Posted by Daraja Academy on Wednesday, January 27th, 2010 , Posted in Blog, News , 2 Comments »
The students being back on Campus, Teacher Catherine took the chance to do a composition exercice in her English class, asking the girls to write about the most memorable day of their time at home. Here are a few extracts that they agreed to share with us!
“(…)On our way, we found a group of boys. We greated them and continued, but they told us to wait for them. We were 4 girls and they were 10 boys. We knew 2 of them. They joined us and we went to church, we sang, and at 1am they told us to come to their houses. We refused to go with them.(…) Another boy came and took us to our home. The next day we heard that 10 boys raped 5 girsl and got caught. We did not tell anybody about our story. I will never forget it until the Indian Ocean comes dry.”
“It was on a vacation in the year 2009. My mum had promised me that we would visit my cousin in Nairobi. I couldn’t wait to see her. Days past and they turned into weeks. The day came and I was so excited because I knew I would have so much fun. We started our journey from Nanyuki town. We got into a bus going express to Nairobi. On the way, I saw many features that we had learnt in Geography like the valleys, mountains, hills and major rivers. It took two hours for us to arrive. We met my cousin, anxiously waiting for us at the bus station. I was so excited to see her that tears of joy fell down my visage. We had a good time and celebrated together…”
“(…)There were loud screams from the people living in the center. My uncle left me there and ran very fast towards the center without minding of what could happen to him. As he was running, there were other energetic young boys following him, also going to see what was happening.(…) I was worried of what could happen and ran helter skelter towards the center, because I knew that without my uncle, there would not be life again.(…) I could not believe what I saw, my mouth was wide open like a gap and my feeble legs shook when I discovered my uncle lying down while bleeding severely. I quickly called men passing by to help me to take my uncle to a nearby dispensary. Fortunately, he was helped by kind-hearted doctors and recovered after a week. Surely, this is a day that I will remember in my life…”
“The day turned out very well. It was the year 2009’s Christmas, which is a very important day to christians, especially me. I gave my blankets two kicks that left them sprawling on the ground. (…) My Aunt had sent me a Christmas dress which I longed to wear. (…) When I went outside everybody was staring at me as if I had a plastic nose. My mother showered me with praises saying that I looked like an angel. My mother had called a photographer and it was a surprise for me. When I started to smile, I was suprised to see flashes from different points. This made me as happy as a barren woman who recently gave birth to a bouncy baby girl with a golden spoon in the mouth.”
Posted by Daraja Academy on Monday, January 25th, 2010 , Posted in News , 1 Comment »
They returned in one mad rush of excitement, hugs and cheer. One year older, a little bit wiser and beating the odds, Daraja Academy’s 1st class of girls returned to the campus as FORM 2’s (sophomores).
Highlights:
* Daraja Academy held it’s first democratic election. Girls ran for the positions of Dining Hall Prefect, Dorm Prefect, Sports Prefect and Head Prefect. I cannot stress just how much work and responsibility falls on the prefect’s shoulders. Often they rise before their classmates, overseeing cleaning, delegating responsibilities to classmates who don’t always want them, and coordinating activities and chores with Daraja teachers and staff. I am proud to announce that for the second year in a row Mary K. will act as Dining Hall Prefect, Catherine will serve as Sports Prefect, Betty won a very close three-way race and will be Dorm Prefect and Marylene will oversee everything in 2010 as the Head Prefect. To me the most exciting aspect of the election process was the fact that our students truly voted for the girl they felt would represent them best, rather than allowing the election to become a popularity contest.
* Daraja has been very lucky to host 3 wonderful volunteers from Denmark. Unlike the Danish students who prepare with MS Kenya for their 3-month placements across the continent at our school, these volunteers all chose to give their time specifically to Daraja Academy. Signe, a life long Girl Scout worked with the Daraja scouts (about 8 girls) on skills, scout philosophy and team building, while also working on the school garden. Anne Marie has been incredibly helpful in many aspects of campus life. She has been assisting in the office creating a database for the Daraja Academy 2010 applicants, helping in the kitchen and working with the girls. And then there was Martin… a member of the Danish military; Martin chose to give Daraja Academy his well-earned vacation. To the girls he has become a football (soccer) God. Martin has worked the girls into a pretty formidable team, often barking at them the way I did with the guys on my American football teams back home. “COME ON GIRLS, RUN!” and “RELINA MOVE YOUR DEFENSE UP!! COME ON!” can often be heard roaring through campus with a Danish lilt in the afternoon. As I type, boxes of gear and uniforms are in transit, generously donated by Martin’s father in Jutland.
* New teacher Mr. Wycliffe had a fantastic opportunity to bring his teaching into the World, when a solar eclipse occurred during his Geography class. It was tangible teaching as its best as the girls felt the temperature drop and continue dropping, as it got darker and darker. Mr. Wycliffe, along with Mr. Mwambura and Ms. Caroline, Daraja Academy’s new teachers, have been accepted and embraced by the students and staff.
* University of San Diego professors Nancy and Peggy visited campus and made an unforgettable impact. It amazes me when visitors seamlessly become part of our little community, genuinely interacting with the students and staff. Nancy is the super hero who took on Daraja’s water worries as her own. This was essentially a fact-finding mission her providing her with the info she needs to approach groups in the USA requesting their assistance. She also spent a lot of time talking with our teachers and often 1 on 1 with students. Several times actually, I saw both Nancy and Peggy slowly walking or sitting in a quiet corner of campus with a Daraja girl, talking and more importantly… listening. Both women actually helped with our first set of interviews for the upcoming year, about 10 girls from our closets villages. Peggy was a whirlwind during her stay at Daraja. At one point utilizing her background in counseling she spent several hours with the students discussing issues, reading poetry and just talking about matters they generally don’t get the chance to. She was up at 6am to watch the sunrise over Mt. Kenya and continued buzzing around campus until long after it set in the west. We look forward to their return.
So it is 2010, the girls are back and the World is right. Signe, Nancy and Peggy drove off campus, heading home this morning, after many hugs and very few dry eyes.
Every Monday and Friday Daraja Academy students and staff assemble around the flagpole. The scouts raise the flag, we sing the Kenyan national anthem and the teachers or I speak to the students. Kenya is a very religious country and the students have set up a sort of “prayer rotation.” One day the Baptist girls will prepare a song, another time the Muslim students will read a passage from the Koran and explain what it means to them personally and so on.
Today Mary P. read an excerpt from the book of Ecclesiastes, if she had tried, I don’t think she could have picked a more poignant passage to be read on a day when three of our new friends were leaving. Standing under the Kenyan flag she read:
“To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance”
And I thought, how lucky are we that this is working. How lucky am I, and for me it was both a time to laugh and a time to weep.
Thank you so much for taking the time to catch up with news from Daraja Academy.
JASON DOHERTY
Posted by Daraja Academy on Tuesday, January 12th, 2010 , Posted in Blog , 1 Comment »
Eunice and Mary P. returning from the Daraja Academy borehole.
Making a connection with my Alma Mater, University of San Diego has been priceless for Daraja Academy’s development. USD’s School of Leadership and Educational Studies named Daraja Academy 2008 partner of the year, Dean Cordiero has directed several book drives which raised both funds and awareness for our cause. Our girls were fortunate to spend much of this summer learning about confidence, individuality and Drama skills from USD under grad Carr Cavender. Plans that will allow USD graduate students study abroad at the campus are currently worked out… and last summer, USD Professor of Education Nancy Hanssen visited us.
I hate being away from campus when we have guests. Seeing the campus through their eyes is both thrilling and motivating. Unfortunately, due to extra costs associated with start-up, I was fund raising in the states when “Nancy and Sue” (her friend and fellow educator) visited Daraja Academy.
After returning to Daraja, I heard so many stories about “Sue-and-Nancy”, “Nancy-and-Sue” from the teachers and students that today I think back on their visit like I was here with them. The professional development work that they did with Daraja’s teachers was as valuable as the real friendships they made with the students.
Everything could have stopped their impact would have been great, but Daraja is contagious and Nancy Hanssen clearly caught the bug and has passed it on to at least two of her friends, Karen Collins and Fred Essig, who have yet to visit the school but are working to help it none the less. Several Rotary Clubs in the San Diego area understand need and have volunteered their help, members of Nancy’s husband Jack’s Naval Academy classmates in an afternoon contributed $500
Please read Nancy’s words below and know that nothing is exaggerated. Water is so important to the success of Daraja Academy’s. It affects every part of the school: the meals, the hygiene, the physical campus and the student’s health. A constant source of water would allow us to grow more of our own food – teaching the girls environmentally friendly techniques while GREATLY reducing our weekly food bills.
Once again, it isn’t nice to think of the devastating effect that drought has on a region like ours, but as I’ve said many times, our struggles a real and we a small window into what much of the world is experiencing. With your help we can make a difference.
The Need for Water at Daraja Academy
Nancy Hanssen
Prior to spending two weeks working with the teachers and young women of Daraja, I thought nothing of letting gallons of water spin down the drain while waiting for hot water for my shower. A thirst for water is easily quenched but not if it has to be pumped from a borehole and boiled.
I brought only a few bottles of water with me to Daraja and little did I know that I would use that water not only for drinking but to bathe. The water that flows into the pipes on campus is a trickle of dirty water for a shower. In my small hut I had a flushing toilet and with guilt, in the evenings, I saw the glow from flashlights as the girls made their way to the latrines that were dug to conserve water.
Daraja relies on water from the Ewaso Nanyuki River, rain and run-off. Daraja is a victim of drought, water siphoned off up-stream, and disease.
The need for an education is a dream for these girls. The need for water is a necessity to sustain their dreams.
The major determinate for the expansion of the Daraja Academy is having access to and availability of fresh water. A team of project managers and civil engineers are actively involved in and are donating their time and travel to the process of finding more water for Daraja. The team’s preliminary calculations estimate $25,000 to $30,000 is needed to find a sustainable source of fresh water for Daraja. Your donation will go to the direct costs of this project (permits, licenses, materials and local labor).
Please join our team.
There isn’t much more to say than that, except that Nancy’ team deserves your assistance! The great part is… anybody can get involved. People have helped Daraja in SO MANY WAYS: organizing a goods drive, a remarkable middle school girl in Northern California raised over $2,000 selling baked goods and informing about the cause, another group of driven students at Hogan High raised as much simply by leading a coin drive in the classrooms of the school. Offices have pooled funds to help the girls of Daraja, families have done the same and of course individual’s contributions are always appreciated.
If I have learned one thing since starting Daraja Academy it is that things like this CAN be accomplished. If enough people believe that these deserving young ladies deserve healthy, clean water, then it will happen.
Thank you for caring,
Jason Doherty
Posted by Daraja Academy on Tuesday, January 12th, 2010 , Posted in Blog , Comments Off
Making a connection with my Alma Mater, University of San Diego has been priceless for Daraja Academy’s development. USD’s School of Leadership and Educational Studies named Daraja Academy 2008 partner of the year, Dean Cordiero has directed several book drives which raised both funds and awareness for our cause. Our girls were fortunate to spend much of this summer learning about confidence, individuality and Drama skills from USD under grad Carr Cavender. Plans that will allow USD graduate students study abroad at the campus are currently worked out… and last summer, USD Professor of Education Nancy Hanssen visited us.
I hate being away from campus when we have guests. Seeing the campus through their eyes is both thrilling and motivating. Unfortunately, due to extra costs associated with start-up, I was fund raising in the states when “Nancy and Sue” (her friend and fellow educator) visited Daraja Academy.
After returning to Daraja, I heard so many stories about “Sue-and-Nancy”, “Nancy-and-Sue” from the teachers and students that today I think back on their visit like I was here with them. The professional development work that they did with Daraja’s teachers was as valuable as the real friendships they made with the students.
Everything could have stopped their impact would have been great, but Daraja is contagious and Nancy Hanssen clearly caught the bug and has passed it on to at least two of her friends, Karen Collins and Fred Essig, who have yet to visit the school but are working to help it none the less. Several Rotary Clubs in the San Diego area understand need and have volunteered their help, members of Nancy’s husband Jack’s Naval Academy classmates in an afternoon contributed $500
Please read Nancy’s words below and know that nothing is exaggerated. Water is so important to the success of Daraja Academy’s. It affects every part of the school: the meals, the hygiene, the physical campus and the student’s health. A constant source of water would allow us to grow more of our own food – teaching the girls environmentally friendly techniques while GREATLY reducing our weekly food bills.
Once again, it isn’t nice to think of the devastating effect that drought has on a region like ours, but as I’ve said many times, our struggles a real and we a small window into what much of the world is experiencing. With your help we can make a difference.
The Need for Water at Daraja Academy
Nancy Hanssen
Prior to spending two weeks working with the teachers and young women of Daraja, I thought nothing of letting gallons of water spin down the drain while waiting for hot water for my shower. A thirst for water is easily quenched but not if it has to be pumped from a borehole and boiled.
I brought only a few bottles of water with me to Daraja and little did I know that I would use that water not only for drinking but to bathe. The water that flows into the pipes on campus is a trickle of dirty water for a shower. In my small hut I had a flushing toilet and with guilt, in the evenings, I saw the glow from flashlights as the girls made their way to the latrines that were dug to conserve water.
Daraja relies on water from the Ewaso Nanyuki River, rain and run-off. Daraja is a victim of drought, water siphoned off up-stream, and disease.
The need for an education is a dream for these girls. The need for water is a necessity to sustain their dreams.
The major determinate for the expansion of the Daraja Academy is having access to and availability of fresh water. A team of project managers and civil engineers are actively involved in and are donating their time and travel to the process of finding more water for Daraja. The team’s preliminary calculations estimate $25,000 to $30,000 is needed to find a sustainable source of fresh water for Daraja. Your donation will go to the direct costs of this project (permits, licenses, materials and local labor).
Please join our team.
There isn’t much more to say than that, except that Nancy’ team deserves your assistance! The great part is… anybody can get involved. People have helped Daraja in SO MANY WAYS: organizing a goods drive, a remarkable middle school girl in Northern California raised over $2,000 selling baked goods and informing about the cause, another group of driven students at Hogan High raised as much simply by leading a coin drive in the classrooms of the school. Offices have pooled funds to help the girls of Daraja, families have done the same and of course individual’s contributions are always appreciated.
If I have learned one thing since starting Daraja Academy it is that things like this CAN be accomplished. If enough people believe that these deserving young ladies deserve healthy, clean water, then it will happen.
Thank you for caring,
Jason Doherty
Posted by Daraja Academy on Saturday, January 9th, 2010 , Posted in Blog , Comments Off
Usually when the students leave school and return to their homes for the holidays, the Daraja Academy Campus become eerily quiet. Not this holiday.
Over the last 6 weeks the campus was buzzing with activity. Thanks to the incredible generosity and love exhibited by Daraja Academy’s the loving supporters our student body is doubling! It still amazes me that the call went out, “there are remarkable, intelligent young women who deserve something better,” it was heard… AND IT WAS ANSWERED!
Renovations to the newly named “Rich Harley Hall” were needed before the new students arrive on January 9th. The classrooms required cracks to be filled in the floors and paint to be applied to the walls. When large groups of Danish volunteers (20+) visited last year, the dining hall was totally packed. In order to satisfy the addition of 25 more Daraja students we have renovated the dining patio which now resembles a very cool “indoor/outdoor” café. Because her mother works for Daraja Academy, Maureen doesn’t leave over the holiday break… she has already asked if she can “reserve” her seat on the patio for all meals.
A rigorous teacher hiring process has just been completed and 3 1/2 new teachers will be joining our staff. In later BLOG posts I will introduce them to the World, however very quickly: we hired two Swahili specialists Mr. Wycliffe and Mr. Mwambura, which will allow our veteran teacher Ms. Catherine to concentrate on English, her passion. We also hired Ms. Caroline who will also teach English as well as working as a dorm Matron.
I wrote earlier that we had hired 3 ½ teachers. I did so only because our last hire, Ms. Peris has been living at Daraja Academy ever since it opened its doors. In fact, she actually began teaching in September, when she took over Andy Harley’s history class, when he (temporarily) returned to the United States. Ms. Peris will be teaching math and chemistry and is married to our science guru, Mr. Charles, who in addition to teaching the sciences has also been named as the school’s Dean of Curriculum.
I cannot say enough about the group of teachers that we have been able to assemble, and it is very exciting to note that Daraja Academy is beginning to make waves in Kenyan’s academic circles… remarkably, 2 of the 3 newly hired teachers left secured jobs to join our staff! It seems we are doing something right.
This is all such great progress, but in all honesty it is you… the reader, the donor, those who advocate for this school and the incredible girls of Daraja, who have made every one of these advancements possible. You are all angels to us. Please keep the fire; our students deserve it I promise.
* * * Please watch for a post in the next few days about one specific remarkable angel. My greatest hope is that people will hear about Daraja Academy and choose to visit. This is so important to me because I know just how spectacular this school and its students are. Quite frankly, I believe that once a person has seen what it is we are trying to do, they can’t help but return to the developed world as a Daraja backer.
Nancy Hanssen totally “leap-frogged” the role of Daraja backer and is now a full fledge activist. Please check out the Daraja Academy BLOG in the next few days and read about how Nancy just might have pulled off a coup… bringing the campus WATER. * * *
Jason Doherty
