In Nairobi with Teach Africa

I have been writing, I promise!

On paper at least. I was in Kenya for a week and just didn’t get a chance to upload anything. Anyhoo, let me tell you a bit about my trip.

Since 2008 my company has supported a charity called Teach Africa, which facilitates further education for primary school children from disadvantaged neighbourhoods in Nairobi.

Founded by Steve Adams in May 2005, the charity empowers the children – and by extension, their families – by giving them the opportunity to get an education, improve the quality of their lives and leave a life of poverty behind.

In the three years my company has been involved with the charity, a team of like-minded employees has been chosen to go Nairobi every January to visit the secondary school students we sponsor in their boarding schools, make sure they have everything they need (books, uniforms, etc.), and also sort out any administrative issues with the various school authorities. This year, I had the great privilege of being part of that team.

At the moment, we have 31 students in 10 secondary schools in and around Nairobi, and over a period of five days, 9 colleagues and I travelled hundreds of miles to see them all!

Plus, this year we have paid for 23 students to start secondary school, which brings the grand total of students in the program to 54.

One word captures the whole experience for me: inspiring. Without exception all the students work so hard, and are incredibly grateful for the chance to progress to the next stage of their education without having to worry about the financial burden. They are like sponges soaking up all the knowledge in sight; their eagerness to learn and do well certainly puts our students here in the United Kingdom to shame!

On a personal level, they inspired me in 3 ways:

• If they can do what they do and excel with the resources they have available to them, I have no reason not to do the same. And so much more besides!
• Gratitude should not just be a function of the material things I have. Rather, it should be a constant acknowledgement of everything I have been blessed with
• The challenge to me is to reach out to people more. Life can get so inward-looking and I know this sounds cheesy, but reaching out to others and giving back should – no, MUST – be an essential part of my everyday life.

I loved Kenya. The country is beautiful and its people so friendly and welcoming. And it didn’t hurt that the weather was nice and warm too!

This trip was certainly one of the most fulfilling things I have ever done; it was the trip of a lifetime.

I also kept a diary while I was there, and will be putting excerpts on here soon.

So, what did I miss while I was away? I gather growth figures for the last quarter of 2010 were released and are not particularly encouraging. Revolution seems to be brewing in North Africa; the furore over the impact of NHS reform and proposed sale of public forests continues unabated; and MPs continue to squirm about the supposedly draconian regime of the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority.

I’ll be writing about these and more, shortly.

Jambo!

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