A Secondary School for Cura!

Wow!

On 12 July, The Sorcerer's Apprentice premiere, hosted by Creative Visions Foundation and generously offered by Disney and the film's director, Jon Turteltaub, raised over $100,000 for the purpose of building a secondary school in Cura Village!

(See footage from the red carpet here: http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-473511)

Community meetings and permitting planning were already underway in Cura, so this influx of funding will make the dream of secondary education a reality for many children who would have otherwise gone without.

Watch this blog, of course, for ongoing updates about the progress of the school, as well as the other projects-in-progress!

--Hayden

A big thank you to this month's volunteers:

Evan, Tami, Tesha and Linette

We also moved in a long-term volunteer, Matt Ransley, who is already hard at work on some computer lab/technology upgrades, as well as developing a fish farm and doing some digital music recording. We look forward to lots of successful reports from him about happenings in Cura...

We are also working on two major fund-raising efforts:

1. A special premiere of The Sorcerer's Apprentice in LA on 12 July. All of the proceeds of this exciting event will go toward funding the construction of a secondary school for the Cura community!

2. An organic farm dinner in the Seattle area on 31 July. All of the proceeds from this event will go toward an agricultural project in Cura... likely a new rabbit breeding project to add to the existing cow and the chickens in the shed!

Please do let us know if you would like additional information about any of this information, and thank you for your interest in what's happening in Cura!
--H

We're Home

So I wasn't as diligent about blogging as I had hoped... please forgive me! The fault lies in some combination of my busy-ness and the weak wireless signal, but please don't conclude that our trip lost momentum.

We did some wonderful work with the teachers in each classroom, having reading and conversation in English to give the pupils practice. (The maps are in the process of being mounted!)

We spent two half-days doing athletic events that the teachers think will be helpful in supplementing the existing physical education curriculum.

The children serenaded us, even after the Cura Primary School choirs feted us with their award-winning dances!

We delivered computer equipment and software to supplement the existing materials and to facilitate the Pen Pal Program.

We delivered art work from a US elementary school---each piece was accompanied by a note from the artist and was treasured by the recipient!

We delivered school supplies and new toothbrushes to each child in the Home.

We donated 6 copies of Mama Miti, a children's book about Nobel Prize winner (and fellow Kikuyu and Kenyan) Wangari Maathai to the Cura library. Thank you to the author, Donna Jo Napoli!

We purchased two large sufurias (cooking pots), three pitchers, four washing bowls, two thermoses, 100 spoons, and 30 plates and bowls to help the housemothers serve the children's daily meals.

The volunteers were transformed by the experience... watch for their "capstone" comments to be posted soon!

--Hayden