Wesleyan’s Kenyan Connections?

So how do you connect dumpster diving to Kenya to Wesleyan? Well, CNN today featured a great article about a New York chemistry teacher, Jude Ndambuki, who spends a good portion of his free time scouring local trash for scrapped computer parts to repair and send back to his home nation of Kenya. In return, he only asks that the schools that receive the equipment plant trees to help fight the massive soil erosion affecting the countryside.

The article reminded me about a friend of mine and recent alum Jessica Posner ’09. Along with  Kennedy Odede ’12, the pair have been spending their summer in Kenya building the Kibera School for Girls. Jessica’s thoughtful blog has been highlighting just how desperately resources are needed over there. As she describes handing out uniforms last week:

The highlight of this week was today when we distributed uniforms to all of our students.  For all of our students these uniforms were the first brand new clothes that these children have ever been given.  In addition, uniforms are the only clothes that most of our children have.  The excitement as 45 little girls tried on uniforms, traded sizes, swapped styles, and paraded around was incredible.  The happiness from parents, students, and teachers alike was simply uncontainable.

The Kibera School gladly accepts both financial and in-kind donations. If you can salvage some computer equipment or stumble upon a box of crayons, consider shooting Jessica an email at jessica@hopetoshine.org or checking out the Help Kenya Project. (For those going back to school, Staples has some ridiculously cheap deals like 1 cent notebooks that you may also consider donating, either to Kenya or a local school in need.)