24 Jul Kenya Journal Day 1: Emori Joi…

Kenya Journal – Day 1 – Welcome to Emori Joi – Our First of 11 Unstoppable Communities.

As you know, we recently returned from a wonderful trip to the Maasai Mara in Kenya, where we visited all 11 of the communities that the Unstoppable Foundation is supporting.

On Day 1, we went to Emori Joi, one of our most established communities and the place where Mama Jane lives.

Jane was raised in a one room mud hut along with eight brothers and sisters in the Maasai Mara in Kenya.

As soon as she could walk, she hauled water on her back from a filthy river for several miles every single day.

In keeping with family tradition, she was circumcised and then shortly thereafter, despite her pleas to stay in school, her parents pulled her out in the 4th grade. Her childhood ended that day when she was left behind to help her mom with the daily back-breaking chores required to keep her family alive.

Jane was a smart little girl and she knew that without an education, she was destined to the same life of poverty her family had known for generations and yet she still dreamed of something else for herself.

In time, Jane got married and had five children in as many years and the dream of an education continued to burn inside… but now her dream was for her children.

As she worked toward creating opportunities for her little ones, she also got her own education. Through the help and support of Free the Children and the Unstoppable Foundation, Mama Jane completed her own education, designed to set her on the path to sustainability. She learned basic math, bookkeeping, and income-generating skills, as well as how to save money and secure loans as part of the income training in our 5-pillar development model.  She developed skills that positioned her as a leader in her community.

The morning she walked her five children to their first day of school was the happiest day of her life, she told us. Her children would now read and write and create a different life than she had had.

Through the support of the Unstoppable Foundation and the leadership of our implementing partner, Free the Children, Jane and the women in her community acquired the mentorship and training they needed to live their lives FREE from poverty and set her on the path to sustainability. Jane’s husband, Julius, was inspired, and challenged the men in their community to become educated, too.

Everything began to change.

The adults promised not to marry their daughters off at the age of 12, as had been the custom, and more importantly, to keep all their children in school so they too, could have a more promising future.

And during our visit there, we saw exactly what we’d always hoped to see: in only 8 short years since this partnership was created between the dedicated Emori Joi community members and Free the Children, they are now completely self-sustainable.

ALL 5 pillars necessary to create self-sufficiency within the entire community have been implemented:

  1. Education (including school-building and educational programming)
  2. Access to clean water & sanitation (including installation of safe water tanks, a permanent bore hole and construction of a masonry tank within the school, and construction of hand-washing stations, hand pumps and latrines)
  3. Food and nutrition (providing each student with a daily warm meal, plus school gardens and farming projects)
  4. Healthcare (including mobile health clinics & basic medical supplies, kitchen, dining hall and student lunch programs
  5. Education for parents to earn an income (including financial education, household budgeting and specific skill training to produce an alternative income).

Mama Jane has been leading the change in her family and community. She was even able to build a brick house for her family – the very first in Emori Joi – by raising money through training, budgeting, and a merry-go-round group (where each month, members of a women’s group each contribute money to a “pot,” and one of the women gets to keep all of it).

With 2,328 community members, 700 students, 6 active women’s groups, 12 classrooms, a successful cattle farming business, and a huge organic garden that supports the entire community, the transformation of Emori Joi proves that the Unstoppable Model – The Unstoppable Solution for Sustainable Education™ – REALLY works!

It works to educate children. It works to bring families the education they need to create sustainability and end poverty!

Stay tuned for more from our recent trip!

As always, we invite you to join in our mission.

Donate now to the Unstoppable Foundation!

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And we’d LOVE to hear from you: What most inspires you about Mama Jane’s story?