Irbaan Primary School, Maasai Mara, Kenya, opened with three classrooms in November 2007, thanks to the generosity of international donors. The school, serves communities spread out for over the vast grasslands of the Mara region in Kenya, is still in need of ongoing support to provide a quality education to the hundreds of children in the area. More classrooms are needed to accommodate all the children and school supplies from textbooks to desks are in short supply. Funding for enough teachers that includes salaries and accommodation $300 a month, will help keep classroom sizes of reasonable size. Children, who walk as far as 7 kilometers to school, each way, often on an empty stomach, need a hot lunch to be provided. Provide an individual scholarship, $300 a year, and we will include you on the donors page of the Charming The World, Maasai book. I am astounded at the number of children in this tourist-ed region that still lacked access to basic essentials like fresh water and food. This is an opportunity for the first generation of Maasai girls to go to school, and their first opportunity to experience physical and intellectual autonomy. Their young fathers appreciate what education did for them and want to share this gift with all their children. This generation values education and can transform the brutality of poverty into potential.
This well put in about 18 months ago currently sustains 500 people. This area in the Mara has not seen rain for two years. I was there during that last rain. I remember the panic I felt seeing thousands of dead Wildebeest carcasses float into the water stream of hundreds of villages along the Mara river. Children go to school to get a meal. Usually corn and mush cooked over fires from the 50 lb. burlap WFP sacks. I go from school to school and find children lining up for a scoop of corn and see the little ones trying to carry some home for their siblings. It makes tears come to my eyes every time I see it. As the cows die from drought and the milk dries up these children will soon be facing the dire consequences of malnutrition that has come about from climate change today. Yes these are the consequences of climate change, our emissions here are killing children there. We are all complicit in this crime against humanity. Clean development mechanisms are an essential part of climate policy. They will provide sustainable development to those most affected by climate change......children like these.