Jane Adeny Memorial School

This year, Northern Illinois University's Northern Lights Ambassador students in partnership with Zeta Sigma Chi are supporting the Jane Adeny Memorial School (JAMS) for Girls in rural Kenya. The school is trying to grow along with the vast demand for their educational services and is currently attempting to raise funds for a new science building that contains adequate facilities and equipment.

HISTORY:
The Jane Adeny Memorial School (JAMS) for girls was started by Northern Illinois University professors Dr. Teresa Wasonga and her husband Dr. Andrew Otieno after they decided that young women from Kenya were in particular need of support and education. The pair worked for two years, largely using their personal funds to finance the endeavor, and opened the school in 2011 with 12 students. The school has grown immensely in that time and now has over 100 girls in attendance and has prepared a vast number of its graduates so well that they qualify to attend university. (Compared to other schools in the area, this is a tremendous accomplishment).

Drs. Otieno and Wasonga have ensured that the girls who attend JAMS all have their basic needs met while attending school. This includes clothing, food, personal care products, healthcare, and school supplies. In addition, they eschew the common practice of corporal punishment that exists in many schools throughout the country. They have found that this approach of meeting all of their basic needs and no corporal punishment allows the girls to focus on their studies and, thereby, become more successful students.

WHY JAMS:
NIU students are very inspired by the vision of Drs. Otieno and Wasonga and would like to assist in their endeavor to make this school grow in proportion to the growth of its student body. NIU students from the Northern Lights Ambassadors Program and Zeta Sigma Chi are currently working with a local 501c3 organization, Friends of JAMS , to work toward one of the school's more immediate goals of creating a larger and well-equipped science building. The total cost to fund the building is $120,000. However, Friends of JAMS is currently connected to a private donor that is willing to match dollar for dollar up to $60,000. After the match, the building would be funded. The students of the NLA program and members of Zeta Sigma Chi would like to help as much as possible. The grant challenge is currently at $36,753 (about 60% of the total needed).

Although we NIU students do not know if we can help enough to get the full match, we would like to start with a goal of $1,000.00 that Friends of JAMS can put toward their goal. If this campaign goes well, we may instate stretch goals so that we can help even more.

Thank you in advance for any donations you are willing to contribute. This building will go a long way in making the education for these girls even more rich!