Kisumu’s Joel Omino Students take ESD concept to their homes despite Covid-19 effects

Frankline Okoth, a form four candidate at Joel Omino Secondary in Kisumu tends to his vegetable at his farm in Kabonyo/ Kanyagwal ward.The project is a result of their long stay at home due to Covid-19 after the schools were closed-Photos and Captions By Dickson Odhiambo

 By Dickson Odhiambo

August 22, 2020

 Kisumu’s Joel Omino Students take ESD concept to their homes despite Covid-19 effects

Since the National Government under President Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta closed down all learning institutions from Pre-Primary to institutions of higher learning in March this year due to the Corona virus pandemic, it has never been easy for many students who have stayed home for nearly five months without schooling.

But this scenario seems to have been a big blessing for some students of Joel Omino Secondary school within Kisumu Central Sub-County in Kisumu city.

One of such student is an 18 year old boy Frankline Okoth, a form four candidate who would be sitting his final Exams this October and November this year but due to the pandemic, he together with his fellow students will be again in school come next year in January to repeat the class.

For Okoth, since April this year he has embarked on a serious agricultural project at his rural home within Kabonyo/Kanyagwal ward in Kisumu County so as to be able to keep him busy during this time when they are not attending any learning activity in school.

This has been not very easy for him because he has migrated from Nyalenda area within Kisumu City where he stays with his mother who has been taking care of him singlehandedly since the death of his father when he was a toddler.

At their rural home he stays with his aging grandmother within Ugwe village but has decided to talk to one of his uncles who has provided him with land to tilt for his agriculture project which he says he has learnt from Joel Omino secondary school which he joined in 2017 in Form one.

This program is known as Education for Sustainable Development {ESD}, a concept which the Israel Government introduced in the school through the former Principal James Aggrey Otieno but was later enhanced by the current Principal Richard Nyayal.

When this writer visited him together with the School’s Principal Richard Nyayal to check on the progress of the project, it has been an amazing venture in what the young man has invested in one acre plot.

Okoth says immediately the announcement about indefinite closure of all schools across the country, what clicked into his mind was on how to transfer the knowledge on Education for Sustainable Development into practical by preparing land and having a project that will have a greater impact on his life.

He says by April he made up his mind and decided to settle back at his rural home while leaving his mother in town, adding that this is paying off even though there are a number of challenges here and there.

At his farm, he has planted various variety of vegetable that include Kales {Sukuma Wiki}, Spinach, Cow peas, some sort of traditional vegetables among others.

Already, he has prepared a nursery for tomatoes and they are ready for transplanting into the seedbed which he has prepared.

 

Okoth with his Principal Mr. Richard Nyayal when he visited him to see the progress of the his Project on Education for Sustainable Development{ESD} at his rural home in Kabonyo/Kanyagwal Ward

He says the produce has managed to fetch him about shillings 6,000 after he made his first harvest early last month.

He says the project has been having a number of challenges ranging from getting proper farm inputs, chemicals and knapsack sprayers for spraying chemicals to his crops.

He is hopeful that the next yields will be a good one and will enable him purchase the items, adding that whatever he managed to get was spent in their family needs because the effects of Covid-19 has really hit them so hard as a family.

Okoth who begun to plant the crops using water from River Miriu which is nearby is now a lucky one after short rains has begun this August has saved him a lot from drawing water from the river.

The student urges his fellow to visit his project so as to replicate it to their areas, adding that this is a good one and will help them a great deal, adding that it has attracted a number of fellow students from other schools who have come to see what he has been doing.

He says as the Student leader in the Education for Sustainable Development project in the school, he managed to scoop some certificate during last year’s Kisumu’s Agricultural Societies of Kenya Show after presenting exemplary exhibition on ESD.

He urges students not to engage in activities which can lead them a stray especially at this time of Corona Virus pandemic that has made schools shut completely till next year.

“Please as a student do something meaningful at home during this time of the pandemic that has interfered with the world. Don’t waste time roaming without getting engaged in any income generating activity at home,” Okoth says.

 

Peter Owen, a form three student at Joel Omino feeds his ducks which he has been rearing since form one in the year 2018 when he started getting knowledge on ESD from the school.

Two students from the same school namely Peter Owen and Samuel Osumba in Form three and four respectively have also fully embrace the concept and have embarked on poultry farming within Nyalenda and Dunga area respectively.

Owen rears ducks and currently 12 ducks where two of them have a total of 22 ducklings, adding that he started this after getting the knowledge about ESD when in form one in the year 2018 but became serious with the project when the school was shut down due to corona virus.

Owen says the project has really kept him busy during the time of the pandemic, adding that a fully grown duck cost about shs 1,500 or sh 1,200 on the lower side.

Owen says part of the proceeds he has used to buy revision books as well as some basic needs for the family.

He says he plans to expand the project so that it become a major income generating activity for the family.

 

Samuel Osumba, a form four student from Joel Omino Secondary school with some of his chickens he has been rearing as a result of ESD Program and enhanced it during the long holiday being occassioned by the Covid-19 pandemic

For Osumba who lives within Dunga area, he has embarked on rearing hens and has about 15 hens which are currently under free range system and are doing well.

He says the project is of great importance for his survival since he stays with his brother.

Osumba says the concept of ESD has made him to think outside the box after learning about it when he joined the school in form one four year ago.

The students seems to have followed the footsteps of their Principal who equally walk the talk of doing what he teaches the students about ESD since he too rears both improved Kienyeji Chickens and Broilers at his residence within Kisumu City.

Joel Omino Secondary School Principal Richard Nyayal says the school has been practicing the concept of ESD since July 2013 when it was launched as the school is the pioneer in the country for the project.

Nyayal says ESD is all about where students acquire knowledge in recycling, Reducing, Refusing, Re-thinking and Re-connecting using their hands, head and hearts{The three H} in being creative where whatever resources they have in school they are able to make proper use of them

He says one of the project done in school include vegetable farming done as food towers and on the walls of class rooms using plastics bottles hanged across the walls.

He says this is what some students have copied and have replicated at their homes, adding that this concept is of great value to students.

Nyayal has lauded a number of students who have fully embraced the concept, adding that some are implementing it even in the slum areas of Nyalenda.

 

Principal Joel Omino Mr. Richard Nyayal checks some of his local improved chicken within his compound in Kisumu which is part of his ESD Project 

 

Nyayal says in school they have a greenhouse that the students from university of Israel donated to it and has been of great value since they planted tomatoes and the yield was too good two years ago, adding that the project is an eye opener to the school and the community surrounding it.

“The positive attitude we have planted into these students have greatly helped them to embrace the concept of Education for Sustainable Development fully,” Nyayal says.

On the issue of environmental conservation, the Principal says the school has a well maintained green lawn which is the product of Joel Omino Green Global Revolution and Scouting Club, adding that the project provides a variety of plant species which are planted within the school compound on various occasions and seedlings donated to the community periodically.

The school also has its arboretum which is a micro-Park with varied plant species which also hosts the bird feeding program where food left-over from are used to feeding the birds.

“This arboretum makes a home of a variety of birds which are ever here for feeding hence our visitors’ ears are met by pleasant tunes from them,” he adds.

A part from the Food Tower at the school, the other important aspect of the ESD noted is the Bio-sand water filter where there is an aspect of producing clean drinking water which is sieved through sand put in super drum and this has worked so well.

There is also a traditional hut which is located at the main entrance where that the artifacts and other items that exhibit culture and traditions of the local community are exhibited.

 

Part of the Broilers that Joel Omino Secondary Principal rears at his Compound

 “The Traditional hut within the school also serves as a conference room which hosts all our meetings including BOGs, PTA and Staff Meetings among others as well as hosting high profile Guests,” says the Principal.

 He says they are also creating awareness on food Security in the following areas school Nutritional Garden, the food tower, sheep rearing, Poultry keeping and the school bakery that is purely run by our students.

Education for Sustainable Development {ESD} project was launched in Kenya in the year 2013 with Joel Omino Secondary in Kisumu becoming the first school in the country so as to pioneer the project.

 Since then, the school has fully embraced the concept of Education for Sustainable Development to enable the students be well equipped with knowledge in Citizenship, development and democracy.

 The school also strives to drive the concept of ESD to its students so as to embrace environmental conservation, religious and Cultural Values as well as conflict resolution.

The ESD concept is strongly reinforced by five pillars of Reduce, Re-use, Re-cycle, Refuse and Repair, Re-think and Re-connecting {the seven Rs}.

Some of the high profile guests the school has hosted in the Traditional hut include the immediate former Israel Ambassador to Kenya Jacob Keidar and his successor Gil Haskel and former Kisumu Governor Jack Ranguma.

 

Israel Ambassador to Kenya Joseph Oded addressing the media in Kisumu recently when he visited Kisumu

Recently, the current Israel Ambassador to Kenya Joseph Oded visited Kisumu and also ended up meeting the Principal of Joel Omino Secondary school together with some few students to see the progress of the ESD Projects within the school.

 

The Ambassador said he is very much impressed with the progress of the ESD projects within the institution, adding that there is need to provide support for it.

 

ENDS