Dear Friends of Kijabe Children’s Education Fund,
In December, we wrote to you about a matching grant of $30,000. I’m delighted to report that your generous response, totaling significantly more than $30,000, qualifies us for the entire matching gift. This is a tremendous achievement! An achievement translating into nutritious meals, program enhancements, new computers, books and more. THANK YOU!!
I believe that generosity, like kindness, often has a ripple effect. It’s almost like it’s catching—in a really good way.
Nine years ago, the Kijabe Children’s Education Fund (KCEF) began a partnership with Education for All Children (EFAC), an organization providing an education-to-employment program for bright, disadvantaged Kenyan youth. Currently, KCEF and EFAC are jointly supporting 80 students through secondary school and university. EFAC’s goals, like Kijabe’s, include fostering leadership and economic opportunity, but in the interest of community transformation as well as individual advancement.
Here is one example of how such transformation is happening and how students benefitting from KCEF and EFAC are paying it forward:
Four years ago, a community activist named Nicodemus, living and working in the Kiandutu slum of Thika outside Nairobi, challenged a group of EFAC students supported by KCEF, encouraging them to create a community service project while they were home for their school break. His vision was to teach these scholarship recipients to have a heart for helping others, in order to change not just themselves but their community.
Secondary students, community activist Nicodemus and a thankful family.
In response to Nicodemus, the students gathered and elected a chairman, secretary and treasurer and brainstormed about service ideas. Since then, students have led three service projects every year during their school breaks, including an annual environmental cleanup, visiting and mentoring at-risk children and fundraising for food and clothing for a few of the neediest families.
In December, students visited several of the most needy families, including two single mothers, one with ten children and the other with eight, bringing them necessities such as clothing, toilet paper, soap, bread and grains. In the students’ own words, this experience taught them about compassion and kindness and, not least, about becoming givers rather than just receivers. “Together,” they said, “we can do more!”
Mother of 10 receiving donations from secondary students.
Your generosity has rippled out all the way to Kenya, providing at-risk children with opportunities they could only dream about without your help. They, in turn, are learning to pay it forward to the benefit of their communities.
Together, we can and are doing more!
With deepest gratitude,
Craig Hammon
KCEF Board Chair