Fountain Baptist Church/GLP Kenya Educational Program at Isunguluni

Since 1998 Jeanette and Joe Goodson have been working to improve the life chances of the children of Makueni district in Kenya, focusing initially on Isunguluni Primary School, near the town of Kibwezi.  They then gained the support of their Pastor at Fountain Baptist Church in Summit, New Jersey, USA and friends from all over the USA and Bermuda to support several hundred children to finish their primary education. Outstanding students are also supported towards finishing their secondary schooling and up to the university/college level, with the commitment that they return and support the local community.

In April 2004, Pastor J. Michael Sanders and the congregation of Fountain Baptist Church were recognized by Kenya's Ambassador to the USA, Dr. Yusuf A. Nzibo for supporting literacy and community development in Kenya.Another dimension of the program involved addressing the need for a water storage system at the school. This became a critical need for the school as the children were forced to walk some 2.5 km each morning to a local spring in order to collect water for use during the school day.  The spring is also used by local animals and so was not clean therefore, without boiling the water, the children did not have clean drinking water.  All of this had a negative impact on the the health and educational process of the children.

The partnership between Fountain Baptist Church in Summit and the Mt. Calvary Missionary Baptist Church in Newark resolved the water issue by sponsoring the installation of a water harvesting system in October 2006. The water harvesting system was facilitated by the former Head Mistress, the Head Master, GLP volunteers and the Isunguluni Parent Association.

The project crossed international borders not only with the two churches and a school but with Rutgers University and Jomo Kenyatta University engineering students who through the assistance of GLP assisted in this project. While the GLP volunteers were there, they ran science presentations for the Isunguluni students, teaching them how to use their existing resources to help themselves.

For more information on supporting the expansion of literacy initiatives in eastern Kenya, please email Jeanette Goodson at jeanettegoodson@comcast.net.