Listening for Clues is pleased to present our new series, "Good News!" featuring weekly conversations with people who are making a difference, large or small. We want everyone to know what they are doing, why they are doing it, and how. So, our listeners and viewers can experience the good news and go out and make a difference themselves.

Kenya Connect: Support for Education in Rural Kenya

We are honored to have Sharon Runge as our guest in this episode. Dr. Sharon Runge is Executive of Kenya Connect (USA) a non-profit working in rural Kenya with the mission of enriching and engaging students and teachers with 21st century skills through a robust array of programs at 63 partner government schools. In this position, Sharon works with the Kenyan led staff to develop partnerships, raise funds, develop and expand programs and lead volunteer trips. Sharon holds a Ph.D. from NYU and a MA from Boston College in Higher Education Administration and a BS from the University of New Hampshire in Child/Family studies.

In this episode, we meet Sharon Runge, Executive Director of Kenya Connect (USA) as she introduces us to the amazing work her organization is doing in Kenya. While focused on improving the educational experience for impoverished students, Kenya Connect takes a broad, holistic view of the various support systems needed to improve and maintain learning. Sharon discusses the central role of establishing relationships with their key Kenyan counterparts, who are responsible for adapting the program to be culturally appropriate. She speaks from the heart about the needs of the people and how volunteers and donors can make a real difference in their lives. A truly inspiring story, and a mission worthy of support.

Highlights:

[00:00:00] Welcome 

[00:00:28] Introducing Sharon Runge 

[00:01:28] How did you become interested in Kenya Connect? 

[00:03:21] Expanding the mission 

[00:07:07] How was Kenya Connect accepted initially? 

[00:09:12] Developing Relationships 

[00:10:14] What do volunteers do in Kenya? 

[00:13:08] What obstacles have you encountered? 

[00:15:09] A Story of Faith 

[00:16:58] The Girl Boy Empowerment Program

[00:21:34] An amazing staff in Kenya 

[00:22:32] How to help 

[00:25:54] Thanks

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Sharon's Website

Sharon's Facebook page

Sharon on YouTube

@KenyaConnect on Twitter

@kenya_connect on Instagram

LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/kenya-connect/

© 2023 Listening for Clues

Jon: 00:00:09

Welcome to Good News!

Jon: 00:00:11

.We're brought to you by Listening for Clues.

Lauren: 00:00:14

We are Lauren Welch and Jon Shematek Deacons in the

Lauren: 00:00:18

Episcopal Diocese of Maryland.

Jon: 00:00:20

We sure are, and today we're really excited to bring

Jon: 00:00:23

you some good news from Kenya.

Jon: 00:00:26

Our special guest today is Dr.

Jon: 00:00:28

Sharon Runge, who is the Executive Director of Kenya Connect (USA), a

Jon: 00:00:33

nonprofit that's working in rural Kenya with the mission of enriching

Jon: 00:00:38

and engaging students and teachers with 21st century skills through an array of

Jon: 00:00:45

programs at 63 partner government schools.

Jon: 00:00:50

In this position, Sharon works with Kenyan-led staff to develop partnerships,

Jon: 00:00:55

raise funds, develop and expand programs and lead volunteer trips, which sounds

Jon: 00:01:01

interesting to me right off the bat.

Jon: 00:01:03

Sharon holds a PhD from NYU, an MA from Boston College in Higher Education

Jon: 00:01:10

administration, and a bachelor's degree from the University of New

Jon: 00:01:14

Hampshire in Child and Family Studies.

Jon: 00:01:17

Welcome, Sharon.

Jon: 00:01:18

We're so glad that you're here with us today.

Sharon: 00:01:21

Well, thank you.

Sharon: 00:01:22

I'm really glad to be here too.

Lauren: 00:01:24

We are happy to have you Sharon.

Lauren: 00:01:26

So to begin with, you have been involved with Kenya Connect for a long

Lauren: 00:01:32

time, not just as Executive Director.

Lauren: 00:01:35

What was it that inspired you to be involved in Kenya Connect?

Sharon: 00:01:40

Well, that's a great story.

Sharon: 00:01:42

So my children went to St.

Sharon: 00:01:44

John's Parish Day School in Ellicott City, and they started a pen

Sharon: 00:01:49

pal program with Kenya Connect.

Sharon: 00:01:50

That's how Kenya Connect originally started as connecting kids around the

Sharon: 00:01:54

world as a way to learn about each other.

Sharon: 00:01:57

To practice writing and to be global citizens.

Sharon: 00:02:00

And so at St.

Sharon: 00:02:01

John's, they started the pen pal letters and I was working at the school

Sharon: 00:02:05

at the time doing fundraising in the newly expanded lower school, and I

Sharon: 00:02:11

was helping out with the project and the executive director at the time,

Sharon: 00:02:14

Tim Gregory, said, you know, I'm going to Kenya, you can come with me.

Sharon: 00:02:18

And, you know, my brain was on fire.

Sharon: 00:02:21

Cause I thought, geez, I I, I would love to go to Kenya.

Sharon: 00:02:24

And so I went home and I said to my husband, Mike, what do

Sharon: 00:02:27

you think if I went to Kenya?

Sharon: 00:02:28

And he goes, I think you should do it now.

Sharon: 00:02:30

Meanwhile, I had two young children.

Sharon: 00:02:32

I had like a seven and an eight year old.

Sharon: 00:02:34

Wow.

Sharon: 00:02:35

And I found myself on a plane going to Kenya.

Sharon: 00:02:38

With Tim Gregory, the executive Director, and Reverend Rosemary Beales, who was a

Sharon: 00:02:43

chaplain at the Day School at the time.

Sharon: 00:02:45

And Rosemary and I at one point looked at ourselves on the plane and

Sharon: 00:02:48

said, we barely know these people.

Sharon: 00:02:50

What are we doing?

Sharon: 00:02:51

But we got there and my life changed.

Sharon: 00:02:54

You know, I met James Musyoka, who was the Executive Director on the ground.

Sharon: 00:02:58

And I just fell in love with the community and what they were doing.

Sharon: 00:03:02

And at that point they were doing a lot of pen pal programs.

Sharon: 00:03:06

Schools like St.

Sharon: 00:03:07

John's were raising funds for our partner school.

Sharon: 00:03:10

And there were just so many needs.

Sharon: 00:03:12

So I started volunteering with the organization and then eventually

Sharon: 00:03:15

became Executive Director after Tim had stepped down.

Lauren: 00:03:19

So it has grown since then.

Lauren: 00:03:22

What more are you doing now?

Sharon: 00:03:24

So around 2012 we shifted from just doing the pen pals and assisting

Sharon: 00:03:30

with school repairs and adding water tanks to really looking at how we can

Sharon: 00:03:35

strengthen education in a holistic way.

Sharon: 00:03:39

So part of that was looking at what the needs were by talking with the

Sharon: 00:03:43

teachers, talking with community members.

Sharon: 00:03:45

And although, you know, putting on school roofs and, adding new desks was

Sharon: 00:03:51

needed that wasn't really strengthening education, that was infrastructure that we

Sharon: 00:03:55

believe the Kenyan government should do.

Sharon: 00:03:58

So we shifted our focus to have our program be more about enrichment.

Sharon: 00:04:03

So we started a small library in 2012.

Sharon: 00:04:07

We built our first building and opened the first ever computer lab in the

Sharon: 00:04:12

sub-county for students and we started to do more educational program.

Sharon: 00:04:18

And probably most importantly at the time, teacher professional development,

Sharon: 00:04:22

because most of the teachers at that point were teaching in a very rote methodology

Sharon: 00:04:27

where students came in the classroom.

Sharon: 00:04:29

There were right and wrong answers.

Sharon: 00:04:31

Mostly students were memorizing.

Sharon: 00:04:34

All to prepare for the high state testing.

Sharon: 00:04:37

And we started working with teachers to have them look at students in

Sharon: 00:04:41

a more student centered approach.

Sharon: 00:04:43

Really encouraging them to have students be reading, not just for the test, but

Sharon: 00:04:48

just so they could improve their fluency and comprehension and have fun reading.

Sharon: 00:04:52

And then learning, doing the digital learning.

Sharon: 00:04:55

So we really started looking at education from how can we help students?

Sharon: 00:05:01

Learn more, not just for the test, but for their future lives.

Sharon: 00:05:06

At the same time, we started looking at some of the barriers

Sharon: 00:05:09

that students were facing and why they weren't coming to school.

Sharon: 00:05:12

And we, we had been doing that for a bit with installing water tanks.

Sharon: 00:05:17

But then we started thanks to a volunteer trip installing hand washing stations

Sharon: 00:05:22

so students could wash their hands.

Sharon: 00:05:25

Before that was really the COVID thing to do.

Sharon: 00:05:27

Mm-hmm.

Sharon: 00:05:28

Cause it keeps healthy.

Sharon: 00:05:29

And one of our volunteers at the time was a nursing student and she

Sharon: 00:05:34

really thought this was important.

Sharon: 00:05:35

So she looked at some low tech hand washing stations

Sharon: 00:05:40

and sent us some pictures.

Sharon: 00:05:41

And the local craftsmen created these hand washing stations,

Sharon: 00:05:45

and we now have 75 hand washing stations at our 63 partner schools.

Sharon: 00:05:50

And we're making liquid soap.

Sharon: 00:05:51

So we really tried to look at those barriers as well as educational programs.

Jon: 00:05:56

Well, that's, really amazing.

Jon: 00:05:57

So you're actually involved with 63 different schools at this point?

Sharon: 00:06:03

Yes.

Sharon: 00:06:04

Yes.

Sharon: 00:06:04

One of the things that early on when Kenya Connect was founded and then we

Sharon: 00:06:08

continued with the mission is working within the system, you know, a lot of

Sharon: 00:06:13

NGOs go over to Kenya or other places in Africa and they say, geez, I'm

Sharon: 00:06:18

gonna build a model school and improve education cuz we know how to do it.

Sharon: 00:06:22

But what happens usually is, you know, it's hard running

Sharon: 00:06:25

an ngo and after 10 years you.

Sharon: 00:06:27

Kind of burn out a little bit.

Sharon: 00:06:29

And , it's hard to raise resources.

Sharon: 00:06:31

But we felt it was more important to work within the system because we

Sharon: 00:06:35

could reach more students that way.

Sharon: 00:06:37

Often model schools wind up charging tuition.

Sharon: 00:06:40

You know, we're working within the government system, which

Sharon: 00:06:43

means we're working with students and families who really have no

Sharon: 00:06:49

other resources for education, they can't go to private schools.

Sharon: 00:06:52

So we've been training those teachers and working with those

Sharon: 00:06:56

students and the Ministry of Education supports our efforts.

Sharon: 00:07:00

They're pretty excited because we're bringing in resources

Sharon: 00:07:03

that they just don't have.

Jon: 00:07:05

And so Sharon, was that always kind of the case when

Jon: 00:07:07

you started working there?

Jon: 00:07:08

It seems to me like, you know, going to a country that is really completely

Jon: 00:07:12

different culture from from ours.

Jon: 00:07:15

How was that accepted initially?

Jon: 00:07:16

I.

Sharon: 00:07:17

I think, you know, because, you know, when Tim started the organization he

Sharon: 00:07:22

had a music educator background, so he was really interested in the culture and the

Sharon: 00:07:27

music and dancing within the community.

Sharon: 00:07:30

And, you know, communities love to bond together.

Sharon: 00:07:32

Especially the community in Maruni where we work.

Sharon: 00:07:36

Is especially welcoming.

Sharon: 00:07:37

And I think that's probably what drew me to the community because I don't think

Sharon: 00:07:42

I've, and I've traveled, but I don't think I was ever at a place where people

Sharon: 00:07:46

were so welcoming and excited to see you despite not having a lot of resources.

Sharon: 00:07:51

And , even though we were coming from the west, They were excited

Sharon: 00:07:56

to hear what we had to share.

Sharon: 00:07:58

So from the beginning it truly was a partnership and we've continued

Sharon: 00:08:02

that model of partnership.

Sharon: 00:08:03

So when I travel over with volunteers you know, it's always hard to know

Sharon: 00:08:08

who's getting the most out of the trip, the volunteers from what we've learned

Sharon: 00:08:12

from our colleagues and our friends in Kenya or what we've brought over.

Sharon: 00:08:17

And I think that model of working together as a team, not us in the United States

Sharon: 00:08:23

saying, Geez, we know the best way to do education and you should be following it.

Sharon: 00:08:27

We now have a staff of 21 on the ground who are, taking our germs of ideas

Sharon: 00:08:33

and making them culturally relevant for the community and, designing

Sharon: 00:08:38

them in ways that work for them.

Lauren: 00:08:40

So you have a model of truly empowering people.

Sharon: 00:08:44

That's our goal.

Sharon: 00:08:45

And we in the United States do a lot of the fundraising and

Sharon: 00:08:50

friendraising and partnership building because we have access here.

Sharon: 00:08:54

It's hard for NGOs in Kenya.

Sharon: 00:08:58

To raise money just within country to fund the kind of the program we're doing

Sharon: 00:09:03

and having people from outside of Kenya helping with some needed resources have

Sharon: 00:09:08

been really essential to the growth.

Sharon: 00:09:10

But, but we see it as a partnership.

Sharon: 00:09:12

When I've brought volunteers over, they feel like they're part

Sharon: 00:09:16

of, the Kenya Connect family.

Sharon: 00:09:17

I mean, when we go there we actually get Kamba names and Kamba is one

Sharon: 00:09:22

of the ethnic groups in Kenya.

Sharon: 00:09:25

And the first visit when Reverend Rosemary and I were there, we went

Sharon: 00:09:29

to visit our partner school, . And there were 300 children there.

Sharon: 00:09:32

And.

Sharon: 00:09:33

We're being introduced and all these children are, looking at us.

Sharon: 00:09:38

You know, sometimes when people from the US come, it's the first

Sharon: 00:09:41

time they've ever seen an American.

Sharon: 00:09:43

And so we're, we're standing in front of the school and James

Sharon: 00:09:46

Musyoko says to the children, well, what should their Kamba be?

Sharon: 00:09:50

And suddenly, , there was this murmur with the children and

Sharon: 00:09:53

they were all like chattering and suddenly a name comes forth.

Sharon: 00:09:57

And I was given the name.

Sharon: 00:09:59

Mutanu which means joyful.

Sharon: 00:10:02

I think the whole time I was in Kenya, I never stopped smiling.

Sharon: 00:10:04

Every volunteer that's come over to, Kenya Connect gets a Kamba name, . It's

Sharon: 00:10:09

special to bestowed something like that.

Jon: 00:10:12

Sharon, you've mentioned a couple of times so far about volunteers

Jon: 00:10:16

and, how do you find volunteers?

Jon: 00:10:18

What do, they do?

Jon: 00:10:19

Do they need certain skills or training?

Jon: 00:10:22

How does that all work?

Sharon: 00:10:24

Yeah, so we I usually lead two to three volunteer trips a

Sharon: 00:10:28

year over to Kenya, and they're usually about 10 days in length.

Sharon: 00:10:32

And initially because I'm a member of St.

Sharon: 00:10:34

John's Episcopal Church, we had volunteers that were coming with me from St.

Sharon: 00:10:39

John's or St.

Sharon: 00:10:40

John's Parish Day School.

Sharon: 00:10:41

And now that the scope is enlarged, some of them are still from St.

Sharon: 00:10:45

John's.

Sharon: 00:10:46

We've had members from Trinity Episcopal Church.

Sharon: 00:10:49

We have a member from the Severna Park United Methodist

Sharon: 00:10:53

Church coming with us this year.

Sharon: 00:10:54

And then just people who became friends of our work and were

Sharon: 00:10:58

interested in traveling over.

Sharon: 00:11:00

We have a partnership with PayPal and we've had PayPal employees come with us.

Sharon: 00:11:03

And basically when volunteers come they work in the classroom with us or

Sharon: 00:11:09

on some of our enrichment programs.

Sharon: 00:11:11

So unlike , some nonprofits where they go and might build a building or, or

Sharon: 00:11:16

dig a well what our community really needs are people to come that might

Sharon: 00:11:21

model an effective teaching method.

Sharon: 00:11:24

Help teachers learn how they can do teamwork in the classroom.

Sharon: 00:11:29

So we've had non-teachers come over who have helped demonstrate something like

Sharon: 00:11:35

engineering and team building through building towers together out of toothpicks

Sharon: 00:11:40

and gum drops and carried over, you know, and the students have a competition

Sharon: 00:11:44

who can build the biggest tower.

Sharon: 00:11:45

So, so we try to model lessons in the classroom.

Sharon: 00:11:48

Sometimes we have volunteers help us with distributing our reusable sanitary

Sharon: 00:11:53

pad kits that are locally made by women.

Sharon: 00:11:56

Sometimes people with business expertise work with our business manager

Sharon: 00:12:00

and our executive director there.

Sharon: 00:12:02

So, we can find different projects that people can work on.

Sharon: 00:12:07

You know, we just ask when we have volunteers, you know, we, we screen,

Sharon: 00:12:11

because we are in a developing country, conditions are not the same as the

Sharon: 00:12:14

US So, if you get uncomfortable on bumpy roads, cuz when we visit

Sharon: 00:12:18

our partner schools, they're up on riverbeds and we're on a school bus.

Sharon: 00:12:21

Bounce, bounce, bounce.

Sharon: 00:12:23

You know, if you get sick on a bus, it's not a good trip for you and if, you're

Sharon: 00:12:26

looking for Hilton kind of accommodations, that's, it's not gonna happen.

Sharon: 00:12:30

Right?

Sharon: 00:12:30

Yeah.

Sharon: 00:12:31

You know, and, and we want people who are open to the community

Sharon: 00:12:34

and, willing to work alongside.

Sharon: 00:12:37

While people are with us, we also do some cultural things.

Sharon: 00:12:40

We visit traditional homestead.

Sharon: 00:12:42

The volunteers learn some traditional Kamba song and

Sharon: 00:12:45

dance and get to participate.

Sharon: 00:12:47

We see basket weaving.

Sharon: 00:12:48

And the village we're in is also known as the center of wood carving in Kenya.

Sharon: 00:12:54

The Wamunyu wood carvers are fairly famous, so we go in and we see the

Sharon: 00:12:57

men wood carving and if people are interested, they can purchase items.

Sharon: 00:13:01

I don't think we've had a volunteer who has come with us that it hasn't

Sharon: 00:13:05

changed their life in some way.

Sharon: 00:13:06

. Lauren: Sharon, this sounds wonderful.

Sharon: 00:13:09

I, I wonder what obstacles have you had to overcome with this?

Sharon: 00:13:14

One of the challenges always is funding, of course,, to run an

Sharon: 00:13:17

operation like this, you need to be constantly raising funds and, a lot of

Sharon: 00:13:21

times funders wanna give for specific projects, which sometimes is wonderful.

Sharon: 00:13:25

But sometimes we just need general operating support because really

Sharon: 00:13:29

what makes our work happen is our program staff and we work with the

Sharon: 00:13:35

most amazing men and women who just are dedicated to what they're doing.

Sharon: 00:13:39

And about six of our staff actually went to our partner schools

Sharon: 00:13:44

as primary school students.

Sharon: 00:13:45

And they were inspired by Kenya Connect and went to university

Sharon: 00:13:49

and now are working for us...

Sharon: 00:13:50

the effects of climate change are real.

Sharon: 00:13:53

In a country like Kenya Last year, they missed three cycles of rains.

Sharon: 00:13:58

And, it's a real challenge at our schools when the rains don't come

Sharon: 00:14:02

because it means crops are failing.

Sharon: 00:14:04

Which means families are often hungry and students are coming to

Sharon: 00:14:07

school hungry, which means they don't learn as well in school.

Sharon: 00:14:12

So that's, been a real challenge for us.

Sharon: 00:14:15

In our community most of our homesteads have no electricity or running water.

Sharon: 00:14:21

And internet access is scarce except for what we're doing.

Sharon: 00:14:24

And so really trying to think creatively about how we can bring Chromebooks

Sharon: 00:14:30

to the classrooms with a hotspot so students can learn computing and coding.

Sharon: 00:14:35

Which is mandated by the Kenyan curriculum, but there's no devices in it.

Sharon: 00:14:39

So there's obstacles there of infrastructure, , obstacles with

Sharon: 00:14:44

climate change and, certainly, the, never ending need for funds.

Sharon: 00:14:49

But we've always been fortunate and people have been generous with us and

Sharon: 00:14:53

so we just keep telling our story.

Lauren: 00:14:58

And as you continue to tell your story, I'm sure that your volunteering

Lauren: 00:15:03

and your funding will only increase.

Sharon: 00:15:06

Yes.

Sharon: 00:15:07

Yes.

Sharon: 00:15:08

And I think one of the things too for people who travel with us, and

Sharon: 00:15:12

especially people who have some kind of, faith belief our, our community has.

Sharon: 00:15:18

Deep, deep faith.

Sharon: 00:15:20

And when I go , as an Episcopalian I, I often find my spirit is

Sharon: 00:15:26

renewed in ways that, it's not always renewed here, I hate to say.

Sharon: 00:15:30

I see people deeply faithful and living in extreme conditions.

Sharon: 00:15:34

When I was there in October last year and the rains didn't come for three

Sharon: 00:15:38

cycles, I was worried and thinking, Who should we be contacting about

Sharon: 00:15:41

trying to get some food assistance to some of the schools, and our staff

Sharon: 00:15:45

would say, have faith, the, the rains will come and sure enough they didn't

Sharon: 00:15:48

come when they were supposed to come, but they wound up coming in February.

Sharon: 00:15:51

I learn from the staff each time I come, each time I go.

Sharon: 00:15:55

And I think our other volunteers feel that too.

Jon: 00:15:59

Yeah, I was gonna ask you what this has meant to you

Jon: 00:16:01

personally, but you just answered

Sharon: 00:16:03

Yeah, yeah.

Sharon: 00:16:04

I, I mean, it's been it's been a, such a gift to me and, I'm so

Sharon: 00:16:07

grateful that Tim invited me to go to Kenya and that I said yes.

Sharon: 00:16:11

Sometimes when I reflect back on my experience with Kenya Connect,

Sharon: 00:16:16

I think sometimes in our life we're offered opportunities and

Sharon: 00:16:20

sometimes we say no just because we think it's too much of an obstacle.

Sharon: 00:16:23

Like, you know, will the kids be okay without me?

Sharon: 00:16:26

Mike's working full-time.

Sharon: 00:16:27

Will he manage, is this really the prudent thing to do?

Sharon: 00:16:30

And for some reason, my inner voice said, go.

Sharon: 00:16:33

And, my husband was incredibly supportive and, and I went and, I never would've

Sharon: 00:16:37

guessed at that point that this is where I was gonna be and, and really

Sharon: 00:16:41

become, Maybe the most important life work I I've done besides raising kids.

Sharon: 00:16:47

It's just been such a dream for me personally.

Jon: 00:16:51

Oh, that's great.

Jon: 00:16:52

I'm sure the needs are ongoing.

Jon: 00:16:53

You've talked mostly about the educational piece

Jon: 00:16:56

. If you could identify the, the

Jon: 00:16:59

that, that people can help with?

Sharon: 00:17:03

Funding's always important and if there's one of our programs

Sharon: 00:17:05

when you visit our website, we're happy to designate funds that way.

Sharon: 00:17:09

Or if you want 'em to go to general operating.

Sharon: 00:17:11

One of our newest programs right now is a program called The Girl Boy

Sharon: 00:17:15

Empowerment Program, and it, it came as a result of during the pandemic.

Sharon: 00:17:21

There was a three month period when schools were first shut down,

Sharon: 00:17:24

that the Kenyan government started monitoring unplanned teen pregnancies.

Sharon: 00:17:29

And we found out in our county alone that 3,964 girls became pregnant

Sharon: 00:17:35

during a three month time period.

Sharon: 00:17:37

And we found out at our partner schools, 98 girls became pregnant and

Sharon: 00:17:41

26 of those were in primary schools.

Sharon: 00:17:44

So we're talking about sixth, seventh, and eighth graders.

Sharon: 00:17:47

And we were horrified and just knew we needed to do something.

Sharon: 00:17:51

So our team on the ground wound up meeting with stakeholders,

Sharon: 00:17:55

so they pulled together.

Sharon: 00:17:57

The child protection officer, the local nurse, the police, the

Sharon: 00:18:01

teachers, parents some of the local pastors and said, we're seeing this.

Sharon: 00:18:06

What are you seeing?

Sharon: 00:18:08

And everybody was seeing the same things.

Sharon: 00:18:10

And The stakeholders were like, Kenya Connect?

Sharon: 00:18:13

We need you to do something.

Sharon: 00:18:14

So we wound up doing some interviews with parents and teachers and students and

Sharon: 00:18:20

found out that yes, this was going on.

Sharon: 00:18:23

But what was more horrifying than the pregnancies was that probably two thirds

Sharon: 00:18:27

of those pregnancies were Not consensual.

Sharon: 00:18:30

So, you know, young girls being taken advantage by the,

Sharon: 00:18:34

uncle or by a family friend.

Sharon: 00:18:37

Sometimes girls exchanging sex for sanitary pads because they didn't have

Sharon: 00:18:41

it, or food because you know, the pandemic put people in such a bad spot and.

Sharon: 00:18:46

We realized we needed to do something and so we started a program called

Sharon: 00:18:50

The Girl Boy Empowerment Program that we've had faculty and students from the

Sharon: 00:18:54

University of New Hampshire helping us to design and craft where we've been

Sharon: 00:18:59

working with fifth and sixth graders.

Sharon: 00:19:02

To a year long program where they meet weekly to talk about sexual reproduction,

Sharon: 00:19:07

how it happens, but also more importantly about things like peer pressure,

Sharon: 00:19:12

bullying, consent, respect, boundaries.

Sharon: 00:19:16

And we have the girls meet separately with one of our mentors

Sharon: 00:19:20

and the boys meet separately.

Sharon: 00:19:22

And the program has been just amazing.

Sharon: 00:19:25

And last year when we did our first pilot of it, No child in any of the schools

Sharon: 00:19:30

that we, worked with, four schools became pregnant, which we thought was a win.

Sharon: 00:19:35

But more importantly, we started getting some stories, especially over the holiday

Sharon: 00:19:39

break in December, we had one girl tell her head teacher that her father

Sharon: 00:19:45

started touching her inappropriately.

Sharon: 00:19:47

She knew it was wrong.

Sharon: 00:19:49

She didn't give him consent, and she fled to her grandmother's house because she

Sharon: 00:19:54

didn't, wanna participate in that, and that she told another adult and that she

Sharon: 00:19:59

knew it was wrong and just didn't do what her dad wanted, I think was a real win.

Sharon: 00:20:05

And, and we know that there's other girls that that's happened to, and we also

Sharon: 00:20:09

engaged the boys because sometimes you know, there's, there's so much work and

Sharon: 00:20:14

it's needed work about educating girls, but if you leave the boys out of the

Sharon: 00:20:18

equation, They need to understand about respect and boundaries and peer pressure.

Sharon: 00:20:24

In one of the boys group, when the mentor said, what's peer pressure?

Sharon: 00:20:28

One of the little boys said, it happens when you're 19 years old.

Sharon: 00:20:33

We all giggle when we hear that, but the boy didn't know what it was.

Sharon: 00:20:37

And when David, our mentor explained, The little boy was kind of silent and then

Sharon: 00:20:42

said, I think I was involved in peer pressure because my friends all wanted

Sharon: 00:20:46

me to steal mangoes off one of the trees.

Sharon: 00:20:48

And I, I went along with it and by the end of the class, all

Sharon: 00:20:51

the little boys were confessing about things that they had done.

Sharon: 00:20:54

Wow.

Sharon: 00:20:54

Yeah.

Sharon: 00:20:56

But it makes it real for them, and our hope is, That those students going

Sharon: 00:21:00

through this at a, at a kind of a pivotal stage will help them go through.

Sharon: 00:21:06

And then at the same time, we've just started this year a program for

Sharon: 00:21:09

parents because parents are having trouble communicating with their

Sharon: 00:21:13

children about sex and other topics.

Sharon: 00:21:15

So we're trying to work with them on how you talk about it.

Sharon: 00:21:18

And I know that's hard in the us.

Sharon: 00:21:19

I mean, I remember talking to my kids about sex and it's

Sharon: 00:21:22

never an easy conversation.

Sharon: 00:21:24

But yeah, really trying to help the parents have some accurate tools and

Sharon: 00:21:27

letting them know that it's never okay for perpetrators to attack children.

Jon: 00:21:32

Wow.

Jon: 00:21:33

You are making such a difference in so many people's lives

Jon: 00:21:37

in so many different ways.

Jon: 00:21:39

The breadth of this, of your programming is just astounding.

Sharon: 00:21:44

Yeah.

Sharon: 00:21:44

I sometimes get amazed every day the staff shares pictures with me

Sharon: 00:21:47

about what's going on, on the ground.

Sharon: 00:21:49

Because I post on social media about things and I am just blown away.

Sharon: 00:21:54

I think it's important that our staff on the ground have a lot of

Sharon: 00:21:57

autonomy in running the programs.

Sharon: 00:21:59

We might help shape the framework and garner funding, but then they

Sharon: 00:22:03

make it, make it run, I think that really works very well.

Jon: 00:22:07

They sound like an amazing group of people.

Sharon: 00:22:11

Yeah, and they're a lot of fun.

Sharon: 00:22:12

Like, so anybody who wants to volunteer with us, please reach out to me.

Sharon: 00:22:16

Because, you go over and you're doing this work, but you laugh and you have

Sharon: 00:22:21

fun, and you're in relationship in an, in a way that I don't know if you

Sharon: 00:22:26

normally would have that access to a, a, a rural community like that.

Jon: 00:22:30

So, Sharon, do you have any final kind of wisdom or advice or

Jon: 00:22:34

comments that you'd like to make?

Jon: 00:22:35

We certainly will want to know the best way people can support you, reach you

Jon: 00:22:40

if they wanna make donations and so on.

Jon: 00:22:42

You know, we'll put lots of the appropriate links in the show notes.

Jon: 00:22:45

But anything before we get to that, that you'd like to just

Jon: 00:22:48

just to add to the conversation.

Sharon: 00:22:51

Yeah, I mean, I think there's, there's so much important work going on

Sharon: 00:22:55

in Africa and, Africa has one of the youngest populations in the world, and

Sharon: 00:23:00

when I walk into a classroom and students and I look at this, 40 eager faces in this

Sharon: 00:23:07

packed classroom, and, you look into some of the students' eyes and you can just see

Sharon: 00:23:12

that they're bright and they wanna learn.

Sharon: 00:23:15

But they lack even the most basic resources.

Sharon: 00:23:18

That's true of a lot of other communities in rural Kenya and

Sharon: 00:23:21

other places on the continent.

Sharon: 00:23:23

And so, , I encourage people to, like when you read your newspaper

Sharon: 00:23:27

and you see articles about Africa, read them and think about the work

Sharon: 00:23:31

and how you can make a difference.

Sharon: 00:23:32

Because it's, really fulfilling, whether you get to volunteer with

Sharon: 00:23:36

us or you donate .. We do a lot of newsletters that lets you know how

Sharon: 00:23:40

your funds are making a difference.

Sharon: 00:23:41

A $50 donation helps us, a hundred dollars donation helps us.

Sharon: 00:23:45

So, certainly donating follow us on social media, like I

Sharon: 00:23:49

can promise you, you'll just.

Sharon: 00:23:50

You'll smile some mornings when you see, what our staff is doing.

Sharon: 00:23:54

. If you're ever interested in volunteering, please reach out to me

Sharon: 00:23:57

and you know, you can reach out to me at sharon@kennyconnect.org or go

Sharon: 00:24:01

to our website www.kenyaconnect.org

Sharon: 00:24:05

we're on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn so we're around, we have some great

Sharon: 00:24:11

videos on our website that you can see what our village looks like.

Sharon: 00:24:14

And, and then I would just say follow your dreams.

Sharon: 00:24:17

If you ever get that invite or have that little n nudge that, geez,

Sharon: 00:24:22

like, I might wanna do this.

Sharon: 00:24:24

Like, do it, do it while you can, cuz I think it, it just makes you realize I

Sharon: 00:24:30

don't feel like I'm just a US citizen.

Sharon: 00:24:32

I see that I'm a, a world citizen and that we're, , we're all on this

Sharon: 00:24:36

earth together and how can we work?

Sharon: 00:24:38

How can we learn and work with each other?

Jon: 00:24:40

That's the connect in Kenya Connect, right?

Jon: 00:24:42

Yeah.

Jon: 00:24:43

Just it's there.

Jon: 00:24:44

It's all about relationship and being with people.

Sharon: 00:24:47

Yeah.

Sharon: 00:24:47

It, it re it really is.

Sharon: 00:24:48

And I, I think that's true of our board here in the US and our staff in Kenya

Sharon: 00:24:52

and, and just, just the communities.

Sharon: 00:24:55

Yeah, it's, it's really an amazing place.

Sharon: 00:24:57

So, we'd love to have a donation.

Sharon: 00:24:59

We do an annual 5K race every year in Ellicott City in March.

Sharon: 00:25:04

So stay tuned for that.

Sharon: 00:25:05

And you can walk or run or you can do it virtually.

Sharon: 00:25:08

It's March 23rd, 2024.

Sharon: 00:25:10

It'll be our 10th anniversary race.

Sharon: 00:25:12

Oh, okay.

Sharon: 00:25:13

In September, we're actually doing just a fun, you know, friendraising little

Sharon: 00:25:18

fundraiser at the Manor Hill Brewery in Ellicott City called Kegs for Kenya.

Sharon: 00:25:23

And I think our director of technology, Patrick Mungunti, will be here with us.

Sharon: 00:25:28

So, you wanna meet one of our staff from Kenya.

Sharon: 00:25:30

It'll, it'll be great and it'll be a fun event with some

Sharon: 00:25:34

good food and some beverages.

Jon: 00:25:35

Lots going on.

Jon: 00:25:36

You're doing so much good.

Jon: 00:25:38

And Sharon.

Jon: 00:25:39

We, both appreciate so much for being here and taking

Jon: 00:25:41

the time to be with us today.

Jon: 00:25:43

And hearing so much about Kenya Connect, as I mentioned earlier, there'll be

Jon: 00:25:47

slew of links in the show notes.

Jon: 00:25:50

All those social media links will be there.

Jon: 00:25:52

And again thank you and, and this has just been a great a great

Jon: 00:25:56

educational resource for me today.

Sharon: 00:25:59

Appreciate it much.

Sharon: 00:25:59

Well, thank you Lauren and Jon.

Sharon: 00:26:01

This has been really fun for me too.

Sharon: 00:26:02

I, I love talking about Kenya Connect, as you can tell, thank you to your

Sharon: 00:26:06

listeners and viewers for tuning in.

Lauren: 00:26:09

Thank you Sharon.

Lauren: 00:26:11

Jon and I want to thank those who watched and those who

Lauren: 00:26:14

listened to this good news today.

Lauren: 00:26:17

We are so grateful that you took the time to to be with us . We couldn't do

Lauren: 00:26:21

it without You .We ask you to comment, like, and share this good news that

Lauren: 00:26:28

you've heard today from Kenya Connect.

Lauren: 00:26:30

Until next time, peace and blessings.

Jon: 00:26:36

Good news is being brought to you by listening for clues.

Jon: 00:26:40

You can find us on our website, listening for clues.com, our YouTube channel,

Jon: 00:26:45

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