2020 Impact Report

Dear Friends,

One year ago, a new reality hit for all of us. Educational authorities sent students home. Travel disappeared. And an upcoming fundraising campaign looked shaky.

Even in those uncertain times, it was your faithful partnership, love and prayers that allowed our TKP team to continue serving our incredible students, their families, and the Kilgoris community. We have so much to be thankful for.

With your unwavering generosity, we found creative ways to serve our 1,400 students and families, we kept our talented staff fully employed, and we joyfully welcomed students back to clean, fully-stocked classrooms in January of 2021.

PANDEMIC PIVOTS

As 2020 unfolded, our team quickly found ways to serve students outside the classroom. From your gifts during our April campaign, we delivered food assistance to our most vulnerable students, providing their families and caregivers with monthly staple grocery kits.

Once we met students’ basic nutrition needs, we turned to meeting their social and educational needs, as well. On campus, students picked up pencils, erasers and grade-level workbooks so they could continue learning at home. And in August, we began our Village Classroom program—small, socially-distanced, neighborhood gatherings reconnecting TKP students and teachers. These outdoor classrooms also allowed our health team to check the students’ safety, health and overall well-being.

FLOODED WITH GENEROSITY

We’re grateful to share 2020 was our most successful fundraising year to-date. From grant funders, to church partnerships, to the thousands of individual donors we count on—everyone showed up in big ways to support TKP students. We felt the love and generosity all year.

With strong income (and lower expenses because school was out of session), TKP is well positioned to grow and continue to invest in the young hearts, minds and bodies of our students.

Read on in this 2020 Impact Report to see the exceptional impact of your generous gifts. More than ever, we thank you for your continued support and faithful partnership.

While we still don’t know how efforts to fight the pandemic will unfold through the year, we do know we’re well-positioned to continue serving Kilgoris’ kids. Bring on 2021!

Caren McNelly McCormack
President and Co-Founder

David Lemiso
Executive Director

Video: Changing Lives in Rural Kenya

Tune in to see behind the scenes of The Kilgoris Project’s work in rural Kenya. Meet a few of our staff members, hear from one of our top students, and see the joy that is created on each of our campuses. Your continued partnership brings incredible education and health care to this rural community. Enjoy seeing your impact firsthand!

2019 Impact Report

Dear Friends, 

As I sit down to write this letter in March 2020, we are in the thick of uncertainty, watching the global COVID-19 pandemic unfold around us. But as I start to write, and reflect back on 2019, I can’t help but be immensely grateful when I think of all the ways you blessed TKP in 2019. 

The way you showed up for TKP students in 2019 helped us add three water wells to our campuses, brought healthy meals and clean water to an even greater number of students, allowed us to celebrate eighth-grade graduation at two campuses, and encouraged us to find creative ways to use our Kenyan farms and revenue projects to support all schools. 

Your faithful partnership, love and prayers continue to bring education and transformation to rural Kenya. Here are a few highlights from 2019: 

CLEAN WATER ADDED TO THREE CAMPUSES: 2019 was the year of new, clean water wells at our Oloowang, Oloturot and Nentekeny campuses. These sites serve both preschool and primary school students. Private donors, church partners, and foundations all came together to make these three wells a reality for the 525 students who call these campuses home.

Besides the obvious benefit of clean drinking water for our students, the on-campus access helps ensure the safety and productivity of our amazing cooks who previously walked much further to gather water daily. Access to water is transformational for communities in rural Kenya, and we’re grateful that you provided for our students this year. 

INAUGURAL OLTIKAMPU GRADUATION: In September, Oltikampu eighth graders joined their classmates at Intimigom for one of our largest graduations to date—49 students across both campuses. During the beautiful graduation ceremonies, I’m always touched by the pride I see in the parents’ eyes. Parents take the day off work and come with gifts of shiny tinsel leis and messages of congratulations on printed placards. And, with tears of pride in their eyes they celebrate their children and their immense accomplishments all day. TKP graduates once again boasted a 100 percent enrollment in high school—amazing for an area where 60 percent of public school students fail to qualify for high school. 

DIVERSE SUSTAINABLE BUSINESSES: We continue to invest in our in-country revenue generating programs, which now includes: eucalyptus tree farms and seedling nursery, a plowing and hauling business, egg production, and farming of beans, maize and cabbages. We’re beginning to pivot more of our food and egg production to directly support the school meal program (two meals per day, per student) where it can have the most impact, versus selling it in town. Additionally, our farmers and tractor drivers continue to effectively manage our land and hire the tractor out for income generating jobs to support the schools. 

All of this—the wells, graduations, and preschool-to-eighth-grade students learning every day—would not be possible without your years of faithful partnership. Asante sana! 

Read the full 2019 Impact Report to see how we stewarded your generous gifts in 2019.

With gratitude, 

Caren McNelly McCormack
President & Co-founder, The Kilgoris Project

Meet our Health Team!

TKP’s amazing Health Team in Kilgoris works tirelessly to ensure the health and safety of all of our students. We want you to meet them and hear from them directly about how your support of TKP helps. Please enjoy meeting Amos and Belvin!

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Amos Leperes, TKP's Student Health Officer is a star of TKP and stewards your generous gifts to benefit the health and well-being of TKP's entire student population. We recently did a What's App interview with Amos where he shared a little bit about his job and his concerns right now.

Amos Leperes, TKP’s Student Health Officer

Q: First tell us your favorite thing about being a Student Health Officer?
A: My favorite thing as the Student Health Officer is to see young children growing nutritionally healthy and seeing them have access to health care. We have been able to diagnose several children with life-threatening diseases or illnesses at early stages. Then they received treatment and recovered. I also love seeing them get clean water at school.

Q: How are you feeling about COVID-19 and it's impact on TKP students?
A: Vulnerable kids are at risk of malnutrition during this time. TKP was able to help several with our grocery packages. But I am a little worried because all of the children are missing the services that we usually give them in school. With good hygiene and hand washing techniques that we have taught them I'm hopeful they will share with their families and follow them at home.

Q: How are you and your family doing?
A: We are doing well and are healthy. My family is practicing hand washing, cough hygiene (coughing into elbow), keeping distance and avoiding social gatherings during this trying time.

Thank you Amos for all you do for TKP's students and the entire community. 

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We’re excited to share this short interview with our Assistant Student Health Officer, Belvin Potishoi. Belvin joined the TKP team after finishing her schooling in 2019. She’s a joy to be around and a compassionate health care professional! We’re fortunate to have her as part of our team. 

Belvin Potishoi, TKP’s Assistant Student Health Officer

Q: First, can you share why you chose to go into the medical field?
A: What really inspired me was that in my community there was a need for health care workers. Sick people had travel for a long distance for medication. This was a burden on my heart because they were not only sick, but most of them were not able to afford transportation fares so they had to walk long distances to a clinic or doctor. Therefore, I went into a medical field and pursued clinical medicine to help bridge the gap in my community.

Q: What worries you about the COVID-19 pandemic? 
A: COVID-19 could bring adverse effects academically and health wise to a number of TKP students. Most of their parents are casual workers and are not able to work due to the pandemic, others are not employed at all. This is really going to prevent them from providing their families with basic needs. I worry they won’t have access to food and the health of the kids will deteriorate since they will be lacking some nutrients in their bodies. I also worry students will be left behind academically. Many parents are illiterate and can’t access learning programmes offered on television. 

Q: What is your favorite part about working for TKP?
A: I love helping the community so much. I really feel honored working with TKP because it really works for the Masai community to help improve and make it a better place. It provides education and health programme for the kids which are key in changing a community, because kids are the future of a community. 

Big thanks to Belvin and Amos for all you do for TKP students and their families! We are *this close* to meeting our goal of $20,000 to ensure that our health team has the resources to serve our students when they come back. Will you join us today in honor of Belvin, Amos, and the incredible work they do? www.kilgoris.org/donate

COVID-19 Updates from TKP

The following message was shared with the TKP community on May 12, 2020

Hello TKP Family,

Communities across the world are still navigating the impacts of COVID-19 and likely will be for some time. Kilgoris is no exception. Since we last wrote you, local communities have struggled with widespread closures, government-mandated curfews, price gouging, increased military presence, and economic hardships.
 
In the rural Kilgoris area, most families lack reliable transportation, easy access to clean water, or a steady income. With school out of session, students are missing a safe place to go every day, nutritious meals and clean water at school, and easy access to health care. And with no electricity in the area, online distance learning is impossible.
 
But even with these challenges, your generosity is allowing us to continue meeting the needs of our students and the Kilgoris community.

• Your generous gifts have provided two rounds of emergency food relief for TKP’s most vulnerable students. Our Kenyan team mobilized quickly to secure staple grocery items (maize, beans, cooking oil, tea, sugar, soap) to supplement our most food insecure families. We hope to continue this program on a regular basis while school is out of session. (Pictured below, TKP's Student Health Office

• A new grant from The PaperSeed Foundation allowed us to purchase grade-level workbooks, pencils and erasers for every TKP student. These books provide needed academic reinforcement while students cannot be in school together.

• Our leadership teams in both Kenya and the U.S. have created a plan to reduce expenses, where applicable, as experts warn us to anticipate economic uncertainty during the 2nd half of 2020. We always take a judicious approach to financial planning and are being even more cautious in our spending for the remainder of the year.
  

• The generosity of our grantors, donors and partners has put us in solid financial position to weather a downturn in the global economy. We remain in a healthy position and are not anticipating any changes to our staffing levels.

• Your partnership and kindness during this crisis have been a bright spot for our team. It is our hope you find solidarity and joy in our partnership as well. We couldn’t do any of this without you, and we remain committed to Kilgoris’ children, because we have you by our side. We have felt each one of your prayers, and your messages of support give us encouragement for the future!
   
  With immense gratitude,
   
  Caren McNelly McCormack, President & Co-Founder, The Kilgoris Project
  David Lemiso, Executive Director, The Kilgoris Project

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April 23, 2020

THANK YOU! Over the last three weeks we have felt ALL of your support, love, and prayers. Your generous gifts helped us surpass our campaign goal and make sure that our most vulnerable TKP students are supported during the COVID-19 pandemic.

We appreciate you!

If you didn’t get a chance to donate to our campaign, you can do so here: www.kilgoris.org/donate

Please stay in touch with TKP! We are on Instagram and Facebook and you can sign up for our emails here.

ASANTE SANA!

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The following message was sent to the TKP family on April 15, 2020

Hello TKP Family,
 
I’m writing today to ask for your help.
 
We have all been impacted by COVID-19, some much more gravely than others. There is no doubt that we still don’t fully understand how this global crisis will play out and how it will impact our 1,400 students in Kenya. But, when we come out on the other side of it, we need to be able to serve our students in the same meaningful ways we always have.  
 
For TKP’s students, that support has always included so much more than the classroom experience. From nutritious daily meals to access to life-saving health care (led by our amazing Kenyan Student Health Officers Amos Leperes and Belvin Potishoi), to safe and clean campuses—you make it all happen.
 
Right now TKP students are at home. We pray for the safety and health of all of them and their families during this time. At the same time, we know that many students will return to school malnourished, sick or with possible physical and psychological injuries. As always, we will lovingly meet their health needs when they return and are already reaching out to help our most vulnerable students.
 
We are halfway to our goal of raising $20,000 for health and hygiene resources in 2020. But with less than a week left in our campaign, we need your help.
 
If you are able, would you consider a special one-time gift to help us ensure TKP’s health team and services are fully resourced for our students? Your secure, tax-deductible gift can be made at www.kilgoris.org/donate.
 
I cannot thank you enough for your years of partnership and the impact you have every day in Kilgoris.
 
With sincere appreciation and gratitude,
 
Caren McNelly McCormack
President & Co-founder, The Kilgoris Project

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April 7, 2020

Dear TKP family,

YOU are making a difference in Kilgoris. Hear directly from TKP's Executive Director, David Lemiso about the distribution of 41 meal/supply kits to TKP students and families. The *BEST* news of the week is that a faithful TKP donor offered up a match for all donations this week! (Up to a max of $5,000!) 

Watch this short video from David and know we are thankful for your support NOW and in the FUTURE. And, if you haven't joined yet... double the impact of your gift today! www.kilgoris.org/donate

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TKP families picking up emergency care packages

This message was sent to the TKP family on April 6, 2020

Hello TKP Family! 

Thank you for your prayers, generosity and support as we navigate the COVID-19 crisis. We wanted to share a quick update from Kilgoris and let you know your gifts are already at work, helping dozens of families.

Last week we contacted 41 families and invited them to stop by school to pick up an emergency care package. These families represent the most vulnerable of the TKP students—orphans and those living in extreme poverty. The care packages included extra groceries like beans, maize, tea, sugar, soap and feminine hygiene products, and a message about the importance of hand washing to prevent the spread of coronavirus. (Pictured below, a few of our grateful families picking up packages and groceries stacked high in the TKP offices.)

We hope that these items will provide a small amount of support and security in this very uneasy time. Thank you again for your prayers and partnership as we support our students and their families during the COVID-19 crisis. Please continue to join us and help keep our students safe and well-fed.  Visit www.kilgoris.org/donate to make your tax-deductible donation today. 

With gratitude,

Suzie McNelly, Vice President, Student Programs & Campus Development

Sabina Lenkarie, Education Officer

Amos Leperes, Student Health Officer

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March 30, 2020

Today, we’re launching a three-week initiative to keep our health programs going strong in Kilgoris, especially in the face of the COVID-19 crisis. 

This initiative includes a bold ask. We need to raise $20,000 in the next three weeks to keep our health programs going strong. 

For 2020, we are expecting a 20 percent decrease in income due to cancelled summer traveller donations and a global decrease in non-profit giving. We are relying on our generous community of donors now more than ever. 

A couple of things we put in place last week:

1.     We are committed to keeping all of our staff employed during this time—this includes our all-star health team of Amos, Belvin and Ashley in Kenya.

2.     We are finding creative ways to serve our kids in Kenya—including grocery supplements, soap and feminine hygiene products for our most vulnerable students and orphans.

Right now, we don’t know what we’ll face from a health standpoint, but thankfully we have the infrastructure and team in place to continue to serve our students. Will you partner with us to keep our unique health programs going strong in Kilgoris?  Make your secure, tax-deductible donation here: www.kilgoris.org/donate.

With gratitude,  

TKP leadership team

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This message was sent to the TKP family on March 24, 2020.

 Hi TKP Family, 

Thank you for your overwhelming support since our message last week about how COVID-19 is impacting The Kilgoris Project. We’re in this together, and we’re feeling that more than ever right now. So many of you have reached out with messages of love and support, prayers, and requests for how you can help. 

We’re working closely with our Kenyan team/partners to determine how Kenya’s school closures will impact TKP students and families. Right now, we know three things:

1. We are committed to keeping our Kenyan staff (teachers, cooks, janitors, guards, management team) employed during the school closures. They will receive their regular salary so that school cancellation does not add financial burden to their families.

2. We will support our most vulnerable students (orphans and those living in extreme poverty) during this time. Our health team in Kenya is putting together a plan that may include extra supplies of groceries, soap, and educational materials for these families. 

3. We will need financial resources to make this happen. 

As a non-profit, TKP’s income will likely be impacted by COVID-19 in the next six to nine months. We invite you to join us in keeping our commitment to our staff and our most vulnerable students during this uncertain time. Visit our website at: www.kilgoris.org/donate to partner with us today.

Above all, please join us in continuing to pray for our staff and students. We don’t yet know how this will impact individual families in Kilgoris, but we can continue surrounding them in prayer at this time! 

Thank you,

Caren McNelly McCormack, President & Co-founder, TKP

David Lemiso, Executive Director, TKP

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This message was shared with the TKP family on March 19, 2020

TKP Family,
 
We’re writing to share an update on how The Kilgoris Project is responding to COVID-19. The safety of our students, staff, and the communities we serve remains our top priority, as we navigate the rapidly changing situation.
 
Yesterday we learned that the Kenyan government has closed all schools, effective Monday, March 16. Our students will not attend school and TKP leaders in Kenya are working today to close our 11 preschools and primary schools. During this time, please pray for the vulnerable communities we serve. The 1,400 students who attend TKP schools eat two meals a day at school, have access to clean water, and are surrounded by safe and caring adults. This is not always the reality in their homes.
 
We are committed to supporting TKP students, staff and Kilgoris communities during this time. We will continue to pay our teachers and staff while school is out of session and will also take the opportunity to clean our schools. During school closures, the Kenyan government prohibits us from any operations on our campuses, including cooking in our kitchens. We are investigating what, if any, support we can provide to our food insecure students. Additionally, it is our hope that the health and hygiene teaching our students have been exposed to at school, will carry into their homes and communities.
 
Last week we made the decision to postpone our annual in-person board of directors and advisory council meeting. Our U.S. staff already works remotely and is working with maximum flexibility as we manage through disruptions.
 
We have received several questions about upcoming travel to Kenya. First, we are listening to the advice of government and public health entities. Second, we are working closely with our trusted travel agents, church partners, and other travel partners to determine options and flexibility for our current summer travel plans. We are communicating with travel teams directly. As you can imagine, the situation and travel advisories are changing on a day-to-day basis. We ask for continued patience.
 
Above all, we thank you for being part of the TKP family. We appreciate your prayers and partnership!
 
Caren McNelly McCormack
President & Co-founder, TKP
 
David Lemiso
Executive Director, TKP