Archive for the ‘News’ Category
New Layout
I’m pleased to introduce the new layout for the Official Blog of the Daraja Academy! Sorry for the down time and inconvenience… We lost some of the photos in the process but this should be fixed in the next few days.
As always, you can use our secure Paypal button in the side bar on the right to make a donation!
In the meantime, you can visit our Flickr Gallery!
Filed under Misc, News, daraja : Comments (0) : Feb 22nd, 2010
DARAJA FOOTBALL TEAM
Daraja Academy now has an official football team (Kenyans refer to soccer as “football”)! Martin Husum Mikkelsen, a famous football trainer in his hometown Viborg (Denmark), agreed to volunteer at Daraja during his winter break. He has created a team of Daraja students interested in playing football and managed to build a strong squad for upcoming school tournaments.
Coach Mikkelsen has used students from MS Kenya, a Danish NGO on campus, to provide scrimmages against the girls. The first official match, however, is scheduled for Friday, February 5th against Nanyuki Secondary School.
We have footage of the first official Daraja pre-game press conference held by coach Mikkelsen and Relina, the team captain. Here is a clip:
Are you satisfied with the scores of your preparation games?
Coach: Totally! After a draw in our first game, we won our second game 2-1. It was awesome!
How did you find the team did during the games?
Captain Relina: The team was good! All players were doing their best.
But what will you have to improve to win your first official game on Friday?
Captain Relina: Every time we train we learn new things. We get better everyday; we will be better on Friday than last weekend.
What will be the team configuration on Friday?
Coach: This is top secret! But if you know me well, you can imagine that we will play safe, with 4 defenders.
The players seemed tired after the last game. Do you believe to be in a good enough shape?
Captain Relina: Yeah. You know, we gave everything during the game. But we will run a little for warm-up on Friday, it will be all right.
You have two amazing goalkeepers with Everlyne and Mary. Who will be on the field on Friday?
Coach: I haven’t taken any decision yet. But having each of them play a half of the game is definitely an option.
Captain Relina, what will you tell your teammates before entering the field?
Captain Relina: I will tell them to be good, to do their best! This way, we will win.
A prediction about the final score?
Coach: 3-0 for us!
Captain Relina: I think 3-1 for Daraja.
We will be sending a journalist on the field to provide exciting game updates so stay tuned!
Tags: daraja, football, game, Mikkelsen, Relina
Filed under News :
Comments (1) :
Feb 4th, 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
Filed under From the Founder, News :
Comments (1) :
Jan 25th, 2010
A New Bridge Built (with A LOT of heart) BY Maggie Gaughran
I am always blown away when I get to witness Daraja Academy an its environs through a visitors eyes – when that visitor is family, it becomes that much more meaningful. Maggie Gaughran is my 22 year old cousin, she was named after my maternal grandmother Margaret Higgins Doherty, who like many Kenyan women worked too hard and died too young. She is the daughter of my fathers younger sister. Her mother Kathleen and father Steve have been instrumental in the launching of Daraja Academy, their loving support is part of the reason the school was able to open in 2009 as opposed to 2010.
Though I was proud of the contribution that Maggie was making to the local community and a sucker for any cause that helps our battalion of 3 foot tall, smiling, snot covered balls of happiness – I was totally unaware of the impact she was making until I started eavesdropping on the conversations of my staff. “Maggie is doing God’s work,” Ruth told the other cooks as she paid special attention to her breakfast plate. “When I returned to the village after work yesterday, my neighbors all thanked me for bringing Maggie to Mara Moja,” Rhoda bragged to me before paying her one of the biggest compliments possible, “she is like a twin sister to Olivia.” (Volunteer Olivia Capra left campus over 1 month ago, but the marks she made upon it and all of our hearts are indelible.)
Enjoy Maggie’s account of her outreach to the special children of Pastor John’s orphanage. Though incredible, it is only a fraction of the impact she has made while at Daraja, in a few days please read about the 2 day American Heart Association “Heart Saver” clinic she taught to all 26 Daraja Academy students – C.P.R. dummies, certification card and all!
Enjoy, Jason Doherty
Since arriving in Africa, I have found that the most memorable experience have been the unplanned. I knew when I got here that there would be a two week period when the girls would be away from Daraja Academy. I had planned on volunteering at a clinic or hospital while they were gone. Medicine is my passion, so it seemed the logical place to go. It was not until I crossed paths with the “pants less boy” that I realized what it was I really needed to do here. I saw him standing at the Daraja rock, a 3 foot high rock with “DARAJA ACADEMY” painted in big blue letters over a white background. This little boy was wearing a very dirty, faded red sweater and no pants. That night I dreamt about him and some of the other village children I had seen, covered in dust, with bugs crawling on their faces, I saw them every time I closed my eyes. I could not stop thinking about this child, so dirty, seemingly helpless. But to my surprise he screamed, “How are you” as we drove by. He was genuinely happy.
I decided maybe I should try volunteering at an orphanage. Someone mentioned that there was one only minutes from Daraja, so we made the calls and set up a time to meet. As Jenni and I walked up to the compound, we could see children running around. There were twenty-six children, between the ages of three and twenty-two. The orphanage is run by a man known as Pastor John. He and his wife take care of all the children, six who are his own. I was so impressed by his selflessness; I knew this was where I would want to spend my time.
The next morning I woke up early and tried to prepare myself. I was nervous to go alone, but I tried to remind myself that this was not about me. As I walked alone to Mara Moja Orphanage, I felt as if I was about to go on a first date. What if they didn’t like me? What if they didn’t want my help? My silly fears were squashed the moment I arrived. The children came to greet me, and immediately put me to work. First I helped to wash the breakfast dishes. The cooking is done completely with fire, and most of the pots were black with soot. I scrubbed as hard as I could but it still took hours. Then they told me to hop up on a donkey so we could go fetch water from the river. I thought they were joking, but they were not. So I hopped up on that donkey and got on my way. I was shocked that these children were going to drink water directly from the river, but they insisted that their bodies had adapted.
The most memorable moment came when a three year old girl was examining my hands. She looks so confused, and I asked someone to tell me what she was saying in Swahili. She said “why are your hands so clean and ours so dirty”. My heart sank down to my stomach, but at that moment another little girl bent down to grab some dirt. She proceeded to take the dirt and rub it all over my legs. She took a step back to admire her work, and a huge smile spread across her face. Situation rectified.
I had originally planned on staying for two to three hours, but eight hours later I found myself still rolling chapatti. I kept thinking that I could leave whenever I wanted. I could go back to my clean drinking water and warm bed, but these children had to stay. Everyday they worked this hard, so I told myself to suck it up. It is clear to me that my heart is no longer all my own. I have given a part of it to Africa, and I would never take it back.
Maggie Gaughran
Tags: "pantsless boy", daraja, Maggie Gaughran, Mara Moja Orphanage, Margaret Higgins, Olivia, Pastor John, Steve and Kathleen Gaughran
Filed under News :
Comments (5) :
Aug 21st, 2009
A Volunteer’s Voice: Carr Cavender
I’ve been out in the Bush of Daraja Campus for about a week and a half now and I couldn’t be happier! It took a few days to get used to the time change, and it could take a year to get used to the cultural differences, but I’m doing me best.
I feel so lucky to be here; Jenny did a great job of making me feel right at home, Andy and I have been laughing together everyday, the girls are warming up to me and I am doing my best to work on my relationships with them, and Kayla and Olivia are my fellow volunteers in action.
I am proud to say that Kayla and I have made good progress in cleaning out classroom two, it feels good to know that the books we are organizing into boxes will go to the local schools and that the classroom will be put to use in the coming term. I feel the best though, about the project that I brought to Daraja. I found out once I got here that Jenny and Olivia wanted to focus on Confidence as a theme for the month. Bringing theatre improv games and exercises, all I could think that I wanted to do was work on the girls confidence. So now my project has become applicable to the schedule going on here. It is truly as though the stars aligned for the whole.
Thank you Daraja for the experiences thus far! I want those who I am missing at home to know how much I love them and feel their support everyday.
Thanks guys,
Carr Cavender
Tags: Andy, Carr Cavender, daraja, improv, Jenni, Kayla, Olivia
Filed under News :
Comments (2) :
Jul 10th, 2009
“… the power of “no”, the power of “yes”, and the power to speak up.” Daraja Through Olivia’s Eyes
I cannot say enough good things about the AMAZING young woman who wrote the following blog from the Daraja Academy campus. Her last blog was written as she evacuated her London School of Economics dorm-room en route to Kenya. She certainly is there now, and I wouldn’t even try to count the number of elated “info-blasts” my wife Jenni has sent me from Nanyuki describing her accomplishments and aptitude. Below, she shares one of the most insightful perspectives of the school and its students than I have yet to hear. I sincerely know that Daraja Academy is a better school because Olivia Capra is there. – Jason Doherty
Habari! These three weeks have flown by as I have tried desperately to savor each remarkable African sunrise and sunset; each day I find myself wishing my stay here would be six months instead of six weeks. I’ve also come to the consensus that Daraja Academy plagues you with a sort of “reverse writers block” where you have so many words and emotions swirling around in your head, so much you want to describe to those back home, that you don’t know where to start. Hence, my excuse for why I have waited three weeks to write my next blog. Pole sana, (very sorry)
My first day was everything I expected… for the first thirty minutes. Breakfast consisted of awkward glances at the new volunteer, and I stared into my porridge thinking “come on Olivia, when have you ever been shy, start talking!” As soon as Jenni introduced me to the girls, they all turned to acknowledge me, and then started cheering and clapping when she announced I would be here for six weeks. It was beyond the warmest welcome I could have envisioned, even though on the inside I was thinking “I hope they still feel this way in six weeks!”
Since that first day, it has been nothing but warm welcomes. Whether in Daraja or downtown Nanyuki, there is this aura of openness and invitation to any visitors and anyone will smile and wave, even the Masaii herding cattle on the side of the road. Where else can you see an interaction between extreme cultures without any remnant of hostility or ulterior motives? There has also been some funny interactions, like when Jenni, Kayla, and I were driving through Nairobi, and managed to bribe our way out of the routine police check points with a bag of candy we had just purchased. Or yesterday I had to move Mad Cow, the female cow, out of the way so I could get into my house. I don’t do that everyday in London!
Each day I am with the girls when they are not in class, teaching women’s empowerment and meeting in small, intimate settings. I have begun to create a picture of what it is like growing up in East Africa as a fifteen/sixteen year old. I spent my time preparing for this trip this past year comparing the U.S. to Kenya, affluent to the destitute, and now I see you can not draw those stratified lines easily. Here the innate way the girls speak to each other is unique, they do not exclude or separate, they know their tribal differences and religious segregations but to them this is no reason to divide. In group they show an unconditional love for one another by laughing and talking with whoever is in the chair next to them, and as they roam about their duties on the weekends you never see the same two girls together for very long. Unification comes easy.
Sharing, however, does not. Friendship to us back home in the Bay Area means you share your heart, as a close friend you are expected to share your feelings, and I am sure it would take hours if one were to flip through the yellow pages under “Psychologist”. Here there is a silence, an underlying knowledge that to share too much is to be weak, to show emotion takes away the strength you exude. The battles they have fought in childhood are rare among even the old and wise in developed countries, and while it has molded them into driven, hopeful young women, it has also carved a harder shell in which I am finding it hard to break. Silence should not be the only option. It has become the reason women are “second class citizens” in Kenya, the reason inequality of opportunity and treatment is darkened and defined over and over. My hope is that these 26 women learn the power of “no”, the power of “yes”, and the power to speak up and find their voice.
Daraja is developing fast and finding a careful balance between teaching and preserving tradition and initiative. It is not a “U.S.” school located outside Nanyuki, it is a Kenyan school full of builders and teachers who have fought their battles as well and stayed in their homeland to invest in the youth of this generation. They are a perpetual encouragement for the girls to be prideful of their roots, and to dream big. My time with the teachers has been an extreme learning opportunity for me, as I look at Kenya as an infrastructure I am studying to develop, they help complete this vision by sharing the cultural challenges and responses.
As my days here continue the world from my eyes has ceased to be black and white. While the obvious states my life has been filled with perpetual opportunity, support, and resources, and theirs intertwined with battles and poverty, the right answer no longer lies within the “esteemed” red, white, and blue. For where I am weak, they are strong, where I find joy in certain things, they know it is a conscious choice to live their life in joy. Where I find faith in my country because it’s Obama standing at the podium, they raise their flag every Monday morning in song and prayer because they find faith in Kenya, the country. They are not oblivious to what it lacks, to how it has failed them or challenged them as girls trying to become women, they simply choose to spend their energy on cherishing the hope that exists. As we star gaze in our nighttime small groups, the girls often share with me their dreams of seeing the U.S., Great Britain, and many countries whose existence to them merely lies in their history textbooks. Contrary to what we might think as proud Americans, these girls yearn to travel but do not want to call these countries their home. To them, there is only one place that will be home, one place that will let them praise God loudly, sing and dance the traditions their tribe passed on to them, and give them the abundant opportunity to use their education and passions.
Next week, we are having a birthday party for all the girls whose birthdays have taken place in the term so far, complete with decorations, party hats, cake, and possibly a few games of “Honey I love you, will you please please smile?”- which they love! Hopefully Andy will grace us with his opera voice again, and the girls won’t go into a 5 minute giggling fit at the sight of my dance moves this time! We are also working on reforming study hall, WISH classes, and I am starting to understand the details behind the development side of Daraja, and how fundamental water sourcing is. It is an exciting place to be, Daraja Academy, I feel so fortunate to be here, and I will write again next week and let you know how everything is going!
Kwaheri!
Olivia
Tags: Andy, Jenni Doherty, Kayla, Mad Cow, Olivia Capra
Filed under News :
Comments (4) :
Jun 30th, 2009
Daraja through Andy’s Eyes
I have been volunteering at Daraja Academy for 8 months now (since October ‘08). I started out just cleaning and doing some simple renovations, but I’ve now moved onto teaching and doing anything else that is needed of me. I’m just as passionate about this school now as I was when I first arrived here, but I’m always amazed at the energy level of our short term volunteers. Not just the energy that they possess, but also the energy they create amongst our students and staff.
Every volunteer brings their own talents, experiences, and personality to Daraja to share with our girls and our girls love it. Whether it is a four-day soccer camp/painting water-color landscapes of the campus, playing improv games, or writing poetry. Our students give it their best effort and have a blast doing it! And our students share right back.
Our girls are able to open up to our volunteers and share their life stories—the funny, the sad, the everyday occurrences that make these girls special. It really touches the volunteers who have been here. They form close friendships so quickly; it truly is amazing. And it’s truly a heartbreaking sight watching two best friends say goodbye. They may have only known each other for a week or two, but it has felt like years to them. Though it is a sad moment, both are happy to have had the other in their life, knowing that they will never be the same afterwards. It is especially remarkable knowing that without Daraja Academy they would foreverl be distant strangers.
Yes, I have been at Daraja Academy for quite some time. Yes, I am very homesick. Yes, I miss my family, my girlfriend, my friends. But no, there is no place I’d rather be. This is a special place with wonderful people helping incredible girls achieve a brighter future. Daraja means bridge, and I am but one bridge. Will you be another?
Tags: Andy, Daraja means bridge, Daraja Through Andy's Eyes, volunteers
Filed under News :
Comments (0) :
Jun 27th, 2009
