CLPE sends gifts to Africa

By JoAn Bjarko
North Forty News

In early December when most children are thinking about snow and Christmas presents, third-graders at Cache La Poudre Elementary School were collecting school supplies for African children.

Their goal was to fill a large suitcase, which would travel to Tanzania with fellow third-grader Kelly Kepler and her parents, Robin and Edward Kepler.

Teacher Todd Devine said the collected supplies included pencils, erasers, crayons, pencil sharpeners and toothbrushes. They decided not to include any paper products, which would take up too much space. Devine estimated the filled suitcase weighed 60 to 80 pounds.

The Keplers are delivering the supplies to the Ilkurot Primary and Nursery School near Arusha, Tanzania, in a Maasai village called Ilkurot, meaning dusty place.

According to the project web site www.maasaiwanderings.com/projects.htm, Ilkurot villagers are considered to be living well below the Tanzanian poverty line, earning on average less than US$200 per year. Nursery-school level of education would normally cost US$40 to $50 per year, so it is easily by-passed by Maasai villagers.

In 2005, a tourist company, Maasai Wanderings, helped open the free nursery school. As of the middle of 2007, the school had eight classrooms for 850 students. The school also serves its students one meal of porridge each day.

The Keplers will visit the school and take plenty of photos to share with CLP students upon their return in mid-January. Third-grade teachers are using this connection with Africa as part of their classes' study of the continents.