Lester B. Pearson, Nobel Peace Prize Lecture, 1957

This project was borne out of the desire to give the students an extended opportunity to implement some of the ideals of the UWC movement in general and Pearson College in particular. We hope to continue the Third Year Program.  In the meantime, we are affiliated with Lester B. Pearson UWC through the KULE director and individual student participation.

PURPOSE

The purpose of the project was multi-faceted to enable the students to:

Participate in another culture and broaden their horizons by living and working with the host community in a village in central Kenya.

Face challenges out of their comfort zones by working in an impoverished environment.

Acquire and/or develop tangible and intangible skills as well as the potential for future opportunities (e.g. as volunteers).

Develop their understanding of the importance of compassion and service to the less privileged; and to put into practice some of the lessons learnt.

WHAT DID THE PROJECT ACCOMPLISH?

Here is the excerpt from the report.

Overall,  the 2007 project was successful. We have accomplished the following:

1. Built the two houses

2. Erected a bus shelter for the village

3. Painted the dormitories of the orphanage

4. Worked on the library project

5. Lived and worked with the host community

In fact, it was so successful that two of the participants, Eanna and Stefania, have gone back for July 2008.

	Life-changing experience for most of the students e.g. Eanna now intends to study medicine at university (instead of sociology) and Lindsey is taking a gap year to do volunteer work in Northern Canada. Carolina is going to study international relations at the university next year.
	Gave the students a chance to understand and appreciate the culture of the host community and to make friends with some Kenyans of all varying ages and levels of education.Broke down some of the stereotypes the host community had about westerners.
	Enabled our students to develop various initiatives. For instance, Helena initiating a service project for her home community in Austria, the returning students organizing awareness sessions at the College and almost pulling off a triathlon fundraising meet at the College, Stefania and Adelina organizing a fundraising event at their current university (College of the Atlantic) for the poorer orphanage back in Kenya.
	Taught the students a lot about themselves. According to their journals, the project was a major boost to their growth in the real world outside their College.
	Helped to promote the UWC movement. To the extent that some students at Mukango Secondary School were very keen to go to such colleges as ours. In the same vein, it educated the host community, old and young alike, about the world outside Kenya.