MARCH 28, 2013 | LEN MORRIS

The Kenyan SchoolHouse Project has been selected by Operation Days Work as their “Charity of the Year.”

A total of six schools operate ODW programs, four in Massachusetts and two in Vermont. ODW students, grades 6 through 12, will volunteer their time and service in support of our KSH program to educate former child laborers in Kenya. The 2013 grant is for $10,000 and it’s earned the hard way through community work: car washes, raffles, pot-lucks, gardening, household work and innumerable other ideas the students organize and execute.

This will be the first time in a decade that Kenyan Schoolhouse will benefit from dozens of student volunteers helping us raise the tuition costs, room, board, medical care, transport and personal costs for the 41 former child laborers we currently support in Kenyan secondary schools.

An equally important part of this partnership is to raise public awareness in ODW communities about child labor, child poverty and access to education for children who work on the coffee plantations of Kenya. It was this objective that sent me to Thetford Academy, Silver Lake Middle School and Quincy Senior High School to meet students, parents and faculty advisors from all 6 ODW schools last week.

At each school, I was greeted by an enthusiastic core of ODW members along with their faculty support team. At Thetford, the entire student body saw a specially prepared presentation on the theme of sharing “THE SAME HEART,” the title of Galen Films’ next documentary film about children and poverty. The program was repeated for all of the students at Silver Lake Regional Middle School and The Quincy Senior High School. Also on hand were enthusiastic ODW members representing the Newton School in Vermont, Archbishop Williams High and Broad Meadows Middle School.

As I explained to the students, having THE SAME HEART means sharing a common vision, purpose and path, joining a like-minded community. As I looked out at the over 800 people I spoke to last week, I genuinely felt that the ODW’s support and history shared THE SAME HEART with the many donors and supporters of The Kenyan Schoolhouse.

ODW strives to teach students that youth in less fortunate countries are no different than in the United States. These students need an education to change their situation and that of their country.
These goals align perfectly with the mission of the Kenyan SchoolHouse.

Since its founding in 1998, Operation Days Work has raised over $300,000 for charities as diverse as Partners in Health: Haiti, Goodweave-Nepal and The American Foundation for Children Affected by AIDS-Zimbabwe. This national, student-run organization works to teach youth to be a force for positive change in their local and global communities. ODW believes that all young people deserve a chance to have a good and healthy life no matter where they live.

The next day, they returned to the village after the day’s shooting to give first aid to several of the child laborers and their relatives. Len and Robin couldn’t forget Sylvie and her friends. After the filming was done, they spoke to Peter Munene of ANPPCAN, who had been helping them with the shoot, about supporting the coffee children in school, and that is how the Kenyan School House began.

These many years later, most of the original coffee children have graduated primary school, and gone on to secondary school, some even to university.

Since 2002, hundreds of children have had school costs, medical care and food provided. The program is managed by the African Network for the Prevention and Protection Against Child Abuse and Neglect.

Here are a few of their stories.

Every day, the children we sponsor wake up and attend schools like this one. Start the slideshow below to experience a day at a Kenyan schoolhouse.

The African Network for the Prevention and Protection against Child Abuse and Neglect (ANPPCAN) is a pan African network that promotes child rights and child protection in Africa.

Its mission is to enhance, in partnership with others, the prevention and protection of children from all forms of maltreatment, thus, ensuring that the rights of children are realized.

ANPPCAN has worked with Kenyan SchoolHouse since 2002, providing medical care, tuition fees, and food to nearly 300 sponsored children.

A profile of six students supported by the Kenyan Schoolhouse program (kenyanschoolhouse.org) at the Kimana Secondary School, a provincial high school located near Mount Kilimanjaro in southeastern Kenya. 70% of the students come from the Masai tribe.

Moments of children along the roadside in rural Kenya receiving lollipops evokes the spirit of the season.

Receive a copy of Geri Allen’s “A CHILD IS BORN’ when you donate $100 to the Kenyan Schoolhouse Fund.