Likoni Fund News, Jan 2008

Hi friends,
Many of you know that I’ve spent time living in Mombasa, Kenya and am working with a talented group of Kenyans to create a scholarship and mentoring program for Kenyan students. From the news you may also know that protest and violence have consumed Kenya since the incumbent president claimed victory in last months disputed election. Since then more than six hundreds people have been killed, over 230,000 are displaced from their homes, food prices have inflated out of reach, and communities have fractured under the weight of mistrust. While the country’s humanitarian crisis grows, inadequately addressed domestically and internationally, I do have good news to share. Primary schools have reopened and secondary schools are slated to follow within days.
I recently spoke with one of the 18 students we have pledged to assist this coming year, a 16 year old named Doctor who wants to be a doctor but was unable to begin secondary school last year because his family could not afford the cost of fees. His mother passed away a few years ago and now his father is sick and has not been able to access medical care. While I cannot address all the challenges his family faces today, I can promise him that when schools reopen he will be in attendance.
Thanks to many of you, many generous guests at Total Tennis, and my fellow students at Wesleyan University our scholarship program is now in its second year and we had already meet half of our 2008 program expense needs. I write today to ask for your help meeting the second half. But before you’ll take out your check book, I imagine you’ll want to know a bit about our programs and our goals.
My colleagues and I began the Likoni Scholarship Fund in summer 2006 after my semester abroad in Mombasa, Kenya. Our focus has been school fees because secondary education is expensive in Kenya, making it impossible for many primary students to continue their education, and, in turn, makes many ineligible for formal sector jobs. In our first year we were able to provide school fees and uniforms for six students.
This fall, during my second trip to Kenya, my colleagues and I discussed new ideas with our community and new plans to make the program more holistic. With the help of teachers at local public primary schools we selected 12 new students, all of whom are both dedicated to their education and unable to afford its high cost. We will continue to work with these 12 students, along with our original six, through the completion of their education, and, with your continued help, will add new students every year.
This year we have developed a new system of partnering with our scholarship recipient families. The process began by sitting with each family, estimating their monthly budget, and asking each how much they feel able to contribute towards their student’s education. We believe this partnership is important because it recognizes the hard work of parents, their successes, and the pride they deserve to enjoy along with the accomplishment of educating their children. Each family is able to contribute a different amount; we have sought to find the right amount for each and have promised to provide for all remaining expenses.
On average, schools fees, uniforms, shoes, book bag, note books, text books, lunch money, bus fare, and boarding fees for those attending boarding school amount to $550 per year. On average each family will contribute $150 per year towards this total, leaving us responsible for $400 per student, per year, for school expenses. Along with this $400 we will use an additional $100 per family per year to provide a small business training course for our partner parents and a mentoring program for our students. To keep our budget focused on these goals we have kept our overhead costs to just the stamp on this letter.
Many of our partner families are already engaged in micro-enterprise but few have had training in book keeping, writing business plans, or accessing loans. We hope our small business training course will help each family financially and, as time passes, enable each to take on more of their students’ educational expenses. In the future we also hope to add a micro finance program to our efforts in order to provide loans to our partner families and their businesses.
For our students we are planning a mentoring program. By discussing issues facing young Kenyans, particularly those brought to the forefront by the current conflict, by engaging in talks with community leaders, through a big brother/big sister tutoring program, and through time on the beach and the soccer pitch, we hope to promote self confidence within each student and reinforce one basic idea: that every person, in every part of Kenya and the world, is equally valuable and equally capable.
We have much work ahead of us. We are filing for 501c3, non-profit, status and will soon begin writing grant proposals for future funding. In the mean time we depend on donations from you. If you would like to send us a check please make it payable to me, Gabrielle Fondiller, addressed to 11 Polhemus Pl. Brooklyn, NY 11215, and please include your e-mail address so we can send you biographies of each of our students and updates in the future. If you have advice, suggestion or encouragement, or would like to be on our contact list, please e-mail me at GFondiller@gmail.com.
Also e-mail me if you would like to learn more about the conflict in Kenya and how you can contribute to the emergency humanitarian relief effort currently underway. To follow these events please see www.nationmedia.com/dailynation/nmgindex.asp, www.eastandard.net, and www.news.bbc.co.uk/africa.
Kenyans are struggling under the weight of today’s conflict. We hope that in the midst of this hard time our program will offer a bit of comfort. Education won’t bring peace back to Kenya, but it does help to create opportunity and optimism, both of which are forces that can counter the desperation and frustration that have fostered the current crisis.
Thank you for reading! I know you receive endless requests for your help and resources. I hope you’ll consider us and become a partner in our effort.