Student Nominates Teacher as CNN Hero

Student Nominates Teacher as CNN Hero

11/05/2010 // Edgewood, NY, USA // kenya // Alex Paris

I had quite the rare summer experience this year. I visited Kenya and stayed with the general chief of staff.

In June, I nominated my chemistry teacher Jude Ndambuki, a Kenyan national and creator of the nonprofit Help Kenya Project, for the CNN Heroes program. My teacher, who once struggled to buy kerosene to study by the light of the flame, created the Help Kenya Project in 2001 to help the children and to eliminate extreme poverty in his country. I have been doing technical and publicity work for the charity since ninth grade. I was pleasantly surprised a while later to hear back from the CNN staff that my nomination was one of only a handful selected for national TV coverage. I was in a total state of disbelief, but quickly suspended it to make the most of the opportunity.

In the Help Kenya Project, Ndambuki helps his less fortunate compatriots through a series of interconnected initiatives. He collects, refurbishes and consigns computers to public schools and libraries — and helps the reforestation of the Kenya countryside. (Books, clothing and sports equipment are also collected.) Computers are collected from individual donors and larger groups; when business is slow we go dumpster diving. After collection, all personal data on the equipment is cleared. The machines are repaired and tested and shipped to Kenya. The beneficiaries must plant 100 trees for every machine they receive. Since the project's inception Ndambuki and his team of techie wizards, many of them high school students, have shipped over 2,000 computers, 15,000 books and 20 pieces of medical equipment to hundreds of schools and villages across Kenya.

Ndambuki’s beneficiaries have now planted an estimated 150,000 trees in Kenya that help combat soil erosion, control dust, and in some cases generate income. Last month, as CNN was putting together the piece, I traveled to Kenya with the team to do operations research, teach computer literacy courses, and document elements of the process for CNN. As a kid from an affluent community in one of the wealthiest, sanitized countries in the world I had an intense reaction to the destitution and lack of resources in Kenya. Even public education comes at a monetary price.

My accommodations for most of the trip were in a quintessential Kenyan farming village: miles from paved roads, guards armed with bows and arrows, no running water or beds. My foray in bucket bathing didn't end too well; I got the sleeping quarters soaked. Once it took me several hours in a municipal taxi to make an early morning 20-mile trek to the nearest DHL station to send media to CNN.

The general chief of staff and supporter of the project hosted the team for several days. It was quite an experience to meet and stay in the home of such a prominent Kenyan. He was so humble and gentle despite the regal backdrop and heavy military security presence. I hope to return to Kenya in years to come, perhaps even in the company of Scarsdale residents on fundraising events.

Paris's Heroes nomination piece featured last week on national television can be viewed through 2010 on the CNN Heroes Web page under the 2009 Jude Ndambuki profile. To donate computers, peripherals (working or defunct), books, school supplies, or volunteer for the Help Kenya Project visit http://www.helpkenyaproject.org/.

Alex Paris of Edgewood is a 2009 graduate of the Masters School and will enter the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania in the fall.

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