Every Valentines Day Cleveland clubs and teams sell “valo-grams” in hopes to raise money for their cause. But this year, some outstanding Cleveland students are raising money for disabled students in Kenya.

            Many students are unfamiliar with the Academic Intensive Skill Center in room 263, taught by Elizabeth Dubois. This class teaches academics to students with cognitive disabilities. These students are raising money for disabled students in Kenya.

Dubois said she was inspired by Matt Sten’s (Modern World History and History of the Americas teacher) great success with Invisible Children. So she began her search for a school for children with cognitive disabilities, when she found the Kenya Keys program. Kenya Keys goes out and raises money for different schools all over Kenya, including Ndohivyo Special Needs School.

            “Having them in school keeps kids active,” said Dubois. Most children in Kenya with disabilities like Autism, Down Syndrome, and Cerebral Palsy would remain at home and never get the chance to be educated. But when a student is sponsored they get to attend Ndohivyo Special Needs School and maintain a relationship with their American sponsor.

            In order for a classroom to sponsor a student, $150 needs to be raised; this will cover tuition, room and board, all meals, and uniforms for a year. Dubois intends to create a scrapbook with her students, their trips and activities to send to their student. “I love that we will get to have a special relationship!” said Dubois.

Dubois’ class was selling Valentines as their first attempt to share their mission with the Cleveland student body. The class has plans to create a PowerPoint and present it to every social studies class in hopes to increase awareness and donations.

This mission is not limited to Cleveland. Bill Self, the associate director of the Ndohivyo project, lives in Portland and has made it his mission to have each Academic Intensive Skill Center in the district (there is one Academic Intensive Skill Center for every school in the district) sponsor a student.

He became involved when his son, in order to receive his Eagle badge, began collecting school supplies like soccer balls, sports materials, pens and pencils. After collecting enough materials to fill a rail road car, all came to an end when the Kenyan government wanted to charge them $45,000 to bring it in to the country. This is the reason why Kenya Keys collects monetary donations, and also to benefit the Kenyan economy.

Dubois hopes to eventually send a student to Kenya, and to go herself to strengthen the bond between their class and their student. She also intends to discuss teaching techniques with the Kenyan teachers and to support them as well as their students.

            The class is working to get a student to sponsor by the end of the year, and looks forward to the fundraisers to come. The students and staff in the Life Skills program are excited to make this a school wide effort. “I really think that we’re really helping someone else in the world. We’re doing great but we need help from everyone,” said Rachel Don-Hoffman.