Archive for the ‘From the Founder’ Category
Daraja Support Systems
In earlier postings I wrote about the numerous student interviews we conducted earlier in the term and the 26 amazing students we rendered from them. These girls came from many parts of Kenya, they came eager to learn and were excited discover what their new futures held. I have not however, written about the new world they stepped into.
I am not referring to the physical beauty of Daraja Academy’s campus or the well-planned curriculum of the classrooms… I am referring to the complex social world that is a girl’s boarding school.
Though grateful and excited, packing off to a foreign world that will be your “home” for the next four year is an utterly terrifying experience. Many of the girls come from far away villages where the weather is different, the food is different, the language, the customs, even the way people dress are all different. When these dramatic contrasts are coupled with the fact that most of these girls have never been away from their families or caregivers for any extended length of time, we knew that we needed a series of support systems to help the Form 1’s (high school freshmen or 9th graders elsewhere) assimilate.
The following points have been incorporated into the Daraja Academy school model:
Each of the incoming students was greeted upon arrival by a pre-assigned big sister. Making new friends can be very hard and early on we wanted to create relationships that were based on something other than a common tribe or hometown. These pairings were based on shared interests, personalities and additional commonalities, other than tribe.
Early last year we noticed girls clustering with other students who either came from the same region or tribe, especially during the uncomfortable “I-don’t-know-anybody” stage of the year. This makes perfect sense, and happens in schoolyards, classrooms and boardrooms all around the world. At Daraja Academy, however, we wanted to help establish relationships that otherwise might have taken a longtime. The big sisters helped their little sisters get their uniforms, they showed them to their dorm room and finally in groups of two they toured campus, getting to know their new school as they got to know each other.
After three weeks, one innovation that appears to be a keeper is, the lodging girls from different grades in the same dorm room. Daraja Academy now boards girls from different grades together in the same room rather lodging them in different dorms. Incredibly, the idea of rooming together came up last year and it was students NOT the administration who thought of it.
Because the Form 1’s and the Form 2’s don’t attend class together we worried that entire grades would essentially isolate them selves. Between the grade-mixed dorm rooms and their big sisters (which do not board with their little sister) every Form 1 knew at least three Form 2’s by the end of their first day at Daraja Academy.
After three weeks, everything seems to be working well. The big and little sister’s relationships are growing and the dorm rooms… well, they look, sound and smell like dorm rooms. What is important is the school; though it runs like a school, it feels more like a family.
Please become another support system for these girls. Create a Daraja chapter in your local area to help these incredible young ladies achieve their goals, spread the word about the school.
Regardless, thank you so much being a part of this family.
Jason Doherty
Tags: Big sisters, support systems
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Mar 21st, 2010
Last Day of Interviews – 2 Spots Remain
It has been A HARD student selection process. Quite literally, over the past 2+ weeks a group of at least 4 Daraja Academy administrators (director of operations Peter Wathitu, vice principal Victoria, Jenni and I) along with a handful of volunteers, have conducted well over 100 student interviews. We have logged in almost 2,000 kms driving to Isiolo, Nairobi, Limuru, Eldoret, Kitale, Kakamega and all the way to Kisumu on Lake Victoria.
We have learned that word of Daraja Academy has spread across Kenya. With it we are meeting girls of tremendous need, who FAR exceed our expectations. Girls who received “straight A’s” all 8 years of primary school. Girls who were able to hold themselves together through abject poverty. Orphans who grew up with brothers and sisters and NO guardians, surviving on the goodwill of neighbors, missing school to dig ditches for food money – who somehow performed incredibly in school. We met girls still living in camps, displaced after the election violence, girls who still sleep in U.N. tents provided by the High Commission for Refugees. We have met miracles… three times I have excused my self from interviews because my eyes were so full of tears. These girls are angels, and we can’t take them all.
This is the reason I have not written on the BLOG about the process. I have played sports my entire life and this has been the most exhausting thing by far that I have ever done. The problem is at the end of the day, sleep is fought off by the problem presented that day: 13 amazing girls, 2 spots.
I am the luckiest man alive. This school is a lifelong dream. However, I would be misrepresenting myself if I didn’t describe the past 2 weeks as an equal mix of dream and nightmare. The indescribable highs of giving a wonderful young lady access to education and the lows of knowing there are others who today… we cannot help.
However, I have no doubt that as this project builds momentum, as people in North America, Europe, Africa and beyond hear about what is going on here… our scope will grow.
Until, please continue spreading the word about Daraja, that is the best weapon of change we have.
Later this week, when all is decided I will introduce that Daraja Academy class of 2014.
Thank you so much,
JASON DOHERTY
Tags: jason doherty, Jenni Doherty, selection process, Victoria, Wathitu
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Feb 15th, 2010
Highlights from the 1st Ten Days of 2010
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
Tags: Anne Marie, Martin, Nancy, Peggy, Signe, USD
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Jan 25th, 2010
The Need for WATER at Daraja
Eunice and Mary P. returning from the Daraja Academy borehole.
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
Tags: Carr Cavender, Nancy Hanssen, USD, Water
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Jan 12th, 2010
Dear World, Happy 2010!!! Love Daraja
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
Filed under From the Founder : Comments (0) : Jan 9th, 2010
Daraja Strength
There is strength in this new world that I call home. A quiet strength I hadn’t anticipated, a strength that I needed to know existed. Slowly, incrementally it is revealing itself to me.
I’d traveled through many African nations. I had lived in Tanzania for six months after college, before I broke my leg for the second time. However, I’d never seen strength worn with such nobility until Daraja Academy introduced herself to me. The reasoning behind this, I think, has less to do with Daraja Academy than the remarkable human beings that have been selected to attend the school.
As finals wrapped up and end of the year parties were thrown, a cloud passed over the school. News trickled in concerning a family member of one of Daraja’s brightest stars. Without naming names, a beautiful leader of the campus, sponsored by three incredible Marin County sisters and their giving circle, found out her 20 year old brother had just passed away, a victim of pneumonia.
The tragedy is compounded by the fact that this young lady lost her mother to a headache (most likely meningitis) three years ago, and her father last year when he was struck by a vehicle on a busy Kenyan highway. In three years she has gone from being the second youngest in a family of five… to the family’s 15-year-old matriarch. Other than an aunt and an elderly grand mother, it is a family of her and her 10-year-old little brother.
What a downer. Why share this on the Daraja Academy BLOG?
As we try to define what the Daraja Academy BLOG is, I can honestly say that I may be wrong to share this, but the fact of the matter is… this is real. Life isn’t always smiles and songs and frankly, it shows just how strong and amazing these girls are. It shows the sort of obstacles that Jenni and I, the Carr Educational Foundation board and all of Daraja’s supporters face. This is not a bubble gum charity… which is why our successes are so powerful.
Our beautiful star has gone home and she will mourn with family. Knowing her, she will return and be stronger than ever, more resolute to succeed. But now, there is sadness on campus and she is in our thoughts and prayers.
Perhaps I was wrong when I wrote that her family is just her and her little brother. Three Daraja students and members of the staff traveled miles into the Aberdare Mts. to attend the funeral. They held their classmate while she cried for her deceased brother and they kissed away some of the pain. Daraja Academy, the students, staff, and administration has become a family. In one year, bonds have been built that are strong… and growing stronger. In January we will travel across Kenya locating 25 more wonderful girls who will join the family.
Perhaps the time for you to join has come as well.
Jason Doherty
Filed under From the Founder : Comments (5) : Dec 3rd, 2009
Daraja Academy Opening Ceremony
Daraja Academy exists! Though the “opening ceremony” took place midway through the third and final term of the school year, it did take place. We exist. We are legitimate and man it was FUN.
A lot of planning and preparation went into the October 23rd Opening Ceremony. The campus looked incredible with three large tents set up to protect the students and guests from the midday sun facing a “stage” which was nestled in the shade of an enormous, light orange bougainvillea.
Some of the parents and friends of Daraja Academy left their homes in the cold, dark morning hours, journeying from locations across the country. They began trickling into campus on the back of motorbikes, in packed matatus and by foot around 11am… and we were ready to begin.
The students lead group tours around campus, showing off their classrooms and projects they had worked on this year. These groups visited the Daraja Academy library, science lab and each of the teacher’s classrooms – which are an oddity in Kenya. In nearly every school in the country it is the teachers who switch rooms at the end of the class period. For the most part the students sit in the same desk, in the same classroom all day long, (which in Kenya is from 8am to 5pm in most schools.)
After touring the classrooms, the different groups were lead to the Daraja Academy Nature Trail. Mr. Charles and his science classes created a beautiful, meandering walk that shows off the different biozones of the campus. Benches have been strategically placed in three areas of particular interest – under a large medicinal tree, next to a tall termite mound and on a particularly striking vista that grants a beautiful view of the Laikipia Plateau. Many of the guests had never seen anything like it at a school – essentially, an outdoor classroom that the girls continue to use after the school day ends, reading books and doing homework in the peaceful setting.
After an hour of touring campus, the actual ceremony commenced and it was wonderful. Several of the students spoke very honestly about growing without any hope of attending high school. Benedictor described what it was like growing up in Kibera, Nairobi’s largest slum. Catherine, who was raised less than 500 yards from the school’s back fence shared about the powerful feelings she felt when she found out she would be joining the school she’d grown up admiring from afar.
During the days leading up to the opening I was nervous about the guest speakers. I totally understand the need for protocols; I just didn’t understand these specific protocols and my ignorance caused anxiety. I had heard that each of the six potential speeches could run on for 30 or 40 minutes. I shouldn’t have worried.
Two local officials ended up speaking; an area chief and the District Educational Officer, and they were great. The chief addressed the crowed in Swahili and made a stirring case for the need of girl’s education, how these young ladies of Daraja will be the leaders of Kenya, and how fortunate the area is to have a school like this.
Susan Ngure, the District educational officer gave an inspirational speech in English. She told how she was fortunate to receive a scholarship to attend a very prestigious girls school and road her education far. Though she was talented and held the proper credentials she tried not to advance too rapidly and thus outshine her husband. Only after rigorous soul searching she determined that she owed it to herself, to her son and frankly to her husband and the world to be the best “her” that she could be. The message REALLY resonated with the Daraja girls who cheered her as she concluded.
After the girls performed two traditional tribal dances and sang the Daraja Academy Anthem, which they wrote!!!! we adjourned for a terrific lunch. The Daraja Academy staff truly understood the magnitude of the event and rose to the occasion. The kitchen staff was tireless, the askaris played a number of valuable roles managing the gate, acting as tour guides and assisting where it was needed.
All told, October 23rd was a great day at Daraja Academy. Those of you scattered across the globe that have been rooting for the school’s success from afar, while you might not have been here in person… your spirit was in Africa at the school opening.
Thank you!!!
Jason Doherty
Tags: daraja academy, District Educational Officer, Opening Ceremony, Susan Ngure, traditional dance
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Nov 12th, 2009
