Kihuyo School Kitchen Kenya
The Challenge
Kihuyo Mixed Day Secondary School is located in Nyeri County of Kenya about halfway between the capital city Nairobi and Mount Kenya. The kitchen building of the school serves lunch to about 170 students and teachers. Over time the kitchen building has deteriorated substantially. There is an urgent need to repair or upgrade the leaky roof, the chimney, and broken windows. Cooking vats called ‘jikos’ are in desperate need of repair or replacement. The chimneys are so nonfunctional that smoke and soot from the jikos have turned the kitchen walls pitch black. The floor is all cracked up and the sinks are barely functional. Every school day the kitchen staff and cooks find it challenging to prepare the meals.
The Innovation
The Sumar Lakhani Foundation (SLF) in partnership with the Global Uplift Project (TGUP) and the local members of the community came together to totally renovate the kitchen and render it comfortable and safe to prepare meals for the students and teachers. The local community agreed to contribute about 25% of the cost by providing some building materials and even the students joined in the renovation process. TGUP managed the whole project by engaging Kiini Sustainable Initiative, a local community-based organization, to carry out the renovation. The construction project included the repair of the ‘jikos’, and the chimney, plus the installation of a new roof, windows, flooring, sinks, and the provision of electricity into the building. Community involvement and its contribution to the construction of the facility were an integral part of this renovation.
Long Term Impact
The project was successfully completed by Kiini with the assistance of the students while many community members provided labor. The community and the students take special pride in having contributed to the renovation. Now the cooks have fully functional jikos and meals are prepared in comfortable conditions with a clean floor, no leaks from the roof, and safe air free from smoke and soot to breathe. Lunches are served every weekday at school. The students mainly belong to poor families that are considered ‘squatters’ who provide day labor.
Many families in the village often depend on government assistance for food. For many students, this is either the main or the only meal of the day.
