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Kenya

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Dearest Friends & Family:

As many of you know, I am a kindergarten teacher at Saint Joseph Catholic School in Ft. Collins, Colorado. My husband David and I have four loving children and our lives are very lucky and blessed.

Teaching kindergarten and raising a family is very rewarding, and I get a great deal of personal satisfaction from it. But at the same time, I know our lives are not normal compared to most other people sharing our planet.

So last year I joined a good friend and spent much of my Christmas vacation in Kenya helping children, schools, and the women who are severely mistreated.

I saw with my own eyes, these small rural children, sweet loving kids that just melt your heart, who go days without much food and yet participate in an school environment that can best be described, by our standards, as primitive.

One day we helped serve a school lunch to the youngest children, 4 and 5 years old, a small bowel of "ugali" (corn paste), while the older children looked on, staring, because there was not enough food to go around. The older kids did not complain, and they accepted it, because it was normal for them. It was heart wrenching.

That one example, and many others like it, are why I want to go back to Kenya and help. I do not get paid and by all means it is not a comfortable, luxurious trip. We get dusty and dirty for days and embed ourselves with the villagers. We bring duffle bags full of school supplies, help the teachers most of the day and do what we can to make things better.

During the trip, there are many tears shed, but at the same time, we know that our work will better peoples lives.

Therefore, I am asking if you can help me with my endeavor to get back to Kenya this year. To start off you can go to http://coachingtheglobalvillage.org/programs/kenya-project/kenya-update-01-2013-page-4/. See the picture of me? :) Please read about all three years listed..this will give you the background of how we got where we are, what we did last year and what we plan for this year.

The following is our list of places we will be visiting and helping:

1. Visiting and working in the Lorubae Primary School in Isiolo, Kenya and then also a Masai school in Laikipia, Kenya. We will bring school supplies of which there is very little. These are reusable items so they never need to buy more of their own or they won't be able to. We will work in, repair classrooms, and teach the teachers of the schools how to use the teaching and school supplies.

2. We will be revisiting the women's villages outside the town of Archer's Post,in the Samburu area of Kenya. The villages are named Unity and Umoja. We will be making jewelry with the women and introducing the African Bags sewing project. To learn more about the women's villages go to umojawomen.net. For the bags project go to africabags.org.

3. We will get to visit the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust Elephant Orpanage in Nairobi. This is an amazing place that takes in the orphaned babies who are displaced due to the continuous poaching of these animals. Sheldrickwildlifetrust.org/asp.orphans.org

4. Lastly, we will be working with high school age recipients of the Samburu Youth Education fund, which was started here in Fort Collins by a CSU professor who happened upon a huge need and couldn't look away but jumped head on to help the children of this area of Kenya realize their life dreams for an education. Samburuyouth.org.

5. We will be traveling with USO Africa safaris which is owned by Brett Bruyere who started the Samburu YEF which helps fund the scholarships. An excellent safari experience.

Of course feel free to call me for more information...I need to raise around $5000 for the flight and land costs, and to purchase (and get donated) as many school supplies as possible, to bring along with me in lieu of normal luggage.

Love and thanks,

Mary (Muffy) Grigsby

P.S. Our 501c3 tax deductible status is pending. If you need the details of the organization we work with that has exisiting tax write off possibilities, just message me and I can give you that information. They have a website too for donation that will give you an instant tax form receipt, and I will get the credit for it.
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Donations 

  • Laura Fahey
    • $25 
    • 10 yrs
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Organiser

Muffy Hogan Grigsby
Organiser
Fort Collins, CO

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