The story of the Thorn Tree Project is a story of how, against all odds, the nomadic people of Sereolipi in the northern arid lands of Kenya, through hard work, resourcefulness and with a little help from the outside world, have begun to create significant, meaningful and measurable change by providing education for their children.

The mothers and fathers of Sereolipi and Ndoyo Wasin

Seven years ago, George Lemerketo, the Chief of Sereolipi, George Leparkiras, the Headmaster of Ndonyo Wasin Primary School, and Lucy Leparkiras, the Senior Teacher at Sereolipi Primary School, formed a self-help group called the Sereolipi Nomadic Education Trust.

Their goal was to get as many children of the nomadic families to come to school as possible.

They believed that education was a key to their survival in the 21st century, that it was a means to preserve the Samburu culture and it was the best thing they could do to improve the socio-economic structure in their communities and thereby create significant and lasting change in the lives of the children.

The children of Sereolipi and Ndonyo Wasin

At the time, there were only 130 children attending the two primary schools in the villages of Ndonyo Wasin and Sereolipi. This was less than 3% of the children in the area. The problem was that the Samburu community is nomadic and most children lived from 10 to 40 miles away from these primary schools. The parents themselves had never been to school and had no understanding of what the benefits of going to school were. They were reluctant to send their 6 year olds to a strange school so far away – particularly when they had an important role in looking after the goats and cattle at home.

George, George and Lucy started by supplying extra food for school lunches and a brand new school uniform for every child in order to encourage enrollment. And then they began to establish some preschools in the outlying nomadic communities where the parents could see the benefits of school first hand.

The thorn tree preschools use the largest thorn tree around as the classroom

The nursery school classroom is under a thorn tree and a blackboard propped against the tree trunk is used to teach 25 to 35 tiny children to read, write, add and subtract. The schools are managed by an active committee of men and women elected by the communities. And the school is very much part of the culture.

Learning under the thorn tree

Jane Newman has been helping George, George and Lucy with this project since the beginning. She first met the three local leaders when she was driving from Nairobi to Addis Ababa and the car she was in broke down. (Jane retired from advertising in 1999 and is currently working in Kenya as a volunteer on a variety of projects including adolescent HIV/AIDS prevention, malaria, and documentation of indigenous knowledge of plants to cure diseases.) She thought their work and ideas were exceptional and properly focused and asked if she could assist. She helped them set up Sereolipi Nomadic Education Trust in 2001 and decided to raise funds through friends and business associates in the US and Europe in order to push the various education projects along. She also worked closely with the three local leaders (and continues to do so) to ensure the trust is well managed and that each activity has clear objectives and is fully evaluated on an annual basis. Jane also travels to Sereolipi and visits the primary schools and pre-schools at least four times a year.

Three of the preschool teachers	one of our school committees	Jane with the children

The number of people helping the Trust has grown over the years. Initially people helped by donating $1,000 to sponsor a nomadic pre-school. This $1,000 donation paid the yearly salary of the teacher, bought schoolbooks and some other supplies and provided for a cooked lunch for each child. By the begining of 2006, this fundraising had led to the development of 12 pre-schools.

Some of the pre-school children

Once the children started coming to school we needed to provide dormitories for them. All the nomadic children have to board at the school because their families live and migrate anywhere from 10 to 40 kilometers from the two primary schools. Over the past three years people in America and the UK have donated enough money to build 8 dormitories. There are now two for boys and two for girls in each of the two primary schools. The dormitories have shower blocks and toilets and are fully equipped with bunk beds and mattresses.

Our new dormitories

The preschools and dormitories have been enormously successful. The number of children attending primary school has increased from 132 in 2001 to 651 in 2008. In addition there are over 350 children attending the 12 preschools so we have about 1,000 students in total in school.

Walking to school School photo for Ndonyo Wasin School lunch

In 2006 we started a program to provide scholarship funds for graduates of the two primary schools to go to secondary school. The cost of school fees and supplies for secondary school is nearly twice the average income in Sereolipi and Ndonyo Wasin and is simply out of reach for most parents. We currently have 32 students in the scholarship program. For more information on this go to http://samburuscholarshipprogram.googlepages.com   some of our scholarship students with their families and at school.     Our activities in the past 7 years 2001 school uniforms + food 2002 school uniforms + food + 2 preschools 2003 school uniforms + food + 8 preschools 2004 school uniforms + food + 9 preschools + 2 volunteer teacher + 100 new desks 2005 school uniforms + food + 10 preschools + 7 volunteer teachers + 4 dormitories + computer room 2006 School uniforms + food + 12 preschools  6 volunteer teachers + 3 dormitories  + library  + water tank  + solar lighting in dormitories + 14 camels + staff room + 8 scholarships + 20 new desks 2007 School uniforms + food + 12 preschools + 6 qualified teachers + 1 dormitory + library + kitchen + staff room + 5 staff housing units + borehole, solar pump, water tank, filter system + 15 camels + 30 scholarships + ambulance/nurse/driver Children learning on the floor before we bought 50 new desks In 2007 people from America and Europe donated enough funds for us to complete a variety of activities. We continued to support the 12 preschools and supply school uniforms and exam papers to both primary schools. We also continued to supply food to the borders at Ndonyo Wasin primary school. On the building side we completed the final dormitory for a total of 8 dormitories. We built a library, kitchen and 3 staff housing units in Ndonyo Wasin. We renovated two staff housing units and renovated and furnished an old storage room to be a staff room in Sereolipi. the old kitchen the new kitchen the new library With so many students boarding at the school we had to ensure they had clean water, nutritious food and adequate health coverage. So In 2007 we also put in a dedicated bore hole at Ndonyo Wasin plus 2 kilometers of piping and a solar pump and a huge storage tank and filter system so that for the first time we had pure, clean, running water in the school. We began to improve the nutritional value of the food by supplying Unimix (a nutritionally balance porridge) for breakfast. And we continued to purchase additional camels for a continuous supply of fresh milk. We also added an ambulance, nurse and driver midway through the year that visits the schools every week and the preschools once a term.   The new ambulance in action clean, running water! Going forward the effort will be on improving the quality of education at the two schools. A recent analysis has shown that the government provides only about 40% of what the two schools need to function at a basic level of effectiveness. For example the government supplies only 9 teachers to teach 16 classes across the two schools and the food supplied for borders is only 25% of what all the borders need. Our plan in 2008 and 2009, is to support each school so it can reach a basic level of effectiveness. We will help with extra teachers and food as well as extra text books and reading books.   The computer room camels give 8 times more milk than cows