JUNE 2022: REPORT FROM THE FIELD: WALKING WITH COMMUNITIES

Recently, in our annual report, we wrote how community work is like a dance: Sometimes you lead, sometimes you follow, sometimes you step on toes, and occasionally, experience flow states of beautiful synchrony. Our recent trip to Kenya illustrated just how apt those words can be. We had a vehicle breakdown that left us stranded in the middle of the night and torrential evening rains that resulted in impassable roads. Our greatest disappointment came at learning of a new government policy that increases the economic barrier to starting new schools. 

Gratefully, most of these closed doors led to a valuable new opportunity. The roads that were impassable to our small van meant we had to hire Mompashi (Mike); one of two local Maasai guides with a Land Rover. Mike deftly steered us through the mud and 4WD roads so we could reach Olmesutie, Oltarakuai, Olorte, and Mausa, all villages we are partnering with to open new day secondary schools. Serendipitously, Mike also happens to be the thoughtful director of the BOM (parent's Board of Management) of Osinantei. Within days, he organized other parents to meet with us to explore the possibility for a new secondary school in their village next year.

Finally, in response to the government policy change that requires additional classrooms be built before the government will formally register and help fund a school, we immediately began researching low-cost building options for schools. We have also been incredibly heartened by the response of the communities themselves, who remain unbowed by this new barrier. The tiny, remote community of Mausa, whose primary school was burned down several years ago by a neighboring village, has already raised more than $13,000 to replace those classrooms and start a secondary by communally selling off livestock. Mausa proudly welcomed their first class of high school students two weeks ago. For now, these students are meeting in a church.

 Our summer fundraising goal is to match Mausa's own fundraising effort, expand our first two secondary schools in Morijo and Olmesutie to 11th and 12th grades and begin raising match funds to help launch the schools in Olorte (2022) and Oltarakuai and Osinantei (2023) to ensure they will be successful and sustaining. In the meantime, we are heartened by these communities' resilience in the face of this unexpected new barrier on top of the drought, livestock loss and other challenges they have already faced this year.

"If you want to go fast, go alone," says the proverb. "If you want to go far, go together." We are grateful for the opportunity to walk together with our partners in Kenya. Together, we work to survive and ultimately, thrive, through the constant challenges and opportunities we encounter in our shared journey to create more opportunity for the children of the Loita Hills. And we remain deeply grateful, too, for all of you who also walk beside us, figuratively, if not literally, through your belief and support of our work. Asante.