Youth in Action
Cedar Park’s Youth in Action Group has been a thriving part of the church community since 2003. The group now has 29 members.
The group’s fund-raising initiatives since 2003 have resulted in contributions of over $50,000 to a water well (2003/04) and a school (2004/05) in Kono, Sierra Leone, a school in northwest China (2005/06), a school in the Naikara, Kenya (2006/07), and this year a water collection, purification, and storage system in Salabwek, Kenya. For the year 2007/08, the group is making a longer-term commitment to the community of Salabwek in the Maasai Mara region of Kenya. In addition to the water system, for which $5,000 has been released, the group hopes to complete a school ($8,500) and begin work on a mobile medical clinic.
The photographs that follow are of the Naikara Primary School that was built in the Maasai Mara region of Kenya by Free the Children (FTC) using funds raised by Cedar Park’s Youth in Action group in 2006/07. FTC is the world’s largest network of children helping children through education, with more than 1 million youth involved in its innovative education and development programs in 45 countries.
The new school consists of one school building, which serves a community that has about 600 school-going children. Fifteen teachers work at the school. When the community first opened the school 30 years ago in mud structures, only one girl attended, along with 12 boys. But each year, school attendance has climbed, including the number of girls attending. Now, Naikara is very proud to support female education and hosts a couple hundred of girls in its classrooms studying right next to the boys and giving them good competition on their exams. Some of these children walk more than 8 kilometers a day to attend school.
With this school and its other projects, it is clear that Cedar Park’s Youth in Action Group is on the move and making a difference!
Exterior view of Naikara Primary School 
Students dancing outside the school during opening celebrations 
Students at their desks in Naikara Primary School in opening celebrations 
Parents trying out student desks at opening celebrations
Interior view of Naikara Primary School
