Meet the Everton Free School team who are off to volunteer in Kenya

Everton Free School volunteers to visit Kenya this year as part of Everton in the Community initiative offering voluntary support to children and surround communities.

Since 2010, Everton in the Community has used sport to provide countless opportunities to motivate, educate and inspire people in our local community. Although EitC is Everton’s official charity, they’re a self-financed organisation relying solely on donations and the on-going support and generosity of contributors and organisations.

Everton Free School offers high quality alternative education for young people aged between 14-16 who are either at risk of exclusion or have been permanently excluded from school. They provide a bespoke curriculum, tailored to the individual needs and interests of the students, encouraging them to fulfil their potential.

This year, Danielle Cooper and Georgia Moss, Trainee Teachers at Everton Free School, will be joining EitC volunteers to visit Kenya for a 12-day trip as part of their work with Everton in the Community. Entirely self-funded, the team will carry out essential social action work in East Africa’s Great Rift Valley in Nakuru – an initiative set up by Everton in the Community staff Adam Howard and Chloe Kinsey.

“Interaction with the children is definitely at the heart of teaching, so we’ll be delivering lessons, reading stories, preparing meals and playing games and sports.” Georgia, who joined Everton Free School in 2017, explains. “Since I started work at Everton Free School & Football College in 2018, I feel a responsibility to support young people at a socio-economic disadvantage.

“At school, we promote the importance of three R’s.’ Danielle, who joined the school in 2017, adds. ‘Respect, Responsibility & Resilience. When you have the chance to translate that somewhere like Kenya, it’s a massive privilege. I don’t think you could find more resilient people than those in the communities of Nakuru.”

This is the second visit Everton in the Community volunteers have made to Nakuru, a semi-urban, densely populated area of Kenya, following their work in April 2019.

Danielle is excited to meet the young children who live in the area:

“The group who visited last year have already said how the enthusiasm from the children, who are so eager to learn, makes all of the hard-work so rewarding!”

As overcrowding is an issue in Nakuru schools, the EtiC team will help fund new facilities to accommodate growing numbers and create better learning spaces for the children.

“During the previous trip, the group spent their time undertaking renovation works at Jubilee Academy and West End Destiny Kids Academy,” Georgina explains. “They helped create and improve teaching spaces by remodelling classrooms, as well as delivering, learning and physical activity sessions to pupils – and teaching them all about Everton Football Club and its history!”

Everton Football Club helped the charity leave a lasting legacy at the Kenyan academy by funding and installing a water tap with a 10,000 litre storage tank – ensuring school children and their families no longer have to walk several miles to collect water.

“Donations from Everton Football Club also meant that the group were able to purchase food and toiletries and deliver these to families living in the slums and the dump in Nakuru which is currently home to 100,000 Kenyans.”

All proceeds raised will make an unimaginable difference to the living conditions, health and education of generations of people in Kenya.

“Leon Osman and Steven Pienarr helped out five Everton in the Community coaches who visited Kariobangi in 2019, delivering programmes and activities to local children and their families to help equip them with important skills, tools and health messages.

“We can’t wait to help make even more long-lasting changes that are wholly beneficial to local communities.”

If you would like to support Danielle, Georgia and the team, please visit the Go Fund Me page here

To find out more about the work of Everton in the Community please visit here

To find out more about Everton Free School please visit here