Whatcom County Education Consultants to Participate in Workshop Addressing Education Reform in Kenya

Bombings and travel warnings will not stop Jeana King and Dr. Debra Akre from their goal of educating a nation out of poverty.

 

May 22, 2014

TEMBO TRADING EDCUATION PROJECT

 BELLINGHAM, WA.

 

Two local Education Consultants, Jeana King and Dr. Debra Akre from Bellingham, Washington – the founders of the Tembo Trading Education Project - are leaving for Kenya on May 26^th to participate in an important workshop involving members of parliament, members of the Kenyan Ministry of Education, and many local school administrators focused on the future education strategy in Kenya.

For the past ten years the women have been working hands-on in Kenya to implement their model of education that focuses on teaching young people to do for themselves and not wait for others to determine their future. Their ultimate goal is to educate the nation out of poverty and thus work themselves out of job. Their work has produced results the current education system can only dream of achieving, and is becoming well known across Kenya. As a result, they are the only non-Kenyans attending the meeting of 49 principals and government officials whose purpose is to discuss local education challenges and strategies that will enable Kenya to achieve its future goal of becoming an industrialized middle-class nation by 2030.

“We realize that this could be a difficult time to make another trip to Kenya in light of the violence perpetrated by el Sahbab but we believe that this is a unique opportunity to influence the direction that much of Kenyan education will take in the future, and will affect the ability of an entire generation of deprived youth to pull themselves out of poverty and to improve their lives on their own. This is one of the first sessions like this in some time in Kenya, and the opportunity to share their tested model of education is very humbling” said Jeana King.  

The work done by Akre and King has been recognized by Rotary International by receiving the Paul Harris Fellows Award and have a book (Beneath the Baobab Tree by Kris Stevenson) published about their extraordinary work to end poverty.

 

Contact information:

Debra Akre, PhD                                                                           Jeana King

360.303.2259/debra@tembotrading.org                360.319.5891/jeana@tembotrading.org

Kenya's Desire To Improve Public Education

Having worked with education in Kenya for the past ten years I have seen a great desire , on the part of Kenyan educators, to improve the current educational system. As with most public institutions it comes down to the amount of money available...never enough!

In 2012 a new framework for education was written in Kenya. It has many lofty goals but also has a realistic view of how difficult it is going to be to reach these goals. Please note I did not say impossible, just difficult.

My challenge to other organizations working in developing nations, such as Kenya, is to really think about how you invest the dollars entrusted to you. Is the money being spent in ways that will help Kenyans reach their goals or is it what you think is best?

We must always remember we are guests in Kenya. Our job is to provide tools that allow for an environment in which people can care for themselves and we go home.

Please checkout our website! www.tembotrading.org


--Debra

Kenya Education - Why and how we work in Kenya!

Thank you so much for looking at our blog! Below is a rather lengthy explanation of our work in Kenya!

Jeana and I (Debra) have been working in Kenya for the last 10 years. Hopefully this will help you understand why we work so hard for our students! We have been told some think we are in this for money. What money!!! Would be happy to have anyone look at our tax returns!

We have always been passionate about education but we began to see a new and broader vision, to use education as a tool to bring hope to young people who had none. Our mission is to develop hope and self-reliance through education and business. As social entrepreneurs we see a social problem and use entrepreneurial principles of organize to create and manage a venture of social transformation. Whereas a business entrepreneur sees success in profit and return, a social entrepreneur focuses on creating human capital, a goal not incompatible with generating revenue.

We are Dr. Debra Akre and Jeana King of Bellingham, Washington, two women who have created a new model of delivering education and economic growth to rural areas in Kenya. These two issues are vital to the reduction of poverty in developing nations.


In 2004 we founded Project Education Inc. using education and entrepreneurial skills to transform the crisis of hopelessness into an opportunity for young impoverished, rural Kenyan children to see their hopes and dreams become reality. With the great support of people in our community we opened Clay International Secondary School (CISS) in Ngomano. The education and business model we developed looks at the whole child: mind, body and community. Our students receive medical attention; learn about accountability; learn that it is more than all right to ask questions, it is expected. In a culture where authority looms large, fear-based reticence does too. The interactive model of education where students are encouraged to enquire was a major challenge to implement but once the doors were opened, the students and teachers responded with enthusiasm and determination. In 2010, the CISS graduated its first class and achieved the highest academic scores in their district.

Educating the children, to be future leaders in Kenya, is the purpose of a school, but we believe the school must be self-reliant and we worked to achieve this through domestic economic development. The first products to earn income were kiondos, hand woven bags traditionally given by mothers to their daughters upon marriage. These bags are now being proudly used in Washington State and beyond. From an initial group of three women, now 110 women make the bags; to date they have earned $40,000 for their community. A locally owned company, Haggen’s saw a business and social opportunity and decided to sell the kiondos. In the first month the bags were in the stores, they sold out. The women are busy making more to ship for sale. All of TTEP’s products are made in the East Africa Community. In addition, unless they are donated, all supplies are purchased in Kenya as part of our commitment to local economic development.

In August, 2010 we left of PEI left to start Tembo Trading Education Project turning over CISS to its board of directors and turned our attention to a college, Computer School of Administration, which we have been asked to transform using their education/business model. In addition it was important to start introducing the education model to the public school system.

As of March 2013 the college has doubled its enrollment, it has a new computer lab, updated library with new computers for study and research and the overall environment of the college has been greatly improved. The college has gone from being in the red each month to now being in the black.

In March of 2013 the first teacher training was conducted with instructors from government and private schools on what the Akre-King Transformational Model © is and how to implement in the classroom.


OUR PHILOSOPHY:

• We believe in educating a country out of poverty
• We believe you must first listen, look, learn and then act with culturally adapted, proven solutions for successful financial independence.
• TTEP was created to provide excellence in education to impoverished children of Kenya who are unable to attend school due to financial issues. Our success as a cross-cultural organization is based on trust developed through hands-on work with the community and a behavioral understanding of the needs of the local culture.
• Providing excellence in education includes involving the community; the parents or guardians; addressing the poverty of the area – whether due to climate trends or individual activities; attention to medical needs and exposure to the global community.