Trillium Charter School

Service Learning

Kids for Kenya mission

June 2007

Click here for the Kids for Kenya blog.
Click here for more images from the trip.

"Kids for Kenya was created by students, teachers and parents of Trillium Charter School interested in the education and quality of life of Kenyan youth. We are fortunate to be able to have a special partnership with Humble Hearts School located in Nairobi, Kenya, giving us the unique opportunity to form friendships with students and teachers. Kids for Kenya provides educational opportunity for Kenyan and Northwestern youth, underscoring the interconnectedness of global communities through cultural exchange, education, and service.

Kids for Kenya is an organization that we formed when we were in a Model United Nations class. We had just finished studying New Zealand and had learned that next year we would represent Kenya. Immediately we began studying about the geography, economics, history, and government. As we prepared to delve into the study of the people and culture our teachers Polly and Earenya had a speaker come in: Stacy Harold-Golden. She had traveled to Kenya many times, had been involved in sponsoring children and working to support a school and orphanage. She shared many videos and stories of her experiences and told stories about the lives of the children. The combination of the images and tales affected our group so much, that the following year we decided not to continue the Model UN class but to take our class in a new direction. We invited Stacy to join and set to work to better understand the experiences of the people living in Kenya. We decided to try and find a way that we could help. We formed a group that we called Kids For Kenya, the goal of our group was to do fund raisers to send the money for a school and orphanage outside Nairobi. We also wanted to share our message with other students at our school and others. We set to work making shirts, starting a web site, creating literature, and most importunately spreading the word. Our first fund raiser was selling paper chickens to fill our paper coop, each chicken cost a dollar and went towards the food program at a school. We also made it a future goal that Trillium students would go and work in Kenya. By the end of our year together Polly decided that she would travel there with Stacy that summer to deliver the money and scope it out for a student service trip. This year after a lot of hard of hard work and some wonderful luck to find a great school to host us our goal of sending students came true, we sent 15 students and four teachers to work at Humble Heart school. It is my hope that this work will grow, continue and I will be able to join the group on a future trip."

A former student and a founding member of Kids for Kenya

Abbie McCourt

"After Polly returned from her trip to Kenya last summer I was so excited to hear her stories, and I couldn't believe that it was an actual possibility to travel to Kenya. In the past two years I had taken part in the Model United Nations class that had become the Kids for Kenya group. I have grown steadily more excited to help. After seeing the pictures of all of the kids with the food that we had contributed to their lunch program, it made me realize how the work we did could really make a difference. I felt ready for the challenge of the work involved in getting ready to go to Kenya, and what a challenge it was. We started our work right at the beginning. We hosted the Harvest Festival, school dances, we held babysitting nights (even on New Years Eve) spring break camp, and not to mention yard work. We prepared for the trip by taking a Kenya studies class, and tried to learn everything we could about Kenya. By the time June arrived I was very tired and not fully prepared, but ready or not it was time to go. At the airport, as I said goodbye to my friends, not really wanting to leave since summer had really just started the day before, I looked at Polly, Ken, my mom, Arianne, and fourteen other high schoolers that I wasn't sure that I wanted to spend two weeks with. I realized I had no clue what I was getting myself into. After twenty-some odd hours of flying we finally arrived. The next morning we got up and headed to Humble Hearts school; we were all really nervous. But as we pulled up to the school so many friendly faces greeted us. From the moment we stepped off the bus we started working alongside our new friends. Our two weeks flew by very quickly. We had painted the school, put up murals, built needed furniture, and added a garden. Most importantly we shared, joined in the work and learned about each other's lives. I was really glad that I got to share in this experience. It helped me see the world differently. As I enter my senior year I am committed to continuing to help keep our relationship going, so that future Trillium students can continue working and learning with our friends at Humble Hearts."

Trillium senior, and founding member of Kids For Kenya,

Cailie Madigan

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