Who and Where we are
The Kanyala Little Stars Academy is a primary school on beautiful Rusinga Island in western Kenya (Africa). The students are coming from the next town on the mainland, called Mbita and all around Rusinga Island. Some of them are walking up to one hour to school.
The school was founded in the early 2000s by Benter Odhiambo, who saw the effect of HIV/AIDS epidemic. She decided that something needed to be done to ensure the children were still able to be educated. Today there are more than 300 pupils including the smallest from baby class and nursery.
About the Word Kanyala:
It means ‘WE CAN’ in Dholou, the native language of the people in this part of Kenya.
It is now the motto for our campaign! Read more about it…
Crowdfunding – but what for?
The kitchen of the school is not in an adequate condition. It is one of the first build parts – made out of simple metal sheets. There is no stove, the kitchen staff is cooking on an open fireplace without a chimney. The main problem with this is the smoke. The work for the kitchen staff is not easy because of irritated eyes and difficulty breathing. Often smoke is going into to abutting classrooms and is disturbing the lessons.
Due to the simple construction of the building it is not possible to guarantee a hygienic environment which should be sure for preparing meals for our pupils. Proper cleaning of the sooty walls and the uneven floor is almost impossible. We want to change the bad conditions.
The campaign at Indiegogo
With the help of a volunteer, who stayed for five month with us, we created a crowdfunding campaign and a video to make it more interesting. It shows briefly how people live in Kenya and how the daily school-life looks like. Of course there is also a call for donations.
Watch how the three small children William, Monique and Helen guide you through the video!
