From Cairo to Cape Town by bicycle, to raise funds and pay scholarships to the 100 most deserving pupils of a Nairobi school. This is the venture into which Kenyan Ian Mwangi, a former pupil of the Starehe Boys Centre and now a graphic designer and designer, has launched himself: pedalling more than 10,000 kilometres and documenting his enterprise to shed light on the lack of concrete aid for education in Kenya.
An ambitious project that began in early November from the Egyptian capital and not without its dangers, which forced Mwangi to have to take a plane to avoid the most problematic areas of Sudan and northern Ethiopia, and then compensate by extending the route in his homeland to arrive in Mombasa. For now, the Kenyan cyclist has covered 4,000 kilometres of the planned 10,800 and is about to cut through Tanzania, planning to arrive in Cape Town next 31 December and celebrate with the New Year, the success of the initiative that aims to collect 100 million shillings (about 750,000 euros) to pay for 100 annual enrolments at the Nairobi college. He is just one of many members of the alumni society involved in projects to bring that amount home.
Mwangi told Citizen TV, which intercepted him on his passage from Nairobi, that even in Egypt it was tough, because of authorities who were suspicious of his project and who do not speak English ‘with crazy traffic’, and coming from someone who lives in Nairobi, this is significant
‘The money raised will be invested and the schools will also enjoy the interest. So there will always be a place for a needy student in Starehe schools,' said Mwangi.
Ventures of this kind are not uncommon in Kenya, especially by young people who want to help peers less fortunate than themselves. Last year, a group of young people travelled from Nanyuki, below Mount Kenya, to South Africa in a Tuk Tuk to raise funds for the rangers of the ‘Save the rhino’ foundation, while writer and poet Carlo Saio walked from Nairobi to Malawi to receive donations for the disabled.