Dubai students to help rebuild Kenya school

Dubai: After raising Dh71,000 to rebuild a school and orphanage in Kenya, students from the Universal American School in Dubai (UAS) departed from Dubai Airport on Friday morning.

Set to land at 6am in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi. Team Kenya - comprised of nine secondary students and two chaperones - will spend two weeks in the African country.

Their trip will consist of a trek in the Kipipiri district before climbing Mount Kenya. After which they will rebuild a local secondary school of 35 students in the town of Karemaini and an orphanage in a town just out side the capital.

"To be honest I am nervous... I think its going to be fantastic for the kids and for myself to see the way they change, because they will," Genna Hellier-Debnam, Team Kenya's teacher leader, said.

She added that the privileged youngsters from UAS and around the UAE "need to see this sort of thing to know that life isn't actually as fabulously rosy everywhere," as they think it to be.

"It's an important part of their development because they can be quite protected here," Hellier-Debnam said.

The expedition is organised by the World Challenge - the original schools expedition company in partnership with UAS as part of the International Baccalaureate (IB) Community Action Service (CAS) Programme.

Already active in 55 global destinations, the World Challenge Company provides educational expeditions in the developing world to teach students life skills and expand their minds outside school.

It saw its first-ever Middle East summer expeditions depart from Dubai this week.

Speaking about his feelings before the expedition, Alex Koch, 16, who independently raised Dh6,000, said: "It's going to be hard emotionally, seeing all the poor children and how they live is going to be very different from how we live."

When asked how he expects the trip to influence his way of life, Fadi Al Yarawany, 15, said: "It will make me more aware because I will be emotionally affected by what I see. [It will teach me not] to waste money on things I don't need."