It’s been awhile since I’ve posted something. Admittedly, I’ve been in a bit of “funk” in terms of how to move forward with my efforts for helping our children in Kenya. I want so much to continue to send support to all of the children that I lived with for six months. I want to continue to support the community of educators that believe in children’s education. I want to help those that need support for going to school. I want to give them as much as I can. I’ve been talking with Leah over the past month and I have some information on helping children with their school fees for secondary school (what we call high school). Leah tries to place all of her children with a full-board (school fees, room and board all included) high school in some of the best places around the Machakos/Nairobi area. I’ve listed the fee structure here so you can get an idea of how much it costs to send a child to high school in Kenya. It costs approximately US$550/year to sponsor a child for school.
I will continue to ask for support from you and from anyone that would like to contribute towards this effort. I’ve highlighted three girls that I was in contact with much of the time I was there. It sure would be wonderful to help them with their school fees!
Purity: Purity lived at Terry’s while I was there. You may remember a story I told when she first came to the orphanage. She cried the whole first day and kept her head on my shoulder while doing so. I was so sad for her. But I now get to report how proud I am that her exam scores are high enough to go to secondary school! Although, she won’t be able to go to school without support.
Florence: And you may remember a story about Florence. Florence is part of Leah’s outreach (day) program. She visits Terry’s for meals on weekdays and weekends. She receives support from Leah for school. In the evenings, she returns to her extended family’s home to sleep. You may remember me telling you a story about how Florence cried and cried because she was sent away from school one day. The school made her leave because her hair wasn’t shaved. There was no money at the orphanage (that day) for her to have her hair cut and she couldn’t afford 10KSH (yes, about 15 cents) to have her hair cut so she could return to school. This girl is also very bright and I’m proud that her exam scores will get her into high school. However she cannot go without support.
Maureen: I have less experience with Maureen. She lived at Terry’s before I was there. I remember Leah taking Maureen into her home in Nairobi for weeks, trying to find placement for her to go to school. I don’t know how Leah did it, but Maureen did go to school last year. Once again, she needs help to continue her schooling.
My dilemma in all of this is that any money that is sent privately is not tax deductible. Each time I wire money to Kenya, I pay approximately $25 for every $100 I wire. This gets costly. Not to mention that this is not tax deductible. I’m not concerned about the money I spend to help. But I understand that people that make large donations need for this to be tax deductible. I struggle so much with this dilemma. For this reason, my “funk” remains. I could use anyone’s help, insight or words of wisdom on how I might be able to help more…to be able to provide more to these children. I’ve looked into becoming a Non Profit Organization (NPO) or a Non Governmental Organization (NGO). There are many hoops to go through to do this! Please get in contact with me if you could provide me with any information about doing this more effectively.
In the meantime, I will continue to raise money. And I’m very excited to report a few things to help with this effort! I’m really looking forward to this spring! On the horizon:
1. ACW: Jason has agreed to have his band A Catapult Western (ACW) (acatapultwestern.com) sponsor a charity fundraising event. Stay tuned for details!
2. Kenyan Kids2 School! I’ve been giving some presentations on my experiences these past couple of months. I’ve recently talked with a school in Canada that learns Social Studies online. These 7 & 8 grade boys and girls were so wonderful to talk with. They had so many questions to ask and were very interested in what I had to say about my experiences with working with orphaned kids. One of the students wrote to me after the presentation saying:
Hey Renee-My name is Jesse… I really liked your presentation. I was wondering if there was anything I could do to support Terry's Orphanage? …There is a giant arena a few blocks away with rinks, soccer fields, gyms and soon pools. I'm going to see if I can set up donation boxes there. I can check out some of the stores in the mall too (the Bay, Zellers, Costco) to see if they'd like to donate, and if they do maybe you could advertise that they did on your blog. Also I'd like to have a destination goal - amount I'm trying to raise in a certain amount of time, but I have no idea what your expectation is. Please reply w/ more info, I'm really looking forward.
*~ Jesse ~*
I can’t begin to express my gratitude for getting emails from Jesse. She's already done so much! She's been talking with local stores to get backpacks, gathering collection boxes to collect money and currently she's getting local stores to send socks and shoes! Her efforts are ENORMOUS! Jesse and I are setting our goals to raise money so that these children can continue to go to school. We are calling our fundraising effort "Kenyan Kids2School!" Perhaps you’d like to help? Maybe you'd like to sponsor Purity, Florence or Maureen? Or maybe you would like to give some money to give one of the children a new backpack, a pair of socks or shoes? No amount is too small!
FUTURE: In thinking into the future, I thought I would provide a few pictures of some of the kids that are getting ready for high school in 2009.
I know that my friend Wanja (who currently lives in Nairobi) will be traveling to the US in July or August of this year. I look forward to seeing her and talking with her more about how I can get money and donation items to these children in a less expensive way. I’m also planning my NEXT trip to Kenya to visit. I’m not sure when this will be but it’s on the horizon.
Please remember that every penny counts. If you’d like to help in any way, please contact me.
To contribute, you can make checks payable to:
Renee Schuh
2538 Chamberlain Ave.
Madison WI 53705
Or call me: 608.513.0703
Or email me: renee_schuh@hotmail.com
I’m genuinely interested in learning more and providing as much help as I can.
Thanks for reading my blog! And thank you for your continued thoughts and prayers for all of OUR children!
Much love,
Renee
