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Up until the end of last year the boys had been attending four schools in the local area. Because of the extreme poverty in the area and the realtively large number of orphaned children, the schools in Elburgon are under a lot of pressure with very large class sizes and small numbers of staff. For some time we had been hoping to move all the boys to St Peter's School for Boys, which is the best school in town. We were very pleased when St Peter's agreed to take them all this year, and thanks to help from one of our sponsors we have been able to buy the extra uniforms. The boys all look very smart, and are really enjoying the school. We are hopeful that their education will continue to improve - they are certainly determined to do their very best.
This Christmas the children each received a shoebox full of gifts from their sponsors. A special meal was laid on by the staff, and the children's nearest relatives were invited over to share in the excitement as the shoe boxes were distributed to the boys. The sponsors' imagination was amazing, and the boxes contained a wide variety of presents which were very much appreciated. There was even enough money given to us to enable us to buy small gifts for the staff and shoe boxes for their children. The continued support of our sponsors is so much appreciated and makes a very big difference to the lives of these children; we only wish they could have been there to see the boxes opened.
With twenty boys, six staff and their families living and working in the home, we have been needing to supplement our two toilets for some time. With money raised by St Andrews Church in Woking, England we started work on a new toilet block in September 2009 and the project is now nearing completion.
There are four toilets and ten washing cubicles for the children, one toilet and wash room for the staff, one visitors' toilet and a urinal. The roof area will house a water tank that will supply the wash rooms and the flush toilets. The building is built from stone and will provide us with enough capacity to grow beyond the twenty boys we have at present.
