Special Message from the School Directors
Brief history of our School
My dream of starting a community project to help HIV/AIDS orphans and vulnerable children in our community began in 2004 when I was working as a manager in a Charitable Children’s Institution in Rarieda District. I worked in the Children’s Institution for 8 years and came back to start a Community Based organization called Hope Restoration Centre in my community in 2011. We had only 15 beneficiaries in the beginning. We were helping our beneficiaries with psychosocial support to relieve them of stigma following the death of their parents. Through a friend’s advice I travelled to India in 2013 for a 7 months training at kanthari International Institute for Social Entrepreneurs. At kanthari I met Walter Munz, his wife Jo and their eldest daughter Andrea. We talked about my project and Walter and Jo got interested in my dream considering that Walter and Jo worked for many years in Africa at Albert Schweitzer Hospital in Lambarene Gabon as a doctor and midwife nurse respectively. After our meeting in kanthari, Walter and Jo took the initiative to fundraise for my project to help me realize my dream. Through their tireless efforts, Walter and Jo managed to get us money to start building our school office and two new classrooms. The Munz family visited our new found school in 2016 for inauguration and we agreed that we name our school after Walter’s friend Dr. Schweitzer with whom he worked in Lambarene Gabon for many years until Dr. Schweitzer’s death in 1965. Being an old man at that time before his death, Dr. Schweitzer asked Walter to take charge of the Lambarene Hospital. Walter and Jo worked in the Hospital in Africa and also in Europe the whole of their working lives. After the inauguration of our school, the Munz’s family founded the Swiss Association ‘Verein Albert Schweitzer Schule Kenia’ to continue fundraising for our beloved community school to build more classrooms each year.
Through friendship, Andrea Munz introduced our school to her friend Barbara Feuz. In 2019, Andrea and her husband Artur, Barbara and her husband Urs came to visit our school. After a long talk and a request for support to our school to continue to a full Primary School level Barbara and her husband Urs agreed to support us to build the upper primary section in our school(Grade 4, 5 and 6). Through Nafasi Sawa Kinderstiftung, Barbara and Urs agreed to give us more financial support to build our Secondary School(Grade 7, 8 and 9)
Why we named our School after the Great Doctor
We named our School ‘Dr. Albert Schweitzer School’ in recognition of the Great Doctor’s work which is a real inspiration to us. We wish to carry on with his dream of a better world for all humanity. In loving memory of his good work , we wish to change the lives of our community HIV/AIDS total orphans in South Western part of Kenya. We do all our work in line with one of the Great Doctor’s famous quotes: “Reverence for Life”
Special Thank You Messages
To all our beloved children, nothing but the best. ‘Forward ever backward never’
To all our parents, guardians and the community at large, thanks for entrusting us with your young children. We promise to give the best to all our beloved little children and ensure quality basic education is achieved by all. ‘Together We Can’.
To all our staff, we salute you. Your determination, enthusiasm and eye for excellence is beyond our spoke. We know we can’t thank you enough but please know it from deep down in our hearts that we are very grateful. Let’s continue with the good work. ‘This is a service and we provide it with lots of love’.
To all our supporters in Switzerland and beyond, we owe you everything. We shall forever be grateful. You are our lifeblood in all our work. ‘Thanks a thousand times’.
To our great friend Jo Munz, we started this journey together from nowhere when Walter was still alive. It was bleak and blank at the beginning but step by step we surmounted the hurdles and we are far away in this journey together. You are a mother to very many children now in Switzerland and Kenya. You are imbedded deep in our hearts in a very special way. ‘Merci’