Give the Gift of Education this Holiday Season

This holiday season consider giving the gift of education to a loved one. You can donate a one-time gift to Daylight in honor of others (no matter the amount!). Then print as many Daylight honor gift cards and send them to your giftee(s).

For $30 a month, you can give the gift of Sponsoring a Class.  

When you Sponsor a Class at Daylight, you choose a grade between 4th and 7th grade and have the opportunity to send letters to your class. And the sponsor will receive letters and stories from students three times a year! This gift will help expand their world and teach them valuable lessons about the importance of education and overcoming obstacles.

Sponsors will receive letters from students like Grace in 6th grade.

Grace never expected to go to school. She grew up helping out at her family farm. But when Grace’s parents passed away suddenly, she was offered an opportunity to come and study at Daylight. She is excited to learn the skills she would need to provide for herself as an adult.

Grace came to Daylight as a teenager and learned to read and write in 4th grade! She loves playing goalie in soccer games and, when she grows up, she wants to run a clinic in her home village!

Your one-time and monthly gifts will go to support the education of 400 students and over 30 education and support staff at Daylight School in Kenya.

To sponsor a class go to Daylight Support Us and fill out the form or email info@daylightcenter.org for help.

And, on behalf of the Daylight students, teachers, cooks, and support staff, we want to wish you a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.

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Sponsor a Class & Receive Letters from Students like Cynthia

Daylight is embarking on a new way to partner with us. We are inviting you to sponsor a specific classroom through monthly giving.

A gift of $30 a month will cover the costs of a student’s classroom experience and education. This is a great opportunity for you, your family, and community to connect with young people in Kenya!

When giving monthly, you’ll be partnered with a specific class of your choice (grade 4, 5, 6, or 7) and stick with them until they graduate 8th grade. Along with your financial gift, you are invited to write letters to the class. In return, you’ll receive updates and letters from students three times a year.

Receive Letters from students like Cynthia.

Cynthia is in 7th grade at Daylight and when she grows up she wants to be a surgeon and work with mothers giving birth. Cynthia loves making art and playing soccer at Daylight. For most of Cynthia’s childhood, she didn’t attend school because her grandmother, who has raised her, couldn’t afford school fees.

Daylight offers free tuition to students in need, so Cynthia was able to come to Daylight in 6th grade! She began her classes unable to read and write, but she was determined to work hard to catch up. Her teacher and classmates encouraged her and studied with her after school. When she began 7th grade, she was able to read and write. She is on her way to becoming a surgeon!

Cynthia is able to attend Daylight tuition-free because of an incredible community of donors who have supported Daylight these ten years. And we know we can continue to sustain Cynthia’s education because of those who have taken the step to become monthly donors.

Will you support a classroom with at least $30/month to support the excellent education and loving atmosphere Daylight offers?

Please fill out the below sponsorship form or email info@daylightcenter.org for more information.

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New Preschool Classrooms Under Construction!

Elijah and his twin sisters, Clare and Clara, walk 4 km (2.5 miles) to Daylight school each day. Elijah is in 3rd grade, and he loves to study leadership. “I like learning about the presidents of Kenya. I like President Kenyatta the best, because he was a good leader.” We think Elijah is a pretty good leader, too.
Eljiah is excited about learning to speak Kiswahili and learning to drive so he can drive his sisters to class.
Clare and Clara are in Preschool and they love love eating lunch in the playground.And swinging on the swing set with their friends during recess.

Their father drives a tractor and their mother is a teacher. Their family contributes what they can afford to their children’s education. But school is expensive in Kenya and, with an eldest daughter in high school, their family needed help paying their school fees. So Daylight was able to provide scholarships!

They are all excited for the new preschool classroom, which is under construction. We have over 40 preschool students, and we are excited for them to have a great new classroom to learn and grow in.

The builders are working with funding from Autumn Ridge Church in Rochester, MN, to build three new preschool classrooms. The bricks are hand-fired locally and the community donates many materials and volunteers to help in the brickmaking! We are so grateful for Elijah, Clare, and Clara, and all the preschool students who are learning about leadership at Daylight! And they are grateful for your contributions and support, which make their education possible!

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Sewing is an Important Part of Daylight School

Sewing is an important part of life at Daylight. Knowing how to sew is a valuable life skill in Kenya, allowing our students to get a job, mend their own clothing, and creatively express themselves!

Dama, our professional seamstress, expertly sews new school uniforms for the students. She also makes endless repairs, mending the pants, shirts, dresses and jumpers the students wear. There are three treadle sewing machines in the sewing room, and they get plenty of use. Sometimes the machines are moved outside in the sunshine where there is more light, making it easier to see.


Seamstress Dama teaching a sewing lesson

Recently some improvements were made to the sewing room, making the work easier for the seamstresses. We added wiring and an outlet, making it possible to use an electric sewing machine that can make zig-zag stitches and make durable button holes more easily. We also installed wiring for two tracks of solar-powered lights, making the sewing room usable on cloudy or rainy days.


Daylight middle school students learning to sew

Dama and her student seamstresses live out the Daylight principles of continuous learning and using one’s skills to better the lives of others.

Alongside the sewing in Kenya, a sewing group in Minnesota created over 200 handmade dolls to find new homes in the students’ arms.


Daylight students showing off their new dolls

A dedicated group of women in the Minneapolis Community Education Sewing for Children in Need class led by Tristen Lindemann poured their hearts and creativity into meeting their goal of sewing 200 dolls for Daylight. The cheerful smiles of these dolls helped warm up a long Minnesota winter, and we hope the love with which they were created will be felt by the Daylight children.

Thank you to all the amazing people who helped build and design our sewing room. And the people who donate their time and resources to continue this important program. And thank you to all our partners who make all of the education at Daylight possible!

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Our Farm and Animals Help Teach Life Skills to Our Students

Daylight is a school and a working farm!animals 4

This is our brilliant and very funny 8th grader Eunice with a Daylight cow. Eunice’s parents are farmers, and she wants to be a nurse when she grows up. We include students like Eunice in the farm work because we believe that farming teaches children important life skills.

Farming is a common profession in rural Kenya. People with other professions often keep a few cows, goats, and chickens at their homes for food and supplemental income. We want our students to have the knowledge and experience to farm if they choose. We also want them to learn life skills such as responsibility, animal care, and hard work, and learn the value of food and the importance of caring for the earth.

Daylight’s farm also serves an important role in the sustainability of our school. About a third of the school’s food supplies come from Daylight’s farming acres and animals. Angelina Kimpur is the head of this farming project. She works with a team of herdsmen, teachers, and students who help milk and harvest.

We wanted to give you a short tour of our farm and the animals at Daylight’s farm:

Angelina Kimpur holding one of our 40 chickens, which provide eggs every day and meat on special occasions.

animals 5The 40 chickens and 4 rabbits live side-by-side in their houses.animals 8Our six geese wander around the school picking up scraps that fall off of plates after lunch.
animals 3
Daylight grows three tons of corn each year in rented farm land surrounding our school’s property. This land is also used for grazing our 13 cows (our herd has grown from five cows when we started the farm).animals 1
But sometimes the grass gets long and we let them graze in the volleyball court. animals 7Our seven Daylight watch dogs, like Sam here, keep an eye on the cows. Sam also loves to play with our students during recess.animals 6We are so grateful for the staff who diligently care for our animals and work hard to pass these skills onto our students.animals 2We are also grateful for our supporters. Your gifts help make this farm and our amazing school possible!

An update on Faith:

Faith and her family are staying at a hotel near the hospital. She is continuing to get treatment for her eye. Please keep her, her family, and all of Daylight in your thoughts and prayers as she works with doctors in the coming weeks.

 

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