Dear friends and well-wishers of Father Symon Jubilee School, belated Happy New Year. It has been a while since my last Habari News and for that reason I wish to mention that 2014 has truly been an historic year with successes and challenges that were possible but not an easy journey during the year. As usual it is not easy to try and summarize activities of one school year into a one or two page report but there are those highlights that are outstanding and may also shine a light on directions that may encourage us as we look ahead to 2015. While the end of 2015 will mark the 10th anniversary of Jubilee School groundbreaking, 2014 marked the 10th anniversary of the preparation year when I visited Kenya after being in the US for three years. It was then I looked for and bought a plot where the school stands in preparation for marking my Jubilee year that began with the groundbreaking for the construction of the school buildings on December 7, 2005.
As time went by I gradually introduced friends and well-wishers to this School project which I had hoped to develop as I continued to do my priestly ministry in the US. At some stage some friends viewed my efforts as a great charity to my people in Kenya and so they advised that it was better to form an American Charitable organization, established under the laws of the State of New York and registered as a 501(c) (3) non-profit organization, with a federal tax ID number so that well-wishers may easily extend their donations as charity to the school. We were able to form this organization following the legal registration and we named this organization, Friends of Fr. Symon Jubilee School and it was given a Federal EIN number. Its aim is very well stated in the first few lines of its web home page (schoolfornomads.org). “Our purpose is to support an elementary school for grades 1 through 8, recently built in Narok, Kenya by Fr. Symon Ntaiyia, for the benefit of children, both of the Maasai tribe (who primarily reside in the region)” and from other tribes. With the majority of contributions through this charitable organization the school has developed as a learning institution for the Maasai children and the results have been realized, with all the graduating students in the last three years’ classes making it in public examinations for High School. I must mention that the school has been receiving substantial donations from contributors in Austria-Europe but not through the Friends of Fr. Symon Jubilee School organization in the US.
The friends who were involved in registration of the Charitable Organization have found it fitting to dissolve it with the understanding that the aim of it was for capital campaign and the goal has been achieved or “The goals and capital campaign that we set out to achieve in 2005 have been accomplished” as stated in the letter dated August 29, 2014 that was delivered by the President and Secretary /Treasurer of the organization on behalf of Directors, to all of the donors who have generously given to the friends of Fr. Symon School for Nomads over the years. This letter can also be found in the Blog page of the Website “schoolfornomads.org.”
With the dissolution of Friends of Fr. Symon Jubilee School for Nomads Charitable Organization, I would like to make clear that Father Ntaiyia Jubilee Primary Boarding School (as it is officially registered in Kenya) will continue as a non-profit, private, primary boarding school in Narok, Kenya whose mission will be to educate the children of the nomadic tribes of the region with special emphasis and outreach to the Maasai. This was projected as my legacy before I started the school and has been my firm persuasion with the donors. However, it must be understood that parents have to pay school fees to meet education for their children.
There has certainly been a number of questions, sent to me via email or phone regarding the dissolution of the organization. We all will agree that it feels great to have reached our goals which confirmed just how generous all friends of Jubilee school have been with their donations having in mind that no donation is too small. My people in Kenya will always be thankful to those who kept connecting with the people who made it all happen. Thank you to everyone who participated, sponsored, and otherwise helped make it such a successful and memorable accomplishment.
Even though I set up the School to be self-sustaining, gifts and donations from well-wishers will always help the School to meet some expenditures such as purchase of text books, learning material and some repairs. This makes it possible to keep school fees affordable for parents and without increasing it to cater for such expenses. I hope a new possibility will come our way that can lawfully allow the school to accept tax exempt donations in the future.
The 2014 school year went on very well as reported in occasional “Habari” News in the blog of the school’s website and with many activities in the year. The remarkable one this time is that once again we had successful candidates in the graduating class – out of 25 students who took the final examinations 24 passed and will go to High School. I have been in touch with the parents of the one girl who did not make it well and they are looking for the possibility of her joining a private High School, and it is possible. The government has reported that only half of all the candidates had made it in this examination. We can say that 80% of our candidates did make it this year. With the dissolution of the organization stated above, the school has a new website that is already active even though it is still being organized: https://mhl.hxi.mybluehost.me/website_e30e867a/.
Fr. Symon