Elephant on the Maasai Mara, Kenya © Nelson Guda

MYTO School

For many years I raised money for Benard’s school to buy  books, raw materials for desks, concrete to cover the dirt floors and other miscellaneous needs. By 2018 the MYTO school had expanded from one tin shack to almost a dozen, but it all came to an end quickly as a fire in the slums demolished most of their classrooms. 

That winter I began the first of several crowdfunded campaigns to raise money for a new school. Benard and his community members had a big dreams.

 

Community Built

The MYTO School was truly a community effort, from Mathare to the US and Europe.

There is no shortage nonprofit endeavors in Africa that have been started by and run by foreigners. I was drawn to MYTO, because the organization was truly build from the ground up by people living there in the Mathare slums. Since meeting Benard over a decade ago, I have introduced many friends to Ben and his school. Many helped greatly with donations and some have even traveled to Kenya to volunteer.

Throughout it all, Ben has been instrumental in building a community that stretches far beyond his impoverished corner of the world.

 

The MYTO School

Find out more about the MYTO School here, or drop me a message.

If you have never spent any time in areas of extreme poverty, I would highly recommend it. I come from a background in conservation biology, but the world is dominated by people and we need to understand and do what we can to change it for the better. If we cannot do that, then we have no hope of conserving anything else.

I have yet to visit the new school. I hope to return and take my wife and daughter to see it soon.

  – Nelson