Bill Clinton hails alum's efforts to serve community

"I was delighted to hear about the wonderful work you have been doing over the past several years to serve your community in rural Kenya.

I extend my heartfelt congratulations on all that you have already accomplished in developing the Ikumbo Secondary School.It's an honor to have such principled and visionary in my Foundation's staff," reads parts of a letter former US President Bill Clinton sent to Davis Karambi, an Assistant Program Officer at Clinton Foundation's office in Nairobi.

What prompted this letter? When Davis Karambi finished his Bachelor of Commerce degree at the University in March 2007, 35 students of Ikumbo Secondary School in his village in central Kenya were not sure their school would open after the Easter break. Talk in the village was not why but when the school would close.

To meet the need of pupils graduating from local primary schools whose enrollment had increased owing to the free primary school education introduced by the government in 2003, Ikumbo village set up the secondary school. It admitted its first batch of four pioneer students in January 2006. But funds to sustain the school were not forthcoming. The school was short of everything from classrooms, teachers, and offices not to mention libraries, laboratories, kitchen and dining facilities. Even the few students who had enrolled were dropping out.

Davis felt compelled to help so he started mobilizing resources from friends and colleagues at his alma mater; and among colleagues at the Clinton Foundation. He also got the community involved. Thanks to his efforts, the school now has an administration block, a classroom block, and a laboratory. The lab is the latest addition. It was opened by the Australian High Commissioner to Kenya Her Excellency Lisa Filipetto in March. The envoy hailed Davis drive and commitment to the project.

In the last two years, the school has changed the education opportunities in the village. The primary to secondary school transition has risen from 4% in 2006 to 100% this year. The current Form One class has 53 students up from the first four students in February 2006.

"My goal is to endow every child in Ikumbo with the same opportunities for advancement in education I have had," Davis says. And his is a compelling story which he relates below.

"My father left before I was born and my mother left me in the hands of my grandmother when she married. I was raised by my grandmother, a hard-working but poor woman with no formal education and little means for providing for my future. My grandmother instilled in me a strong liking for education, in spite of my difficult beginnings," Davis says.

Davis' schooling was not always smooth recounts Muthoni Nyagah his foster mother. "He recently recounted to me how his grades started dropping between Standard Four and Six and he almost gave up schooling. This was all thanks to a remark a relative had made that he could not continue with his education beyond primary school because there was no money to pay for his secondary school education," Muthoni related.

"The relative said the best Davis could hope for was to become a mechanic in the village after his primary school. So he thought to himself - I don't have to get good grades to become a mechanic. The remark discouraged Davis very much. He had nobody to share his frustrations with so the remark just ate his morale," Muthoni said.

"One day, his uncle was entertaining a guest at the homestead his uncle shared with his grandmother as Davis was preparing fodder for the family cattle. The guest asked Davis' uncle about the prospects of the boy's education. And the uncle said he would do all he could to make sure Davis went to high school," Muthoni said.

"For Davis, the guest was a godsend. It dawned on him that the idea of him becoming a mechanic was not his uncle's. Of course the two men didn't know that Davis heard them. But the conversation re-kindled his spirits," Muthoni added.

Davis did well in the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE). He was top in his class and was picked to attend Ikuu Secondary School, one of the best secondary schools in the region. However, Davis' grandmother could simply not afford the fees required to attend the school. In fact, she barely scraped together funds to send him to Igwanjau Secondary School in the neighbouring village. She sold her only cow and told Davis that if he was able to experience just one term of secondary school, it would be worth the sacrifice.

"I attended the first term, but I was unable to get fees for the next term. When the second term began the then Deputy Principal (DP) of Igwanjau now the current Principal at the school visited us to share my examination results: I had earned the highest grades in my class. Upon hearing my reasons for dropping out, he initiated a fundraiser among the teachers of the school to raise the necessary school fees. He also gathered the people of Ikumbo together for a harambee to add to what the teachers had raised," Davis recalled.

The villagers gave generously, offering the little money they could as well as other gifts – chickens, tomatoes, and bananas - to be auctioned off. In a single evening they raised enough money to send Davis to school for another term.

"The sacrifice, compassion, and unity reflected in these harambees define the spirit of Ikumbo and the many other communities like it around Kenya. Through the generosity of my teachers and my fellow villagers, I returned to school with renewed vigor and purpose," Davis said.

Davis achieved top marks throughout secondary school and received a full scholarship to study at Strathmore. The scholarship was funded by East Africa Breweries Limited (EABL)," Davis said.

Davis journey to Strathmore was another odyssey. It was the second time he would be travelling to Nairobi which is 200 kilometers from his village. But he was undaunted. The only other time he had travelled to Nairobi was on his way to Mombasa in a trip his high school principal paid for him owing to his sterling performance in school.

"The year was 2003. Strathmore was to communicate to successful scholarship applicants by 25th June. Unfortunately, Strathmore was not able to contact me because my phone contact was not available. On 29th June, I walked eight kilometers from Igwanjau Secondary school where I was teaching to visit my grandmother. She encouraged me to visit Strathmore and find out the status of my application. She said that even if I hadn't qualified to sit for the interview, I would learn a lot from the journey and this would put me in good stead in future," Davis recalls.

"So I set for Nairobi on Monday, June 30th and called a sister to my aunt's husband. We had not met before but after explaining my situation, she quickly picked the responsibility of finding out about Strathmore. She, together with her husband, have since become my friends, guardians and mentors," Davis says. "The following morning, I went to Strathmore and learnt I had been shortlisted for the scholarship interviews. Just as I was getting into the room where the rest of the candidates were waiting, my name was called. With no break or preparations, I was called to meet the interview panel," Davis says.

"The scholarships are given to bright and needy kids. The first question that the chair of the panel Prof David Sperling asked was proof that I was financially needy. I didn't have any documents endorsed by a third party in authority like a religious leader or a government official to testify my need as was required. So I told the panel that my coming alone to a place I didn't know, to meet people I didn't know, and to a school I had never been to unaccompanied was the only additional prove I had to show my financial need. I would have wanted to be brought by my parents, probably in a car but they were not there and my grandmother would not have been able to travel to Nairobi due the fact that she has never travelled long distances and she didn't have money to travel anyway," Davis reminisces. The panel made the right decision and awarded Davis the scholarship. Mr Jakin Nyaga, Davis foster father says that when he was admitted to Strathmore, some leaders in the village felt it was too expensive even with a fully paid scholarship since he had to meet the cost of upkeep. "These people thought that Davis was better off waiting to be admitted to a public university which would give him a loan to supplement his sustenance. But well-wishers in his village managed to raise Kshs 35,000 to meet his accommodation and food needs for the first semester. Davis didn't need to worry about sustenance for subsequent semesters as the church he worshipped in – the Presbyterian Church of East Africa in Nairobi West - offered to pay for his accommodation and food.

"While at the University, I began to support the early education of several of my cousins and neighbours, and initiated two projects focusing on development of the youth in my village. I directed my passion for education into a mission for my community to endow every child in Ikumbo with the same opportunities I had had for education advancement," Davis said.

After completing his studies, Davis got a job at the Clinton Foundation as an Assistant Program Officer. At the Foundation, Davis met American Matthew Gartland, a native from Morristown, New Jersey who was a volunteer at the Foundation. "We became friends quickly. I shared my background as well as my dreams for the secondary school. These conversations sparked an idea that moved Mathew to join in our efforts. Later on Ravi, a medical student from USA joined us," Davis said.

"After gathering U$6000 in contributions from friends and family in the United States, we were able to fund the first phase of construction and take part in a life-changing experience. US based Strathmore University Foundation (SUF) facilitated the transfer of the funds. SUF was necessary because American givers wanted their contribution to be tax deductible," Davis explained.

Since SUF is a registered 501©3 not-for-profit corporation in the United States, donations given through SUF are tax deductible. The transfer was also a chance for SUF to fulfill its mandate – to support opportunities for development and advancement of philanthropic projects in areas in which Strathmore and its alumni are interested and active in.

Bernard Runga, the Chairman of the Ikumbo Secondary School's Board recalled that immediately after Davis completed his degree in March 2007, he asked the board what plans it had for building the school. "We told him we had plans to build an office for the Principal who we were expecting the government to post to the school in January 2008," Bernard related.

"He asked us what assistance we needed and we told him that we needed Kshs30, 000 for the office. He told us he could get about Kshs50,000 from friends and said that if we lobbied to get some money from the government and combined resources we could build an administration block that will have a teachers' staff room as well as the Principal's and the Deputy Principal's office. Later, he told us we needed a plan for the whole school. And we went ahead and developed one," Bernard said.

Phase I of construction of the school was completed in November 2007, with the addition of a permanent classroom and administrative offices to two previously existing temporary structures. These facilities have enabled the school to register with the Ministry of Education and receive the benefit of government paid teachers.

Ikumbo should graduate its pioneer class end of this year, but there is still work to be done before that. The entire village remains committed to seeing this project through. In May 2008, Davis presented another cheque of KShs 300,000 to the school. The money had been raised by pupils of Retamar School in Spain. To raise the money, the pupils had sold old newspapers. They also asked their parents and friends for donations and had gave some of their pocket money. Present at that cheque presentation ceremony was the area member of Parliament Hon Mpiuki Kareke who promised the school will have electricity a year's time. Installation is in progress.

The funds were used to construct a classroom. And that solves one headache for the community. Mr Nyagah says Davis has been instrumental in organizing and creating awareness in the community for the school. "He has organized the community and sold the need for the school such that the community now owns the project. And community participation is high. The community donates what it can to the school. That means the school doesn't buy locally available material like ballast, and timber. Community members provide unskilled labour during construction and this lowers the cost of construction," he said.

Matthew Gartland has experienced the community's participation. "Staying with a family in Ikumbo in mid-2007, we got our hands dirty at the construction site by day and enjoyed the hospitality and cooking of villagers by night," Matthew recalls.

"Parents hauled stones and mixed cement, laying the foundation for Ikumbo Secondary School (see ikumbo.blogspot.com). This community-initiated project will alleviate the prohibitive burdens of high school fees and the additional costs of travel, food, and accommodation associated with boarding schools," Mathew added.

Nyagah says the school has made secondary school education accessible to many deserving youngsters in the village who otherwise would not have had an opportunity to pursue post-primary school education. "Boarding secondary schools charge about Kshs45,000 fees per year. But at Ikumbo, they pay about Kshs12,000 per year. That makes a world of difference in a village where most families live on subsistence farming. At Ikumbo, we can't even talk of families living on less than a dollar a day. Here, families eat what they grow in their shambas. The good thing with having a school like Ikumbo is that the school can accept the parents' labour or farm produce in exchange for education," Nyagah observed.

Education is widely recognized as a sure way of getting out of poverty. Nyagah wagers that about 40% the school's graduates will proceed to college and eventually get jobs in the formal economy. And that should make a big difference in their lives, the lives of their families, and the community.

Davis story is all the more remarkable because as observers point out, people who have been helped by the community rarely give back to the community. "It is a sad reality that people who benefit from charity and leave their poor communities behind as they pursue higher education rarely want to go back to those communities and help those they left behind. It is like they don't want to be associated with the poverty they left behind," Hon Kilemi Mwiria Assistant Minister for Higher Education said at a scholarship award ceremony last year.

The Minister appealed to those who had benefited from the generosity of others to lend a helping hand in turn to others. Muthoni says that Davis is always thinking ahead and planning things. "He is a visionary. He sees what we cannot see, and does what we could not do. He also gives from what he has. He has opened many eyes through his community mobilisation," she said.

Davis plans to do an MBA and a PhD and do a bit of travelling. His long-term goal is to become the head of the Strathmore's Community Outreach Program (COP). "I owe the mobilization skills to the exposure I got in COP activities at Strathmore. I dream that someday I will head COP and be at the forefront of building many schools for needy kids all over Kenya," Davis says.