 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
|
Penny Harvest Capital Region of NY
OUR ORGANIZATION’S STORY Joseph Matara, Founder and Director
I was born and raised in Kenya and now live in New Jersey. In March 2005, I visited children in some elementary schools in the rural areas of Kenya and saw some of the horrible conditions under which the children were studying. ‘How could they learn?’ I wondered. My friends and I were very worried that only children whose families had lots of money could go to good schools and that didn’t seem fair. We wanted everyone to have a good education no matter how much money their family had. When we returned home to the United States, we decided to do something! We started G.R.A.C.E. Project, a project to start building and creating more great schools. G.R.A.C.E. stands for Global Response to African Children’s Education. WHERE WE WORK G.R.A.C.E. Project is still new and is starting its first school in Kisii, Kenya, a country in Sub-Saharan Africa. G.R.A.C.E. Project wants to spread its work to other countries throughout Sub-Saharan Africa, such as Uganda, Tanzania, Sudan, Ethiopia, South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana, Rwanda and Burundi.
WHO WE HELP Most families in countries in Sub-Saharan Africa survive on less than one dollar per day. Out of the 115 million children in the world that don’t have a chance to go to school, over one-third are in Sub-Saharan Africa. Children from wealthier families can attend good private schools. Children in need may not be able to afford school at all. Half of the students that complete elementary school do not go on to high school, let alone university.
When children do get to go to the school, they are very crowded and not good for learning. Sometimes there are over 100 children in one class or up to 15 students sharing a book. Because children from poor families cannot get a good education, they cannot get good jobs to help their family become more successful.
Some families don’t believe in sending their children to school. Some children have to work to raise money to be able to pay for school. In this case, it is hard to balance both work and school.
OUR UNIQUE SOLUTION Build more schools! We are building a new school and community center in a rural area in Kenya. This new school will have a high quality education for elementary school students. We will also give students housing and health care! Students and families will only need to pay what they can.
 Right now, we have a 3-acre site of land (that’s as big as 3 football fields) to start building the school and community center. As we start building, we are raising money for scholarships for students to go to existing schools. We are also raising money for construction of the building, medical equipment and computers. We also need money for training teachers for the new school.Once the first school is built, we have a long-term plan to build more schools in other areas. Our aim is for the school to be open in 2008 for 140 students and hope that this number grows to 500 by the fourth year.
HOW GOING TO SCHOOL HAS CHANGED SOMEONE’S LIFE
Mr. Nyang’au, a 15-year-old, was left in his grandmother’s care after he was orphaned. He was left to fend for himself after his grandmother got too old to take care of him. He has an illness of the nervous system called epilepsy. He is losing his eyesight and has dyslexia, which makes it harder to read. But previously he could not afford to see a doctor. Nevertheless, Mr. Nyang’au has a dream to become a teacher some day. With a $50 grant from the GRACE project partners, he was able to see a doctor and get the medical care he desperately needed so that he could be properly focused on his learning and fulfilling his dreams. HOW YOU CAN HELP WITH YOUR PENNY HARVEST FUNDS • $50 can fund a school uniform for one student HOW YOU CAN PARTNER WITH US • We will work with you to set up a pen pal program with students in rural Africa so you can learn from each other – about things you have in common and things that are different. CONTACT US Name: Joseph Matara
Title: Founder and Executive Director Address: P.O. BOX 3755, Union, NJ 07083 Email: jmatara@graceproject.org Phone: 908-265-1819 Fax: 973-623-3612 Best time to contact: 10am – 6pm Preferred method of contact: email |
|||||||||
 |
||||||||||
|
Home | Contact Us | Site Map | Privacy Policy | Web Credits |
|
About Us
Who We Are
