Schools for Communities

Where Two Worlds Meet

Rift Valley Adventures want to put something back into the beautiful but desperately poor Laikipia tribal lands. We’ve launched our ‘Schools for Communities’ programme to link first world students, philantrophic families and organisations with local people.

The aim:

To lessen poverty by supporting development and education projects.

Every single one of our international student trips contains an element of the programme - whether it’s a financial donation or practical help from visiting students. Last year pupils from Battle Abbey School spent part of their two-week trip to Laikipia building a dormitory for Kirimun, one of three primary schools in the scheme. It was about more than a good night’s sleep. It means local girls can remain unmarried until a later age, allowing them to enjoy a better education.

On a separate trip last year, a secondary school from Dubai raised funds to install electricity in a local orphanage. Things we take for granted make a massive difference in rural Africa. This year we built even more schools and The Country Day School from Canada helped construct a 3 kilometre water pipe line from the Ewaso Nyiro River to the Il Motiok Nursery School providing valuable water for children and families away from the charging elephants!

But the benefits flow both ways. Just ask the Battle Abbey students saying a tearful goodbye to their friends at Kirimun Primary School. At an impressionable age they had their eyes opened to a different culture and lifestyle – a rewarding experience that spawns lifelong tolerance and understanding.

So what can be done with the funds your school raises or the income from its visit? Well they may buy books or stationery, sponsor an international scholarship for a secondary school pupil, outdoor education, sports teaching or traineeships for school leavers. Or they might support the Mpala Mobile Health Clinic, AIDS orphans or local enterprises like bee keeping.

And what practical project might the pupils get involved in? They could work on development projects building classrooms, helping install water tanks, plant trees or working on research projects including elephant tracking or crop protection.

These are still early days but Rift Valley Adventures – who’ll happily visit your school to explain the scheme and suggest fund raising activities – are keen to see ‘Schools For Communities’ expand. We hope there’ll soon be 20 schools involved and to get the programme charitable or trust status to avoid tax. Every little helps!

Follow this link to read about some of our current projects.