HISTORY

The town of Embulbul is situated just outside Nairobi, one degree south of the equator, at an altitude of 5500 ft. Fr Kevin McGarry was Parish Priest in Embulbul for 8 years and during this time he accomplished an extraordinary transformation. He built a series of fine buildings - Counselling Centre, Dispensary, Presbytery, Convent and Church. He also commenced an education program. Establishment of Schools What began as a spiritual education, as a way to find and experience the presence of God and to express the knowledge learned, has blossomed into a forest of different types and modes of education affecting people of all ages. Out of their need to grow spiritually it was realized that there was an urgent need to help people digest and disseminate all that they learned, they needed to teach them different skills not only to understand but to be able to share all that they learned with others. The church would call this evangelization.

Fr. Kevin McGarry : The primary school for street children was opened on Monday 17th July 2000. On the first day 128 children registered, on Tuesday morning another 120 children registered; when we reached 300 we stopped registration. These children were the poorest of the poor. Many of them were between the ages of 8 and 13 years, mostly girls, who had never been to school for even a day in their lives. The volunteers who worked as teachers did a fantastic job. Only one was a trained teacher, some of the others had left school with only a primary education. The nursery school was started at the same time as the school for street children. Its main purpose was to prepare the poor and underprivileged children to enter primary education. We realized that when the poor started school they were at a disadvantage to those who could afford to go to private nursery schools.”