Okay, this is a bit complicated. I would like to get pledges for donations for a school here in Kenya that would be a great benefit to students from NRT schools. $125 can secure a spot in a high quality school for a poor girl for a year. $500 can ensure her secondary education. Random-control test based research shows that education is the most effective way to raise individuals and whole families out of poverty. In developing countries, every year of education makes a real difference to income.

Let me tell you about the school first.

Daraja Academy is a girl’s secondary boarding school that specializes in preparing women to be leaders. They focus their recruiting on Kenyan girls who perform well in primary school who are extremely poor yet demonstrate leadership potential. It is located in Northern Kenya between Nanyuki and Doldol, just outside our Naibunga Conservancy.

They have an excellent reputation. I believe that 82% of their 2014 graduates qualified for university and 100% are doing some sort of post-secondary education. That puts them among the best secondary schools in Kenya. The only cost to the girls’ families is for transportation fees (about $50 per year). All other necessities, medical care, uniforms, education fees, and school materials are provided. I met several of the teachers and their dedication and ability are impressive.

Could one of these girls in Biliqo Bulesa Primary go to Daraja Academy?

What’s this got to do with NRT?

Daraja’s founder Jason Doherty approached me about helping find qualified students from the NRT conservancies. He said we could promise high performing girls that they would receive an interview. However, since there are only 26-30 seats available each year and the school recruits nationally, they could not promise admission.

Jason also said that they were planning to establish a “second stream,” that is, room for an additional 26-30 students per year. It would cost about $60,000 USD to build the required four classrooms. I responded, “If I can find the funds, will you promise to admit, not just interview, 10 – 15 of our girls who have the required KCPE test scores (Kenya’s standardized high school admission test)? He said yes. The specifics of that agreement have to be ironed out: I’m shooting for 15 girls per year for the next 10 years. In essence, if the money can be found we, NRT, will have guaranteed “full-ride” scholarships at a top school for some of our girls.

Maybe one of the Kalama women’s daughters can attend Daraja.

What’s this got to do with YOU?

I’m am trying to raise the $60,000 to build the classrooms and secure the scholarships for the NRT girls and hope you are interested in contributing. At this time I am asking for pledges from anyone who is willing to make a tax deductible donation to see if we can raise enough money to expand Daraja Academy and thereby reserve some admissions for girls from NRT conservancies.

To make a pledge e-mail me the pledge amount and contact information at john.knapp@nrt-kenya.org.

Only when the total of $60,000 is reached will I be calling in the pledges. I will then contact everyone with instructions of how to actually send in the money. (Don’t donate it on the Daraja website until we determine how that would get credited to NRT fundraising efforts.)

This will be the top post for a couple of weeks and I’ll update the pledged amount.

Pledged total to date: $19,100