Visiting Kenya with So They Can and Trilogy

Pre-race photo

Last month I was lucky enough to be one of four employees sent to Kenya to meet the people behind Trilogy’s long-term partner So They Can. So They Can is an Australasian not-for-profit organisation working to educate and empower communities in Kenya and Tanzania.

The four of us fundraised over $23,000 for this worthy cause by running the Maasai Mara half marathon through the national game park.

We started our trip in rural Nakuru, north of Nairobi in the famous Rift Valley, by visiting one of the main communities So They Can work with. 

Miti Mingi Children’s Village

Handing out gifts from NZ

We visited Miti Mingi on our very first afternoon. It began after So They Can’s founder Cass Treadwell discovered children as young as 3 living on a rubbish dump in Nakuru, fighting animals for scraps of food. The children were orphaned through a variety of circumstances, but AIDs and the 2007 political violence in Kenya were two of the main causes.

The kids put on a variety of performances to welcome us – spoken word poetry, acrobatics and a fashion show. In return we presented them our gifts from New Zealand. They swarmed us to get the books, balls and pencils. It was clear the fun toys - nail polish, stick-on tattoos and rugby balls - were the most desirable. 

Salome and her photo

I took a Polaroid camera with me and it proved a huge hit. The kids loved getting a photo to keep, many which hadn’t had one of themselves before. When my Polaroid film ran out and there were still lots of little faces looking at me expectantly, no one had a tantrum. They just looked disappointed and moved onto the next game. 

They currently have about 120 children who live in dorms of eight with their ‘mama’ who cares for them like her own. These women have grown up families and it is a sought-after, long term job for women in the community.

 It was instantly clear the incredible support the mamas and So They Can local staff provide for these children, all of them confident and happy children with no hint of the terrible past they had experienced showing on the surface. So They Can still visit the rubbish dump to check for children. 

The incredible kids of Miti Mingi village

Aberdare Ranges Primary School

The next day we went to Aberdare Ranges Primary School. It began with 120 students and they now have 960. It was established to meet the critical need for children at the local IDP (internally displaced persons) camp, formed after the 2007 political violence in Kenya. Due to the success it’s been, it now operates as a private/public school with support from the Kenyan government.

It was a Monday in the school holidays, but 350 students came in especially to see us. Assembly was 9am sharp and there was a range of welcome performances. The school choir placed 5th in a national competition, so we awarded each member a certificate with the principal's help. 

The school choir

After a tour of the school, those of us who opted to sponsor children got to meet them. This was a very special experience and you could tell the kids were very proud to have a sponsor despite the language barrier. Before we visited, we thought the other children might get jealous if we brought our sponsor some gifts. Little did we know, the other kids get jealous about the opportunity to meet a sponsor and all tend to share their presents regardless.

Faith and me

There was another So They Can project on site – Sew Woman Can. This project takes the most vulnerable single mothers from the school community and trains them how to sew clothes and other handicrafts. Once trained, these women can join the So They Can Microfinance and Business School to start a business of their own. This is also where all the school uniforms are made.

The following day we repainted three classrooms, the admin block and kitchen. This was rewarding physical labour and it made for a long day! 

Painting classrooms

New Canaan Village 

We also got the chance to visit the home of many of the primary students – New Canaan village, formerly an IDP camp. Despite huge improvements in the village over the past seven years, the poverty that this community was trying to escape was still evident. 

Nina and her sponsor Margaret and family

The clean school uniforms and huge smiles of Aberdare Ranges hid the reality that many of the students go home to dirt houses, with the whole family sleeping in one room. Their clothes were tattered and hardly any wore shoes. The school provides the only two meals these children will get during the day, with families unable to afford food. Despite this, the attitude of the families is not one of defeat. Many of them proudly welcomed us into their homes, keen to share the improvements they’ve made and the little they had. My workmate Nina’s sponsor’s mother embodied this attitude. I have never met such a grateful and happy woman, she offered us hot tea and tried to gift Nina a live chicken as thanks. 

This lady's milk business, started with help from So They Can's micro-loans

The microfinance business school is one of the constructive projects being undertaken by So They Can to alleviate this poverty in the village. The business school teaches skills to the poorest women in the community and empowers them to take out microfinance loans to start their own businesses, generate income and improve the standard of living for their families.  Whilst we were at the IDP camp we visited several of these women and heard the personal difference the business school has made to their lives.  

 The Maasai Mara Half Marathon

We travelled south to the famous Maasai Mara national reserve to complete the fundraising element of our trip. After seeing the impact So They Can was making in Nakuru and the integrity of So They Can's work, we were more determined than ever to complete the run. 

The beautiful Maasai Mara

This was a stunning part of the world with the most incredible wildlife I’ve ever seen, and extremely tough conditions to run in. We got to go on safari the day before the race and we saw a lioness lying on the course track.

The lioness sitting on the track the day before

I’m extremely proud of our efforts on the day. We started running after 10am so we had the full African sun beating down on us at around 28 degrees. The altitude made sure I was permanently out of breath and the ground was uneven for the full 22km. But it was a beautiful run, surrounded by zebra, gazelles and even a family of giraffes! I completed it as they were packing up the finish line, much to the Kenyan runners’ amusement. One guy told us he ran the 5km race in 13 minutes – and he wasn’t even top ten! 

So They Can embrace the African philosophy of Ubuntu - 'I am, because of you'. This is the happiness you get through the connection with others.

Not only can our skills and money help communities like the one in Nakuru, the connection we get also makes us feel good too. The value of sharing and connection was evident in the community, from way the kids treated each other, interacted with the So They Can staff and greeted us. I encourage you to ask yourself the question – what can I do to help?