Scholarship Essay Entry – Carly L.

My friend and I just returned from a month in Kenya, Africa. We went to the east coast, to a place called Ukunda, where we found a school called Habari Njema (Good News) School. A pastor named Esther started the school in 2007 hoping to gather 15-20 kids; there are now 90 kids. There is one classroom, and a long roofed area with no walls where the rest of the kids gather in their classes and sit on the floor. There was one other classroom but it collapsed on the kids. The kitchen is a shack, and the bathroom is a hole in the ground. The teachers are not paid, because only ten out of the ninety kids pay their school fees of five dollars Canadian a month.

When we saw these problems first hand we were overwhelmed. It seemed like all these problems could be answered with money, but we hadn’t come with the intention of giving money. We had come to volunteer our time, but it didn’t seem like they needed our time. But Esther changed our perceptions when she told us what a gift we were to them, that we could take pictures, and go home and share what we had seen with our family and friends.

So what can I do? I can talk, and talk some more about what I saw and did. I can show pictures of the three sisters who were orphaned and had been living on their own in a shack with no door since 2007. Then I can show a picture of the girls in their new room at Esther’s that we’d furnished for them. I can talk about ten year old Njeri sitting on her very own bed, the first she’d ever had, with the biggest smile on her face. I can show a picture of her seventeen year old sister Rebecca who doesn’t have to stop going to school to work because we’ve found her a sponsor who will help get her through school and on to university where she wants to become a doctor.

The support we received from people at home reading our emails was tremendous. The truth is that we’ve become immune to the Unicef campaigns and school fundraisers. But when I show my grandparents the picture of the girls’ room we furnished with the $100 that they sent us, they know they’ve done something amazing. People love to help if they can see with their eyes the benefits of their contributions. So that is my mission; I will be the link between the giver and the receiver. I can show people firsthand what one volunteer can do in two weeks. In the scheme of things what we did in Kenya was a small accomplishment. But that is how I’ll change the world; a huge number of small accomplishments. And when I can show everyone that all these small accomplishments connect and grow into huge accomplishments, the world will change, because it will have no choice.