Dear friends and family,
I want to pass along a letter I received from Haron Kimathi (see post preceding this letter), one of my students from Athiru Gaiti Secondary School in Kenya. Keep in mind, English is Haron's
third language: Kimeru is his first (his tribal language or "mother
tongue"), Kiswahili his second (spoken throughout East Africa), and
finally English. I'm pretty impressed with the progress in his writing
since he graduated from secondary school two years ago, and am sure it
will continue to improve throughout his time in college and beyond.
For those of you who haven't heard about Haron before (the email list is always changing… You can go to my Peace Corps blog to see last year's email), he was an exceptional student
of mine during the time I taught as a Peace Corps volunteer. In fact,
he received the highest marks in the eight year history of the Athiru
Gaiti Secondary School. There was no way, though, that he would have
been able to pay university tuition without outside support because when
he was young, his father was beaten to death by an organized gang for
refusing to pay the gang's "tax." In Kenya, women weren't allowed to
own land until the country adopted a new constitution in 2011, so all of
Haron's father's belongings were divided up and distributed amongst extended family and non-relative villagers.
I don't believe that external aid is uniformly good. I do, however, believe in promoting education. Once Haron
graduates and gets a job as a teacher, he will be able to provide for
not only his future wife and children, but will also be able to help
other Kenyans in need of money for their educations. I'm 100% confident
that over the course of his life, Haron will
give others more money for school fees than he received because that is
the culture of Kenya - most of the Kenyan secondary school teachers I
knew were paying the school fees for not only their immediate families
but their extended families as well; they would also regularly
contribute at fund raising events for talented youth from their village.
In addition, Haron is an exceptionally caring
human being who knows the feeling of having talent and a willingness to
work, yet not knowing if he will ever have the opportunity to nurture
it.
Due to our support last year, Haron
has now completed his first year in a program to earn a bachelor's in
education, which will qualify him to teach at secondary schools. The
next school year starts in September and at the very least we need to
raise another $1,650. Everything above and beyond this will roll over
to the following year. It would be fantastic if this year we raised the
entire $4,950 to fund him through the completion of his program. If we
don't pull together the entire sum now though, I'll continue to pester
you with emails in subsequent school years! The organization handling
and distributing the money we collect is the Kenya Education Fund,
which is a non-profit with offices in both the U.S. and Kenya, started
by Brad Broder, a returned Peace Corps Volunteer who served in Kenya
from 1999-2001. They've been a great organization to work with
throughout this process and they're obviously fighting the good fight.
I'm
donating $100; see the information below for details on how you can
donate as well. Last year I was deeply encouraged by the wide range of
people who donated and by the messages tagged to the donations,
including one by a friend from Reed: "I'd absolutely be willing to
donate more than $100 if it's needed, especially when I reflect on all
the mostly useless ways I've spent $100 on myself recently." While we
all like to think of ourselves as judicious keepers of our money, I
concur that donating $100 to give someone the opportunity to lift
themselves out of poverty is infinitely more meaningful than most of the
ways I use my resources. However, everyone's
situation is unique and every bit of what you do give is deeply
appreciated. Another great way to help is to expand the network by
forwarding this message on to a few of your close friends or family
members with a personal note included.
Attached to this letter are three pictures from when my girlfriend, Whitney, went to Maua to visit Haron, his mother, siblings, and extended family in September 2011. As an example of Haron's
generosity, he chopped down a tree, combined it with scrap wood, and
built an additional room for her to sleep in!
Details on how to donate:
Checks
should be made out to the "Kenya Education Fund" and in the note
section write "referred by Thomas Mosier." All money with a referral
from me (Thomas Mosier) will go to Haron. Brad
was really good last year about sending me periodic updates regarding
received donations. Of course, it helps if you send me a quick email at
the time you send a check, simply stating that you are donating, which
helps me ensure all donations are properly accounted for. Your
donations are tax deductible provided that you do both of the following:
(1) include your name and return address and (2) DO NOT write Haron's name directly on the check. If you do both of those, the Kenya Education Fund will send you a thank you letter serving as a receipt of your tax-deductible donation.
The Kenya Education Fund's donation address is:
Kenya Education Fund
360 East 72nd Street #C3405
New York, NY 10021
Thank
you for reading this email. I hope the cause is as meaningful to you
as it is to me and I hope to hear from many of you soon. If you want to
read this or last year's letter from me, head to my Peace Corps blog, Hunter Douglas of the Fiery Oven. Make sure to read Haron's letter too! If you have any questions, please feel free to ask.
I wish you all the best,
Thomas Mosier
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