Northland pair offer Kenyan kids the write stuff

Springbank School students Jessica Prak-Khin (14, Kawakawa) and Ally Standing (15, Taipa) assemble stationery packs for Kenyan schoolchildren. Photo / Peter de Graaf

Children at a poor rural school in Kenya are in for a treat thanks to two enterprising Northland teens.

Kawakawa 14-year-old Jessica Prak-Khin and Taipa's Ally Standing, 15, are stuffing 50 backpacks with stationery to be delivered to Mirira School, about 80km north-east of Nairobi, early next year.

The project is a spin-off from their successful student company Ecovado, which won the Northland Young Enterprise Scheme awards last month.

The girls, who attend Springbank School near Kerikeri, produce boutique soap from a byproduct of the avocado oil manufacturing process. The oil is made in Kenya by Kerikeri company Olivado.

Working with Olivado staff taught the girls about the basic living conditions in Kenya, so they resolved to do something for the workers at the avocado oil factory.

After consulting the principal at Mirira School, attended by most of the workers' children, they started raising money for school stationery packs. The cash came from their company profits and a fund-raising campaign in which donors could sponsor a backpack for $20 and add a message for its recipient in Kenya. Businesses helped by donating items or offering hefty discounts.

They now have $2500 of stationery - including exercise books, colouring pencils, felts, folders, rulers and staplers - which they are stuffing into 50 backpacks.

To save on transport costs and make sure the backpacks end up in the right hands, Olivado staff will transport them to Kenya in January and personally deliver them to the children.

Jessica said the average Kenyan family lived on $2 a day, putting even basic school equipment out of reach.

"So we decided to provide them with stationery. I'd be very happy if it was me getting one of these packs," she said.

Ally said the experience of running a student company had been rewarding, though they had experienced their share of ups and downs.

As the Northland winners of the Young Enterprise Scheme, the pair will head to Wellington on December 10 for the Dragon's Den-style national finals followed by an awards dinner.