Our Sister School – Our Lady of Nazareth School in Kenya, Nairobi
BLESSINGS for Nairobi is a school wide, student-led service learning project in which BLS students support a school run by the Marianists, Our Lady of Nazareth Primary School (K-8) in Nairobi, Kenya.We have been able to send OLN $5,000 through:
•The BLESSINGS for Nairobi Family Night.
•The "Nickels for Nairobi" student donation program,
•Funds raised through sales of our school cookbook,
•Proceeds from our annual School Mission Day,
•Individual student projects (such as selling lemonade!), and
•Donations through school "Spirit Days".
In the 2009 school year, one of our eighth-graders collected older BLS sports uniforms that had been donated by our families, and arranged to have them sent to Nairobi in coordination with a group of University of Dayton Berry Scholars. A Marianist brother, Brother Don, filled a suitcase and took the first batch, giving the suitcase in Rome to Father Marty, to be delivered on his return to the Nairobi mission.
Here is the letter and photos sent to Mr. Beyerle from Father Marty Soma, head of Our Lady of Nazareth:
Dear Paul,
Sorry this has been so delayed. Anyway, as you can see, our kids look GREAT in these uniforms. Thanks so much. Please share these photos with the appropriate people.
This year, we have 1787 kids in the school. They are everywhere! We placed #18 out of 64 primary schools in the end-of-term exams in March. Not bad for a slum school.
Thanks so much for your support and encouragement. We cannot do everything here, but we do what we can to help these poor kids. Thanks for helping us to help them.
Blessings in abundance to everyone at Leibold School.
Fr. Marty
Keeping these students and staff of Our Lady of Nazareth School in our daily prayers is one of the most important things our students can do, and writing letters to their classes to let them know of these prayers and support is a reminder of our work to be done.
To learn more about our Mission School and our mission support projects, go to:
BLS Sharing in Needed Global Service for Nairobi (see pg. 6)
A Taste of Leibold: Support for Our Mission School
