Welcome. A simple word. A polite or friendly form of greeting, and a way of expressing that you gladly receive someone. I think that I heard the word “welcome” more than any other during my visit to the Future of Taru Academy in September 2022. Upon entering a classroom or encountering somebody in the school yard; “Hello” I would say, “Welcome” would come the reply. Upon receiving a plate of food at meal time; “Thank you” I would say, “Welcome” would come the reply.
I think that this one, simple word defines my visit to Taru more than any other; I was very much made to feel incredibly “welcome”.
My name is Mark and I am a Trustee of the Future of Taru charity, along with also being a sponsor of 2 children, 1 at the Primary School and another at the High School. I have visited Taru once before, in January 2020, when the world was a different place. At that time, the Primary School was fairly well established, whilst the High School was still very much in the planning stages.
After that visit I hoped to return again the following year, but my return visit would have to wait for 2 and a half years in the end. On this second visit I was fortunate enough to spend 6 days in Taru. I travelled to Taru from Nairobi with Paul, our charity founder, and a friend who is also a sponsor. On the Monday when we arrived, the children were finishing their exams ahead of the forthcoming half term, meaning that for the rest of the week when we would be, the time could be spent distributing donated items to the children including clothing and rucksacks, and helping to organise a great number of sporting and cultural activities. It really was an incredible week.
incredible donations & heavy luggage!
We were incredibly well supported by my friends, family, and professional network with donations that I was able to to take across to Taru to distribute. All of these items can be seen in the gallery above, and include ruck sacks, shoes, clothing including some items of school uniform, and then a whole array of stationery, calculators, colouring books, even a computer keyboard, and then soaps and sanitisers.
In total this all weighed in at around 80kg! Luckily Kenya Airways allowed 2 checked in bags totalling 46kg, 12 kg for hand luggage, and then my travel companion Kev only had 1 large bag to check in so he took the 3rd of the 23kg big bags.
Alongside all of the above much needed items, back in April 2021 I had put a call out on Facebook asking friends if they had any children’s football boots they would like to donate for the children of Taru. The post quickly went (locally) viral, and we ended up collecting over 100 pairs of football boots, a large number of pairs of shoes and trainers, clothing, and a fair few sets of football kits from York-based clubs Hamilton Panthers and Strensall Tigers; we even received a rugby kit from the Hull Masters rugby club!
Most of our mornings whilst I was in Taru started with distributing these donated items to the children who most needed them, whilst the kits and boots were then organised to be used by various classes across the two schools for various sports.
A friend of mine also donated us 300 pencils and 300 pens; he wanted us to be able to give one of each to every student, an incredibly generous and thoughtful thing to do. As you can see from the pictures, the children really did appreciate this just as much as the clothing and footwear that they received.
sports day, every day!
When I first visited in January 2021, we were very generously donated a very large number of children’s football kits by the York City FC Foundation, a kit which the school use as their PE kit and for regional sports events.
During that first visit there was a lot of enthusiasm around sports, but the teachers definitely needed some time to properly organise such activities and events.
During this second visit, the hard work that they had put into this was amazing to see. From Tuesday to the Saturday, every day we had activities planned in:
- Tuesday – Football
- Wednesday – Cricket, Tug of War and Rounders
- Thursday – Volleyball and Athletics
- Friday – Cultural and Modern Dancing
- Football
As you can probably tell from the images, the pitch is pretty hard! In fact it is like concrete! This was the first time some of the children had played in football boots, and the first time we had been able to use different kits for different teams.
The High School boys, in the black and white strip from Hamilton Panthers, faced off against their Primary School counterparts who wore the light blue York City Foundation kit. in a closely contested game, the High School lads won 2-0. The game was played in good spirits, and some of the High School teachers joined in on the Primary School team which was great to see (and added an exciting twist with the high school lads getting to go up against their teachers as well!).
The High School girls, wearing the black and orange kit from Strensall Tigers, faced off against the Primary School girls, who wore the light blue YCF kit, and again the match finished 2-0, but this time the Primary School girls would be victorious!
Both games were played on a pitch which is used by some of the other teams in the community, and we have been given permission for our teams to play here. Consequently we have donated kits to two of the clubs who play matches here, and they would provide the opposition for Saturday’s matches.
On the Wednesday we discovered that the children of Taru absolutely love Tug of War! Again, boys and girls teams were selected from the High School and Primary School. There’s not much more I need to say; you can see how much they all enjoyed it in the video!
The same day, we also introduced the children to cricket and rounders, using equipment that Paul had shipped across with the football kits. The children showed great enthusiasm and interest in two games that they had not played before. After a difficult two years for them, with their students interrupted by school closure due to the COVID pandemic, seeing them be able to take part in sporting activities and enjoy themselves was just brilliant to see. As a keen cricket fan, I must also say that I can’t imagine there are many people who the first time they play manage to swing the bat one-handed for 6 twice in an over but a couple of the high school lads managed this!
Thursday was Volleyball and “Athletics”. Volleyball was played on some empty land in front of the Primary School, which the village elders have allowed the school to use. There were a number of competitive boys and girls games played between the High School and Primary Schools. And then the High School boys played against a team of “bigger lads”, that is, older guys from the community football club “Birikani”.
Despite being behind for large parts of the game, and being generally shorter than their opponents, the High School lads team were victorious. Sport is a fantastic vehicle for learning skills and techniques that can be applied across many parts of life; communication, teamwork, empathy, leadership, listening, and respect. I think one of the things that struck me the most about this second visit was how, with access to more sporting facilities, these children have this opportunity to practice these skills, but also were demonstrating many of them in front of us on the pitch. This can only serve to help them in their education as well.
Volleyball was followed by athletics, which did not involve running as I expected, but instead a mass arm wrestling tournament between the students on two desks that appeared on the volleyball court! This was as raucously enjoyed as the Tug of War the day before!
Friday was cultural and modern dancing at the Primary school, with a great many displays of singing and dancing from classes in both schools. This was simply breath taking, so much passion and effort, and a real sense of ownership and pride on the part of the students in showing us, their visitors, these traditional performances. A true Taru “welcome”, and we all felt very humbled by this experience.
This is Ali. On the Friday morning, I had the honour of being able to tell him personally that we had found a sponsor for him, a sponsor to pay £12.50 a month which will cover his school fees, including covering the cost of his breakfast and lunch at school, easing the burden on his Father. I’m not sure I can fully describe how this made me feel, but it really was an emotional moment to be involved in. Ali is an incredibly polite, hard working, and humble young man. He has only joined the High School in the last year, and was recently voted in as Student President by his fellow students. This really is the essence of what the Future of Taru is, a charity that provides access to high quality education for all, and helps not only those students, but their families as well. And this is having a positive impact on the community of Taru too. More about Ali in a moment……..
Saturday was the final full day for me in Taru, and what a day. The culmination of the week’s activities, saw 2 Future of Taru school football teams face off against local teams at the community football pitch.
The girls team, playing in the light blue YCFC Foundation kit took on a girls team from the nearby village of Meti. We gifted the Met girls a kit made up of a red Hamilton Panthers shirt and light blue YCFC shorts. The last time they played, Meti won 2-0. This time around, the Future of Taru girls won a closely contested match 2-1, a fantastic result.
Next up, the boys team played against Birikani FC, a local team from Taru who play in the provincial league. The Future of Taru boys had played against them before but had never beaten them. Twice the FoT boys took the lead, only for Birikani to equalise. With around 10 minutes or so left, Ali, our High School Student President, who the day before you will remember had found out that he now had a sponsor to support with his studies, scored what would prove to be the winning goal, sealing a 3-2 win. Real Roy of the Rovers stuff.
Such a fantastic end to an incredible week!
I hope that it isn’t another 2 and a half years before I can return to Taru again. In the coming months, work will begin on installing dormitories at the High School, and there are many more exciting projects in the pipeline as the Future of Taru continues to grow. Through the development of the school’s sporting facilities they have been able to extend their connections with the local community, and with that offer great experiences to the students and teachers, and help to create memories that many of them will remember for years to come. Welcome.