Sault group helps build new school for children in Kenya; fundraiser dinner March 7

A group of compassionate Saultites has helped build a new school for children in Thogoto, Kenya.

Construction of the new school for kindergarten to Grade 8 students was completed in January.

The local group - which currently has 14 members known collectively as Tumaini Afrika, ‘tumaini’ being the Swahili word for ‘hope’ - was established in 2014 and the new school is the latest achievement in its ongoing mission to help impoverished Kenyan women and children.

“We’ve connected to this school, the teachers and the children that are there. These people have become our friends. We’re not solely responsible for the new school but our support enables the school to function,” said Tumaini Afrika member Judi McLeish in an interview with SooToday. 

“There are now seven classrooms and for the first time ever they have washrooms with running water, there is a functioning kitchen with a sink and running water. The level of hygiene has improved,” McLeish said.

The school is the academic home for approximately 200 children, many of them orphans and refugees from Sudan.

The group’s commitment to build the school began in 2020.

Then COVID-19 struck.

Post-pandemic construction of the new school began in November 2023 and was finished in January 2024.

“It came together pretty quickly. Building a school in Kenya is not like building a school in Canada,” McLeish said.

The project created employment for 15 Kenyans who built the school.

The cost of the school’s construction was approximately $32,000, McLeish said.

Tumaini Afrika raised funds for the project through multiple fundraisers in the Sault over the past few years, including dinners, garage sales, pub nights, craft shows and other events.

Tumaini Afrika members including McLeish, her husband Bruce and Holly Wickett have made several trips to Kenya since 2014.

“When we’re over there we tell them we had a garage sale for you. They ask ‘what’s a garage?’ and then they ask ‘you have a separate house for your car?’ That gives me a chill because they don’t have anything over there. We have garages when a lot of them don’t even have a decent house for themselves,” Wickett said.

She said that Canadians being able to spare money and supplies to send to Kenya astounds many in that country.

“They ask ‘people have more than they need’? It makes you think. The majority of people in Kenya are very poor, millions of them,” Wickett said.

“It’s a different world over there,” McLeish said.

Wickett spoke of Tumaini Afrika’s origins in 2014.

“Diane Hilderley (a now deceased longtime local nurse and former ARCH executive director) and I felt that we needed to do something. I had my first trip over there and was really struck by the poverty so in talking with Diane we thought we could get a local group going to raise funds for projects over there.”

Those other projects include erecting a fence around the old school in Thogoto to keep wild animals away from children.

Tumaini Afrika members take items such as feminine hygiene kits, school supplies, clothing, soccer uniforms and soccer balls - all very costly to most Kenyans - on trips to the country.

The group has also purchased goats for Kenyans as those animals supply milk.

Tumaini Afrika’s fundraising efforts to help with Kenyan needs continues with a fundraiser dinner entitled A Taste of Kenya on Thursday, March 7 at The Water Tower Inn’s Pavilion.

Hotel chefs will be preparing African dishes, Wickett said.

The bar opens at 6 p.m. with dinner to follow at 6:30 p.m.

Tickets are $60.

The door prize is a one-night stay at The Water Tower Inn.

There will also be a silent auction and a dessert auction.

The event will also include guest speaker Lois Shaw, a Sault native and Tumaini Afrika member who lived in Kenya for 35 years with her family.

All proceeds from the Taste of Kenya fundraiser goes to supporting children in Kenya.

For tickets, call (705) 542-7966.

More information on Tumaini Afrika can be found on the group's website or through email.

“I’ve been to Kenya four times. I can’t describe the emotion I feel,” Wickett said.

“We hand out new underwear and new socks and you can’t believe the excitement in the children. We’ve been told we’ve given them hope and it feels wonderful to know that you’re helping kids that live there, that we’ve made them happy and given them hope for the future, and of course education at a new school is everything.”

“My husband Bruce and I have been over there twice. When you're over there you establish a connection,” McLeish said.

“It’s humbling and it feels like a privilege to be able to make a difference. Having been there, having seen the children, to see their appreciation and to be able to help is a privilege for me.”