This is the blog of the Peer Counseling training which was
conducted in Got Kachola F.A.M Mixed
 |
| STUDENTS DOING MANUAL WORK |
Secondary school, organized by the
Anglican Development Services (ADS) (Nyanza) and facilitated by the Agape
Counseling and Training Services (ACTS). This training was carried out from 19
th
– 20
th September 2013.
Got Kachola F.A.M Mixed Secondary school is located in the
hilly parts of Manyatta Sub Location, Suna God Jope Location, Suna East Division
in Migori County.
 |
| THE SCHOOL GATE |
The school was
started by a community initiative in 2007.
It sits on small, rocky and hilly compound,
with one block that houses the Administration Block and the Class Rooms. It had
another brick block under construction near the gate with a small kitchen in
the opposite side of the administration block, but with no dining hall. The
students used the trees shades during lunch time to have their meals. The
school had three blocks of latrines, located at different locations, one each
for the teachers, boys and girls.
 |
| STUDENTS DOING MANUAL WORK |
The school was single streamed from form one to form four
with a population of 137 students, 69 girls and 68 boys. However, in form one,
there were more girls than boys, but the trend was the reverse in the upper
forms. The school had 9 teaching staffs, with only 2, the Principal
and the Deputy Principal, who were employed by the Teachers Service Commission (TSC).
The rest, 7, were Board of Governors
(BOG) employees.
 |
| DURING ONE OF THE ENERGIZERS |
Being located in a poor community, the school faced a number
of economic and social problems. The community around the school practiced
small scale tobacco and sugar farming, which was one of the major economic
activities in the area. They also practiced subsistence maize and other crop
farming cattle rearing. The Suna community also struggled with cattle rustling
from the neighboring Kuria community.
This directly affected school fees payment,
which was registered as poor, and, resulted in the slow development of the
 |
| A STUDENT DOING PRESENTATION |
school. The social problems faced included poor attitude of the
community members towards the school. This, the administration saw as the main
reason as to why the school does not develop easily. There was also sexual
exploitation of the girls by the outsiders. Students who were involved in the
acts did not take studies seriously and eventually dropped out of school.
However, incidences of HIV infection among the
students had not been reported to the school administration. This could be due to the fear of stigmatization, caused by lack of awareness creation in the area of HIV/AIDS. This, the school administration treated with a lot of caution, as they could
be silently on treatment.
NOTABLE ACHIEVEMENTS OF THIS TRAINING
 |
| COUNSELING ROLE PLAY |
- Awareness creation in the area of HIV/AIDS, sexually transmitted infections including reproductive and sexual health.
- The students came to terms with themselves and were able to avail themselves to support their fellow peers.
- From the feed back received at the end of the training, it was evident that there was change in behavior, beliefs and attitude.
