I am so excited to introduce the newest addition to the Daraja Academy Blogging team, Andy Harley. As you will see from his writings, Andy and I first met while I was coaching football at Terra Linda High School, though so much has changed since then. He was an incredible athlete and is now a better man, one who I know improves the Daraja Academy campus each day he is a part of it. Andy has been at Daraja since mid-October volunteering his time and hard work for little more than the knowledge that he, is making a difference in the world. Jenni and I simply could not be happier.

Jason Doherty

Founder of Daraja Academy

Entry I

“We travel, initially, to lose ourselves; and we travel, next, to find ourselves. We travel to open our hearts and eyes and learn more about the world than our newspapers will accommodate. We travel to bring what little we can, in our ignorance and knowledge, to those parts of the globe where riches are differently dispersed. And we travel, in essence, to become young fools again – to slow time down and get taken in, and fall in love once more.” – Pico Iyer, “Why We Travel”

 

“Why are you going all the way to Kenya?” I’ve been asked this question numerous times as if I was crazy to leave the safety of America and venture out to an unknown land. I always looked at them confused, unsure how to answer the question; I thought it was obvious why I was going. I guess a little explanation is in order.

It all started when I was young boy, in elementary school or younger, and I became fascinated by African wildlife: Elephants, Lions, Gorillas, Giraffes, Zebras, Hippos, Warthogs and Chimpanzees. I read the autobiography of Jane Goodall in 4th or 5th grade and it stirred in me a desire to travel to Africa and see the animals up-close and in their natural habitat. To this day The Lion King is the only Disney movie that I can remember any songs from, and it’s still a personal favorite of mine. My stuffed animal collection began to reflect my interest in African animals.

My parents, the constant promoters of learning that they are (I’ve been to too many Zoos, Aquariums, Art Galleries and Museums to count), provided my brothers and me with educational books and magazines when we were growing up, most importantly National Geographic. Not only did I learn about the animals but also the people of Africa. I think I’ve always had a secret desire to dress, act and live like some of the Africans I saw in the magazine, it was all so new and unusual and I wanted to experience it first hand.

As I got older my interest in Africa waned, replaced by sports and girls, and didn’t think much about it until my junior year of high school. That was the year I met Jason Doherty. He was a new Junior Varsity Football Coach, and since I was on Varsity I didn’t have a whole lot of interaction with him. But when the Varsity scrimmaged the JV Jason was constantly making jokes, both teams were howling with laughter, and you could see that all the players not only respected Jason but genuinely liked him as well (which is rare for coaches, trust me). Jason was doing his student teaching at my high school at this time and you could always tell when he had taught a lesson. Students would be pouring out of a classroom talking about the lesson (a rare sight at my school) or greeting their friends with Swahili words and phrases. That’s right this guy knew Swahili, he had traveled across East Africa and worked in Tanzania. I was in awe; I had never met anyone who’d been to Africa. Regretfully, I never really got to ask Jason a lot of the questions I had about Africa and his experiences. When I went away to college I lost track of Jason, but my interest in Africa only intensified.

Every freshman at Pitzer College was required to take a “freshman-seminar” class that counted toward our English requirement and focused on a current social issue. I was assigned to a course simply titled: Smuggling. It focused on the illegal drug, human, diamonds and weapons trades, and the first book I read was Blood Diamond. This is the book that set forth a series of events that eventually brought me to Kenya.  If you don’t know about the book, go read it now, but I’ll tell you a little about it here. Blood Diamond delves into the illegal diamond industry of Sierra Leone and Liberia. Rebel armies trying to overthrow the governments of said countries are funding their campaigns by forcefully taking over their country’s diamond mines. They force people to work the mines and if they don’t comply they have their hands chopped off or they are murdered. Those without hands serve as constant reminder to others that resisting the rebels will end in tragedy. The diamonds are then smuggled out of the country where they then find their way to western markets.  I was amazed at how people of countries that were so wealthy, in terms of natural resources, could be living in such squalor, poverty, fear and be victims of such atrocities.

After this course I signed up for every one with “Third World” or “Africa” in the title. But you can only gain so much from books and lectures. What do all of the facts and figures mean? What is it like to live on $1 a day? I believe in learning by doing so I decided I had to go to Africa for myself.

Pitzer had a study abroad program in Botswana, and in January of 2006 that is exactly where I found myself. Though there were some low points my overall experience was great. In my second month in Botswana I was to do an internship at an elementary school in Palapye, a small town a couple of hours northeast of the capital, Gaborone. Within a few hours of being at the school I realized that I would be teaching full lessons without any training or supervision. The classrooms were fairly small and crammed with students. When observing some of the teachers I noticed that they would give out incorrect information, and there was no way the eager students could tell if it was wrong or not (I corrected the teachers most of the time). There were very little supplies for the lessons, especially for science lessons, I had to try to teach about different classes of animals by drawing them on a warped chalkboard, and I’m no artist.

I tell you all this to illustrate the state of education in Africa. Botswana has been called “Africa Light”. There hasn’t been any wars, no ethnic tensions, a low poverty rate, one of the most democratic and transparent governments in Africa, a healthy economy based on a booming diamond industry and tourism, and a low population (1.7 million). Botswana is an anomaly in Africa, and though the school system is under funded and teachers are under trained, it is probably one of the best on the continent. Can you imagine what it’s like in countries where the government is corrupt? Where they are still involved in a civil war or recovering from one? Where there is no economy to speak of? Where families are too poor to pay school fees or need their children to stay home and work? The picture doesn’t look good.

After I graduated from college I had a little quarter-life crisis, I didn’t really know what I was supposed to do with my life. Get an office job? That didn’t sound appealing to me at all. I wanted to go back to Africa, somehow, either for grad school or to do volunteer work, maybe the Peace Corps. I had so many ideas that I didn’t know which one to go after. Eventually I ran into a friend from high school that Jason Doherty was going to start a school in Africa. Those were the only details he knew and so I started trying to contact Jason. At this time I couldn’t remember his first name, I was used to calling him “Coach” or “Mr. Doherty”, so I decided to do internet searches with every Irish sounding name I could think of: Ryan, Sean, Seamus, Patrick, and Finnegan. But I never tried Jason. I finally found out through another source that Jason was having a meeting to talk about the school at his house at the end of the week. The days flew and the next thing I knew I was walking through Jason’s front door.

There were maybe a dozen other people in Jason’s living room and as Jason began to talk about his plans you could tell he had everyone’s undivided attention. You could feel his emotions when he talked about education in Kenya, he was so passionate that he didn’t nee his accompanying slideshow, his words were enough for us to understand. Jason’s wife, Jenni, was just as passionate and the two of them gave me goose bumps. The situation in Kenya needed help and they planned on doing something about it.

In 2003 the government of Kenya made primary education free to all and the student population increased by 1.7 million. Because of different factors less than 40% of those students who graduate from primary school will be able to go on to secondary school. Some of these factors include unaffordable school fees, inadequate curriculum, school availability, poverty, HIV/AIDS and other diseases. Education, especially for women, is recognized as the best way to improve their situation in life. Need some stats?

 

• Every year of schooling raises a woman’s average income by 10 percent.

• According to UNICEF, children born to mothers with some education are twice as likely to live beyond the age of 5.

• Women’s education was the single most important factor behind falling levels of hunger and malnutrition in the developing world according to a 30 year study by the US Institute of Food and Nutrition.

 

Kenya is a large country with many different ethnic groups and many different lifestyles. There are about 5 million people living in Nairobi, Kenya’s capital, and in one of the slums about 1 million people live in 1 square mile. The corrugated shacks these people call home are crammed together, there is sewage running through the dirt walkways, disease is rampant. Children who don’t go to school may pass the days by inhaling glue, or fermented human waste, and they look like zombies walking around the slums. These are the children who won’t escape the slum, they won’t escape poverty and disease, and they have no future.

Jason and Jenni plan to change that. In January of 2009 the Daraja Academy will open its doors to the first class of 25 young women who would otherwise be unable to attend secondary school. Daraja is Swahili for “bridge”, and the Academy will be the students’ bridge out of poverty, into a new life full of opportunities. The mission of the Daraja Academy is to cultivate a community of individuals with a sense of cultural awareness, social conscience, and environmental responsibility, all while instilling talents that will enable them to open doors to a global society.

After hearing Jason and Jenni talk for an hour about the school I knew I had to be involved. I was very moved by there presentation, and my mind was racing with ways that I could help out. As a semi-recent college graduate I didn’t have a lot of money to donate, but I did have my time to donate. Before I left their house I pledged to Jason and Jenni to help in anyway I could, and if they would allow it, I wanted to go out to the school itself to help. On the way home I had this feeling inside me, like an electric current running up and down my body, I finally knew what I was supposed to do with my life.

The Daraja Academy was something real; Jason and Jenni were real people who wanted to help fix a real problem. They weren’t asking us for money so that they could go and try to stop the genocide in Darfur single handedly (although a worthy cause, it needs the attention of the UN and powerful governments to put an end to it). And as I’ve seen the Daraja Academy grow and evolve it is clear to me that the Daraja Academy is special. It is not a one time fundraising event, it is not a cause you donate clothes or supplies to once and never think about again, it has become a movement. There are people across the U.S. and around the world who have become involved with the school. It has become a part of their life and because of this they will not rest until the school is up and running, until the first class of girls have graduated, until….until…..

Well, will those truly involved ever really rest? I know I won’t. I’m here at the beginning of something great, I can help improve the lives of others, and there is no place in the world that I’d rather be than here, at The Daraja Academy.

But we still need help! Renovating the school and other start up costs are expensive, but even a small donation is a great help to us and the students who arrive soome. Get into the Holiday spirit and give a gift to the Daraja Academy. Give a gift that will help a young Kenyan woman improve her life. For information on how to give visit our website: daraja.org

 

“Education is the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world.” – Nelson Mandela

ANDY HARLEY