Extraordinary Extracurriculars at Paolo Academy 20 Dec 2024, 10:33 pm

We’re leveling up at Paolo Academy with extracurricular activities that are fun, educational, and winning awards across the country! Read on about how AINA – Paolo Academy kids are participating in big ways.

Kenya National Music Festival

This year New Hope – AINA students qualified for the National Music Competition in Eldoret. With limited funding, New Hope – AINA volunteers pooled resources to ensure Paolo Academy students were able to make the nine-hour journey to compete in Eldoret. The students were thrilled to participate and placed an outstanding 7^th overall – in Kenya!

Participating in socially inclusive events like this is essential in improving language skills, emotional intelligence, and confidence amongst our kids.

Thank you to the volunteers who raised funds in support of this journey!

Taekwondo

One of our first extra-curricular programs, Taekwondo has been of incredible benefit to participants big and small. Students attend weekly training with a local Taekwondo instructor and participate in local competitions.

This year, Paolo Academy students attended the national competition at Nyayo Stadium in Nairobi. Finishing third, the students also received the Trophy of Courage for their unwavering determination in competing against students and schools many times their size! A big thanks those who sponsor this integral program.

Chicken Academy

The children of New Hope – AINA eat over 450 eggs a week! At approximately $280/month, meeting this protein need has come at significant cost.

The construction of the chicken coop marks a vital step toward the broader goal of sustainability and provides onsite learning opportunities for residents and students.

With sustainability and recycling in mind, staff took inventory of unused materials in the village including wood, nails, metal sheets and two defunct foosball tables! Repurposing these materials and with a generous contribution from M2T donors Tom & Mary Stubbs, the Chicken Academy was born. Children will gain a range of agricultural and nutritional knowledge in this micro-academy.

Eye Mission Success! 10 Aug 2023, 9:04 pm

In July, March to the Top sponsored another successful eye mission in Kenya, treating over 2,000 patients in the remote areas of Elburgon and Nyahururu.

From July 10 – 19, our on-the-ground partners at MEAK performed 296 cataract surgeries, 5 excisions, and treated 4 case of trachoma – a condition that left untreated, causes blindness. In addition to the procedures performed by our medical team, 510 pairs of reading glasses were distributed along with 305 pairs of sunglasses.

These missions grant access to eye care and the early detection and treatment of eye diseases. Cataracts, trachoma, and infection often lead to blindness in under-resourced communities. By bringing eye clinics to these communities, we give eyesight back to thousands of individuals.

It takes a team to accomplish great things! The MEAK team is composed of 2 ophthalmologists, 2 surgeons, 3 nurses, an anesthetist, a pharmacist and 11 support crew. A month before embarking on a mission, this team works with local leaders, churches, and health providers to identify areas and individuals in need. After screening thousands of community members, the team is ready to start a mission.

In July, local churches – the PCEA Elburgon and ACK Nyahururu – donated the space needed to set up a mobile eye camp. Over the nine-day mission, patients were screened again before being sent for surgery and post-operative care.

The day after surgery, bandages are removed and many patients experience an immediate restoration of sight. This is absolutely life-changing. Those unable to work, prepare food or care for children are able to once again. Remote missions make families healthier and more productive, they are transformative for both the individual and the community.

Thank you to our generous donors and the MEAK team for making this mission possible!

Meet Our NEW Partners! 25 Jul 2023, 3:26 pm

March to the Top has two new partners!

Ol Pejeta Conservancy is the largest black rhino sanctuary in East Africa and home to the last two northern white rhinos on Earth. The conservancy is currently participating in a ground-breaking bio rescue project, developing northern white rhino embryos and transferring them to surrogate mothers in a bid to save the species from extinction.

Spanning over 110,000 acres, the conservancy has the highest densities of wildlife in Kenya outside the Maasai Mara – it plays a critical role in protecting myriad rare and endangered species.

March to the Top has partnered with Ol Pejeta to improve water resources. Funding has provided new pipelines and borehole rehabilitation along with rainwater harvesting facilities and water storage tanks. Further water treatment has improved water quality for facilities across the conservancy.

A lack of water drives wildlife to migrate outside protected areas, creating opportunities for poachers. Those animals that remain must compete for water resources provided by the conservancy and extracted by borehole infrastructure. Investment in this infrastructure ensures access to water for wildlife and employees of the conservancy; those carrying-out the vital tasks of conservation. Using water from boreholes onsite leaves natural resources (rivers and springs) available for the surrounding communities.

J.M. Goodhope is a primary and junior secondary school in Ndaragwa, Kenya. The center provides equal access to education for children living in more remote areas. J.M. Goodhope provides education to 158 students. Of these, 34 are orphans who live on campus and 28 receive discounted tuition as their families are unable to pay fees.

The school is a local leader in academics but is better known for its focus on agriculture. Each class is assigned its own garden plot where children learn how to farm, how to eat healthfully, and what the changing climate means for their farming futures. In addition to specific farming skillsets, the children learn an appreciation of reducing food costs and have helped equip their families and community with the tools necessary to better manage economic instability.

March to the Top launched our partnership with J.M. Goodhope after a visit to the center in May, 2023. Recognizing the wealth of knowledge, strong commitment, and extraordinary ambition of school leadership, M2T decided to invest. We are currently investing in school infrastructure – it’s impossible to learn if you don’t have a safe environment and the right tools. 

We are so excited to see where these new partnerships take us!

Emergency Food Aid in Maralal 25 Jul 2023, 2:28 pm

M2T Board Member Alexandria Skouras helps distribute food to the Shabaa community in Maralal.

In April, M2T donors sponsored a food mission in Samburu and March to the Top was lucky enough to attend!

Traveling from Nairobi, our first stop was JM Good Hope Primary School in Wiyumirire.

JM Good Hope doubles as volunteer basecamp for food missions that are managed by the indomitable Teresa Thiru. After the wonderful welcome, M2T joined volunteers in packing 786 bags of food to be distributed over the following two days.

Volunteers worked late into the night preparing 18kg bags filled with rice, beans, maize, salt and porridge. The next morning we departed for Samburu county, a four hour trip to the north.

We arrived in Maralal, the capital of Samburu county, around 8:00am. As we approached the meeting point, hundreds of Samburu community members began walking down from local villages in hopes of receiving food aid.

A confluence of events has led to current food insecurities and famine in northern Kenya. Drought has plagued the country, destroying crops and decimating livestock. New government regulation pushed tribespeople from their native home – the forests around Maralal – to the arid, semi-urban areas around Maralal town. Finally, Covid-19 emergency regulations led to the permanent closure of many food markets and other businesses. As a result, the situation in many parts of northern Kenyan, is dire. M2T funded this mission, our fourth in the area, to help relieve hunger in this geographic area.

It’s not easy to determine who is most needy when everyone is in need. Elderly men and women were prioritized, then those identified by local authorities as being in significant need.

M2T joined volunteers in passing out bags of food and collecting “food tickets” distributed upon arrival. When 400 of the 786 bags were distributed, we packed up the truck and headed to Shabaa village to visit those unable to leave home.

In Shabaa, we visited the homes of the most needy – the disabled, the elderly, the ill – distributing the remainder of the food packages. We were greeted with smiles and appreciation by everyone we met.

Since the onset of Covid, the impact of these food missions has been immense. Community members recounted weeks without food and no help from the government. They spoke with distress about another year of failed crops and dying livestock. Although a small intervention, March to the Top was honored to provide a few weeks of relief and to be able to commune with those in need.

Women in Conservation 18 Nov 2022, 9:44 pm

Through Northern Rangelands Trust, M2T works to conserve environments and protect endangered species. The conservancies we support are surrounded by local communities that interact with wildlife daily and utilize shared land. Having community buy-in is integral to the success of any conservancy. But what if only 50% of a community has a voice?

Arid landscapes, lack of resources, and societal norms have historically prevented women from playing a role in conservation efforts. Our partners at NRT have set out to change these narratives, launching a new series of initiatives to bring women to the conversation.

• Women’s Leadership Summit. NRT hosted the second annual Summit in the coastal town of Lamu with 60 women representing 40 conservancies from across Kenya. A key outcome was the establishment of a “conservation caucus” to amplify women’s voices in leadership and conservation. Women from member conservancies will “take up leadership roles and influence decision-making processes concerning local natural resources, community development, and governance.
• LAMP Training. In May, twenty women from coastal conservancies graduated from NRT’s Leadership and Management Program. LAMP courses provide a wide array of skills training including: leadership, problem-solving, innovation, communication, stakeholder and investor management, asset and financial management.
• BeadWORKS. NRT Trading, the organizations social enterprise arm, trained twenty women from Sera Conservancy in new beading skills. BeadWORKS “harnesses northern Kenya’s rich beading tradition and create opportunities for pastoralist women to translate their traditional skills into much-needed income.” Early this year, BeadWORKS was nominated for three Kenyan E-Commerce Awards, winning Best Sustainability Initiative of the Year 2022.

We are so proud to partner with NRT in advancing women’s voices across conservation initiatives!

Feeding Samburu 14 Nov 2022, 4:43 pm

Economic decline continues to impact our rural communities the most. In addition to Covid, war in Ukraine, and generally tumultuous international markets, severe drought has afflicted North-Central Kenya over the past three years. Staple food prices are extraordinarily high as local availability has deteriorated “due to below-average harvests, high demand, high inflation, and high transportation costs.” As a result, the food insecure have become communities on the verge of famine.

The United Nations warns of severe famine in the coming months as drought conditions persist. Pastoral communities simply do not have access to food. March to the Top has partnered with MEAK – a longtime partner in the health space – to provide emergency food supplies in North-Central Kenya.

We have recently completed the first phase of a three-part mission in Samburu County. In this first phase, over 600 sacks of food were assembled and distributed to those in desperate need. Each sack contained 7kg of maize, 3kg beans, 3kg rice, 4kg millet, and 1kg of salt – enough to provide a person food for three weeks. Phase one reached approximately 3,000 with MEAK’s amazing team purchasing, transporting and distributing 12.5 metric tons of food in less than one week. Phases two and three will take place in the coming weeks and reach another 6,000.

Despite increased food and transportation prices, MEAK’s team is able to complete this three-part mission for just under $35,000. These are life-saving missions; ones that few other organizations have the capacity, resources, or desire to complete. We are honored to partner with MEAK and so grateful for our Kenyan team that makes this all happen.

To contribute to our next MEAK Feeding Mission, visit our website at: https://marchtothetop.com/donate and type FOOD in the Comments section.

Brother Andre Hospital Wins Top Prize! 7 Nov 2022, 8:12 pm

Brother Andre Hospital has been named the Best Faith Based Health Center in Nairobi! This is an astounding achievement for a center that opened just five years ago and serves the one of the most indigent populations in Kenya.

In addition to winning Best Overall, the BAH received the following accolades:

• Best in Patient Centered Care
• Best in Safe Delivery
• Best in Neonatal Care
• Best in Guidelines During Delivery
• Best in Human Resources
• Best in Supplies Management

We are so proud of the incredible team at the Brother Andre Hospital. The staff, board of directors, and donors have made it the primary maternity hospital in the Dandora sector of Nairobi. With over 4,000 deliveries to date, the center has achieved our primary objective of providing expert maternal and child healthcare to the community and vastly reducing mother and infant mortality. With this accomplishment under our belt, the center has begun to expand service offerings, furthering our impact in the Dandora community.

• Cervical Cancer Screening. Cervical cancer is the second most common cancer in Kenyan women but less than 20% of women are screened nationwide, even fewer in poor areas like Dandora. The BAH began free screenings in 2020 and now sees over 300 women annually.
• Physiotherapy. The BAH has offered physiotherapy since opening but new equipment and better facilities have made for exponential increases in patient numbers. The unit strives to prevent disabilities, relieve pain, and restore motor function – absolute necessities for the majority of our community members who rely on manual labor for a living. In the first quarter of 2022 alone, our physiotherapists saw over 1,700 clients.
• Radiology. Previous equipped with only an ultrasound, a new x-ray machine has been a game changer for the local community. A hospital standard in the U.S., x-rays are hard to come by in Dandora sector. Our newly commissioned machine and part-time radiologist saw 43 patients in the first quarter.

We are excited to see what the coming year has in store for the Hospital and community in Dandora. You can check out all the fantastic services the BAH provides on their website: brotherandremedicalcentre.org.

We Got A Bus! 23 Feb 2021, 7:20 pm

Meet our newest member of the family, Blessing! 18 Feb 2021, 6:28 pm

Students on a Quest for Conservation! 8 Oct 2019, 11:20 pm