Support a Solar Computer Lab in Kenya - June 2023
Updated: Jul 21
This June, my neice and I are running a fundraising campaign to build a solar computer lab for a Maasai village in Kenya with the NGO MANDO.
MANDO is a locally run community based grassroots NGO in in the Southern Rift Valley, Kenya - a couple hours south of Nairobi. It is run by a Maasai community seeking to improve the lives of villagers and their children. The full name of the NGO is: Matonyok Nomads Development Organization, ergo MANDO.
The project we are supporting this year is their initiative to build a solar-powered computer lab for their rural school - Nkuyan School. The school has 387 students aged 4-17.
I visited their school and village in-person in 2013 and met the non-profit leaders. They are a registered non-profit in Nairobi, Kenya. Their school is between two and three hours from Nairobi. That may not seem far to you, but having gone there myself, I can tell you many roads aren't passable depending on the season - not without a hardy 4x4. There is little public transportation nor paved roads or electrical infrastructure, but enough to support the computer lab along with the solar powered additions and infrastructure.
The computer lab will allow students and teachers to benefit from online learning options through open universities that provide access to education for underserved communities around the globe. Please try to imagine a life very different from one in the US – one where everyone does not have phones, ipads, laptops or any computers, nor local computer labs or internet cafes to go to, and often not even electricity. The students in this school need access to computers to really prepare for the possibility of jobs and college later in life, and access to many of the online resources we all take for granted.
This Maasai non-profit is run by the community directly. Your donation to the PayPal link at their NGO webpage means your payment goes directly to the village, and directly to this project.
Ultimately, all this means:
This a small, local non-profit run directly by the community.
Since I visited them, you have complete confidence and assurance about where your donation will go.
This is a community-supported project designed by the community.
Donations go directly to this project without high overhead or middlemen.
10K (Ten thousand) dollars are needed for computers, software, the building, desks and other infrastructure. If we all kick in, we can reach that. No amount is too small - every little bit adds up.
DONATE: There is a PayPal button right on the project page, at the link below.
Much more information is at their webpage – at this site are pages about the village (so you can see who you’re supporting), as well as the project plan (Programme Description – click on that to download the full project map and plan), and click on the PayPal DONATE to donate: https://www.mandomaasai.org/computer-labs
Feel free to comment here and ask any questions, or contact Michael (Head of Mando) questions - they have a good Facebook page as well. https://www.mandomaasai.org/computer-labs
Thank you for your help and support