THE WORLD NUMBER ONE TENNIS ICON SERENA WILLIAMS VISITED POVERTY STRICKEN KENYAN VILLAGE AND LEFT THE COUNTRY WITH A PERMANENT MARK OF GENEROSITY.

Sports Features By leo Odera Omolo In Kisumu City

The American tennis icon, Serena Williams left the country for her native US home over the weekend after a three day humanitarian visit where she came face-to-face with dust and poverty stricken villages, but left with a bagful of praise from the villagers for her generosity towards the less fortune African children.

The tennis celebrity visited Wee village in Makueni , Ukambani region of Kenya’s semi-arid Eastern Province, where she performed the opening ceremony of Wee Secondary School and School for the Deaf, which was constructed last year and partly funded by her. The school is catering for students mostly from poor families, and those with the disability.

The school opened its door in January this year, and so far has admitted 25 girls, 35 boys and ten pupils with physical disability. It has so far recruited four teachers, with one specialist in teaching the disabled ones.

Wee village in Makueni district, Ukambani region, is located about 150 kilometers east of the Kenyan capital, Nairobi.

The village was last Thursday catapulted into sudden international fame, when three helicopters escorting the American tennis icon landed there with good news and bagful of goodies.

The two choppers, one carried Serena and her inner circle and two carried Hewett Packard staff, television crew and security.

Songs of praise, like “Serena Williams niwavika syana twasya isome {looely transilated in Kikamba vernacular language, ” Serena William has come, let the children go to school and get education}”, rent the air as women and pupils tried to out do each other in singing for the 28 year old world tennis number one.

Serena Williams has been collaborating with the Information Technology Company, Hewett Packard (HP) and a Non-Governmental Organization {NGO}, Build African Schools, in the remotest parts of Kenya’s Maasailand and Ukambani regions in promotion of education to the less fortunate children, mainly from poor families.

The latest of these schools project is the ultra-modern Serena Williams Wee Secondary School, which is established in a six acre parcel of land.

In a brief four minutes speech, Serena Williams said, “Education is key to the future and it gives me pleasure to be part of this project. I thank Hewett Packard and everybody involve in this noble project.”

”I want to see doctors, lawyers, engineers dentists emerging from these classrooms”, Serena Williams told the gathering, which included politicians and senior government officials.

The tennis icon later spent time with the pupils inside their classrooms, asking them questions, and guiding them on their computers.

The star-struck the pupils, most of them not aware of the glory they were enjoying, could only mumble a few words; ”I don’t know her, but I think she is a very important person. This is the first time I am seeing aeroplane in my village”, remarked a 13 year old Purity, who entertained the VIP with a poem.

The climax of the visit came when Serena Williams was initiated into a Kamba woman, and was then wrapped with a shawl around her waste and neck, and handed a gift of Ciondo, a traditional basket that local women use to carry wares from the market. She did a jig with the women as loud music belted from powerful speakers mounted on trees, before she sat happily at the podium, enjoying the proceedings as more teams of traditional dancers trooped in the stage and kicked dust. The dust occasionally engulfed the VIPs section, and save for skeleton security staff who made little fuss with the enthusiastic crowd, it would have been impossible to realize that one of the richest sports personality was amidst these dusty crowd.

The build schools project started in the year 2005, and is the brainchild of one trained Tourist Guide, Mr Dickson Mutitu and Mr Patrick O’Sullivan, who is the Chief Executive of the Build African Schools Initiative, an NGO.

Mr O’Sullivan said, “I will not stop looking for donations from America and Europe to support schools here, because we want to see professionals emerging from these classrooms.”

The two have raised funds to build Ololai Matui and Supeta Primary Schools, near the world renown Maasai Mara National Game Park, Matitu Secondary School in Emali, Serena Williams Matooni, Masumbu, Mutaitu, Nthia and Thomas Fish Secondary Schools.

Mr Mutaitu narrated how these projects cameabout. He said on one early morning, as he was taking tourist to the Maasai Mara, his van drove past a small girl walking by the roadside, going to school. He drove past her, but what seemed to be unknown to the little girl was that a bull elephant was lurking around on her path. He said he though the beast could harm the little girl, so he drove back and picked her in the van. He later drove the girl 10 kilometers away, and dropped her at the schools gate.

From there onward he started discussing the plight of children in remote villages and their sufferings, due to lack of schools closer to their villages, with the tourists. Some of his clients agreed with his suggestions and that is how they initiated these projects. With the help of Mr O’Sullivan, they managed to get Hewlett Packard and Serena Williams on board. This saw the beginning of Ololai and Supeta in 2005. Supeta is located 18 miles out of Narok Town in the heart of Masailand.

Serena William Wee Secondary School is the latest product of this partnership, which has brought forth all the schools mentioned above. The new school is fully equipped with digital cameras, computers and printers.

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leooderaomolo@yahoo.com