A lush wind blows over the roof tops of makeshift dormitories of the Burgabo Primary School; a perimeter fence made of barbed wire surrounds the compound giving the compound, the resemblance of an animal orphanage.

Inside the compound children are seen playing perhaps to cut a long day in the dry North short, the faces of the emaciated children paints that of a disaster in the making.

As a severe drought bites across Northern Kenya, classrooms are almost empty with children moving with their parents in search of food and water. But the parents of Burigabo village in Marsabit County are doing all what they can to keep the kids in school.

In this drought-hit village of Burgabo, parents and the head teacher of local Burgabo alarmed by the number of children who are yet to report to school, almost a month after school reopened all over the country set up a boarding facility.

“Parents do not wish to see their kids go to school with an empty stomach,” said Pious Roba, the headmaster of the Burgabo Primary School. “The only option was to build these two dormitories which separately host the boys and girls. It has worked, some parent are now bringing back their kids to school since there is food.”

Necessity

The head teacher Roba said the facility was established as a necessity to keep children in school.

“We only have three classes from one to three, the enrolment at beginning of the term was 150 now we only have 37 pupils many of them have moved with their parents in search of pasture and water since they have nothing to eat,” said revealed.

Saved from the hardships of trekking for long and missing his classes for lack of food and water, which has seen him separated from his family which lives in the same village, 10-year-old, Wato Dambala, has a reason to smile.

“When I grow up I want to be a teacher, it is very good to teach,” Dambala says as his teacher, Pious Roba, looks on.

Before the drought, Dambala, was in Maikona Primary School, a distant urban centre about 130km from Burgabo.

“My parents moved from Maikona to Burgabo. I could not cope up with the situation so I had to follow them after few days,” he said.

The makeshift boarding school provides three meals a day to the children. The parents contribute part of the food ration they receive from the World Food Program to the school.

“There is no balanced diet, the routine diet is githeri, look at the kids some of them are malnourished and they can’t even concentrate in class,” said Roba. “We are not designated boarding school so we have no tangible support from the government, each parent contributes a kilogram of cereals to the school to keep the centre running.”

“If we are to get plenty of food for the school feeding program then many children will return to school and I even fear some of the parents might as well come to the school,” he added.

The Catholic mission in Marsabit footed the bills to construct the two makeshift dormitories.
“We used about sh70, 000 [US$861] to set up the dormitories. The mission has also brought a television set and installed DSTV for the kids to watch.”

Desperate situation

Under normal circumstances, his peers will comfortably sit the office and wait for the children to arrive at school for their classes, and often do roll call in the school assembly. But, Roba and the school he heads are in a desperate situation, so it calls for creativity.

“It is only in the early morning you can get the parents when they are watering their animals and so I have to be there to plead with the parents to allow their kids to go back to school,” said Roba.

“Such kind of severe drought always see a huge chunk of young boys and girls drop out of school and they don’t return to school, so to avoid that I have to ensure the school going children go back to school,” he said.

Officials from the Kenya Red Cross Society which visited the school promised to supplement the school’s feeding program. The Ministry of Education said it has been authorized to reallocate funds to the school feeding program which currently feeds two million pupils.

The Ministry will target about 1.4 million pupils in its additional funding for the school feeding program. Apart from the drought which is the biggest cause of concern now, the school is inadequately staffed with only two professional teachers.

“I have only two teachers, one lady is untrained teacher who has volunteered to work with us. We have to teach all the subjects it really difficult,” said Roba. Usually, Pious borrows text books from schools in Marsabit town which is about 130 kilometers from Buruigabo village.

“The school does not have textbooks and parents can’t buy for their kids. The only solution is to borrow the books,” said Roba.