Tumu Tumu is a small rural village in the Central highlands of Kenya. Situated in the foothills of Mount Kenya, it is a region of green forests and dusty red soil. The weather is variable with chilly nights, cool, damp, early morning mists, and warm or hot weather from mid-morning to dusk. Due to its location on the equator, it is dark by 6-6.30pm every day. People live in small wooden houses scattered throughout the forest, often with no electricity or running water. Childhood is a very different experience in rural Kenya than in Ireland. Life in Kenya is tough, with most people surviving a day to day existence. Despite this, wherever you go, you meet the same eager and vibrant children that you would meet anywhere in the world. Education is the only way out of poverty, but Kenyan children must pay school fees and have a uniform before they can attend school. School fees are very costly so most family income is put towards education at the expense of food, clothing and indeed housing.

Tumu Tumu Primary School is a multi-denominational co-educational school with 256 pupils and twelve teachers. There is no private transport in this area and children walk several kilometres to and from school every day. The school day is much longer, and children are at school from 8am to 6pm. Despite this, Tumu Tumu Primary School had no kitchen or dining facilities until 2020, when funding from Gaelscoil Chnoc na Ré Sligo enabled the building of a kitchen. The school needs schoolbooks and supplies for the children, many of whom cannot afford books and stationery. Equipment and furniture are basic. There are no whiteboards, no laptops and very limited sporting or musical facilities. There is no money for extracurricular activities. In 2021 the Tumutumu Kisiju Project established the Gaelscoil Chnoc na Ré Awards which provide sponsorship through fundraising for the children in the final year of Tumutumu Primary School to progress to Secondary School. The Tumutumu Kisiju Project also provides individual sponsorship for a number of children with significant socio-economic needs via private sponsorship.

Tumu Tumu Deaf School is a specialised regional residential school for 174 children with hearing impairment. Many of these children have other developmental disabilities and challenges, and some are orphaned. Many families cannot afford to support their children, particularly in relation to school fees. Funding to the school has deteriorated severely over the past decade and even the provision of food and water is a struggle. In 2019 funding from Mercy College Sligo provided much needed food supplies. In 2020  heavy monsoon rain caused buildings, including the main pit latrines, to collapse into the ground, leaving the school with limited sanitary facilities. Funding from Mercy College Sligo via the Tumutumu Kisiju Project enabled the repair of these. In 2021 and 2022 funding from the Tumutumu Kisiju Project enabled the provision of Dining Hall tables and chairs, the repair of verandahs and footpaths  and the purchase of an industrial cooker for the school.  The school is always in urgent need of funding for essential supplies such as schoolbooks, uniforms, and renovation of its very basic dormitories. In consultation with the School Community, it has been identified that the building of a well to provide a water supply for the school would be a transformative development. In 2023 the Tumutumu Kisiju Project raised over €3,000 for this purpose and was awarded a grant of €10,000 towards the building of the well.  This project is currently out to tender and fundraising is ongoing by the students of Mercy College Sligo to raise the outstanding €10,000 euro to complete the well.

Kisiju Mission

Kisiju is situated 100 km south of Dar-es-Salaam. This journey takes three hours by jeep - one hour on a tarred road and two hours on a dirt track. Its bush land runs beside the Indian Ocean. The Mission was set up by Fr. Patrick Keaney a Salvadorian Missionary Priest who has worked all his life in Tanzania. The area of Kisiju is unfertile, the people living there are subsistence farmers and fishermen who survive on what they can produce themselves. As the soil is very sandy, little to nothing grows there, with the exception of mango, coconut and cashew nut trees. Their only farming implements are hoes and machetes. The women gather salt along the shore to sell in Dar-el-Salaam. They live in grass and mud houses. It is a place where there are only a small number of government primary schools, no opportunities for students who leave primary school to advance themselves, and no aid organisations to help.

Over 17 years ago, Colette O’Hagan, undertook the challenge of raising €40,000 to build a Trade School in Kisiju whose main focus would be the education of girls. A girl who has completed 7 or more years of schooling will marry four years later, have fewer children and will send her own children to school. The exponential benefit of educating a girl reaches far beyond the classroom, an educated woman will re-invest over 90% of her income back into family and community. The better educated a girl, the more choices that become available to her.

The building of the trade school was completed in 2008. The Trade School consists of 2 classrooms, 2 workshops, 1 office, 1 store and toilets. Accommodation for teachers has also been purpose built (block building) and this means that teachers can be recruited from other parts of Tanzania and Africa. The success of the project to date has resulted in the need for a Kindergarten School which opened in Feb 2020 with an enrolment of 64 children. The Kindergarten School proved so successful, that in 2022 Colette and the Kisiju Team established St Patrick's Primary School at the Mission.  Current projects include  the building of a perimeter wall for the school.  Planned projects include the building of a library and toilets and the addition of classrooms as the school population grows. The Tumutumu Kisiju Project recently raised over €2.,000 for this purpose and is applying for a grant to fund the remainder.  Through Colette, Mercy College have a long established link with Kisiju Mission School in Tanzania and fundraise for much needed basic equipment and supplies. Our long-term goal is to empower the Kisiju community to become self-sufficient.

Background to The Tumutumu Kisiju Project 

Dara Gallagher, Fióna Gallagher, Colette O'Hagan and Mícheál Ó Broin have established this fundraising site for three East African Schools. Dara first worked as a doctor in Tumu Tumu Hospital in the Kenyan Central Highlands in 1992, and has maintained close links with Tumu Tumu ever since, travelling there regularly. Her sister Fióna has been travelling to Tumu Tumu since 1995. Dara and Mícheál, the Principal of Gaelscoil Chnoc na Ré, Sligeach established a link with Tumu Tumu Primary School in 2016, and Gaelscoil fundraising in the past, through the parent body CAIRDE, has enabled the building of a school kitchen, the provision of water tanks and the renovation of classrooms.  

In 2018 Dara, Fióna and Colette, then Principal of Mercy College Sligo, established a cultural link between Mercy College and Tumu Tumu Girls High School.  Colette, Dara and Fióna, together with 15 Mercy College Students and teacher Katie Kelly, visited the school in 2019 and were asked by the Tumu Tumu community to support neighbouring Tumu Tumu School for the Hearing Impaired which was seriously underfunded.  This is a special residential school for Deaf Children, some of whom also have developmental difficulties. Mercy College  were in a position to provide funding for urgent food supplies. Following this visit, the fundraising for all 3 schools was brought together and the Tumutumu Kisiju Project was established. 

Every cent fundraised goes directly to the schools and the children. All committee members devote their services for free, including auditing and legal services. Overhead costs are minimal and are covered personally by committee members. 

In 2024 the Principal, Staff and 18 students from Mercy College Sligo, together with members of The Tumutumu Kisiju Project will travel to Kenya to visit Tumutumu Deaf School  to do Voluntary Work, and are fundraising to provide funding for the completion of a well for the school. They will see first hand the challenges faced by the children and the school and the work of the Tumutumu Kisiju Project on the ground.

We have exceptional teams on the ground in East Africa. Ms Charity Waguthi Kariuki, Mrs Wambûi Kariuki and Mr Sammy Muturi are the Kenyan Tumutumu Kisiju Project Committee members, while Fr Patrick Keaney, Fr Elasmus Kayongo and Dr Xavery "Chile" Chilemba are the Tanzanian committee members.