Koins for Kenya - October 2010

Submitted By: Sherrie Christiansen

When I wrote my book, The Power Of A Penny, I had no idea that it would take me across the world and change my life forever. I found out about the organization, Koins for Kenya, from a friend and incorporated it into the last chapter of my book because it seemed like a great way to end the book. I have been donating a portion of the proceeds to this organization and been working with one of the founders, Bret VanLeeuwen, at speaking events. Every time I would hear the stories about the villagers, my heart would soften and I could only dream about meeting these people for myself. 

     My fifteen year old son, Brayden, wanted to do his Eagle Scout project this summer and Bret VanLeeuwen invited us to travel to Kenya with an expedition that was traveling with Koins for Kenya. So, my son sold flowers and candy for Mother's Day and raised enough money to pay for his trip. 

     We went with the goal to build one hundred desks for the school children in several villages outside of Mombasa for my sons Eagle project. But we did much more than build desks and it has changed our lives forever.

     We collected baby receiving blankets before we left and distributed them to the village dispensaries around Mynzeni. Most of the village women deliver their babies at home in their mud huts which results in a high infant mortality rate as well as many mothers die during child birth. These women are told that if they will come to the village dispensaries to deliver their babies, they will get a new baby blanket.

     The first day, we traveled to a village called Dzvani. We were greeted a mile before the school by hundreds of smiling children who were running to greet us with their loud African voices singing, "We would like to say welcome to you! Welcome, welcome here!" over and over again. The feeling of love they were showing us was overwhelming! Before we left, my son collected pencils and school supplies to distribute. One of the members of our group asked, "Who would like a pencil?"  There were shouts and clapping because the children were so excited, over a simple pencil. It was amazing!

     We saw the children sitting four and five to a desk that was made for three kids so they wouldn't have to sit on the dirt floor with the chiggars or get bot eggs. It was overwhelming and we knew we had to build as many desks as we could while we were in Kenya to help provide these sweet children with a place to learn. This was not an easy task because we kept running out of wood. In Mynzeni, you don't just go to the local lumber store and get more wood. You have to buy a tree, wait for it to be chopped down, then have it split, planed and cut before it can be made into a desk. The Kenyan people kept saying, "Hakuna Matata... no worries, we will get you the wood." During the building process, we also ran out of screws, which were carried over in several members of our groups luggage. This meant a day long adventure into Mombassa to get more. One day the power went out in the workshop, so after the batteries ran out on the cordless drills we brought over, hand saws were brought out and our efforts were slowed to a snails pace.

     In the end the desks were finished and a lot of them were put into a new two room school that was dedicated while we were there in the village of Dzvani, the Austin Frampton School. This was a very special school because the twenty one year old man who raised the money all by himself to build the school. He actually lived in the village for five months and helped the villagers with the building which he donated for his ten year old brother, Austin, who has Down's Syndrome brother. Dallin put on a concert in his neighborhood in Salt Lake last October to help raise the $10,000.00 needed to build the school. He had a friend with the voice of an angel help sing during this concert. Her name was Sophie Rose Barton. She died unexpectedly in June from an unknown heart problem while she was at the LDS girls camp in Heber Valley. So a rose was branded on the desks that Brayden made before they were loaded up on a trailer pulled by a tractor and delivered to the school to remember her. It was very touching and made our efforts to build the desks even more special.

    One night while we were sitting under the moonlight talking about the day in Kenya, we got word that a twelve year old boy had just passed away under a mango tree no more than fifty feet from where we were sitting. He and his uncle were trying to get to the dispensary to get medicine but they didn't make it in time. They had walked six miles and been to two villages trying to get help but had been turned away because there wasn't anyone to help them at the village dispensaries. The boy was worsening so they had hired a motorcycle to carry him along with his uncle to the village where we were staying. As the mother and the rest of his family came running into the village and found that her son had died, there was a lot of wailing and singing of a very sad song announcing his death. The boys name was Charo and was still wearing his little yellow uniform that he had worn to his school in the village of Gona earlier that day where he was one of the top students in his class. Charo had gone to school that day despite his horrible headache because he didn't want to miss his testing for the end of his term. By the time his mom returned home from working in the corn fields near their home, he was very sick and the family tried to get him help without success. This had a tremendous affect on all of us on the expedition because the next day we visited his village and met his school mates all dressed in their bright yellow uniforms. The villagers put on a big ceremony welcoming us and then the chief gave Bret VanLeeuwen an envelope which contained ten percent of the money the villagers had raised to go towards a new school they want the Koins foundation to build. When the average person makes $300 per year, this was a huge sacrifice coming from them. So I came up with an idea to try to help them get the money to build the school which I would like to donate in Charo's name. The last day we were in Kenya, I had several of the Kenyan girls from the secondary school come to the Koins center and help me make Christmas ornaments with wire and beads so I can decorate and donate a tree for the Vernal Trees for Charity in November. It will take $10,000.00 to build this school, and I am hoping to raise a portion of that from the sale of the tree at the auction.