

Friends of Uradi Paradise - Wired for Success [Episode 12]

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Beryl: Hello and welcome to another episode of http://www.wiredforsuccess.tv. It’s Beryl and Mel here. And this is a veryspecial episode. It’s only by sound because we are talking to people inKenya where the links are not great but such incredible content, we justhave to bring it to you.

So Ben is a remarkable young man with an extraordinary vision. He is aCatholic Priest born, living and working in Kenya. In 2008, he becameaware that young girls in Kenya were dropping out of formal education. And

because of Ben’s deep passion for personal development, he recognizedthat these girls were missing out on opportunities to maximize their truepotential, access their inner and limitless resources, and so grow up tocreate choice and enrichment in their lives.

And so, Ben was inspired to build a school with a difference especially for these girls. His determined efforts have been rewarded by nearly 100 girlsattending the school at present with great plans for the future. Today, Benis going to share with us some of the challenges he, the students, andteachers face and what drives them all on to achieve greatness.

Ben, first of all, I can’t pronounce your name too well. So would you justintroduce yourself with that beautiful Kenyan name that you have?

Ben: Thank you, Beryl. First of all, I want to thank you for finding time toreach out and to let us tell our story to the world. By name, I am BenDidacus Opiyo and born and raised around the shores of Lake Victoria. For the last five years, I’ve been walking in rural parish called St. LawrenceCatholic Church Uradi.

Beryl: Lovely, lovely. Thank you, Ben. Now, I want to ask you where thiswonderful inspiring story began. What was the starting point when yourealized that something had to be done for these young girls?

Ben: Thank you, Beryl, for this question. Now, as a priest, I happened tohave a chance to visit both the poor and the not so poor in the rural area.

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And in the course of my duties, as I was walking around, I realized that wehad a [indiscernible] [0:02:39] trend of many girls dropping out of school.And during my discussions with some people in the village, we realized thatsomething had to be done.

Now, at the same time, I also happened to be visiting some people from thesame village who happened to have been succeeded in breaking out of that poverty and out of those challenges and are able to make somethingout of their lives. And so I asked myself, if we come from this rural area thathas great challenges to the girls who are not making it through school andthe same area, we have also a few professors back there, what can you doto expand those stories of success from the rural area?

And so, it got me thinking in reaching out to a few people from rural areas

who have succeeded and to call them, rally them that why can’t we begin aschool where we can expose the girls to the same kind of environment thatallows them to be successful and so that we can change the trends of whyso many girls are dropping out of school by actually making people realizethat it is what – that getting girls at the same time exposing them also torole models who are going to help them to push and get in touch with their potential and to come to believe in themselves that they are also able tomake it in this world?

Beryl:That’s wonderful, Ben. That’s really wonderful. Now, I know that you

have a strong interest in personal development yourself, don’t you?

Ben: Definitely, definitely, Beryl. And I also try to push, come in touch withwhat is within me and what I’m able to offer the world and what I’m able tooffer to the people around me. At the same time, I also believe that in eachand every individual, there lays a seed of genius that only need to beawakened so that people are able to notice what they’re capable of doingwhen they come to realize that they’re capable of doing great things in thisworld.

Beryl: And in a country like Kenya from a previous conversation I knowfrom you that the expectations of girls are not necessarily academic, arethey? And you’ve changed that – you’re turning that around.

Ben: Of course, we are not the first one to try it because the trend hasbeen changing and I could see that they are focused on accepting


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[indiscernible] [0:05:15] where people have come to notice that it is whateducating girls and it is actually – they are outstanding women who arealready doing outstanding jobs in the country. Like another example is theprincipal of the school who you are going to meet shortly. But still, theyalways – some of kind of – I don’t know how to put it well but there is somelingering negativity about educating girls particularly in a family where theyare struggling to make it and when it comes to issues where school feesare supposed to be paid and you have a number of children within thatparticular family, the first casualty when money becomes tight will be girls.

[Indiscernible] [0:06:03] . No. It’s better to get the sons and let the ladiesstay in the home at least.

Most probably, the lady is actually sent to school probably up to the primaryschool or up to secondary school. After that, they stop the education to say

that the lady can – maybe get married or do other things. So there is somelingering negative cultural – I mean practice towards minimizing what theexposure of girls to education.

Beryl: OK. So that’s about the mindset of the family of the parents, isn’t it?

Ben: Yes.

Beryl: So what steps do you take, Ben, to help those parents because Iknow it’s not all the parents but help some of those parents to reprioritizethings?

Ben: What we are trying to do in the village or because alongsidebeginning the school, we also began an association of professionals whoare maybe from the village and they realized that within this group, they areladies who have made it in the world and in the country and are doing greatthings. So what we are trying to do is to expose other parents to know thatwithin the same village, there are ladies who have made it in the world andwanted them to look at those ladies so that they can tell the others, they

can tell themselves first of all that even their daughters can make it in theworld. That is one.

Two, we wanted the same professionals who are maybe, those who havecome from the village to come and also talk to the girls so that the girlstherefore can also believe in themselves. They can also make it.


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And third, we wanted the parents themselves to provide a support structurewhich I feel are lacking so great, to provide a support structure to the girlsso that they can constantly tell the girls that they believe in them, that theyare there for them, and they are ready to support them all the way. Now,this is still a struggle for us with the majority of the girls.

Beryl: Sure, sure. But bit by bit, are you seeing the changes happening? Isthere a change in the attitude towards parents gradually? From the parentsgradually?

Ben: Yes, Beryl. I have to say that there is – we can say that we’recelebrating some sort of change in attitude in terms of belief that these girlsfrom the same village, this village, can make it to the world. That as Imentioned earlier, that we are really in a country that people have made it

but we want to expand that area, that even girls can make it. We want to letthe villagers be aware that these girls can do tremendous things in theworld. And in the small steps that we are realizing in the school, we see asmall change. There is a light change that we can celebrate.

And to give you a story, recently, two of our girls went for a Science, two-day Science Congress and Technology where students compete byexposing out there their ideas or their invention or something they came upwith. And it was so surprising that from our small school, two of our girls,one currently here with us, Beatrice, another girl called Cynthia were ableto present the idea they had before an audience at the lower level up to thenational level and they came up top three overall in the country.

Now, when they came back with a trophy and it’s showing that they wereable to get number three in the whole country, we could see the change inthe face of the parents. They look a bit differently to the school. We alsohave seen the parents looking at their daughters, all the students with adifferent eye. That is this my daughter? You mean my daughter can dothis? You could see that – and from the top, that’s – you could even see

that when they were talking among themselves. They are saying that,“Indeed our girls can be great. We can see the seed the goodness alreadyin them.”

And from that particular story, I can see the change, not only the changethat the girls can be great, that the girls can succeed, but they can evencompete at the world standards in terms of what they already showcased.


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Beryl: That is a wonderful, wonderful story. It’s just magical because I alsoknow that these girls don’t board. They go home every evening and theydon’t have easy circumstances, some of them, do they? For studying, theydon’t have electricity in their homes.

Ben: Definitely, which is …

Beryl: No, carry on.

Ben: Yeah. They study under – this is our situation. As you’ve justmentioned, there’s no – virtually, all the homes in the rural area have noelectricity. The girls have to study when they see some sunlight or in thenight, they use some, I don’t know what they call them, tin lamps. They call

them tin lamps that they use paraffin in them. And there’s a lot of smokecoming out of it and sometimes because the family, first of all, the priority isto put food on the table and the first thing, when the money becomes tightis to cut down on the paraffin. But under these difficult conditions, we couldstill see that after the story I’ve told you, we could still see that our girls arestill able to stand in front of the audience and talk to them and tell them, thisis our idea.

Apart from that, they have also been doing some joint exams, yeah. Andour school has not done the national exam but when they compete withother schools, we see that some of our girls are able to get number – in thetop ten in the joint exam they do with other schools. And from this particular happening, we start seeing that, OK, Uradi Girls High School is only – it’sfive years. Yet, when we try to compete with other schools that have beenaround for the last, 15, 20 years, we see that we have what it takes.

Now, it comes from the girls, we have what it takes to compete at equalfooting with other students, not only girls but also with boys. And some of our girls are able to get more marks, better marks than the boys. And the

self-belief in them is constantly increasing. It’s constantly growing. Andeven from the parents. They start seeing that there’s something great here.We need actually to support our girls. We need actually to show them thatwe care, that we believe in them. And this is what we want to push andpush until the girls from this school can not only surprise other people butthey can also surprise themselves that there is a giant sleeping in them thatwas actually awakened. Beryl?


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Beryl: Yeah, I’m listening to you. And I’ve got goose bumps here becausethis is an amazing story. And what it’s telling us is and is telling everyone isthat if you believe in yourself and you surround yourself with other peoplewho believe in you, then incredible things can be achieved.

Ben: That is exactly, Beryl.

Beryl: To be in a positive environment, both at school and at home, meansthat these girls and anyone really can tap into what is magical andincredible inside each and every one of us. And what you’ve done, Ben,you’ve created a set of circumstances, you’ve fostered an environment thatthese girls have stepped into and are just blossoming into everything thatthey really should be.

Is there something you want to say coming there with, Mel? I know you’ll befeeling the same.

Melanie: No, no, no. Yes, I agree and I was going to say and in time, theytoo will be wayshowers. But the thing I wanted to come in with Ben, we’vetalked about, you bringing up the greatness in these girls and we’ve talkedabout the challenges that they faced largely cultural, et cetera. Tell ussomething about the practical and technical challenges you’ve faced interms of just keeping the school going and being able to keep these – raisethe funds to take care of these girls’ education.

Ben: Mel, the challenges are many but we are not being bugged down withthem but we can share them because we know that we are coming torealize as a team that a dream of this magnitude, we can never succeed

just like that. There are always some challenges.

One of the challenges that due to the poverty that is around, because thegovernment subsidizes the school fees of the girls but part of the school fee

is supposed to be paid by the parents. Now, it seems some of parents mayhave the will to keep their student in school but they don’t have thecapacity. So we find that once in a while, we find girls dropping out of school. And so, Madam Principal has to go look for them in the village.Like, “Where is my girl?” That is one instance.


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Another instance, we find the parents who may have the capacity toactually keep their daughter in school but they don’t have the will to keeptheir daughter in school because they don’t see educating girls as a priority.And there are a number of cases. And I know from Madam Principal Vicky,she’s going to tell you that even among some of our top students in theschool, we find that suddenly they’re not there in the school. We know bothparents are there, they’re able-bodied, they’re able to get money to keeptheir girls in school but they are absolutely indifferent to the [indiscernible]

[0:16:20] within their girls first of all, and the fact that they are supposed tobe responsible towards that you are in the academic development of their girls. So, we have to constantly fight these kinds of the parents. And evenwhen meetings are called, they don’t come to school. That’s another challenge.

Another challenge I think is because – is about human nature. I mean Ithink when you deal with the human business, there’s always – you can’ttell a girl or you can’t tell even a man that they can amount to great thing inthis world. But sometimes it takes some muscles to realize that they canamount to something. And we have had a case of – we have had caseswith our girls themselves. While we try to surround them with what youmentioned, we also think that exposure to the environment, where weexpose them to [indiscernible] [0:17:12] people, to role models, tomanagers, and to the material that’s going to help them to make it in life.But we find some of them are still not responding because human beingsbeing human beings, they are also bound to make mistakes just like anyother who make mistakes.

And they have had some mistakes like I can give an example. We knowthat one of the things making girls dropped out of school is earlypregnancies. And we talked to the girls that, “Please, set your goals high,not just to finish your school and see where you can be 15 years fromnow.” But we find that in the same school, we’ve had a lot of cases whereeven the girls that we have, have become pregnant and we have to actually

let them go from the school so that they can have their babies. And thathas been challenging. And there’s a number of times that there were threeat once who are pregnant and I can tell you, while we’re meeting and Icould see the face of the parents that are discouraged and the face of eventhe board of governors say that, “Now, what is this? We are trying to moldachievers. We are trying to minimize pregnancies. But right even in our


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school that is next to the church, we have girls who are becomingpregnant.”

So, this has been a challenge too that we have observed. But look, it’s notthat when the girls are next to the church, and it’s not that when we areteaching them this material that they will not make mistakes. They are alsohuman beings. So this case is a challenge to us who are molding them alsoto also talk to them and tell them that, “OK. This thing can happen. What –how do we deal with this mistake?” And I can tell you that one of our bestgirls actually became pregnant and had to go out of school. But after beingtalked to and to the parents also, she is now back to school and her education is back on track. That apart from the problem that she hadexperienced, she’s back on track and she’s actually talking about shewants to become a pilot. She wants to become a pilot. And she’s very

much becoming that she no matter what happened in her in life, she hasset her goal to becoming a pilot. And we are keenly looking at her andtelling her that if she sets her mind in becoming a pilot, she can make it.We are here to support her. But when she has a dream and she can holdon to it, 15 years from now, 20 years from now, you’ll never know. Youmight also meet this – she’s actually called Yvonne. You might meetYvonne flying a plane to London or whatever, all over the world comingfrom this school.

Beryl:Wonderful, wonderful. You do have some challenges but I know that

you’re guiding light, Ben, yourself, because you’re an example to them.You’re very determined in achieving this goal, aren’t you?

Ben: Definitely. And I want to say that it’s not a one man show. I think I’vebeen – we have been blessed. And I want to dip from what Beryl had saidearlier, that surrounding ourselves with passionate people. I think the bestthing that happened to me individually not even as a priest but individually,was to belong to a group of professionals who are passionate about life.We are about 70 something people but we are scattered around the

country. Yes, these people are scattered around the country but they haveroots in the village.

Now, we meet about three times a year. And these people are passionateabout life in general and also about the school. And I find myself that evensometimes when I get discouraged, the same people from the same group,they come up to actually encourage. We have a Madam Principal who is


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also very passionate about the girls. So I think the best that has alsohappened to me that keeps the dream going is that we have a team that ispassionate about this. And I could also actually been interviewed that I’mproud of myself. We’ve been growing more even personally.

[Indiscernible] [0:21:25] with the people who are passionate about lifeapart from the fact that I’m becoming about the school, we are becomingabout and they’re succeeding. But we have an excellent team. We have anexcellent team that is keeping [indiscernible] ideas.

Beryl: So you’re all growing through this experience, aren’t you?

Ben: Definitely. And I could say, a funny thing about the girls, in one of theclasses we tell the girls to set big dreams. Yeah. And we find that we areteaching materials about setting these dreams and saying that, “You can

do anything that you absolutely put your mind in doing as long as you havea strong desire and you are becoming disciplined in following it.” And theteam that is behind the school, we set a goal that we want to build a schoolthat is going to cost about €600,000. Yeah. At the moment we have – thereis only about 9,000,000 Kenya shillings that could translate to 90,000, Ithink about roughly €90,000. But hey, when we come together, we tellourselves, “OK. We need about €600,000 which probably for now is goingto be maybe €700,000 or €800,000.”

But because we keep telling ourselves that we can make it because wehad a 10-year plan so we share again with the group. When I talk aboutthis in a board meeting, we talk about this with the parents, sometimes theparents about faced. Now, that is not possible. Where are we going to get

€600,000 which translates in Kenya shillings as 60,000,000 or probably cango to 70,000,000? And when you talk about 70,000,000 Kenya shillings, Ihave also some doubting. Where are we going to get 70,000,000? I say tothem, “Now look, we are telling the girls to set bigger goals for themselves.Now, it’s our time also to set bigger goals for ourselves that we can raisethe resources to build such a school for this community.”

So, we constantly also have to make use of the materials of the teachingsor the principles that we are passing on to the girls so we can see that thecommunity plus the girls, we are growing up together in the journeytowards achieving big dreams and big goals.


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Beryl: This is wonderful to hear, Ben. It really is wonderful to what you’redoing as a community and I have no doubt that you will raise that money. Ihave no doubt at all. Tell me …

Ben: Thank you.

Beryl: Ben, is there anyone else we could talk to? I know that you have thegirls around, maybe a teacher around, somebody else that would like to …

Ben: Yes, we have – yes, there are definitely people here. We haveMadam Principal Vicky. If you want, you can talk to her then. We also haveone of the students, Beatrice Ayuga. We actually have another teacher alsowith us also called Joe Nodira [Phonetic] [0:24:25] also. We are heretogether.

Beryl: OK. Anyone that would like to come and talk to us?

Ben: You want to talk to Madam Principal and then to the student?

Beryl: Yes, please.

Ben: Yes. OK. Translating for your question.

Beryl:OK. Thank you Madam Principal. We’re Beryl and Mel and it’s really

lovely of you to give us a bit of your time. We’ve been hearing aboutwonderful things you’ve been doing at the school. What kind of activities doyou – do the girls most enjoy and where you see them growing most of all,Vicky?

Vicky: OK. Thank you. So I start with my name. My name is VickyOnyango and I’ve been in the school, this is now my second year in schoolat Uradi Girls. And I like what the girls do. They are interested. OK. Someof them when they come to school for the first time, they are still not sure

about themselves. They have no expectations. They have no dreams. Butwith time, we talked to them and they get to know and try to shift their dreams or try to shift what they think is good for them in their life.

And I think that probably I guess they are in school is a plus for many of them. They like being in school in spite of the hurdles. Yeah, I think so.


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Melanie: And of course, they’ll be around other people who are thinking inthe same way so they will be encouraged by others who are thinking bigdreams and [indiscernible] [0:26:14] . Yes. So is it – because I know theintention is to have boarding facilities in the school. Is the intention that asthe girls start to board, there will be more consistency? There will be morefocused, less distraction?

Vicky: Yeah. Actually, that is our intention because when they are dayscholars, when they go back home, their studies are interfered with theydon’t have enough time for their books or for their education. But we feelthat when they become boarders, at least we are able to bond much more.They’re able to study in a conducive environment, not at home. As Father Ben had talked earlier, they have so many problems. There’s no lightingsystem. There’s no source of water. Some of them even don’t have a

square meal on the table.

But in the boarding system, then at least, they’ll be able to get that light,water and the basic necessities that they need. At least, that can help themfurther their education.

Melanie: So, over what period of time would they board? Would it be just afew months or how long would that normally be?

Vicky:We want to try and we are [indiscernible] [0:27:39] but we are not

giving up. We still don’t have the resources but next year, the first class thatwas enrolled in the school in 2010, we’ll be sitting for their nationalexamination. There are 16 girls. So we want to create some rooms wherethey can at least be boarded within the school so that would enable them toconcentrate at least in their studies so that they’re able to do their nationalexamination well. So we shall start with them hopefully in January nextyear, January, February next year.

Melanie: So, I’m curious. How do you managed? I mean Ben explained

how you have this huge shortfall in terms of the amount of money that yourequire and I know that which the government subsidizes but it’s not thatmuch. So how do you cope with the fact that you do get a high turnover of teachers because you’re always struggling to have enough money to pay?And how did it affect the girls or we’re back to a matter of them having hugegoals?


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Vicky: Yeah. As we had said, we have this group of a few people,professionals from the area who are successful elsewhere. So, we keep ongetting in touch with them. And once in a year, we raise funds and thefunds raised is what we use to subsidize what the government is giving us.Like this year, we have done – we did one in August. We raised somemoney and that is what we are using to subsidize the areas where we haveshortfall. Though it’s still not enough but it’s keeping us going. Yes.

Beryl: You’re just doing wonderful work, Vicky. It really is wonderful.

Vicky: Thank you.

Beryl: It’s very inspiring. And I know you’re working under very difficultcircumstances but you are doing a sterling job.

Vicky: Thank you.

Beryl: I understand that one of the students is there and is happy to talk tous too, Vicky.

Vicky: Oh yes. Beatrice is here.

Beryl: Let’s speak to Beatrice then.

Ben: She’s ready for your question.

Beryl: Hello, Beatrice. Hello, Beatrice.

Beatrice: Hello.

Beryl: We’re Beryl and Mel.

Beatrice: I’m called Beatrice Ayuga.

Beryl: Yes, that’s lovely. How old are you, Beatrice?

Beatrice: Hi, I’m Beatrice Ayuga.

Beryl: And how old are you?


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Beatrice: I’m 18 years.

Beryl: You’re 18 years old.

Beatrice: Yes.

Beryl: And I know that you had some incredible success. You went to aScience and Technology Symposium?

Beatrice: What?

Beryl: You went and spoke on the stage?

Beatrice: Yes, I went to Science Congress.

Beryl: And tell us about that. What happened there?

Beatrice: When we went to Science Congress …

Beryl: Yes.

Beatrice: … we first went to the district level then we ranked number one.Then we went to provincial level. We won provincial too. Then we went tonational level of which we were provincial three in the whole country.

Melanie: Lovely.

Beryl: That is wonderful. And what were you presenting, Beatrice? Whatwere you talking about there?

Beatrice: We were talking about chemistry [indiscernible] [0:31:31] of which we were preparing something from a seed of a [indiscernible] tree.

Beryl: OK. OK. Well, how does it make you feel when you won thoseawards, Beatrice? How did you feel inside?

Beatrice: We were very happy when we won because it also made our school to be famous in the whole country plus the other students andteachers in our country.


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Beryl: Well Beatrice, I think you’re going to be very successful youngwoman in life. And I think that you will be a great inspiration to other girls inKenya and in other countries too because I’m sure you’re going to achieveso much Beatrice. So we really urge you to keep going with your studies.

Beatrice: Yes.

Beryl: And you will be able to share what we’re going to put on out site,Wired for Success. It will always be there, Beatrice. And you can look backand listen again to this story and how you have stepped up. And I have tocongratulate you because it can’t be easy. But from Mel and myself, wethink you’re doing amazingly well.

Melanie: Absolutely.

Beryl: Is there anything you would like to ask us, Beatrice or share withus?

Beatrice: No.

Beryl: Well, you probably had a long day because I know it’s evening for you. So I just like to thank you. And can you put Father Ben back on for usto speak to, please?

Beatrice: Thank you.

Beryl: Thank you.

Ben: Thank you, Beryl and Mel.

Beryl: She’s wonderful.

Ben: Hello?

Beryl: Hello, Ben.

Melanie: Hello.

Beryl: She’s wonderful. She’s wonderful.


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Ben: And she is doing her first interview and had a lot of fun. It’s going tobe another milestone for her.

Beryl: It is. And she will be able to listen to this.

Ben: Thank you for the kind words. And I know, I believe your words aregoing to become true. Call us again in ten years where we can tell you thedifferences.

Beryl: I’m sure they will. And this is an important point, how much does itcost to send a girl to school in your school? How much does it cost a year?

Ben: I think that one Madam Principal can answer that very quickly.

Vicky: Hello.

Beryl: Hello.

Vicky: So, for the day scholar, there are day scholars in our school, it takesabout 15,000 Kenya shillings in a year.

Ben: About €150.

Vicky:About €150 in a year.

Beryl: About €150 in a year to send one girl to school for the whole year.

Vicky: About €150 for the whole year if they are day scholars.

Melanie: What about the boarder?

Vicky: If we they are boarders, that’s about €300 in a year for boarding.

Melanie: So it’s doubled.

Vicky: Yes.

Beryl: And you have about 100 girls there right now, how many …

Vicky: A 105.


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Beryl: A 105. And how many – what size do you see the school growingto? How many students would you like to have there?

Vicky: Our projection is about 300 girls. We wanted to be a double three inschool so about 300 students.

Beryl: Right, right.

Vicky: Yes.

Beryl: So, here is the thing. If people would like to help you in some wayand donate funds, how could they do that? Do they go to Father Ben’swebsite and there’s information there?

Vicky: Yes. You can go through his website. They have information there. Ialso have my email. You can do the communication through that.

Beryl: OK. We will put that on the site. We will put that on the site. CanFather Ben tell us the name of his website?

Vicky: OK.

Beryl:Where people can go to?

Ben: Hello.

Beryl: Hello.

Ben: The website is called Friends of Uradi Paradise. Yes, it’s a rather longname. It’s Friends of Uradi Paradise because we believe there’s a drop-off paradise in our little village.

Beryl: OK, OK.

Melanie: Is that dot com?

Beryl: Is that dot com? OK.


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Ben: No. That’s blogspot. I think I’ll have to send it to you via email so thatyou can get it well. It’s rather long. So I will leave through your email andyou get the right email address, the right web address. Yeah.

Beryl: And we’ll put all of that on our site, Father Ben in case anybodywants to help you because it’s such an inspiring story and I know you’restruggling under difficult circumstances but talking to somebody likeBeatrice and hearing her story of greatness and she’s really on her way isextremely exciting. It really is. You’re doing wonderful things, Ben. And it’s

– everything that we’re about at Wired for Success to bring out thegreatness in individuals. So …

Ben: Thank you so much, Beryl.

Beryl: Thank you. Thank you. So I think we better let you go and get onwith all your – with all the things you have to do there, Ben. I know you’re avery busy man. You’re spreading yourself thinly.

Ben: Thank you so much Beryl and Mel. And I think now, we’re just goingto drive back home to put our feet up and say a small prayer for havingreached out to us and to share our story to the world. And your words of encouragement will keep us going. And I want to tell you, I told some of myfriends that you wanted to interview us and people are waking up to the factthat our school is actually world standard because we are being recognizedby Mel and Beryl of Wired for Success. And I think that has given usanother courage and impetus to even do more with the [indiscernible]

[0:37:37] for ourselves. And I want to thank you for this so much.

Melanie: Well, we’re certainly inspired by the good work you’re doingbecause it’s very humbling because you’re doing such great things with solittle. And to think – when we think about how much it is to keep a girl inschool, you mentioned a day girl will – it will be about €150 a year. Andwhen I think in this country, a family of four probably spend more than that

on a weekly food shop.

Beryl: That’s true.

Melanie: So I think people will be inspired to want to help. And I think Iremember you mentioning that some of the girls get help from other


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European countries. Is it like they are sort of sponsored or adoptedtemporarily as a – how does that work?

Ben: Yes. That was because this – I think out of my excitement, I failed tomention that because people saw this story that we all – the dream that wehad or that we have, our friends from Germany, from around Bonn, theyhave been – they got excited also about our school and a number of families – there’s a small village called Mondorf [Phonetic] [0:39:05] inBonn headed by the Chairman of that team is called Pita Kerimi [Phonetic]and some people are outstanding there. There’s one called Gila. Another called Rosita. Another one called Ingrid. They have been so good to us,went around talking to their friends and some families actually accepted toadopt some of our girls. And I think Madam Principal can confirm that wehave about 14 – out of the 105 girls, 14 girls have been adopted and their

school fee is being paid so that they are assured of coming to schoolwithout worries whatsoever that they’ll drop out.

So, all they need to do is just to show up, set their goals, work hard, and weneed to celebrate what they’re able to achieve. And I want to say a bigthank you for this wonderful group from Germany who have partnered withus to make sure that the dreams of the girls from this village can also berealized. Yes.

Melanie:So probably somebody in Britain or anywhere else in the world

because this will go out worldwide will be inspired to do something verysimilar.

Ben: Yeah. They can also do something similar and I think we – I want toshare with you that we are also being challenged how to make our presence in the web. That the school must develop its webpage so thatpeople can see us.

Melanie: Yeah.

Ben: The other web that we are going to direct you on, is the personal onethat I was trying to develop. But I think we can assure you that in the nextfew weeks, we are going to make sure that Uradi Girls High School has apresence in the web so that those who may want to donate can also seeeach on the webpage of the school. And as soon as it is up, I will also


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direct you from my personal blog to that one so that the donation becomesactually official, direct to the school.

Melanie: And as soon as that’s done, do let us know because we can postthat information as well.

Ben: You think? Yes, yes.

Beryl: Yes. Let us know. We’ll spread that information and put thatinformation on our site, Ben.

Ben: Definitely. I will copy it to you. As soon as it is up, I will let you knowalso so that you can let the world know where they can see Uradi GirlsHigh School, the school that is committed to molding achievers.

Melanie: This is wonderful.

Beryl: It’s wonderful, Ben. Thank you so much.

Melanie: Thank you so much. And we’ll let you get on with your – it’s near the end of the day for you really, isn’t it? Yes, let’s you get on with your evening. And thank you very much.

Ben:Thank you so much.

Melanie: And well done to the girls.

Ben: And?

Beryl: Well done to the girls.

Ben: OK.

Beryl: Send them all our warmest wishes.

Ben: Thank you.

Beryl: So thank you everyone for tuning in to today’s episode of

http://www.WiredforSuccess.TV. We would just like to mention before we


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So from me Beryl and my co-host Melanie and from our interviewee, Father

Ben, we bid you farewell until next time.


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friends of uradi paradise [episode 12] wired for success

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