Help Kenyan Kids Take Exams (They want to! Really!)

Even a small donation will make a big difference!

ONE OF THE SPONSORS from Australia wrote this; I could not have said it better myself! 

"Another plea for a couple dollars for "my" Kenyan children.

I know everyone's giving budget is stretched to the limit, but I'm hoping you can spare another $2 or $3 for a worthy cause.

For the past six years I've been involved with what is now called Plant-a-book International (formerly called Kenya Kids in Need) charity. I'm currently paying for the education and lodging for two teenage orphans who live at Galilee School in Sowete-Kayole slums of Nairobi, and for the education of three other students who live in the slums nearby. The school is the creation of a man who was a sponsored child himself.

The school has developed to the point where in 2009 the first graduating high school class took their final high school exams. (Every student passed!)
But while primary education is free in Kenya, secondary education is not. At Galilee, the neediest and orphan students mostly have overseas sponsors, for the rest, where most slum families live on $1 USD a day, it is a struggle to keep students at school and not contributing to the family income.

The Kenyan government charges $85 USD each for the students to take their final exams, and Plant-a-book International is trying to provide for as many students as possible to take the exams. (The headmaster also raises money from local businesses and slum families.) The time for payment is drawing near, and it would be tragic if these hopeful students were not able to sit their final exams.

These kids work so hard to do well...they have to share textbooks, they have no electricity to study at night, so they come to school at 6am to work; they form study groups and work together on Saturdays to help each other through the curriculum, and their courses are so much harder than Aussie ones...EVERY student has to do the equivalent of extension maths, for example, and they all study Shakespeare in English, which is usually their second or third language.

Having the high school certificate makes a huge difference to employment prospects for these students. The top 10% are eligible for a uni scholarship. Even a poor pass opens the possibility of an office job rather than being a maid or a street seller, thus breaking the poverty cycle for whole families.

If you can spare a couple of dollars you can use the PayPal donation button at http://www.plantabook.org You'll be donating in US dollars, which are close to parity with $AUS at present.

Think of the karma! Thanks for reading."