By JESSE GRAHAM
A FUND-RAISER to send Kenyan children to school will be held this Friday in Healesville, and residents are invited to come along and help others – and get fed along the way.
Yarra Valley resident, Esther Rijk, will run the Keen for Kenya fund-raiser at Healesville’s Sanctuary House Motel this coming Friday, 14 August, from 6.30pm.
The fund-raiser aims to raise money to send children from the Kibera slum in Kenya to a boarding school for their secondary schooling, which costs about $4200 per student.
“There are no good, quality boarding schools, or schools of any kind in the slum,” Ms Rijk said.
“Unless they travel and board, they don’t really have a chance to attend a quality high school.
“So that’s the main focus of why we send them quite far out from home, is to get them into an educational environment and give them the best chance at a brighter future.”
The fund-raiser is not the first for Ms Rijk – she has visited Kenya four times in previous years, heading over to the country each January, and has run fund-raisers through the Rotary Club of Greater Melbourne in the valley in the last two years.
But this is the first being run under The Kickstart Project Inc, a formalised body to raise money for the children’s scholarships.
At the Sanctuary House event, attendees pay $50 per head for a two-course meal, and will be able to take part in auctions – one silent – a raffle and have music performed live throughout the night.
Some of the prizes on offer in the auction include an accommodation package on Hamilton Island, some wine from Yarra Valley wineries and art from the valley and from Africa.
Ms Rijk said that fund-raisers in the past had raised almost $10,000 for the Kenyan students, and that she would like to achieve that goal in the upcoming event.
“If we could hit that huge figure, that would be incredible,” she said.
“There is no specific target, just as much as possible.”
To book for the evening, visit www.trybooking.com/HZCR or email rijkesther@gmail.com.
