British Educators Sharing Their Time in Kenya

This was such a neat story I just had to blog about it even though it has nothing to do with science fiction and fantasy.

A friend of mine asked me to help spread the word about a relatively new charity called ETC. Educating the Children. Two young women from the United Kingdom, one with Kenyan ancestry, stumbled across the Kenyan government’s initiative to get more children into school. The program was so successful they found that many classes had 100 children per teacher.

Rather than ask people for money they turned to educators in the United Kingdom and asked them to devote 3-4 months of their time to teaching children in Kenya. At a time when many educators were unable to find jobs this new mission arose with a noble purpose.

The Guardian wrote about the charity in 2010 in an article outlining ways Brits could improve their lives.

Sir Richard Branson is one of the celebrity supporters for the charity. In fact, it was his own charity which inspired the launch of ETC. Educate the Children.

Nonetheless there are also a small but growing number of corporate sponsors who help out. It would be great if more corporations sign on to help educate the children.

While all the industrial nations certainly have their own needy citizens we think it’s important that the more advanced nations reach out to the less advanced nations and help them along. In fact, Kenya is one of the world’s leaders in the fight against Al Qaeda — a fact most people have forgotten. Were it not for Kenya and Ethiopia the Al Shabaab militia might be in control of Somalia, thus providing a safe haven for Al Qaeda.

So helping the children of Kenya is a small token of thanks that any western nation’s people can offer in exchange for Kenya’s sacrifices in the war against Al Qaeda and their allies.