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Rotary International:
Rotary International
is an organization of Rotary Clubs located all over the world (more than 31,000 clubs in more than 200 countries and
geographical areas). The members of Rotary Clubs are known as Rotarians. The stated purpose of the group is to bring together
business and professional leaders who provide humanitarian service, encourage high ethical standards in all vocations, and
help build good will and peace in the world. Members meet weekly for breakfast, lunch or dinner, which is a social event as
well as a time to organize work on their service goals. Their best-known motto is "Service above Self." Another motto
is "They profit most who serve best".
Empopongi Primary School:
Our school is an elementary school of 308
Maasai children located in the Nagama Hills area, just north of the Sekannai gate to the Maasai Mara. The school's Kenya
Project committee consists of tribal elders, parents of students and school faculty. They meet once a month to decide
which improvements are best for their school. All approved projects aim to respect and preserve Maasai tradtions and
culture.
International Partners:
We have recieved individual donations from all over the
world just for this one school. For example, a past visitor to the school, Mr. Wayne Collins of London, donated enough
funds to build a two room building to house the nursery school students and the kindergarten students. This year, not
only did Mr. Collins design the much needed 7th and 8th grade dormitories, he paid for the cost of building the girls dormitory.
He and his British volunteers will join us in Kenya to volunteer at the school.
If you would like to join us as an international partner, please contact us.
Scholarship Partners:
On our 2006 volunteer trip, we met Janet, the only
girl in 8th grade. Most girls have to drop out of school before 8th grade because they're expected to be married by
then. Our volunteers found Janet to be an extremely bright student but they were upset to discover that after graduation,
she would not be able to attend a high school. They are too expensive, many miles away and no girl from the area
has every attended high school.
Our volunteers would not stand for that. On the spot, they committed to
raise the $2,500.00 needed to send Janet to high school for four years. And they did raise that amount which covers
the cost of tuition, books, housing, food, clothes, and all other needed supplies.
Word spread that for a relatively small amount of money, you could sponsor an
8th grade graduate to go to high school. Our partner, Wayne Collins from London, gave enough funds to send two more
boys to high school. Coral Terry, a previous visitor to the school from Utah, donated enough funds to send the remaining
five boys to high school for four years.
Thanks to donations, the entire 8th grade class of 2006 is now attending different
high schools in Kenya!
You:
Yes, you could join us and be a partner in the Maywood
Rotary Kenya Project. You alone, or you and your family or you and your school, or you and your church or temple, or
you and your co workers. Join us and change the world for 308 school children on the other side of the world.
Please see "How to Get Involved".
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Maywood Rotary Club:
Maywood Rotary
is just one of the 31,000 Rotary clubs across the world working towards humanitarian service, peace and good will. Our Rotary
chapter (in district 7490) is located in a small town of less than 10,000 people in New Jersey, just outside of New York City
in the USA. Our 35 members meet each week to help raise funds so that we can help in the same way that every club helps promote
peace throughout the world. Since 1948, “Service above Self” is not just a motto, but the rule that every Maywood
Rotarian considers his or her own personal mission.
Because Maywood Rotary pays for
all administrative expenses and collects reciepts for all expenses, you can be confident that 100% of your donaiton goes to the school.
Local School Partners:
Many school children here in New Jersey have
helped the Maasai school children in Kenya in very important ways.
All the children in Alexander Hamilton elementary school in Glen Rock, New Jersey have
helped the school by raising funds for sports equipment, teacher's salaries, school supplies and a new kitchen to cook the
children's lunches.
Also in New Jersey, Maywood Avenue Elementary School's React club
has supported the Kenya Project for years by providing donations for food, uniforms and school supplies. Each year,
they hold a "Student - Faculty Basketball Game" to raise funds for Empopongi. Another local partner, Hackensack High School's
Interact Club, has not only provided donations to pay for school lunches, but also donated enough funds to
build the 8th grade classroom.
If your school would like to partner with us to help this one elementary
school, please contact us.
Kenya Partners:
Not far from our school is the Siana Springs
Intrepids luxury tent camp for tourists. They have an old computer that has satellite email powered by solar panels.
More importantly, they have dedicated employees like Mercy Purity. Without her volunteer help to answer daily emails,
get project estimates, arrange purchase of food & construction materials, keeping reciepts for all expenses, and
many other tasks on her own time; we could not have a Maywood Rotary Kenya Project.
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| Janet Lepore, second from right, finds out she will go to four years of high school. |
Rotary Partners:
Much thanks should go to the many Rotary clubs in our District who heard about our project and helped as much as they
could. For example, Hackensack Rotary club provided school uniforms one year and last year donated the funds to build
the 8th grade classroom.
Without the help of a grant from our District, we never would have been able
to build the first clean water well for the school and the seven surrounding villages.
Rotary clubs live their motto, "Service above Self".
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