Our Community
School Life
Term One of the 2024 school year has now begun. We now have seventeen learners (15 boys and 2 girls) ranging in age from 7 to 18 years.
At Sunrise, education focuses on three general areas: Academics, Activities of Daily Living (ADLs), and Pre-Vocational Skills. Sunrise follows the stage-based pathway of Kenya’s Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC).
Depending on individual needs, children work to improve their skills in activities of daily living such as bathing, grooming, dressing, feeding, assisting with meal preparation, and tidying/cleaning their environment.
Pre-vocational learning opportunities at Sunrise currently include gardening, washing/ironing clothing in the laundry, taking care of chickens, helping with the cows, and completing sewing projects.
Sunrise currently has two Fondation classes. Students at this level are often younger or have limited school experience prior to attending Sunrise. Madame Hadija has seven students in Foundations 1, and Madame Damaris has five students in Foundations 2.
Mr Fanuel has five students in Pre-vocational.
There are four learner support assistants who rrotate among the three classrooms. Additional support is provided by Linda, the OT, Mercy, the physio, and Florence, the SLTA. Boaz, who has a certificate in tailoring, helps with sewing projects in the pre-vocational class
Sunrise students also enjoy leisure pastimes such as music appreciation, dance, yoga, organized games, athletics, running, nature walks, and unstructured play.
Meet Prince!
Eleven-year-old Prince is in the Foundations 2 class. When he arrived at Sunrise School in March 2022, his family reported that everyday activities such as eating, toileting and sleeping had been an ongoing struggle. Prince was easily overwhelmed by certain sounds, unfamiliar environments, or unexpected changes, and was often very difficult to calm.
Since his arrival at Sunrise, with support in the areas of self-care and self-regulation, Prince's sleep patterns are now consistent, he eats with little to no assistance and requires minimal supervision for toileting. His focus and attention has grown, he follows daily routines and spoken instructions well. He enjoys puzzles, matching, dot-to-dots, and coloring activities, and has learned to help with chores including sweeping, mopping, and picking up schoolyard litter. Most importantly, Prince has become much calmer since he joined us at Sunrise. He has learned to take turns, to share, and to get along with others. Prince now has a special friend with whom he loves to play kickball.
At home, Prince's sister reports that he is now calmer, quieter, able to share/take turns with others, and able to “go with the flow” of daily life. These sentiments have been echoed by Prince’s grandmother who, during a recent visit to Sunrise, expressed her joy about Prince’s current abilities, noting how well he is now able to adapt to their home routine and perform daily activities when he comes home. We're so proud of Prince's achievements at Sunrise School!
Solar Project Update...
Power outages are not unusual in Mumias. They are unpredictable, can occur on a nearly daily basis and last minutes, hours, or days. 2023 was “special” in this regard when there were numerous outages, some of which lasted for several days culminating in a complete, months-long blackout from August through November.
At Sunrise School, operating without power creates a number of challenges. Without electricity for lights, the greatest challenge for staff is to adequately supervise children after dark (a 12-hour period daily). Office work, access bookkeeping software, create teaching materials, access wifi, and carry out correspondence is not possible. Being without power is a monumental hardship at Sunrise- for staff and children alike.
In the midst of these “dark times,” Sunrise received an extraordinarily timely gift from the Bellows Falls, Vermont Rotary Club--a grant of $5000 for the installation of back-up solar power. By mid-December last year, the new system had been installed and staff members trained to operate it. Later that month, solar-powered flood lights were added to improve night-time security. We are happy to report that the new system provides uninterrupted power and enough power to meet all of Sunrise’s electrical needs.
The Executive Committee and Membership of the Uwezo Network and the Sunrise School Education Committee wish to express deepest appreciation for the generosity of members of Bellows Falls Rotary Club.* The solar installation has truly made Sunrise School a brighter place!