Daniel Bongo lives in Mangawani in eastern Kenya. Mombasa is about a two-hour drive from his village. The teenager has never visited the metropolis. That may change one day. After all, he attends school and his parents run a chicken farm.
Daniel Bongo is on his way to Maji Moto school. Today, a celebration is held there, a dispensary is opened for the students.
Daniel has put on his backpack and is making his way to school. The ground is dry and the strong wind sweeps the dust over the hill. It has not rained for two years. But today is a special day. Maji Moto school celebrates a big party. Guests have been announced from Switzerland. The Rhine Valley Hospital Board of Directors will join Daniel’s classmates to dedicate a -Healthcenter. He only vaguely imagines what this means for the boy: If he or his little sister should ever fall ill, they will be helped there. That’s what they explained to him.
Should Daniel Bongo or his little sister ever fall ill, they will be helped there. That’s what they explained to him.
In the last few months, a lot has already changed for the better in the Bongo family. Esther and Lawrence Bongo own a plot of land near the Maji Moto School, whose sponsor is the Austrian association Schilling for Shilling. However, the soil barely feeds the family of four. Fortunately, the children are allowed to attend school, learn something there and twice a day they get an invigorating meal.
Last year, the school wanted to build a farm to raise laying hens and broilers. Esther and Lawrence Bongo provided the building site. In the meantime, the farm is ready. The animals lay nutritious eggs or are fattened until they provide rich meat. Whenever Daniel visits his father, who is now chicken manager, at work, he gets to help take care of the clucking chickens.
Lawrence Bongo has found work on the chicken farm as a chicken manager.
Daniel Bongo is confident: “My family has a future again,” he says. Now that his father has a job, it is easier for him to concentrate on learning. Full of curiosity, he tries out what the guests from Switzerland have brought with them as a gift from the school magazine Spick. With pencil and ruler, Daniel can put his ideas on paper and change them once in a while with the eraser.
The school magazine Spick provided 500 pencils, erasers and rulers, which Benjamin Pipa was able to distribute to the children together with the board of directors.
The chicken farm is located about 500 meters from Maji Moto school. Building it was one of the first projects that the associations “Rhine Valley Hospital” and “Shilling for Shilling” jointly realized in 2021. After the operation of the chicken farm started and Lawrence Bongo was hired as chicken manager, the clubs sealed their long-term cooperation and signed a cooperation agreement. The opening of the “Rhine Valley Hospital Health Center” is a first milestone in the partnership.
