History
The pen pal
program began at the inception of the rural libraries.
Our first library was built in the village of Kahurura located
at the forestry station on Mt. Kenya just above
In this
first effort we partnered the students of Kahurura
school with the children of the Ascot Infant School in
Ascot, England. The program was inspired by a fan of
Ms. Powers, our Chairman, who in her professional life
is an actress in films, TV and on the stage. The fan’s
name was Roselle Cameron. Mrs. Cameron had a son called
Duncan who was a student at Ascot Infant School. Ms.
Powers and Mrs. Cameron discussed creating an activity
to link the students of Duncan’s class with our students
in Kenya, together they came up with the idea of a pen
pal program. At the same time, the William Holden
Wildlife Foundation was building its first rural library
at Kahurura and it seemed a perfect opportunity to
attach a Pen Pal Program.
WHWF President Stefanie
Powers with the
Ascott Heath Infant School students (circa 1989)
Long after
Duncan graduated from Ascot Infant School the
Headmistress of the school so loved the program that she
personally continued encouraging pen pals between our
students and hers. Sadly, Mrs. Cameron has passed away,
but her son and her husband continue to be great
supporters of our work, and the Pen Pal Program that she
inspired carries on in her memory. Today our policy is
to have at least one pen pal class per rural library.
Procedure
Because school
semesters and holidays are somewhat different Pen Pal
programs may begin in either January or in September for
US students and January and July for Kenyans. All
members of overseas classes and those in Kenya who wish
to participate in the Pen Pal Program will have their
photographs taken individually and will write an
introductory letter about themselves, their school,
their community and the importance of wildlife and of
environmental conservation in their lives.
When the US
pen pals have completed their introductory letters and
had their photographs taken to accompany the letters,
the supervising teachers should collect the letters and
send them to our office in California for forwarding to
Kenya.
When the US
letters arrive in Kenya the Education Center’s librarian
will work with teachers from the participating Kenyan
schools to match the US students with their Kenyan
counterparts. Once the selection has been made and the
pen pals matched, photographs of the Kenyan participants
along with their letters will be sent back to
California to our office for distribution to the various
US schools. At the same time a list of the names , ages,
genders and paired students is created by the education
center’s librarian and copies are sent to our
California office and to the participating schools.
In the event
the Kenyan letters arrive to the US first, the
California office of the foundation will notify and
forward the letter to the supervising teachers from the
US schools who will match the pen pals following the
procedure above.
It is crucial
that all the letters are processed with speed due to
delays in the international postal service. The
schedule for all exchanges of letters should be
carefully coordinated to the school terms in Kenya, and
in the US. It is therefore recommended that the first
letters arrive by the end of January, the second set of
letters be exchanged in May, and the third exchange in
September. Kenyan schools begin in June and letters can
be written to the
students in the US for them to receive in September.
Letters should be sent to Kenya before the school break
in November then the exchange can follow the regular
schedule.
If, in the
event the Pen Pal program is begun in September the
exchange of letters will occur before the November
school break in Kenya and resume with an exchange in
January. There may be more exchanges within the school
year but than depends of the motivation of the
individual schools and their teachers.
The librarian
and or the teachers must guide the students in the
appropriate content for their letters, staying within
the range of topics as follows:
Cultural differences
Lifestyles
School activities and curriculum
Civic issues
Environment and conservation
Biodiversity and renewable resources
Final approval
of the content of the letters is the responsibility of
the teachers and our librarian.
Students from
Kenya greatly enjoy having a pen pal in the United
States and we encourage the students to stay in touch
with one another. It is important to remind the US
students that in general the standard of living of the
students they will write to is very different from their
own, with considerably less privilege than they have.
In addition, the technologies we enjoy here are in most
cases not available to their Kenyan counterparts and our
students should approach the exchange of ideas with that
understanding.
It has proven
to be interesting for pen pals to describe what they do
when they wake in the morning on an average school day
as a comparison of lifestyles as well as an interesting
exercise in personal observations of their own world and
the world around them.
To the best of
our abilities we partner age groups, however much
depends on the sophistication of the students in Kenya
who tend to be less worldly than their US counterparts.
Current Participants
Alexander Street School in Newark, NJ
corresponds with the
Guara Primary School
Immaculate Heart of Mary School in Los Angeles, CA
corresponds with the
Wathituga Primary School
Hinchcliff School in O'Fallon, IL
corresonds with the
Mlima Kenya School
St.
Clare School in O'Fallon, IL
corresponds with the
Ngenia Primary School
Mlima Kenya School
Guara Primary School
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