I’m very happy to share that Light Up Hope is working in collaboration with Seeds of Change Foundation from Sioux Falls, SD to sponsor the high school education of 165 girls from impoverished backgrounds across Kenya.
We first started working with Seeds of Change in 2018 when they began by sponsoring one of our Joseph’s House students, Mary, and later in the year, added two additional girls for university. Since the beginning of 2019 we have been working together in preparation to add these high school students to our Light Up Hope program with funding through Seeds of Change.
The girls who are joining the program have been sponsored by Seeds of Change since the start of their high school careers and we are grateful to Seeds of Change for giving us the opportunity to oversee and manage their high school careers from this point. The Light Up Hope staff has worked very hard and is continuing to work hard to ensure these girls success, including placing them in high quality government schools, purchasing new uniforms and all of the school supplies needed, as is traditional in our Light Up Hope High School Program.
We are excited to see our collaboration with Seeds of Change grow and we had the great pleasure of giving their Executive Director, Alicia ElMamouni, as well as Board members, Jeff and Brenda Pinkerman, a tour of our programs here in Kenya last week. They had a chance to hear from many of our Joseph’s House university students as well as a tour of Gifted Prince School and the community we are working with in Kwa Njenga slum.
This past June, together with our Kenyan Director, Augustine Wanyama, I had the opportunity to accompany one of the new high schoolers to admission at her new school and to meet the others who were admitted before I arrived. It was a pleasure to see her smiling face, as well as the faces of the other girls, as they welcomed their friend to join them at their new school.
I look forward to seeing them reach success in high school and beyond.
– Kelly Shaughnessy, President Light Up Hope.