Shaped My Whole Future

I traveled to Kakamega with FSD in 2010 on a GST for 4 weeks. A fellow student at SUNY Geneseo had discovered FSD and decided to put an ad in the college newspaper to see how interested other students might be. I luckily stumbled upon it and it has truly shaped my life for the better.

8 other students and I worked abroad with Daisy Special School on three different initiatives; solar cooking, water harvesting and income generation. Before I got to Kakamega, I had had an understanding of sustainable grassroots development, but had never seen or understood how to implement it.

I was incredibly impressed with how FSD managed to not only help us complete huge projects (we planted over 300 trees for both nutrients and harvesting, learned/taught Daisy how to use solar cookers, and installed/taught maintenence of three 250 gallon water tanks), but FSD also gave us lessons in Swahili, alotted us numerous days reviewing our progress and our ever progressing understanding of "sustainable development", provided us host families, and even brought us to neighboring towns for a greater understanding of Kenyan culture.

After my internship I went on to graduate with a degree in International Relations in the Developing World and am looking forward to spending 6 months working in Kenya as a Program Coordinator. I can't wait to help teach others even a little bit of what FSD has taught me.

The saying goes "teach a man to fish and he eats forever". FSD has taught me not only how to teach a man to fish, but also to teach him how to teach others, so the whole community can eat.