More Than Just Playing

Last weekend the Suba Laker Primary girls trained and camped together for 3 days. It was a great weekend for many reasons.

On the field they had some intense practice sessions in which the girls worked so hard and showed much improvement, and they also studied the film of the USA women's soccer victory over Canada in the semifinals of last year's Olympics. Off the field, they had three very good study times in which they worked together in groups concentrating on different subjects. On Sunday morning, Teacher Rozeline shared with them from John 3 about the incredible love of God. After the last practice session Madam Kezia came and shared with the girls about how to make good choices in their lives. There were some writing activities involved and a lot of discussion.

The 19 girls who reported benefitted much from the weekend of activities. Because all of the schools in the country will be having a long half-term due to the upcoming elections, the secondary girls and some selected primary girls will be training in the mornings starting on March 1 for about 10 days. It will be a good time to see their conditioning and skill level and work on some areas that need improvement, on and off the field.

CGA's 7th Graduation

On Friday, February 15th, CGA’s 7th class of students graduated 8th grade. Over 200 students have now come through CGA’s primary school and moved on to higher levels of education. Many of these 200 students would have never reached to the end of primary school without a ministry like CGA.  When the school began back in 1997 in response to the AIDS pandemic, the goal was to provide a quality education for the AIDS orphans and other needy children in the community. For 15 years Christ’s Gift Academy has been doing exactly that, and so much more. In addition to educating these children, the school also works hard to instill the Word of God in their students along with helping to meet their basic physical needs including food, clothing, medical assistance and other essentials. We strive to help them develop Christian character so that they can take the authority of God’s Kingdom to every domain of life in Kenya. These children are the future of Kenya!

This year’s graduation saw 27 students march across the stage to receive their certificate and the school’s gift of a Bible. It was a unique class because the girls outnumbered the boys 2 to 1. After the marching, specific students were rewarded for their performance in each subject, along with the top overall, most improved and Christian Character. A complete list of the recipients in included below. After the awards presentation, parents, guardians, and special guests were given time to present speeches encouraging the students in their future. Then there was a joint prayer for the class as they set off on a new adventure.

After the ceremony, everyone was fed a nice lunch with the graduates and their parents/guardians as the honored guests being served meat, rice, fish and a bottle of soda.

The next week the students were busy reporting to various secondary schools throughout the country, happy and excited to be continuing on in their education with the support of Christ’s Gift Academy!

 

 

Awards:

Christian Character- Mary Amisi and Collince Okeyo
Top Overall- Esther Juma (2nd best girls in the district)
Top Boy- Dancan Elisha
Most Improved- Shadrack Ooro and Syprose Akoth
Social Studies/Religous- Esther Atieno and Isaiah Owino
Science- Lucy Cynthia and Fenny Adhiambo
Math- Nancy Alice Mokeira and Calvince Oduor
English- Wendy Melanie and Dennis Mboya
Kiswahili- Beatrice Atieno and James Okach

List of all the Graduates

Austin Odiwuor Otege

Beatrice Atieno Maklago

Calvince Oduor Ochich

Cecilia Anyango Ndiege

Collince Omondi Okeyo

Dancan Elisha Onyango

Dennis Mboya Osii

Emmaculate Atieno Onyango

Esther Auma Juma

Esther Juma Atieno

Faith Achieng Lumbwa

Fenny Adhiambo Otieno

Isaiah Owino Ooro

James Okach

John Okello Dache

Lorna Apiyo Wanga

Lucy Cynthia Auma

Mary Amisi Orwa

Mildred Anyango Anode

Nancy Alice Mokeira

Sarah Achieng Odhiambo

Shadrack Onyango Ooro

Syprose Akoth Oswere

Tecla Agutu Osodo

Valary Achieng Otieno

Wendy Melanie Opiyo

Winnie Adhiambo Otara

CGA Student Meets the President

Last weekend CGA student Lucy Cynthia had the opportunity to meet the President of Kenya, Mwai Kibaki. Lucy was one of 2,100 students from across the country that qualified for the Equity Group Foundation “Wings to Fly” scholarship program. They choose students based on their academic performance on the 8th Grade National exam and their need. Each student went through a rigorous interview process and had to meet several other requirements. The Equity group will help these students with all of the costs associated with going to secondary school including tuition, books, uniforms, and other stipends for all four years. They also do training in leadership development, career guidance, networking and mentoring to help succeed in school and beyond. Upon graduation, high performing scholars are given support for post-secondary education and are selected for internships at Equity Bank.

On Friday, February 15th, the 15 selected from Mbita were taken to Nairobi to join the other 2,100 students from different parts of the country. The president welcomed them, shook hands with each student and gave some encouraging words. The students also performed some cultural dances and songs to entertain Kenya’s top man! The Chairman of the Equity Group Foundation also promised employment to any of these students who score a B in their final year of high school. 13 former Wings to Fly scholars are currently attending Harvard University in the U.S.

Lucy is 15 years old and has attended CGA since she was in Nursery class at age 5. She is the 2nd youngest out of five children in her family. Her father died in 2001 and because her mother is in very poor health, Lucy and her younger sister have been raised by her aunt.

She is grateful for the opportunity to be selected among these individuals and to come face to face with the President of Kenya. Her section of students also voted Lucy to be their overall leader. It is nice that many people outside of CGA can also see her great potential!

Little Champs

This past weekend the Suba Lakers primary girls participated in the Homa Bay High School BUOP Open Invitational Tournament. There were secondary schools, teacher training colleges and technical training institutes from different parts of the country competing in many different sports. We were the only one with primary school girls. There were tons of boys football teams, but only 7 girls football teams. Since all of our secondary girls are away in boarding schools, we played with our primary school girls and 2 girls that have already finished secondary school. In fact most of our girls were in 6th and 7th grade and competing against high school and college students.

In the first match we eased through a 1-0 victory over Mawego Girls on a goal by Winny Akinyi. In the second match we pulled off a 2-0 victory over Ogande Girls with goals by Primerose and Winny. We emerged 1st place in our pool and proceeded directly to the finals on Sunday afternoon. We were pitted against Ogari Girls from Migori. They had also won all of their matches and were a strong team. We faced off on the main football pitch with thousands of people milling around. Our opponent might have overlooked us a little... literally. Every player on the team was at least a head taller than our younger girls. Our girls were unfazed by the size difference and took it to them from the opening kick, creating several scoring chances before the smallest player on the field gave us a lead from a stunning goal taken outside the box. When the rebound rolled out to her, Brenda June kicked it with every ounce of strength in her tiny frame and put it right above the goalkeeper's reach. And the team celebrated enthusiastically. The Lakers continued to dominate ball possession and our opponents had very few opportunities to get close to our goal. The game ended 1-0 and the Suba Lakers were able to take home the trophy!

A Different Kind of School

On January 7th the children of Kenya opened a new school year.  Christ's Gift Academy welcomed 237 students to it's primary campus this year, along with 40 in it's early childhood development center.  These students are afforded a unique educational opportunity because all that they need is provided.  At the other local schools students are sent back home to bring school fees, find shoes to wear, purchase a uniform, or search for money to purchase a desk, exams, and iron sheets for the roof.  Most of the classrooms are overcrowded and underequipped.  Desks, textbooks, pencils, charts and other learning materials are frequently lacking.  But Christ's Gift Academy puts all these things in place for the children. 

The CGA students in Grade Three were given an assignment to write a paragraph about their school.  They first noted that CGA was a Christian school, and after filling the board with many other important details, they decided CGA was a different school.  Out of that revelation a topic sentence was formed and some wonderful paragraphs followed such as this one...

Thank you for making Christ's Gift Academy a different school.  Without your support and prayers it wouldn't be possible.  We are grateful for the sponsors who sent letters, Christmas cards and gifts to their children this yera.  Fifty two students have come into the office in January to pick up something special that was sent to them. 

Continue to keep them in your prayers and stay in contact with them.