In his autobiographer "Up From Slavery", educator, author, orator and African-American black empowerment program pioneer, Booker T. Washington, underlines education as the key that opens the eyes and the minds of a people; to boundlessly imagine and re-imagine their destinies with a view to making them fruitful and dignified.
Education, he argues, is the foundation over which other freedoms are anchored. It is what gives power to move and pursue what we aspire to be.
Yet close to one hundred years since his death this is yet to be achieved in some remote corners of the planet. Turkana County, of course, can't miss in this list. It is a victim of absence of light - yes, education. It is crying and wailing. And we can hear her lamentations from far. It badly needs this light.
Straight to the point. A humble Head-teacher, Mr Noor Gure (a Kenyan-Somali born in Turkana County), in Nanyang'akippi Primary School, of Kerio Division along the shores of lake Turkana is proving to be the needed torch through which this light can reach my people. He is a man with a big heart, firm spirit and the vision of an eagle.
In a classic "Washingtonnian vision", Mr Noor has achieved (and continues doing it) great strides in less than five months. Let me take you to the heart of his story.
The guy was transferred to his new station early this year. The school had only two semi-permanent structures that served as Head-teacher's office, staffroom and classes 1 to 8. The institution had also suffered from poor management, political influence in deployment of staff and dealings/procurement and the perennial drought affecting northern Kenya.
Compounded by all these, the school had no chance to boast of good grades or even competing with other big and well endowed schools around the county. It resigned to its fate. Failure.
So to counter the challenges, this darling of the people resorted to the only powerful weapons at his disposal: creativity and the peoples' participation. To cut the costs (since no financing existed) he plastered all classrooms with red ochre, locally known as "emunyen".
He wrote letters to all and sundry. He tapped into the largess of the existing non-governmental organizations and other development stakeholders operating in the region. And voila, the fruits of his efforts are brightening. Classrooms are up. Kids are smiling. Good grades are there for all to see. You see, all these in a record five months!
With this priceless ingenuity, he has managed to offer a lifeline to hitherto hopeless generation. But the job is not yet done; he still has humongous mountains to climb. The local leadership is still fixated to the 'eating-culture' that has sunk many schools in the region into ungovernable failure-prone entities. He needs our support to bring 'light' closer to sons and daughters of God in Turkana.
With more minds like Noor’s, I see us achieving and accomplishing what Booker T. Washington thought of more than one hundred years ago – beaming light into the minds and souls of our people.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
For any support to Nanyang’akippi Primary School Mr Noor can be reached via Mr. Nabenyo Ekai @ ikainabenyo@gmail.com.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Meanwhile, I want to salute Mr. Kablit Samuel and Mr. Nabenyo Ekai for their tireless and focused efforts in serving the people. These two gentlemen are spending long sunny days and sleepless nights crisscrossing valleys and hills of Turkana to send messages of hope and empowerment. Keep up brothers!
Twitter: @mlemukol. Email: lemoseh89@gmail.com
No comments:
Post a Comment
Your thoughts? thanks for dropping them here...