OASIS OF HOPE

OoH News December 2019

In Kenya the foundation of the building is now finished, reinforcement of posts and the final casting of these.  We aree now needing a serious action to get increased support enabling us to proceed with further construction work. This is eagerly awaited in Kenya.

December here in Norway has been an overwhelming month.  The campaign days at Hovedgården resulted in NOK 57.118.-.  We have received offering during service at Heggedal church, several Facebook actions and we have sold Christmas cards. The collection at the Christmas concert at Østenstad church gave us NOK 18.227.-.  We are extremely happy with this month’s income, and send our sincere thanks to all our donors!

Graduation at our school will take place on 10th January and we are eagerly looking forward to receiving photos from the event.

We would like to thank all our good supporters for the year that has come to an end and look forward to a new and exciting year in 2020!

November 2019

A lot is happening!  In Kenya the new school is being built.  The foundation is nearly ready.  Then it is up to us in Norway to find money for further construction.  Not an easy task, but we do not give in!

In November we were at last approved by the Fund Raising Control meaning that we have a certificate showing that our activity is legal and that the money is spent correctly. Hopefully this will contribute positively when we apply for financial support from business companies.

The annual campaign days at Hovedgården took place 27. – 29th November.  This will hopefully give us a good result also this year.  The result will be known at a later stage.

We are selling Christmas cards also this year.  The cards have a new design and are of value NOK 100.-, 250.- and 500.-.

September and October 2019

Contrary to July and August which were rather quiet September and October have been quite eventful.  The foundation stone for a new school building at Oasis og Hope was put down on 15th September and the following week the foundation works started.  At the foundation stone ceremony pupils, teachers, the board and the civil engineer were present.  This was a big and important day for our work!  In the long term this will be a school with 11 classrooms, office, personnel room and library.

Everything here is carried out by hand, and the job is heavy, but progress is being made.  The photos speak for themselves.

We have so far not succeeded in obtaining sufficient means to build the whole school building, but we build for what we have, at the same time working to obtain donors.  Perhaps we can find a company or two out there, willing to contribute to making our school a reality.

Nor have we built sufficiently big in order for the authorities to register the school as an «education centre», meaning that also this year our oldest pupils must sit for exams at other schools.

We have made a new, revised reprint of Christmas cards, hoping that they will be sold rapidly towards Christmas.  This time the values are 100.-, 250.- and 500.-.  Hope that this will provide us with necessary income also this year.   

OoH news, July-August 2019

Due to Summer holidays there has been less activity here in Norway.  We can in spite of this express our deep gratitude for gifts given in connection with birthdays also this Summer.  This will make a difference in our balance.  The school needs more books and the teachers want courses.  Money for food is still our largest and most important item of expenditure, and the teachers must have wages.

In July we transferred the first amount of money for new school building.  New permanent school building is to be built, and we are eagerly looking forward to the first photos.  Without a permanent house we will not be able to register the school as «education center», so this is very important to us.  We have asked numerous companies and organizations to support a new school building – so far without success.  But we do not give in!

We have also been informed that two of our teachers have quit.  Fortunately we have a good and well functioning board in Kenya who find good solutions and clever substitutes.

OoH news May/June 2019

May and June have been a remunerative period for us.  We were lucky to get the profit of the Culture Event  Hovedgården, NOK 11,280.-.

The kids at Heggedalsskogen kindergarten have baked cakes and arranged cafe.  This resulted in NOK 4.185,-  which is great!

Wednesday 5th June we arranged Run for Food number five.  This has become a tradition which we wish to adhere to.  This year we had 40 participants, which is not a new record, but the atmosphere was great and the result good, NOK 11.940.-.  We are grateful!

In Kenya we are now awaiting building start.  The drawings are ready and there have been some discussions regarding deciding on priorities.  We hope soon to be ready to break the first ground.

We have also received nice photos from various sports events in which  our pupils have taken part.  In the end of May the volleyball team won the whole tournament and became the best school out of ni and the netball team ended as number two out of ten schools.  We also entered a football team which did not get very far, but the joy of participating was great!

March and April 2019

During our visit to the school in February we realized that installing rainwater drains and big water tanks would make the school self-contained with water.  Water is expensive and so far we have had to buy all the water the school needs for cooking, dish cleaning and drinking.  This had to be implemented quickly as the rainy season was approaching and the rain water had to be taken care of.  We therefore started a Facebook campaign in order to raise sufficient money to enable us to buy a new water tank and gutters.  The result was far beyond our expectations.  We hoped for 20.000, which was a rather «hairy» goal, such a short time after the Christmas campaign.  Still, NOK 19,118.-,  flowed in.  This enabled us to buy not only gutters and water tank, but also a new lockable cupboard for school books and other equipment.  This clearly proves that Facebook fund raising is the thing!

Here in Norway we have received offerings from Heggedal congregation twice since last time, 3rd March and 14th April.  Lena presented an introduction on both occasions.  On 3rd March we also received the offerings from Østenstad, and Anne Kristi introduced our project there.

Heggedalskogen kindergarten arranges cafe in aid of Oasis of Hope every year.  Anne Kristi brought photos and had a nice talk with the kids there on 10th April.  In the beginning of May, they will arrange the cafe and it will be interesting to see what will be the result of this.

It is also good that a new member has joined our board here in Norway.  Kari Lohne, who took part in our visit to the school in February, has agreed to join us.  We look forward to cooperating with Kari.

Re school construction:  We have never been closer to building start than we are now.  We have received revised BQ (Bill of Quality) from Kenya , and we hope that we shall soon be able to take the first step!

January and February 2019

January means Graduation in Kenya, and on Wednesday 30th January it went off!  The pupils who have now advanced from nursery school to first form were to be fêted.  Food, cakes, speeches, entertainment, photosessions and gifts – all contributed to making the day the celebration of the year!  The photos speak for themselves.

Here in Norway we have already received the proceeds from one birthday (NOK 15,000.-)  and hope for more in the course of the Spring.

In the middle of February Kari joined board members Lena and Anne Kristi on a trip to Mbita.  This turned out a great and important visit.  It was strange not to be with Charles, but at the same time good to notice that the school is operating normally and the board functioning well in spite of the fact that our founder is no longer here.  We had a board meeting and meeting with a civil engineer during which we discussed the building of a new, permanent school, which has been on the planning stage for a long time.  We now hope that the proper work will soon begin!