The Kenya Education Endowment Fund, known as KEEF for short, is a B.C.-based charity that sends impoverished, bright students to high school in Kenya, where education is not free.
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In light of the pandemic, KEEF is now issuing an invitation to all B.C. middle and high school students as well as home learners.
“One of our enthusiastic volunteers planned to cycle from the northern to the southern tip of South America this summer,” says KEEF volunteer Shelagh Armour-Godbolt. “This trip … has now been cancelled due to COVID-19 precautions.”
That KEEF volunteer is local cyclist and now-retired doctor, Brenda Trenholme.
She was planning to cycle for almost six months through six countries - Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, and Argentina - as a fundraiser for the charity.
“So we are inviting students to choose one of the six countries Brenda Trenholme would have visited and do some research,” explained Armour-Godbolt.
Students are asked to create a plan, to a maximum of 450 words, of a virtual cycling route through the chosen country and what they might encounter there.
Entries are to be sent to a regional KEEF volunteer’s email address by May 31.
Afterwards, KEEF will randomly select one student entry from a middle school level and one from a high school level in each of the six regions of B.C.
As well as celebrating these learners in local and social media, a KEEF supporter will make a gift in honour of the 12 selected students that will assist another Kenyan to attend high school.
Students, parents, teachers and other interested persons can receive the entry details, consent forms, and email address for their region by emailing shelaghag@shaw.ca.
One entry is permitted per learner.
Consent of a parent or guardian is needed for submissions by students/learners less than 16 years of age.
“KEEF volunteers believe B.C. students will find this Virtual Cycling Tour Challenge an interesting and enjoyable activity, as well as giving them a way to help create support for a disadvantaged student in Kenya,” said Armour-Godbolt.
“So join the Virtual Cycling Tour Challenge and send us your plan!”
The primary mission of the Kenya Education Endowment Fund is to provide scholarships for very bright students from Kakamega County in Western Kenya who do not have the financial means to pay the fees for secondary and post secondary education. Secondary school fees are $600 or more per year.
In 2020, the non-profit is supporting 120 secondary school students and about 30 students in post secondary programs.
For more information about the work of KEEF, visit www.kenyaeducation.org.
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