As Kenya Connect officially heads into it's 9^th year, some of our school partnerships are very well established and moving us into new areas of growth. One such partnership is between Fort Smallwood Elementary School and Nyaani Primary School. The entire student body at this school in Pasadena, Maryland has been involved in our pen pal exchange since the partnership was established in 2004. During this time, many of the students on both sides of the exchange have graduated from their elementary and the primary schools.  Growing right along with the students from its partner school, Ft. Smallwood is now sponsoring Nyaani Secondary School. Thanks to a donation from Ft Smallwood's most recent fundraiser, the secondary school was able to install electricity. This mighty Maryland school's future plans now include establishing Kenya Connect's first computer lab that will introduce children in Kenya to important technology.

More and more high schools have been getting involved in our outreach programs in the last two years. This interest has led to the enrollment of additional secondary schools in Kenya as well as KC's first interns through the Howard County GT Intern Mentor Program in Maryland. Ruqayyah Albaari and Megan Gildea, both seniors at Hammond HS in Columbia, have decided to focus their internship on the issue of water and sanitation and will be raising funds through coin drives and a culture festival during the year. The work they are doing with Kenya Connect will not only benefit a community across the globe but spread awareness of global issues in their local community as well. We are excited to have Ruqayyah and Megan working with us, and welcome Hammond HS's new partnership with Ngamba Secondary School.

While the majority of the donations for our School Sponsorship Program have been generated by schoolchildren, we do receive donations from civic groups.

                                          Dr. John Reynolds, DVM

Dr. John Reynolds, Past President of the Rotary Club of Pittsfield, Massachusetts had this to say about his experience with Kenya Connect:

    In 2008, my club donated $2,000 to renovate a classroom and provide supplies for a school.  Our board of directors was impressed how quickly the money was used by KC.  The DVD we received [about our project] was unbelievable.  It was very moving to see the parents and workers complete the project and see the children thanking us.  Never before had we received that kind of feedback. 

    The following year we showed the video during our annual auction and used it to motivate the audience to "bid" donations to help renovate more classrooms.  In 15 minutes we raised $10,000!!!  People felt comfortable donating for the project because they knew the money would be used in an effective way. Our club has supported many different projects over the years and often feels that the money was not used as well as we would like or we did not get any feedback at all.  Working with KC has been great and we look forward to future projects.

The Pittsfield Rotary Club's $10K donation funded a renovation of Makaalu Primary School and a new water tank and pit latrine for Kisola Primary School.