Recently our 8th graders finished their exams, meaning that they are done with 8th grade and will move onto high school in January. We are spotlighting these students, who are the highest performing class we’ve had yet!

In Kenya, even public high school has a tuition. The better high schools tend to have higher tuitions, and students are placed in a high school by their exam scores. These students are bright and promising. Read about them below. High school classes are the most in need of sponsorship because their education is more expensive. If you’d like to sponsor their class during their high school years visit the Sponsor Students page. 

 

Sime Willyster Akoth

I have been at LightHouse Academy for six years. I like being a student at LightHouse Academy because of the good performance. I like playing football [soccer] and singing. When I reach college, I would like the course of a nurse. When I grow up I would like to help our community by building more schools and helping the orphans.

-Sime Willyster Akoth, 14 years old

 

 

Teddy Joshua Alando

I have been at LightHouse Academy for two years…and by God’s grace – wishing it to be the last year. [Because he will graduate.] As a student at LightHouse, I really like much about my school: my good friends, our beloved “Mums” here for us, our studies, our teachers, only to mention a few. My hobbies are reading magazines, drumming and playing music. About courses, I would like to take “journalism”, if possible! For my community, I would first find a way on how to help them live a deep life in a way of not spending a lot of money on buying things that “we can make ourselves”. For example, the planting of trees as a result of using them in building up schools; we must create an awareness on the importance of replacing a traditional way of making charcoal by not cutting or bringing down the trees. By all these, this will leave my community not having to live a life of losing just to have.

-Teddy Joshua Alando, 17 years old

 

Opere James Oahiambo

I have been at LightHouse Academy for four years. I liked becoming a student at LightHouse because the performance was good and students were disciplined. My hobby is playing soccer. I would like the course of piloting in college. I am planning to help the community by building schools for the orphans and starting some projects which could help the community to grow economically.

-Opere James Oahiambo, 14 years old

 

Scholar Achieng

 

I have been in LightHouse Academy for four years. Being a student at LightHouse has made me benefit much in my primary education and it has made me and other pupils to have good performance. I like swimming in the river during my free time. I would like to take of journalism in my college level. I am about to start a Youth Group in the community that can help them to earn their living standard.

-Scholar Achieng, 16 years old

 

Effie Adhiambo

 

 

I like being a student at LightHouse because of the good meals they provide, the good performance they have and the quality teachers they have. I like swimming as my hobby and I would like to take journalism courses in college. After completing college, I would build hospitals and start some projects that would help my community.

– Effie Adhiambo, 15 years old

 

 

 

I have been at LightHouse Academy for four years. I like being a student at LightHouse Academy for the better and good teachers who are employed. I am a boy talented in football [soccer] and dancing. I plan to have a course of becoming a doctor when I grow up. I plan to help the community after my education by building more schools for the orphans and health services for those who are sick.

-Tonny Austine, 14 years old

 

 

Linda Akoth

I have been at LightHouse for ten years. In LightHouse, what I like is how we are being aught and how we do play during physical education. My hobby is playing in football [soccer] matches. I like it very much. When I finish my secondary education, I would like to be a doctor in the future. If I finish college, I would like to help my community by building a hospital for them to have better treatment.

-Odera Linda Akoth, 13 years old

 

 

Siwo Abigael Aluoch

I like dancing and reading storybooks. I’ve been at LightHouse Academy for four years. I like being at LightHouse Academy because of the good performance in the school. I would like to train in nursing in college. When I grow up, I would like to help my community by planting trees and building hospitals.

-Siwo Abigael Aluoch, age 15

 

 

Anna Adhiambo

I have been at LightHouse Academy for 8 years; I like being at LightHouse because of good performance and proper hygiene. My hobby is reading storybooks, dancing and playing volleyball. If I finish college, I want to be a lawyer in the future. After finishing all that, I would like to help my community by building schools for orphans and needy people.

 

– Anna Adhiambo, 13 years old

 

 

Lovintronner Akoth

 

I have been at LightHouse for 6 years. I like better teaching and good performance at LightHouse. I like playing soccer and I would like to be a pilot in the future. I would like to build schools for the orphans and provide basic needs for the widows in my community.

 

-Lovintronner Akoth, 14 years old

 

 

 

Mary Patience Akinyi

I have been in LightHouse for 9 years. What I like in LightHouse is proper hygiene, proper teaching, and a balanced diet. My hobby is listening to music and reading storybooks. I would like to be an actress. I would like to help the community by distributing basic needs to the needy and the poor, and organizing an orphanage school and children’s home.

-Mary Patience Akinyi, age 14

 

 

Ann Ogutu

 

I am Ogutu Ann Akinyi. I am a Kenyan aged 17 years old. I have been at lighthouse for 6 years. I like the good performance of Lighthouse and how the cooks are humble to me. During my leisure time, I like visiting the needy and playing football [soccer]. When I grow up, I would like to be a teacher. I plan to help my community by building schools for them.

-Ann Ogutu, 17 years old

 

Kevin Onyango

I have been at LightHouse for 7 years. I like my teachers and pupils. Ialso like our cooks and workers for they are obedient and gave me advice when I got onto a wrong path. My hobby is playing soccer and reading storybooks. I would like to do the course of piloting in college. I am planning to help the community by respecting my elders and therefore showing a good example.

-Kevin Onyango, age 14

 

James Onyango

 

I have been at LightHouse for four years. I like our teachers, our school, our breakfast, our lunch, the school manager, our performance and all the subjects that we’re being taught. My hobby is playing football [soccer]. I would like to do a doctor course in college. I plan to help the community by respecting the elders and doing things that may lead to development in my community.

-James Onyango, age 14

 

 

 

I’ve been at LightHouse for 10 years.I like the performance of students of LightHouse and the teaching of their teachers. I like playing football [soccer] as my hobby and I would like to do a course for a game warden. When I finish my course I will build an orphanage at my community and some project that could help the community to grow economically.

-Collins Odukah, age 17

 

Jacklyne Akinyi

 

 

I have been at LightHouse Academy for four years. I like how they teach, also how they cook. We always eat a balanced diet at school daily. My hobby is playing football [soccer] and reading novels. I always spend my leisure time playing football [soccer] and reading storybooks. If I finish my school, I will help the community by helping the needy, contributing food to the orphans and building the nation. I would like to be a pilot. I will go to Aviation College.

-Jacklyne Akinyi, age 15

 

 

Esther Akoth

I have been at LightHouse for 6 years. What I like about being a student at LightHouse, is how the teachers are teaching and the pupils are performing. My hobby is playing football [soccer] and farming. The course I would like in college is nursing. I plan to help the community by building a school for orphans and helping the needy.

-Esther Akoth, age 17

 

 

Irine Opudo

I have been in LightHouse for 9 years. I like being a student at LightHouse Academy because of the good performance in the school. I like reading novels. I would like to be a banker in the future. I am planning to help my community by building a school and a hospital in the community.

-Irene Opudo, age 14

 

 

 

Mercy Achieng

 

 

I have been at LightHouse Academy for 4 years and I like the teaching and good performance of LightHouse. I like singing as my hobby. I would like to do nursing as my course and I am planning to help the community by building water projects for the people to have clean water for drinking

-Mercy Achieng, age 17

by Amber Kepler

Even though it is summer here in the United States, school is still on the brain for one teacher.

Meg Diller, a preschool teacher in Lancaster, left in June for her second trip to visit LightHouse Academy in Alendu, Kenya. In 2015, Meg, along with other volunteers from the US, visited Alendu to work with the teachers of LightHouse Academy. That trip made an obvious impact on Meg and her husband, Ken.

So this summer, Meg will return to Kenya for a few weeks to continue the work.

Meg Diller traveled with the Worship Center team in the summer of 2015. On that trip, the team provided teacher training like Reading Assessment Training, training on analyzing data and creating educational goals for students and Special Education training. They also presented topics like computer/email training for all school staff members. Additionally, they hosted a Vacation Bible School for all students at the school, provided marriage counseling to parents and teachers, and taught conflict resolution skills to administrators at LHA. Needless to say, it was a busy trip for the team.

On her trip this June, she will check on the progress of the reading program started in 2015.

Meg will work with teachers to look at the assessments that they have administered. Together they will analyze the data and create new goals for the students. In addition, Meg will also work with the Pre-K – 2 teachers to share her knowledge of Early Childhood Education. Meg has been looking forward to this trip since her trip in 2015 and will be an asset to LHA’s teachers while she is there. When she returns, she will volunteer with Rafiki’s education board to help develop new goals for the teachers and students at LHA.

This is a continuation of “Being a Friend to Kenya”, written by Jordan Bush, featured in the November 2012 issue of the Fine Living Lancaster magazine. View in the PDF version of the issue here.  You can find the article on page 142.

George is a young boy in the seventh grade with four paternally orphaned brothers.

He lost his father over five years ago in the war against AIDS. George’s mother was then given a husband to look after her and the boys. As it turns out, they are both HIV positive, and she visits a clinic each week to receive antiviral therapy. Concurrently, she is pregnant with a sixth child to her second spouse, who does not provide for the family.

Daily at sunrise, the four oldest boys, George, Stephen, Clifton, and Brian, walk hurriedly together for LightHouse Academy. The journey takes over an hour, through the hills and under the hot Kenyan sun. There, they find the only consistent food and clean water in their lives, learning and singing along with their classmates. After a full day of classes they face another adventure returning home. The boys have only one hour of daylight to complete any schoolwork before it is too dark to read.

After sunset, the four eldest sleep together on one bed, lying width-wise with their legs hanging off the edge.

Brighton, the youngest, shares a bed with his mother. On weekends, the young boys show tremendous entrepreneurial spirit and make rope from sisal leaves, and burn trees to make charcoal. They sell both products to buy and plant seeds to grow food in support of their family. Clifton, who is only in sixth grade, is also reponsible for taking care of their neighboring grandparents.

A day of making charcoal will yield 100 Kenyan shillings, or the US equivalent of earning $1.15.

A few bundles of rope produce half that sum, enough for a large bottle of Coke. Their mother supports Rafiki’s vision entirely, knowing that her boys’ only hope for a promising future rests entirely on the education they receive at LightHouse Academy.

UPDATE: Because Rafiki recognizes the interconnection of people and the environment, we no longer support the burning of trees to make charcoal. Drought is a huge problem in Kenya, and destroying trees, which bring rain and purify water, makes this issue worse. We work with families of our students to find other sources of income, and all students at LightHouse Academy receive environmental education and hands on experience.

Featured in the November 2012 issue of the Fine Living Lancaster magazine. View in the PDF version of the issue here.  You can find the article on page 142.

Written and photographed by Jordan Bush of Jordan Bush Photography.

Take a stroll through Lancaster Central Market on a Saturday morning. Weave through the communal hustle and bustle and you will find far more than fresh, aromatic foods, where Rafiki’s Deli is among the many stands offering one-of-a-kind delights.

Not only will you find authentic African dishes full of color and flavor, but you will be greeted with the same hospitality that, through this very market, offers refuge to the AIDS-ravaged community in Alendu, Kenya.

The beautiful remote village of Alendu rests just south of the equator, not far from Lake Victoria, and is the birthplace of Dorothy Dulo, who with her husband Roger Godfrey, are the founders of Rafiki’s Deli as well as Rafiki Africa Foundation. In 1996, during a visit home from school in the United States, Dorothy returned to find 13 children living with her parents. Orphaned by AIDS, they had no place to find refuge. These children were no exception to the rule, as the entire Nyanza Province has been decimated by AIDS,  losing nearly an entire generation to the disease. Consequently, this has led to greater preventable disparities, reciprocating poverty, illness, HIV, malaria… the list is seemingly endless. It was then that Dorothy started on this journey; it was then that Alendu started to find hope.

The community may not know what they need, but they know deep hurt. Rafiki’s approach is to start with that and work with the community to identify their needs, providing training, equipping, and supporting both individuals and families.

Rafiki’s goal is to achieve optimum health: the capacity of individuals, families and community working together to transform conditions that promote sustainable spiritual, emotional, physical, social, environmental, and economic well-being. While it may seem unfathomable, the dismal collision of cultural tradition and oppression make it difficult for the community to discern even the causes of transmitting HIV/AIDS. Through the  loss of so many, there has been a breakdown in passing on education, technical training, and life skills.

LightHouse Academy is a school founded exclusively for children who have been orphaned, abandoned, and would otherwise not have the hope of an educated future.

Their teachers are immensely invested in their students, to the point that they will often cover student fees independently. In a country where resources are limited, Dorothy had established the anti-private school. Rafiki provides medical care to the students and, as resources permit, to the surrounding community at a small fee — a means to instill ownership. This is often met with great animosity, as the “Missionary Model” of free services has replaced independence with entitlement through generations of fruitless handouts. The development of Rafiki’s farm provides some of the daily food needed for breakfast and lunch for their students, often the only consistent meal in their lives. The following stories from Alendu intimately reveal hope that Rafiki has bestowed upon the community.

Read more: Benta’s, Meshack’s, George’s and Evans’ stories.

This is a continuation of “Being a Friend to Kenya”, written by Jordan Bush, featured in the November 2012 issue of the Fine Living Lancaster magazine. View in the PDF version of the issue here.  You can find the article on page 142.

Fifteen years ago, Evans was living as a paternal orphan with his mother and younger brother Wycliff.

Evans’ mother became ill in bed and hadn’t been seen for a week, so her brother came to check on her. When he asked Evans where his mother had gone, Evans told his uncle she was sick in bed, feeding the 18-month-old baby Wycliff. Evans’ uncle found his sister passed away in her own bed, where she had been for some time with her baby still attached to her breast.

Evans has mental retardation from malnutrition as a young boy, but despite his obstacles he is expected to graduate from vocational college for carpentry at the end of 2012.

He is one of Rafiki’s earliest and greatest successes at LightHouse Academy due to his accomplishments from first grade all the way through college. Rafiki also provided him with his own hut and helped raise him from about 5 years old into adulthood. Rafiki is presently working to build Evans a new hut after he graduates. Evans has faithful sponsors from Lancaster that provided the means of sending him to vocational school to master a trade to support himself as a adult.