FLORIDA – Kijana Educational Empowerment Initiative hosted a reception honoring more than 100 students and their teachers, as well as supporters who are helping fund Kijana’s cross-cultural endeavors. The event took place at the North Palm Beach Country Club (Florida, U.S.A.) on April 4, 2024, and included a full display of the Kijana Heroes poster series, comprising 63 illustrations of African and African-American individuals.
More than 140 attendees gathered to honor several generations of local citizens, who are shaping a better world: our youth, who are learning from the work of previous generations and striving to inspire change for future generations; teachers, who inspire their students to reflect, write, create, and grow; and Stephanie and John Pew through their generosity. The evening also served as a springboard for support to build a multi-purpose educational facility, inclusive of a media center and amphitheater, at Kijana Global Innovation School in Western Kenya.
Kijana, a nonprofit that operates both in North Palm Beach and in Kenya, was established nearly 22 years ago through the collaborative support of students, teachers, athletes, and administrators of The Benjamin School where co-founders Jim Cummings and Brucer Huber taught history and music respectively. The agency aims to improve the educational opportunities for students and communities in Kenya and build and advance cross-cultural connections with school communities in the U.S.
To help facilitate and encourage educational cross-cultural development, Kijana held its second annual student contest in conjunction with Black History Month. Middle and high school students from both public and private schools submitted poetry, essays, and original art related to the Kijana Heroes poster series. The students were recognized at the event for their inspiring works of art and writing about courage, bravery, and connections to the historical and contemporary Black heroes who have shared their wisdom and example by their change-making actions.
“The Kijana Heroes Series aims to inspire our youth to question, to dream, to explore so we can advance further as a global community…The contest has generated wonderful student reflections and is building trestles through time to individuals who helped us get to where we are today, through their courage and inspiring ideas and actions,” stated Cummings, founder and president of Kijana.
All student entries were honored with a certificate in the categories of Gold, Silver, Bronze, or Honorable Mention. Cinthia Becton and Ebby Shiroya–two women who have been instrumental in their communities in Palm Beach County and in Western Kenya and who were named Kijana Heroes in 2023—were present at the event and handed out the awards to the students. Teachers who encouraged their students to participate in the contest were also acknowledged with certificates.
The Kijana Heroes poster series distribution and student contest were made possible by the generosity of Stephanie and John Pew and Searcy Denney Scarola Barnhart & Shipley. The Pews, long-standing supporters of Kijana, were recognized for a recent $500,000 pledge to help expand the facilities at Kijana School in Kenya.
“This extraordinary gift will provide us with foundational funding to begin work on building the library, media center, and amphitheater. Including this most recent pledge, the Pews will have given more than $1.3 million to Kijana since 2019. Stephanie and John, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts for deeply understanding and sharing our vision. We hope your big-hearted gift will inspire continued generosity from multitudes of others to join in funding and sustaining the Kijana Global Innovation School’s advancement and cross-cultural endeavors,” stated Cummings.
Guests had the opportunity to hear firsthand from Rhinah Ondiso, a beneficiary of Kijana’s support. Ondiso was born in a rural village in Western Kenya, where 62% of the population lives below the poverty line, and is a living testament to education being a gateway out of poverty and the benefits of investing in youth in Kenya–opening new avenues for untapped talent to enrich our global society. Through Ondiso’s hard work, talent, and good fortune of connecting with Cummings and Zawadi Africa, she was able to leverage their generosity and investments into completing an undergraduate education, graduate degrees, and obtaining consistent and gainful employment in the United States. Today, she lives and works in the greater Boston area, serves on Kijana’s board of directors, and is paying it forward to youth in Kenya. Kijana is advancing all of human society through its focus on connecting youth in Kenya with youth and communities in the U.S.
In Cummings’ concluding remarks, he called on the student attendees to “follow in the footsteps of the leaders in this room and those we have selected as Kijana Heroes and more that you find through your own exploration in time…students, we hope use use this evening and this experience as motivation to do good in the future.”