I am organizing the campaign myself as an enthusiastic supporter of the school in Kenya – Green Garden Academy at Diani Beach, where I arrived three years ago, and since then I have been helping the school by writing blogs about it, I visit once a year, and I sponsor two of its students – a girl and a boy.
In 2023, I was there for the first time along with a couple of other families and a priest, and for three days of our stay, we plastered the kitchen at the school and built a wall for the stove and sink with running water. The school was established near a landfill where local children used to go in the morning to eat the still non-rotting leftovers from hotels. From a porridge distribution point, it has now become a school with 480 students, providing two meals a day in addition to education. Public schools are far away, overcrowded, and the education is not of good quality. This private school requires a minimal fee from parents, but even that parents often cannot afford. In order for the school not to have to expel the poorest children, it needs sponsors from abroad. Sponsoring one child costs 20 EUR a month. I myself have been doing this for the third year.
With this fund raiser, I would like to support more children to have a chance to escape generational poverty and give them a chance for a better life.
More about the founding of the school in my blog = after a Slovak version the English text comes : Maslowova pyramída v Keni neplatí: Príbeh školy zrodenej na skládke – Zuzana Berger – (blog.sme.sk)
Who are we helping?
I will send the money directly to the school's account in Kenya. Last summer, I also organized a fundraising campaign through donio.sk and sent the entire amount raised, 890 EUR. It is important that the money does not go to the parents, but directly to the school, which, thanks to one sponsored student, also educates another who shares textbooks with him. So the money ends up, down to the last cent, in the school that covers all school expenses, teachers' salaries, buys textbooks, and prepares two meals a day.
How am I going to use the funds from the campaign?
As I mentioned above, the money goes directly to the account of the Green Garden Academy school. As a private school, it has received state approval for its existence, and it must seek funding for its operation on its own. The school has operating costs, such as teachers' salaries, the purchase of textbooks and supplies, water and electricity consumption, which often goes out, and the purchase of ingredients for cooking meals for the children. Only about 150 of the 480 children have a sponsor, so every month it struggles with what to buy that is needed. It must retain its teachers and ensure continuity and good quality of education.