Following our Nov. 16th Fund Raiser event to send a girl from Maragima Primary School to Graceland Girls Secondary (High) School, we raised close to $8,000, far exceeding our goal! The girls sat for their Primary school exam and we recently learned that two girls scored the necessary points to qualify to attend Secondary (High) School. It is important to note that in Kenya, the new constitution does require the government to fund students education from kindergarten through grade 8 [...]
My colleague and friend Marcie Simon, who traveled with me to Kenya, and her dear friend Cerise Jacobs, are hosting an event to support girl education in Kenya tomorrow night, Wednesday, November 16 from 7 – 10 p.m. The details, within a beautiful letter from Marcie, are below. I created a short documentary film from my footage taken at both the Maragima Primary School and Graceland Girls School will be shown at the event to put real faces to those girls [...]
We’ve been back from Kenya for a little over two weeks and I am still taking in the full impact of our travels. I have spent countless hours sorting through photographs that I was not able to post in those rare moments I stole at Internet cafes in Chaka and Nyeri. I had so many of my own photos to share, that I included various slideshows in the posts below. Please feel free to browse back through and take a [...]
[slideshow] Zipporah & Catherine We were invited to visit the home of Zipporah, a Form 4 (senior) and her younger sister Catherine, a Form 3 (junior) from Graceland Girls School. Their family lived in nearby Maragima on a stretch of rented farmland. Zipporah’s parents and grandmother greeted us kindly and treated us to a chicken dinner and tea. It was incredible to see how the family made-do without the basic amenities that most find necessary for everyday living, such as electricity [...]
We were invited out to the Maragima Primary School less than a kilometer from Graceland, where some of Graceland’s finest students once studied, including Zipporah and Catherine whom we have been following during our stay. The school itself was in disrepair and desperately in need of basic renovations, such as cement on the floor in the classrooms and a fix to their leaking water tank where students gleefully filled their drinking containers throughout the morning. Three students shared one book. [...]
We found internet access as we see the sites and buy supplies for the girls in nearby Nyeri, so I wanted to post again while I can. Someone once said that you can’t visit Africa without leaving a changed person. There has never been a more true statment. Kenya is not only beautiful, but it reminds you through its peaceful spirit what it really important. Yesterday morning, we visited a local school supported by a Christian group call Kids [...]
We arrived at Graceland Wednesday night and were greeted by Michael Mutie, the school’s most gracious principal. We are staying in the guest house, which is truly beautiful and had the chance to finally meet the girls at the morning parade, which includes marching, prayers and the raising of the Kenyan flag. Following a guided tour of the gorgeous and expansive campus, we sat in on a literature class, history, as well as Swahili, which naturally we did not understand, [...]
We arrived safely in Nairobi last night (around 9 p.m. local time), after jet-setting into the night, day and then night again in a matter of hours, making our way through Heathrow and then southeast to Kenya. On the plane we sat next to an Englishman who works for an organization called the Halo Trust that focuses on removing the hazardous debris of war, in particular de-mining, and a group from Be the Change to eradicate child poverty. It was [...]
Jambo! We leave today for Nairobi and I have packed my cameras, hard drives, memory cards, batteries and other equipment as carefully as possible. This past Sunday, we attended a BBQ at Robert & Kate’s, two former residents of Kenya and big supporters of the Graceland school. While there, we had the privilege of meeting Dr. Tom Kariuki who came to Washington for a meeting and is a member of the board at Graceland. We learned a lot more about [...]