My family’s penpal relationship with a family in Kenya began in 2005 when my son Sam was in fourth grade. His teacher planned on taking school supplies to poor villages in Kenya, Africa over her summer break. She had each of her students bring a box of school supplies and asked them to include a hand written letter to a student in Africa, including their return address.
Sam’s letter soon received a reply from Hillary Dezmond MacKenzie, a young boy in Ngong Hills, Kenya, outside of Nairobi. So began the thrill of sending letters and checking our mailbox for the reply. This exchange of snail mail letters lasted throughout my son’s school years. We eventually switched over to email, and now most of our exchanges are through Facebook messenger, or my favorite, Facebook video calls.
In the beginning, Sam sent letters and small packages through the mail and often included art supplies, soccer balls (deflated, along with a plastic pump), t-shirts, matchbook cars, other small toys and lots of pictures.
We would receive handwritten letters sent in the old fashioned airmail style envelopes with the onion skin paper and the red and blue borders. Sometimes we would get drawings along with the letters, and an occasional photo.
Hillary’s little brother soon became old enough to write and began writing to Stella. Hudson had small, neat handwriting and he was especially interesting in writing about soccer!
Before Covid 19 hit, Hillary’s mother Damaris supported herself and her two sons by washing clothes. She made 200 shillings ($2.59) per day. They live in the slums (her word) outside the Kenyan city of Nairobi. She walks everywhere she needs to go on a daily basis. Not surprisingly, Covid has taken a big toll on the family, but more about that later.
When Hillary ended his 8th year of school, no further standard education was offered. If a student scored in the upper portion of his or her class, they were then eligible to take a special test to see if they qualified for Form One, or the equivalent of our high school. The test is called sitting for the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (K.C.P.E.) and Hillary qualified to take it. We waited on pins and needles and were thrilled when we got the news that Hillary passed the test with flying colors and qualified for the K.C.P.E.!
Not surprisingly, his mother Damaris couldn’t even begin to afford the tuition. The cost of Hillary’s higher education was the equivalent of $400 American dollars per semester, which covered tuition, room and board, books, uniform and more. The boarding school is 400 kilometers (250 miles) from their home and is a seven-to-ten-hour ride, depending on the condition of the roads and the bus.
Using Western Union, I was able to send money to them before each semester so Hillary could attend school. We received many photos and letters of gratitude as he continued in his studies. His younger brother Hudson was right behind him a couple of years later. During one school year, Hillary contracted life-threatening Malaria and was hospitalized. It was a scary time and we were all so thankful that he recovered! He appeared quite skinny for a few months after that in his photos.
There were many times over the years that it was hard for me to scrape up the money for the tuition so I reached out to friends and coworkers. My friend Julie, owner of The Chocolate Therapist retail store was happy to have the store sponsor the boys for a couple of years. Several friends donated small amounts that helped me make the tuition the other semesters. During the last year of boarding school for the youngest son, I was divorced and was in a desperate financial situation. I could barely afford to feed myself and my teenage children, so I didn’t have any chance to scrounge up the school fees. I couldn’t let Hudson quit school just as he was almost graduated!
As a last ditch “Hail Mary,” I put out a plea on Facebook asking for donations. Many friends had seen my posts and photos of our beloved pen pals for years, so I prayed I would get a response. Amazingly, two people reached out, one I didn’t even know personally, and covered the ENTIRE tuition for the last year, which was almost $1,000!
It was eight years ago that they graduated. We are still in touch regularly, mainly with Hillary Dezmond, since he has a smart phone and can communicate with me through Facebook easily. Hillary has become a local celebrity! He is smart, talented and handsome. He is now an actor in small films and is in local commercials and magazines, and once was even on a billboard! Hudson is a hard worker and helps his mother with his job as a bicycle delivery man. He is on Facebook and we send messages to each other.
Hillary is now the father of a beautiful, little girl named Princess, who just started pre-school this month. Covid has been extremely hard on the family, so Hillary, Hudson and Princess are all living with his mother Damaris once again. Damaris lost her job due to the pandemic and the sons are also not able to find much work. They were struggling to get enough food to eat. My (new) husband Paul (we married in 2016) and I have begun sending them money again, (thank you Western Union!) and our most recent funds were put to good use to pay for tuition and a uniform for Princess’s schooling. How proud and excited we are to continue the tradition of education. This time we get to help educate the next generation, a girl!
I am starting this fundraiser to collect money to purchase a used motorbike for Hudson, so he can deliver more products, further, and earn money to help support himself and his mother. I am also collecting funds to purchase a used computer and new video camera and tuition to a film school to enhance the opportunities for Hillary Dezmond in his field of acting/directing/producing local commercials and small films. Hillary his also helping support his mother, and he has a young daughter who is now enrolled in pre-school, learning and creating opportunities for her productive future too!
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This compliment is one of the dearest to me. It brings tears to my eyes and a lump in my throat. These are words in broken English from Hillary’s mother Damaris, written to me 10 years ago:
“Hillary says he love and enjoy for all struggling through him, you makes him to look like a student who belongs to a great family and to being respected with other student, things that he was not imaging in his life at all.”
