Edward (left) and Jude in a meeting with teachers of John Paul II Secondary School, Kibera.

Students from Rockbrook Park School in Dublin, Ireland will come to Kenya in July 2009 to spend quality time engaged in activities with students their own age in Ikumbo village in Meru, and in Kibera slums. In the rural environment of Ikumbo, the focus will be on teaching primary school children and assisting the school manually as it constructs more buildings for its students and establishes a farm to provide meals for them. In Kibera both Irish and Kenyan students will engage in a cultural exchange that will include debating, social work and curriculum integration.

Two teachers from Rockbrook, Mr Jude Mulligan and Mr Edward Kellett, recently spent a week in Nairobi (25th-31st Oct) working alongside personnel from the University's Community Outreach Programme (COP) and learning more about the activities COP does in Kibera and other locations around the country. Rockbrook has been operating a cultural link programme for the past year with the John Paul II Mixed Secondary School in Kibera.

This means that throughout the year there are exchanges between the students in both schools in the areas of literature, art, photography, social service projects and information technology. Moreover, under the auspices of COP, students from Rockbrook are currently providing scholarships to 22 students in the John Paul II School (using money they raised on their own initiative through various fundraising activities in Ireland). Strathmore is delighted to be partnering with Rockbrook in this scholarship activity, and looks forward to furthering this cooperation over the coming years.

Rockbrook's plan is to continue working in partnership with COP to maintain these 22 young people in school until they leave Form Four. During their stay, Mr Mulligan and Mr Kellett also visited Ikumbo Secondary School.