets youth from these slums who have a talent for art, to train them and see if they can improve their live by selling some of their work. Currently there are around 25 boys (age 16 – 24) participating in the project, which started last January. John Silver, an artist himself, initiated the project and trains them in several techniques.
The boys have no further formal education than primary school. Some of them were engaged in criminal activities (robbing, drugs) before joining the project. Some girls also participated, but according to John, they are shy or afraid of the majority of boys. He hopes to offer them a separate training in the near future. In my modest opinion, some of the boys are quite talented. They were delighted with the materials for the project, especially because we bought oil-paint. They looked forward to working with this technique.
A big issue for the project is how to market some of the works produced. If they can sell some of the works, they can use this income for new materials. In that way, the project could be more sustainable. There are close contacts with the RAMOMA art center at the Go-Down and once a month (I think the last Saturday?) there is an exhibition there. However it would be good to organize some more exhibitions or other forms of marketing. Anybody suggestions? Let me know.

I will go back to the project in a couple of weeks, to see what they made with the paint and other materials provided. At that time, I will also make some pictures.

Arjan Spit arjan_spit@hotmail.com

Welcome to Elfu Bob Club Blog!

This is a cool and new way (hey at least for us!) to keep Elfu Bob members updated on the ongoing projects in Kenya. The "Elfu Bob Club" (elfu=one thousand; bob=shilling) was formed in Nairobi in August 2003. KSh 1000 (or KSh 500 from those who can afford less) is collected each month from individual members.

The idea behind the Elfu Bob Club is to have a simple and no-overhead mechanism that provides a one-time shot of financing (usually in the form of equipment and materials) to small social and/or environmental projects.

100% of the funds collected go directly to projects in Kenya. Each month we support a different worthwhile project.

For more information about Elfu Bob visit our homepage http://geocities.com/elfu_bob