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Hello ACCES donors and supporters

The purpose of this communication is to provide the first in a series of updates from Kenya where I am working from June 10 to July 18, 2022. I created a 14 minute video as my report for the AGM. The Kenyans in the video represent a small sample of the wonderful people I met who have benefited from ACCES. Please watch and enjoy. It is 14 minutes of great feedback just for our donors.

I spent my first week in Nairobi, attending a Nairobi Chapter ACCES Alumni Association (AAA) meeting and collecting stories of current and former ACCES beneficiaries. The meeting was attended by over 40 students who received scholarships ranging from the 1990s to present day. It was inspirational to meet the many students who have benefited from the support of ACCES and established a life for themselves in Nairobi, the economic centre of East Africa. I have learned that there are hundreds of former ACCES scholars in Nairobi working in a wide range of sectors in government, banking, defense, education, and business at all levels of their organization including those at high level leadership positions.

It is important to point out that ACCES focuses it support on the western region of Kenya near the border with Uganda. This area enjoys a wonderful climate but is extremely poor and densely populated. The scholars in Nairobi were able to relocate from their generally subsistence based agricultural villages and build a new life in a big city because of the education that was provided by you, our sponsors.

On June 18, I attended the ACCES Annual General Meeting (AGM) from Kakamega where our Kenyan operations are based. As part of the meeting, we shared a recent film clip of our co-founder Beth Scott speaking at a University Women’s Event in April 2022 about the origins of ACCES. Beth suggests that she and her late husband George started ACCES to ‘save three lives’. Based on my firsthand knowledge I can attest to the fact that Beth and George certainly accomplished and exceeded this goal.

Over the coming weeks I will document and share the stories of a sample of our scholars, visit some of the institutions that our students attend (trade/technical schools, colleges and universities), visit a few of the seven elementary schools that ACCES helped build and transferred to the government, and observe the scholarship review process. Please look for more updates over the coming weeks as we kick off our annual monthly donor campaign and prepare for a face to face celebration on August 27 at 1:00pm at the Kwomais Lodge in South Surrey. More information about this event and updates from Kenya will be sent in the coming weeks.

Asante (thank you) from Kakamega, Kenya

Kevin Fadum, Executive Director ACESS