A section of residents of Marafa area in Magarini Sub County, Kilifi County are set to benefit from a number of community projects initiated by a Dutch missionary.
Mr Thomas Schyns from the Netherlands arrived in Marafa five months ago and after his stay, he realized that the local community were not properly empowered and he initiated various social and economic projects to help them.
The projects include a modern pig farm, a modern multipurpose play field from a local school, a fruit tree garden, tourism activities at the famous Hells Kitchen tourism sites and shipping thousands of medical study books from Rotterdam to benefit the Kenya Medical Teaching College (KMTC) in Kilifi.
The Deputy head teacher of St Joseph the Worker primary school, the one of the beneficiary schools Jacob Ngumbao said that since the philanthropic gesture by Schyns, the infrastructure in the school had improved hence improved enrollment.
“We have no playfield and children need to be brought up physically too and the construction of the multipurpose playground then we shall be fine.
We have been borrowing a local playground hence limiting our physical fitness classes to two times a week,” he said.
He added that the pig project will also go a long way in economically empowering a section of locals since the area is prone to hardship and high poverty levels.
Mr Schyns said that his projects are geared towards empowering communities in areas he visits and that he was also keen to learn the local Giryama traditions.
“When I just arrived here, I discovered that these kids were not doing that much sports because the gym classes are very limited.
That is why I am building a multi-purpose sports field for them to enjoy different sports.
The second project I am doing is introducing pig farming for a sustainable pig farm to economically empower the locals,” he said.
He added that he was currently shipping thousands of study books from Montserrat Medical University in the Netherlands to the Kilifi KMTC.
“I’m actually shipping thousands of medical study books to the Kilifi KMTC for their local library so that they can improve their education.
The shipping will be done from Rotterdam in the coming days. I like the Kenyan people and the local culture and they are very industrious and they only need empowerment,” he said.
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