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Summer 2022
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New School Year Calendar
Kenya recently restructured its academic calendar, and the school year for 2022 started in late April and will end in December. All of the children at Sam’s Place have graduated to their next grade levels, including four that have transitioned into high school. Our young ladies Felister, Jeddy, Beatrice, and Silvia all passed their big exams in March, and have started “Form One”, or the equivalent to our freshman year in high school.
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Certified Examination Center
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Great news to share with our school in Kenya – at both the primary and secondary school levels, we have been deemed a certified examination center. Sam’s Place will now be able to enroll our own children in their Kenyan required exams, and they can now take those national exams on the Sam’s Place campus. Previously, we were at the mercy of other certified schools in the area to accept our deaf children to sit for the exam, not always a small task! Now our students will have more flexibility to study, prepare, and take these important tests in an environment that they’re familiar with and comfortable.
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On our of students, Annah, qualified for the Kenyan Deaf Olympics team with her incredible soccer skills! Annah traveled to Brazil in May with the rest of the Kenyan delegation and had an incredible experience traveling internationally for the first time. Previously, the farthest she had been from home was Nairobi, about a five hour bus ride away, so flying across the Atlantic to Caxias do Sul, Brazil, was a life changing experience for her. There was some last minute scrambling to ensure all of her paperwork and documentation was squared away, but thanks to Simeon’s around the clock work to get it resolved, she was able to have the opportunity to go. Annah had an absolute blast and now wants to move to Brazil in the future!
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Our Newest Additions
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Stanley
Stanley was originally on the Sam’s Place radar 2 years ago when he was 8, but due to the pandemic and the government forcing all children to return home from schools, we weren’t able to bring him home to Sam’s Place. During the pandemic, his family disappeared and we weren’t able to track him down, not knowing where they went. As things opened back up, Stanley reappeared. Stanley also has an older brother who is also deaf, and while they were little children, upon learning that both of his children were deaf, their father planned to kill them both. On the day before he planned to kill his children, their mother disappeared with both of them to save their lives. After saving them from certain death though, the mother felt that life was too difficult to raise two deaf children alone, and also assuming that they were getting in the way of her being remarried, she abandoned them both. Some neighbors tagged in to help, and being familiar with Sam’s Place, they reached out to Simeon and ultimately were able to help Stanley get settled in his new home.
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Liz
Liz’s father died when she was 2.5 years old, leaving her mother with 7 children. Liz’s mother was chased off by her deceased husband’s siblings, leaving her to manage the 7 children by herself. After about 8 months, Liz’s mother became so worn out and sick that she could no longer care for her children. All of her 7 kids were taken in by other family, except for Liz because of her deafness. Alone and with no other resources to help provide for her now only remaining child, Liz’s aunt found Sam’s Place. When we met Liz for the first time, we knew we had to make room for her to join her new brothers and sisters at Sam’s Place.
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New Teachers
Sam’s Place is thrilled to add two new highly qualified teachers to our staff! Ripser and Edwin are both settled into life at Sam’s Place and thrilled to have the opportunity to work with such an incredible group of young men and women!
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National Soccer Team
A few weeks ago, with just a few weeks left in the semester, the Kenyan government released a very condensed soccer schedule, skipping the County, Sub-County, and Regionals tournaments, and going straight to Nationals. We assembled our National team, before the government reversed course and scheduled the three tournaments in rapid succession before heading to the National level tournament. Our team played well, and now we have four Sam’s Place students that will go on to the national competition: Brian M, John, Joshua, and Tyson. Congrats to these four young men!
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Join us in celebrating!
We had three of our students recently pass their final exams for Form Four (senior year) of secondary school. Violet, Mark, and Veronica all excelled in their grades for Kenyan Sign Language (no surprise there!), with Violet coming in strong on her History, English, and Christian studies, with Mark getting his highest grades in History, and Veronica also performing high on History as well.
We are so very proud of these students! They are in the process of transitioning to their next step in their educational journey, with Violet waiting for a university acceptance letter and Mark and Veronica going to Sikri Technical and Vocational College in September. All three of them have come such a long way, arriving at Sam’s Place as small children, and now turning into young independent adults!
As we help prepare them for the next phase in their education, we need your help! If you are interested financially supporting these students in their studies please email us at info@samsplacefoundation.org! We would love to connect with you and provide you with more details!
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AmazonSmile
Another way to support Sam’s Place is through AmazonSmile! Please consider selecting us as your charity when you are making Amazon purchases!
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Sam's Place Foundation has no paid staff. All officers and staff are volunteers.
Sam's Place Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. To contribute to the ongoing work, contributions can be donated on our website or sent to "Sam's Place Foundation" at 1617 Morrow Lane Abilene, Tx 79601.
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