February 2, 2021June 2020 DONATE

Dear Sponsors and Friends,

We hope that this email finds you and your family well during these challenging times. Please stay safe. I am still in Kenya and my flight home has been cancelled. I miss home but am enjoying the beauty of the school and the work we are accomplishing.

I am pleased to tell you that none of our 21 staff have been furloughed and we continue to pay their salaries, social security and health insurance. And, of course, this enables them to support their families. They are very grateful.

Our online classes are working very well. The teachers and students have a normal school time table for the day from 9 A.M. until 4 P.M. The girls are learning and submitting their work for marking. We are pleased with our success as most schools are not. Many of our college students are also doing online classes. Below see our online learning link of how the program works.

Our school curriculum focuses on creative and critical thinking, leadership training and each girls commitment to design a project to address problems in her community. Rebecca, 11th grade, started a project on environmental protection. Her Member of Parliament promised to represent her petition to the national government. She was honored as an Ashoka Changemaker and published in several articles.

540 Sharlyne and 202 Rebecca have been selected for this year's Yale Young African Scholar conference to be held next month.

BEADS has been featured in various newsletters including African Elephant Research, Ashoka, Segal Family Foundation and HundrED all with great visibility and the opportunity to reach more sponsors for our girls.

HundRED.org has also published three of our innovations which you can see in these links : online learning in remote areas, Every girl a changemaker and Develop Creative and Critical Thinking . Our teacher Magaga has become the HundrED ambassador for Kenya: HundRED ambassador for Kenya. Three of our students are also competing for the HundRED youth ambassador, Kenya.

We have updated our website, Facebook and Instagram. Join us to get more updates.

At school, we are working on maintenance by painting dormitories, classrooms, library, kitchen and the dining hall. Hundreds of windows were painstakingly painted.

Although the girls are not here, we are taking care of their goats for the agriculture curriculum project.