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