Harambee for All Children

"Harambee" is a Swahili word meaning, "unity or pulling together". Similar to the idiom 'It takes a village...' harambee describes the support of a community for its children. We were introduced to this concept through the friendship of Davis Karambi, one of HFAC’s cofounders and a product of the unity of the community of Ikumbo, Kenya. Shortly after meeting Davis he introduced Ravi and I to the Ikumbo Secondary School, a project that had been initiated by the community nearly a decade earlier.

In a typical year, only a handful of the 50 students graduating from the Ikumbo Primary School had been able to continue their education at the secondary (high school) level. After many years of planning, construction of the school got underway two years ago and the community has built 4 classrooms, a science laboratory and administrative offices with the support of Harambee for All Children and Strathmore University. Ikumbo Secondary School was officially registered as a government school in 2007 and receives teachers and additional support from the Kenya Ministry of Education. The school now has 160 students and will be graduating its first class this December!

Join us at Harambee for All Children as we continue our work in Ikumbo and plan for future work in communities around the world. Asante sana — thank you — for your support! Stay tuned for stories, photos and videos from our trip in May 2009.

-Best-

Matt