Project Africa Receives Generous Donation From the European Space Agency

Project Africa, The BSN's charitable project to support communities in Kenya's Rift Valley, has received a 6000Euro donation from the European Space Agency's (ESA) Humanitarian Relief Fund.

 

The ESA chose Project Africa as their Charity of the Year after meeting with the team and hearing how the Project was helping to transform the lives of many living in the area. It costs 8000 euros to build a classroom in Ndege, one of the areas in the Rift Valley, which means that this significant donation has a huge impact on what the team can achieve now and in the future. For instance, future ambitions for 2018 are to build a solar farm and teach coding to school children.  

 

Project Africa is a unique opportunity for a competitively selected Team of Year 12 students to become directly involved in a charity project at Ndege Primary and Secondary Schools, situated in Kenya’s Rift Valley, home to an incredibly diverse and abundant ecosystem, yet also to people who live in abject poverty.

Students and staff members on the Team annually work on a wide range and number of projects which directly benefit people who are in need and which provides an opportunity to experience Kenya and its people at an authentic level through living and working beside the local community. 

Begun in 2010, Project Africa has had a significant impact in a short space of time, building libraries, Science and Computer laboratories, classrooms, kitchens, water tanks, toilets, football pitches and planting avocado orchards. Since 2014 a Breakfast Programme has also been run feeding 800 children every school day and complemented by a De-Worming Programme. 
Project Africa aims to not only provide a bespoke student leadership training programme to BSN students but to also significantly impact upon the learning outcomes and health of the children of Ndege Primary and Secondary Schools.  Since the inception of Project Africa school attendance has improved, especially for girls, and externally moderated examination results have steadily improved. 
 
The Project Africa Team aims to raise over €20,000 every year and do so through running a variety of fundraising activities both in the BSN community and further afield. Each student on the Team is responsible for project managing at least one fundraising venture and these include Discos, Craft Workshops, Rock Nights, Sponsored Runs, Valentine’s Rose Sales, and sourcing Corporate Sponsorship.

Follow us on Twitter @BSNAfrica and on Facebook @BSNProjectAfricaTeam to learn more about our story.

 

Find out more about Project Africa and our other co-curricular activities.