As many of you may know, Marianna and I traveled to Kenya for our honeymoon in March. While staying in the Masai Mara region, we met a man at our lodge named Simon who worked for the Africa Foundation . Intrigued by the work they did and his enthusiasm, we asked if he could bring us to the schools they helped to meet the kids there. The next day we visited two different schools in the area and he showed us around. He pointed out the new classrooms they were building, funded by donations to the Africa Foundation, and the computers they had received from various charities. We also got to meet the kids, who were the happiest bunch of kids we've ever seen. They practiced their English (they're taught in both Swahili and English) with us, discussed soccer (mainly with Marianna) and even played a little bit as well (mainly with me).
A little background on the kids: Living in the Masai Mara region, the vast majority of them are part of the Maasai tribe. Their families live off their livestock and the land, with no towns or cities even remotely close. In order for the children to get to school, the only mode of transportation is to walk, with many of them walking several miles to get to school. Being that they're in the Masai Mara region, school doesn't start until 11am due to the dangers of kids walking any earlier. With animals retreating to the bush every night for cover, in the early mornings they're on the move back to the plains for the day. Elephant, hippo, water buffalo and lion encounters are a pretty solid excuse to start the school day a bit later, don't you think? It's crazy for us to think about this, but that's their reality every day.
So why am I writing this? Well, we want to help them. We discussed making a donation to the foundation but we really wanted to do more. After conversations with Simon from the Africa Foundation, it was brought to our attention that a lot of the children simply don't have shoes or the proper shoes to be walking like this every day. We decided this was a great way to really help these kids, by providing them with sneakers. Simon provided us with a list of 235 kids who don't have proper shoes, along with their shoe size.
If we unite forces, we can each "sponsor" a kid (or a few) and cover the cost of a new pair of shoes for them. We've tried speaking with several different shoe brands, but none have been able to provide us with any sort of discount for this cause.
With that said, we've decided to take a different route and based on the amount we're able to collect, we'll shop for the best deals to maximize the amount of kids we can provide shoes to. With shipping costs to Kenya included, we're looking at roughly $40-45/student.
We thank you in advance for your donation(s). These kids were the highlight of our honeymoon and we know this would mean the world to them, too.
Mari & Danny
A little background on the kids: Living in the Masai Mara region, the vast majority of them are part of the Maasai tribe. Their families live off their livestock and the land, with no towns or cities even remotely close. In order for the children to get to school, the only mode of transportation is to walk, with many of them walking several miles to get to school. Being that they're in the Masai Mara region, school doesn't start until 11am due to the dangers of kids walking any earlier. With animals retreating to the bush every night for cover, in the early mornings they're on the move back to the plains for the day. Elephant, hippo, water buffalo and lion encounters are a pretty solid excuse to start the school day a bit later, don't you think? It's crazy for us to think about this, but that's their reality every day.
So why am I writing this? Well, we want to help them. We discussed making a donation to the foundation but we really wanted to do more. After conversations with Simon from the Africa Foundation, it was brought to our attention that a lot of the children simply don't have shoes or the proper shoes to be walking like this every day. We decided this was a great way to really help these kids, by providing them with sneakers. Simon provided us with a list of 235 kids who don't have proper shoes, along with their shoe size.
If we unite forces, we can each "sponsor" a kid (or a few) and cover the cost of a new pair of shoes for them. We've tried speaking with several different shoe brands, but none have been able to provide us with any sort of discount for this cause.
With that said, we've decided to take a different route and based on the amount we're able to collect, we'll shop for the best deals to maximize the amount of kids we can provide shoes to. With shipping costs to Kenya included, we're looking at roughly $40-45/student.
We thank you in advance for your donation(s). These kids were the highlight of our honeymoon and we know this would mean the world to them, too.
Mari & Danny