Monday 8 February 2010
200 mile bike ride to connect Nottingham and Kenya
Children from Upendo Junior School
A Nottingham Trent University student is cycling 200 miles in a bid to raise money for an internet connection which will link a Kenyan orphanage school and a Nottingham primary school.
Terry Maxwell (60) will cycle across France in the hope of raising enough funds to buy laptops and broadband so Upendo Junior School in Kiminini, Kenya, can communicate with Wadsworth Fields Primary School in Stapleford.
Terry recently retired as head teacher of Wadsworth Fields Primary School - formerly Stevenson Junior School - and began an MA Education at Nottingham Trent University's School of Education. Over the last three years he has worked alongside the Department for International Development and the British Council to create a partnership between the Nottingham and Kiminini schools.
Upendo (a Kiswahili word meaning love) Junior School was set up by Dr Masibo Lumala, who turned his home into a school so he could teach children whose parents had died or been displaced in the 2007/8 civil difficulties after the national elections, as well as those whose parents had contracted or died from HIV / AIDS and for local needy children without access to education. Dr Lumala and his wife, Rose, have since moved out to create more room and the school now accommodates 84 children and has eight teachers.
Terry said: "Masibo Lumala has visited Wadsworth Fields Primary School and I have also been to Upendo Junior School. These visits were arranged as fact finding missions and to develop greater curriculum links between the two schools, but they were also life changing events in the way that I now perceive the world and how other cultures can offer so much to ours.
"Electricity will soon be installed at the school and then we're aiming to connect them to the internet so teachers can share planning and children can speak to each other through platforms such as Skype, Facebook, My Space and Twitter."
Dr Masibo Lumala said: "Our children need to know that they are like other children around the world. This can only happen through improved ICT and communication channels such as those that Terry is working for. Through effective communication, teachers in both schools can exchange ideas on the curriculum and plan weekly activities that cut across common themes."
Terry will be joined on the bike ride by two friends, Dr Mick Mawdesley, Civil Engineering lecturer at The University of Nottingham, and his wife Hazel, who works for Atos Origin in Beeston. The journey, from Saint Malo to Moutiers les Mauxfaits in France, will begin on 3 April 2010 and will take place over five days; the route will lead them to Dr Mawdesley's house in Moutiers.
Terry added: "We're currently building up our training from weekend jaunts to some weekday cycling to prepare for the ride and we cycle a variety of terrain from flat to hilly and in all weathers. We'll also be riding on fold up bikes - not racing bikes – so that should make it a little more interesting!"
Donations for the bike ride can be sent to "Bike Ride 4 Upendo" at Wadsworth Fields Primary School, Wadsworth Road, Stapleford, Nottingham NG9 8BD. Telephone +44 (0)115 9496720.
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