Annandale WE Club completes Kenyan school fundraising
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Brick by brick, Annandale Public School's WE Club has been building a school in Kenya. On Monday, May 8th, the school announced it had achieved its fundraising goal of $10,000 - enough to complete a schoolhouse in Ngosuani, Kenya.
"We're here to honour their amazing achievement because at WE, it's really important for us to honour the achievement of our supporters," said WE representative Mark Quattrocchi after a special 'reveal' assembly for the Tillsonburg students. "Without them, the work that is happening overseas wouldn't be possible."
Annandale's current WE Club, now in its second year, started fundraising at Maple Lane Public School in 2013-14.
"The fundraiser took almost four years to achieve and they've worked hard at it," said Quattrocchi. "Everyone kind of dug deep to make it a reality for these people in Kenya. It's awesome to be part of this today."
"We made our first donation in January 2014," said Annandale teacher Debbie Gibson, who helped start the Maple Lane WE Club. Originally they anticipated a five-year fundraising project, but after a very successful first year, hoped it could be completed in three or four years.
BRICK BY BRICK, MAPLE LANE'S BUILDING A SCHOOL IN KENYA - JUNE 2014
It took a commitment of 500 bricks, representing $10,000, to build the Ngosuani village school through the Free the Children (WE) Brick-by-Brick program. A massive accomplishment, the Annandale students were both proud and excited to complete it.
"WE Club is beyond excited," said Gibson. "They were squirming with excitement Friday at the idea of the reveal of how much they've raised. They've worked really hard."
This school year, Annandale's WE Club has organized two "incredibly successful" dances. Over the years they've sold popcorn, raffle tickets, and held Jersey Days, Crazy Hair Days, Twin Days and Tropical Days.
"The families at Annandale have been unbelievably generous," said Gibson.
"And we've done local things, too," she said, noting donations to the We Scare Hunger campaign, and toy drives.
"WE Club is local and global. We're doing stuff here, but we're also doing stuff around the world. I love the fact that Annandale is leaving a legacy of this school in Kenya. We could be making an impact on these little children in Ngosuani... forever."
Over the years, WE and Free the Children have built more than 10,000 schools and schoolhouses.
"That number's always changing," said Quattrocchi.
"Now it's 10,001," Gibson laughed.
"Exactly... over 10,000," Quattrocchi smiled.
It is not an enormous school, but it suits the purpose. Quattrocchi said the Kenyan government only provides one teacher per school, making it more efficient to build smaller schoolhouses.
"Sometimes teachers will have 150 kids. So what we do is build one schoolhouse, one building, that is manageable to house about 30 children - and they (Kenya) provide one teacher. That's how we ensure they get the best education possible. It's a pretty amazing partnership we have with the government, because without that we'd build this schoolhouse and there would be no teacher, it would be empty."
Building a much larger facility - with only one teacher - would be impractical, he said.
"I'm a teacher by profession and I can't imagine what that would be like. Overwhelming. It would be chaos. So we kind of circumnavigate that to make sure the children get the best education possible. Time and time again, the communities that WE has partnered with, those students have the top test scores in the area because of the (small-school) situation."
WE started 22 years ago as Free the Children, a charity and educational partner working world-wide to encourage youth to be 'agents of change.'
"Now WE operates in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom..." said Quattrocchi, "and we hold WE Days in 14 huge arenas around the world. The phenomenon has definitely taken off in the past few years."
WE focuses on five pillars - education, health, food, water and opportunity.