Presentation of a cheque for EUR 3,300 by the pupils of the Matthias Claudius School, who raise funds for our Ratinga School during the annual “School Runs” campaign with TuS Breitscheid.

2021 Watoto e.V. yearly newsletter

Between Christmas and New Year, we received numerous “last minute” donations, which raised the donation result to almost 45,000 Euros, well above our donation target of 30,000 Euros. Our heartfelt thanks go to all donors. In the course of...

A flood of private donations from Ratingen have enabled us to furnish every child of Ratinga with brand new school shoes of the “ROMIKA” brand, which are manufactrued by the new factory of Josef Seibel Africa in Ukunda. Kenia-Hilfe:...

Pupils of Matthias-Claudius-Schule in Breitscheid conducted a charity run to help Felix attend Ratinga Primary School. To the artikel in “Lintorfer” (German).

Pupils of Johann-Peter-Melchior-School in Ratingen-Lintorf collected almost 10.000 Euros at a charity rund for Ratinga Primary School. Article in “Lintorfer” (German).

Since October, students of our Lulu Boys and Girls High Schools participate in a project where students from Denmark, Germany and Kenya communicate on a platform provided by Zoom, using free audio equipment from Logitech. The project is exciting...

Last year in Kenya, a documentary was filmed about Hamisi, a boy who had severe deformities of his legs at birth and who, thanks to the initiative of the Hinssen and Jakob families and their supporters in Ratingen, can...

A few days ago, our member Anke Rühl passed away unexpectedly. Anke was always a cheerful, positive person, and one could not help but feel at ease in her presence. She was able to bring her passion into her...

Necessity is the mother of invention. This is true insofar as without Corona & Co. we would never have had the idea, let alone been able found something like the Mekaela Online Academy (MOA). But we did, and almost...

…ago, Mekaela Academies opened its doors. According to our records, 10th of May, 1996 was the official opening day of Manuel Alexander School. It seems a bit odd that it was a Friday, but maybe the founders had to...

Today, we received 15,000 Euros in donations, and with that staggering amount we have significantly exceeded our donation target for 2020. We don’t want to measure everything in terms of money, but this is a wonderful “Merry Christmas” for...

Article in “Die Rheinpfalz” from 19.11.2020 (German) Slight correction: MOA will start in January

We didn’t want to publish anything until everything was home and dry, but now the time has come: this weekend we started construction of the new Mekaela Online Academy (MOA). On the premises of the new shoe factory we...

Article in “Die Rheinpfalz” from 01.08.2020 (German) By the way, two of the five are Mekaela Academies alumni.  

Article in “Die Rheinpfalz” from 26.07.2020 (German)  

Schools in Kenya have been closed since March. According to the Ministry’s latest announcement they are to remain closed until December. However, the students of Mekaela Academies will continue to receive education. In the beginning it was just homework...

About two weeks ago we started to collect donations for sponsorships until the end of the year as Corona relief aid for the schools. In this short period we have already surpassed half of our donation target of 70,000...

The population of Kenya has been extremely hit hard by the measures taken against the pandemic, and by this we do not only mean restrictions, but a lack of basic things like food, medication and a roof over their...

The economic consequences of the Corona crisis will be devastating, and Kenya won’t be exempt. Many parents will soon be unable to pay school fees, which means our schools will lose a huge part of their income. We won’t...

Beginning of January we had started building the wings with new classrooms for the LPS 2nd stream. The construction is making very good progress, we are hoping to use the rooms on from the 2nd term after the break...

In a record time of little more that four months we managed to complete the second wing of Ratinga. Or rather: will have managed, because obviously there are still some gaps to fill and paint to spill. But no...

At the end of 2019, Mekaela Weber School sported slightly above 100 pupils. Now, we are counting 210. That is a sensational success of the new head-teacher Erick Omondi and his highly motivated team. There can’t be any doubt...

In November, 2019 we had begun building the second stream of Ratinga Primary School. The construction is funded by the Blumberg Foundation from Ratingen, Germany. Currently, we are in the process of finishing the roof. We are confident that...

Due to a real flood of donations in December, the target for our 999-Programme was reached on 27.12.2019. By November, we had collected “only” slightly over 10,000 Euros. A big thank you to our loyal donors. The 999-Programme helps...