06 Jul Marurui Primary School Students headed for success after receiving Pencils
Deep in the heart of Garden Estate/Roysambu/Thika road is Marurui Primary School. This school is like a rare gem hidden deep within the city of Nairobi. The school with a population of slightly above 1,000 students is endowed with great amenities including well built classrooms, a spacious hall that is also used by outsiders to host meetings and a very clean looking compound. The school also provides a feeding program to students who cannot afford to come with their own lunch to school.
We could not help but notice the level of organization in the school starting from the head teacher, Mrs Maina, to the teachers and then the students. The students quickly cleaned the meeting area, organized themselves and sat quietly waiting to be engaged. The school has a thriving student body as we soon found out. We were introduced to the student leadership from the president of the school, the deputy president, the cabinet secretaries, the senators, Members of Parliament and monitors.
Marurui Primary Pupils during a mentorship session
Momo Pencils together with Mwangaza Television, a Christian based Channel, visited the school in order to donate pencils and plant trees. It was a day packed with activities with Mwangaza TV shooting their popular children’s program, the school edition on the same day. The children were excited to be part of the day’s activities especially the television show. The show hosts, Stella and Maggie hyped up the students in a bid to get their attention.
The headteacher then introduced the Momo Pencils Team to the children and we were given the platform to address the children. We took time to speak to the children about conserving the environment, the need for recycling, benefits of planting trees and generally about our pencil.
The children listened keenly as we went on with our speaking engagement for the day. The exciting part of the day was when we started distributing pencils to the children. Every child was keen to receive a pencil and you could see the anticipation on their faces as they each waited their turn to hold an eco-friendly pencil in their hands. We noticed that as soon as each student received the pencil, they took their time to scan it while looking at all its features. It was as if they were wondering how a newspaper could produce such a wonderful product. We watched with amusement as the children as they looked at their pencils. We were giving them more than a pencil, we were providing an opportunity for them to access essential writing materials needed in school in order to acquire quality education.
The children were excited about the tree planting exercise. They helped dig the tree holes before we all embarked on the tree planting exercise. Every child wanted to plant a tree and several of them got an opportunity to do so. While the tree planting exercise was going on; the students asked questions here and there about how we produce pencils from newspapers. We were happy to respond to all their questions while also answering some life questions that they had. We had carried 100 tree seedlings and we managed to plant over 50 trees in the school compound together with the students and the teachers. The rest of the tree seedlings will be planted later when the students are done with their classes. We reminded the students on the need to take care of the trees by watering them daily. The students did not seem to mind this responsibility at all.
MO & MO Company Director Rashid Omari planting a tree with a pupil of Marurui Primary School
Mwangaza television continued filming even as we continued with the day’s activities which were now part of their program. The children were excited to be part of the program. The show hosts continued engaging the children with segments such as ‘Mchongoano,’ and dance offs.
As we left Marurui Primary School, we knew that we had not only accomplished the assignment of the day but that we had also impacted these children’s life. Our vision of reaching one million children with the pencil through our hope for literacy campaign is being accomplished one school at a time. The children of Marurui Primary School did not only receive an eco-friendly pencil but they also received an opportunity to continue learning by accessing a basic writing material, the pencil.
Pupils of Marurui Primary School celebrating after receiving MOMO Pencils
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