Using Twitter to equip needy Kootoro Primary School in Turkana

We arrive at Kootoro Primary School after driving for 98 kilometres from Lokichar to Kootoro village in Turkana South constituency.

It has not been an easy journey since the road to Kalapata Ward, where the school is located, is dusty and sandy.

At some point, the boda boda operator, who I have hired at Lokichar for Sh3,000, loses control of his bike and we fall on the sand. We however, get up, dust ourselves  off and proceed with our journey.

We wind and turn, following teacher Thomas Lotiki’s motorbike and as soon as the children see the two bikes approaching their school, they run towards us, their tattered clothes blowing in the wind.

We come to a screeching halt and the children quickly gather around their teacher eager to see what goodies he could be carrying in the cartons atop the two bikes.

They are however, not lucky because the boxes contain books that have been donated to the school, but their teacher surprises them by dipping into his pockets and removing lollipops, which he gives to each of the now excited children.

As the children run off clutching their delicacy, we take a look at the public school which is in dire need of infrastructure, books and personnel.

The 32-year-old teacher is the only Teacher’s Service Commission P1 teacher in the area and was posted to the school on May 27, 2014.

He is everything at the school - headmaster, senior teacher, class teacher, even parent to some of the orphans.

His passion for the school’s wellbeing saw him take to Twitter to launch a hashtag #GiveKootoroAclass to seek funds and donations. It is due to this online campaign that we have toured the school to not only bring donations but also to meet the man behind the vision.

“I was posted here last year and found the students studying under a tree and my office was also under a tree. The student’s plight moved me especially when I saw their thirst for education despite the conditions,” he says.

Lotiki said he sought assistance from local leaders but that was not forthcoming. He then received a tent from UNICEF but that was blown away by strong winds a month later.

It was then he came up with the idea to share the school’s plight on social media, set up the hashtag and enlisted the support of two volunteers, Mumbi Kaptere and James Hughes, who opened a Twitter account for the school, @Kootoroschool, and an email address, [email protected].

“I opened an M-Changa account and said I was looking to raise Sh105,000. Guess what, I raised that exact amount,” recalls Lotiki smiling.

He used the money to build five makuti-thatched classes which got the children out of the hot sun and into a cool environment even though they still have to sit on stones. He also put up a toilet.

“We are forced to refer the older students, who cannot sit on stones or on the bare ground, to Nakaalei and Kangirisae primary schools where they continue with their education,” he says.

Teacher Thomas Lotiki in his office,cabinet full of books behind him.

(PHOTO: JAMES WANZALA/STANDARD)

Because Kootoro does not have a strong Internet connection, every fortnight Lotiki has to travel 136 kilometres to his home village of Katilu on his motorbike, in order to check his Twitter account and respond to any email correspondence.

Because of the lack of personnel, Lotiki has managed to talk two of his village-mates, Isaac Lopeyok and Stephen Eyen, who just finished high school, into becoming volunteers.

He gives them a monthly stipend of Sh3,000 each from the little the school gets from the Government. He has also had to build them makuti houses and ferries them on his motorbike to and from Katilu village when the school closes and opens.

The teacher says he took this step because his pleas for additional teachers have been falling on “deaf ears” yet the school has 303 pupils from Standard One to Six and 213 ECDE pupils.

A school feeding programme by World Food Programme keeps the children in school and Lotiki admits there would be no school without this initiative.

“I am forced to sometimes give food to children who come from very poor families so they can have something to eat once they get home. Our school is located in a region with a very high poverty rate,” he says.

Some pupils cannot afford to buy the school uniform and Lotiki has, for the past two months, resorted to taking Sh13,000 from his salary to buy uniform for 20 pupils, out of the 38 needy pupils he has identified.

“What inspires me to do this is the thirst for education I see in these children. They are here as early as 6.30am, never mind that some have walked two to three kilometres to get to school,” he says.

Saying he is still seeking to raise more funds in order to construct five permanent classrooms, offices and pit latrines, Lotiki thanks everyone who has so far supported his Twitter initiative.

“There is still so much to be done but our greatest challenge is money. This school needs about Sh20 million,” he says.