1.Sponsor a Student – Connect Directly with a Child

School fees in Kenya are roughly US$500 per year. Although you can give any amount to this program, those who donate $500 will be paired with a particular child at either Singore Girls Secondary School, Silgich Hill Academy, or St. Patrick’s High School. During your year of support, you will receive hand-written letters from your student, a school photo, and a progress report from the Dean of Students.

2. Singore Girls Track Project – Support the Team

As you’ve seen from the video, Singore Girls Secondary School is in desperate need of repairs to its track. The main problem is that the track sits at the bottom of a hill and lacks any type of drainage system. Every year during the rainy season, the track gets washed out, after which it runs wild with weeds and grass. Our goal is to raise $3,000, which will be used to hire local workers to construct a new drainage system and to clear and drag the running surface.

Matt Ellis and his team at Bellarmine Prep have kicked off this fund with a $500 donation. Thank you Bellarmine Prep!

3. Brother Colm’s HIV/AIDS Training Program

Brother Colm O’Connell has done more for athletics and education in Kenya than anyone would have guessed when the Irish Brothers sent him to Iten in 1976. He is at least partially responsible for the rise of Kenyan distance running. And he has worked tirelessly to improve education, including 17 years as teacher and Headmaster at one of the best academic and athletic high schools in Kenya, St. Patrick’s High School. Although retired from St. Patrick’s, Brother Colm continues to pursue one of his goals – improving HIV/AIDS training. He created and implemented one of the most innovative and successful training programs at Tambach Teacher’s College. The program consists of several phases where the teachers-in-training receive world-class seminars and hands-on experience. The program focuses on changing both behaviors and attitudes. Your support will allow Brother Colm to continue providing the best HIV/AIDS training program in Kenya.

My HIV/AIDS program is based in Tambach Teachers College where we work among primary school teacher trainees. There are two of us coordinating the program. The college has a student population of some 850 students – male and female. Our program is a development, sensetization and behavioural change one. It consists of various workshops, seminars, and talks relating to the many aspects of HIV/AIDS: attitudes, myths, facts, traditional customs, stigmatization, social and economic consequences, VCT (voluntary counseling and testing) for those who wish to know their status, leadership, peer support training, as well as training them on how to deal with HIV/AIDS issues in their teaching. The program extends to the teaching and non-teaching staff. Our plan is to extend it next year to some of the local primary schools, some 20 of them. We are also in the process of training our own facilitators – we already have three trained including KIMbia athlete Rebby Koech in the Education for Life section.