Dubai students bring light to Kenyan pupils

In a letter to the students and faculty of Universal American School (UAS) in Dubai, Nicholas Mutui, head teacher Mkamenyi Primary School in Kenya has one message: “Thank you”.

Back in February, volunteer UAS students and teachers returned from a service trip to Kenya as part of its ‘Million Solar Stars’ programme — A trip which has changed the lives of the 600 students at the Kenyan school.

“The UAS provision of the 200 solar lights to all our upper grade pupils had a major impact to the academic’s performance this term,” Mutui said in the letter, adding that it has made learning “very efficient” as children now can “study and do homework while at their homes”.

The Million Solar Stars programme is a group of passionate student environmentalists who have raised money outside the classroom to bring solar lights and solar arrays to the students of Mkamenyi School.

As stated by UAS students in a video about the project, “we are not just raising money to help others, we are going there and actually helping to install solar arrays.”

A group of students aiming to creating awareness of the power of renewable energies, they say it is their duty to make a huge difference in the lives of others.

And in one of the concluding lines in Mutui’s letter, he said: “Within just one month after the distribution of the solar lights, the performance of the pupils at the school has already shown improvement,” a feat which couldn’t have been achieved without the help of students from UAS.

kelly@khaleejtimes.com