Thorn Tree Project Kenya

The project is based in the remote, semi-arid northern region of Kenya in an area called Sereolipi. The Samburu inhabitants are nomadic pastoralists, herding cattle and goats in what is one of the poorest and most marginalized areas of Africa -- the average household income is less than $350 per year. The objective of this project is to help this community get as many children as possible to attend primary school (primary school covers ages 6 – 14). Currently less than 10% of children are attending. This is not so surprising given that most families live 20 miles or more away from the nearest school and their children simply cannot walk there and back in a day. Also, since most of the parents never went to school they have no real understanding of the benefits of schooling. The project goal is to significantly increase enrollment over the next five years in the two primary schools in this area -- Sereolipi Primary School and Ndonyo Wasin Primary School. The Sereolipi Nomadic Education Trust was set up in 2000 to help the Samburu community achieve its goal.

The trust is run and managed by three local leaders: George Lemerketo, the Chief of Sereolipi; George Leparkiras, the Headmaster of Ndonyo Wasin Primary School; and Lucy Leparkiras, George's wife and the senior and only female teacher at Sereolipi Primary School. All three are committed to help bring education to the area. Their work is voluntary and they receive no income from the trust. Key to their success in creating change has been the close working relationship they have with the elders and communities. All activities are initiated and led though school committees set up by the communities. In this way change comes from within and it is more effective and permanent. Jane Newman, an American who is doing volunteer work in Kenya, helps the three local leaders manage the trust. Funding for the trust is provided by individuals from the US and Europe.

Samburu culture

The Samburu culture is an ancient culture with all its traditions intact. The Samburu have a strong sense of community and enormous pride in what they call the Samburu way. Their lives are characterized by unconditional sharing -- a fundamental requirement for survival in the desert -- and their decision-making, although it is the responsibility of the elders, is always based on consensus. Their society is structured by age set. There are approximately 800 families in the 4,500 square mile area around the two schools of Sereolipi and Ndonyo Wasin.

The Value of an Education

Education offers a way to create real significant and lasting change in the lives of these children. A good education will create strong analytical skills, improve self esteem and assertiveness, establish awareness of human rights and citizen rights and give the children a chance to be in charge of their own destiny. Education will also be key to the survival of the Samburu culture in the 21st century, helping to ease contact with the modern world in a way that lets them evolve their culture without losing the heart of it. And education is the only thing that has consistently been proven to improve the socioeconomic structure of communities in resource poor Africa. Many of the students will go on to further education and will return as much needed teachers, nurses, administrators, community workers, paralegals, entrepreneurs, etc.

A new political environment

A new government came to power in 2003 under President Kibaki and significant changes have begun to take place in Kenya. Free and compulsory education has been introduced, female circumcision has been banned and the arid northern area of Kenya has been identified as an area in need of attention. However, while for the first time ever there is a government that cares about this area and about human rights and women's rights and is prepared to support change, simply legislating change is not enough to cause change and it is clear that it will take time to bring Northern Kenya into line with the rest of the country.

Our Successful Preschools

Attendance at the two primary schools has increased significantly from just 130 students four years ago to 460 in 2004 due to the activities of the Sereolipi Nomadic Education Trust. Initial activities of the trust included providing a school uniform to all students, paying schools fees (which are no longer required), and providing a school lunch. An additional key initiative of the trust has been to set up preschools in the outlying areas of the school division.

There are nine preschools scattered over a radius of about 30-40 miles around the two villages of Sereolipi and Ndonyo Wasin. Three of the preschools travel with the nomads and six are situated in the areas where the nomads tend to congregate. Each school has 25-35 students. The largest thorn tree around is the site of the preschool. Branches are placed around it in a circle to make walls and the black board is propped against the tree trunk. Hence the name of this project: the Thorn Tree Project. The children are given an exercise book and a pencil but all the teaching materials are home grown. Seedpods and stones are used as counting materials.

More than 60 children will enter the two primary schools from these outlying preschools this year. None of these children would have come in if it were not for the preschools. Many of the children coming in to primary school are the first children ever in the history of their families to go to primary school.

We need boarding school facilities to house the children of the nomadic families

All the children coming into the primary schools from the outlying preschools need to be able to board at the school. It is simply not possible for a six-year-old child to attend school if they have to walk more than five miles a day to school and then five miles home again – and in fact, most of the families of the preschool children live 20 miles or more away from the schools. Now that there is a steady stream of children coming in from the manyattas to the primary schools we have to do something about boarding facilities for the children. (A manyatta is a Samburu village –a group of huts with perhaps 10 families.) Some of the children are boarding with relatives in the villages and others are living in four basic dormitory buildings built 30 years ago (one for boys and one for girls in each of the two schools).

The conditions in the existing dormitories are not good. The rooms are quite overcrowded and many children are sleeping on the concrete floor. They need proper bunk beds, mattresses, sheets, etc. as well as an improved toilet/wash block. Although we have more than doubled attendance in the last four years, fewer than 10% of the children in the area are attending school right now. As the preschools continue to send more and more children to the two primary schools, we need to build more dormitories and wash blocks and supply essentials such as a nutritious breakfast, a matron to look after them, toilet supplies, and extracurricular activities for these children. Without new dormitories, parents will not continue sending their children to school.

We need to improve the two school buildings

The existing classrooms were put up in the 1970s and need major renovation. The concrete floors are crumbling and the blackboards are badly pockmarked. The desks have been mended and re-mended so many times that only a few are actually safe to sit on and most of the current students are sitting on the floor. The adobe walls inside and out need repairing and painting. Also, as we expand we will need to build more classrooms – each classroom was built to hold 30 students but we already have more than 60 students in each classroom in the lowest two grades.

They need help

The government program for 'free education' only covers school fees and textbooks – it pays for teachers (one teacher for up to 80 students), textbooks (one textbook to be shared among 2-3 children) and gives each school a small amount of money to cover expenses. All buildings, desks, latrines, blackboards, dormitories, sports facilities, etc. have to be covered by the parents. Since so few parents in Kenya can pay for these items the government of Kenya has recently appealed to individuals outside the country to help.

Sereolipi and Ndonyo Wasin are two villages in Africa that are trying to help themselves and against all odds they are showing some success. But to go forward they need substantial help to build a safe, clean, hygienic and comfortable environment for children to learn in and to be able to handle the increased intake. There is simply no way the parents in this poor area can fund a building program themselves.

How you can help

Good dormitories and sound classrooms are essential for the success of this project. Parents will only continue bringing their children in to school if they feel they are being well taken care of.

We estimate that we need to raise $30,000 a year for the schools over the next five years to bring them up to an acceptable standard. Things in Africa are not expensive, for example, here are the estimated costs for some essential needs:

A new blackboard $20

A new desk (seats 2-3 students) $40

A metal bunk bed $90

A foam mattress $15

A new concrete floor $350

A set of metal (termite proof!) windows/doors $450

A new roof $600

A complete renovation of an existing classroom $1,700

A new fully-equipped classroom $3,000

A new dormitory $5,000

Jane Newman

Jane Newman has been working in Kenya as a volunteer for two years, she works on a variety of projects including adolescent HIV/AIDS prevention, documentation of indigenous knowledge of plants to cure diseases, and conflict resolution in rural areas. She lives near Nairobi for eight months of the year and spends the balance in the United States where she helps teach skills workshops for advertising account planners with Wag Training.

Prior to living in Kenya, Jane worked for many years in advertising in London and New York. At Chiat/Day she established the first account planning department in the United States. During the next ten years the agency grew from $30 million to $1 billion in billings. Later she was a founding partner of Merkley Newman Harty, one of the fastest growing start-up ad agencies in America. Jane has worked with a wide variety of companies, including IBM, American Express, Reebok, Bell South, Travellers, Mars, General Electric and Sara Lee, as well as on campaigns to stop drug abuse, uphold human rights and protect children at risk from poverty. She is an expert at understanding the attitudes and motivations of target groups and at synthesizing this information down to a strategic focus that will create significant behaviour change.

She retired from advertising in 1999 and travelled extensively for two years through Asia and Africa. She met George Lemerketo, George Leparkiras and Lucy Leparkiras when she was driving from Nairobi to Addis Ababa and the car she was in broke down. They set up the Sereolipi Nomadic Education Trust in 2000. She works closely with these three local leaders to ensure that the trust is well managed and that each activity has clear objectives and is fully evaluated on an annual basis. She travels to Sereolipi and visits the primary schools and preschools at least twice a year. She is responsible for the fundraising for the trust.

Learn More:
Multi-Generational Philanthropic Travel: Exquisite Safaris
2007 World Travel Market London: Luxury Travel with a Conscience
Travel Philanthropy: Creating Peace
The Fable of Stone Soup
Understanding Philanthropic Travel
Approaching the Omega Point: Philanthropic Travel
Travel Connoisseur Magazine on Exquisite Safaris Philanthropic Travel Worldwide
Fast Company Magazine on Philanthropic Travel
PersonalLifemedia.com on Philanthropic Travel
Philanthropic Traveler funded High School opens near Victoria Falls, Zambia
My First Philanthropic Travel Experience
Affluent Parents Dedicated to Instilling Philanthropic Values in their Children
Giving while Living: The Deeper News About the New Philanthropy
Dr. Jeffrey Sachs on the Strategic Steps Out of Poverty

Philanthropic Travelers:
Visionary Philanthropic Traveler Chellie Kew
Milton & Fred Ochieng: Philanthropic Travelers
Jane Kaye- Bailey: Philanthropic Traveler
Richard Branson: Philanthropic Traveler
Angelina Jolie: Philanthropic Traveler
Oprah Winfrey: Philanthropic Traveler
Palm Beach Life Magazine: Philanthropic Travelers