Most little girls want to be princesses when they grow up, but not all of them. Lynette has several ideas of what she wants to be when she grows up, a doctor, a teacher, or a pilot. Lynette is an ambitious little girl who began her journey significantly less hopeful than she is now. Lynette’s family was too poor to be able to send her to preschool and without preschool education children in Kenya are denied entry into the nation’s public schools. Sadly, many children go without education because their parents are unable to afford the initial cost of preschool. What is considered as a necessity in other parts of the world is an impossibility of Kenyan parents.
Lynette was one of these children, she had no contact with her parents who sent her to live with her grandmother when she was very young. Worried about the cost of education the bright little girl. Lynette’s grandmother turned to Hope Kenya. Hope Kenya Ministry operates a community preschool that gives sponsorships to children who are unable to pay for their own preschool education. This gives that child the opportunity to enter into government sponsored elementary schools and gives them the gift of lifelong learning and opportunity. The school is sponsored by generous donors who believe in the transformative power of a Christian education and the optimistic young children who want to learn and in the process lift up themselves and their families.
Today, as Lynette happily lists her lofty career goals with certainty, she is no longer a student at Hope Preschool, she graduated with her preschool certificate at the top of her class and now attends one of the best elementary schools in the country. She is excited for her future and she is confident that despite her past hardships, she will be able to persevere. Though she no longer attends Hope Preschool as a student she returns often when not at school to counsel and play with the younger children who look up to her as a role model.
Someday Lynette may achieve her career goals, but it is safe to say that the high achieving elementary schooler will succeed at whatever she does, in part thanks to to donors of Hope Kenya who believed in her when she was just a toddler without parents, who craved school and learning with her peers. She is someone who shows the benefit of education and how important the work that Hope Kenya does is in changing the lives of children who are forgotten by the world but no less special to the donors who care to support them. From Lynette and Hope Kenya Preschool, thank you for the work you do in aspiring children like Lynette to work towards her dreams.