Gathehu is a village in Kenya which until recently did not have a Secondary School. The children would have to walk five miles to get to school and some, who could not afford the fees, just didn’t attend school.
In 2009 Lucy Wachira, who grew up Gathehu, was married in Cross Street Church to Shaun Worth. Rather than asking for wedding gifts, they asked for donations towards a school being built in Gathehu. On their honeymoon in Kenya they were able to give a donation of £500 to the newly formed committee and were invited to do the ground breaking on the site where the school would be built.
Lucy organised a Kenyan evening at the Church, the Church’s Pastor, Andrew Calvert ran a sponsored marathon around nine local schools and a “Bring a bag to buy a brick to build a school” campaign was organised with people bringing either bags of pennies or old clothes to be sold as rags. Personal donations have also been made bringing the total raised to over £5,000 and in 2011 Lucy, Shaun, Lucy’s son Ian, Andrew and his wife Karen visited Gathehu and were invited to officially open the first two class rooms of the school.
The project is ongoing and money is still being raised towards the building of a toilet block, additional class rooms and a library. There is also a bursary fund to help students of poor families so that every child in the village will be able to be educated in their own village.
“Harambe” is a Swahili word which means “Pull together”. Through lots of people doing Harambe great things can be achieved which could never have been done by one person. Thank you to all those who have made donations, brought bags of pennies or clothes, run round a school field or sponsored a child. The people of Gathehu say “Asante sana” – thank you very much!
Lucy with one of the students we support
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