Hi folks, if you by any chance have a penny or two, or even three to spare I’d be really grateful if you could give me a little helping hand with something. I’m trying to raise some money, as much as possible, but hopefully around 4,000 pounds to go towards a university fund for the brightest young Kenyan boy called Alex Kiama who I taught for five months.

 

Alex is only 12 years old but is top of his a class mainly consisting of 14 to 17 year olds. This is because in Kenya, classes are not based on age but on ability and Alex has risen every year into a higher class.

 

Seeing as though he lives on a small farm in rural Kenya with only a few chickens, a goat and a cow there’s no way Alex’s parents can afford to send him to University.  But he really is a seriously bright boy and incidentally one of the best artists I have seen of his age.

 

When I used to give Art lessons to his class, something which the children had never experienced before, except for with my brother who taught in the same school two years before me, Alex was one of the few who ‘actually’ looked at the face, or picture or scene that he was drawing. He didn’t simply draw a head, eyes, mouth nose and ears as almost everyone else did in a matter of minutes. Instead Alex looked at how things actually were, in the right proportions, with beautiful detail and care – and for a 12 year old who has barely picked up a pencil to draw before I think that is pretty incredible. I like to think that I am alright at Art but even when I was encouraged to draw since the age of three, Alex has a greater skill than I did, from the first time he attempted a drawing. – I think this just shows how bright he is.

 

The 4,000 pounds will take him through three years of University, that’s for his university fees and everything else. I ran the Manchester Marathon last April and managed to raise £753 and am now running the Liverpool Marathon on the 14th of October.

If you could help me raise any money, I would appreciate it so much, and perhaps unlike giving money to a huge organisation, where money is diluted, here all money raised is going straight to a University fund solely for Alex.

 

Thanks very much everyone

 

Samuel