Joining A Hero

A little over a year-and-a-half ago, my friend, Rex Miller, shot me an e-mail describing the work that Steve Peifer is doing in Kenya. It's work that earned him recognition as a CNN Hero in 2007. In brief, he establishes computer-training centers for children, and provides meals for them while they are at school. It turns out that one of the biggest obstacles for children staying in school is that they need to find food during the day.

Check out some of the videos on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=steve+peifer&search_type=&aq=f

You can also read about his work at this site:

http://kenyakidscan.org/

His passion and mission moved Pam and me to add our financial support - in an admittedly modest amount - to the contributions of others to his work.

Steve sends out regular e-mail updates. Here's an excerpt from a recent letter:

The rains haven't come and it has gotten more desperate here. The term ended with most schools running out of food 10-15 days before the end of the term; we just didn't have the money to buy enough.

One sentence stopped me in my tracks; my heart sank; tears ran down my cheeks:

We had a meeting with all of our computer teachers, and they reported that the biggest challenge for them was to teach when students were crying because they were so hungry.

On the website above - http://kenyakidscan.org/ - you can click the tab labeled "How You Can Help," and there are links that allow you to add your own support to the lunch program, the computer labs, and/or the Peifer family directly. Let me just say that I don't remember any of Steve's e-mails talking about his personal finances, so I don't really know how much he might need in that area. But I do know that children are crying with hunger when they could be learning computer skills. And we all have the chance to help one person who is doing something to change that.