Greenland
We took a full day and visited Greenland Secondary school. The rain held off just long enough to finish most of what we wanted to accomplish.
Greenland is a unique school. It was started 10 years ago as a school for teen mothers, to allow the girls to finish their educations. The administrators quickly realized the girls were distracted by not having their babies with them. Some of the girls needed to take medication to prevent lactation while in school. So instead they set up a facility for the girls to enroll their babies in a nursery program with the school. The girls learn to care for their babies and can continue to nurse them.
Since the early days, they have also started taking in girls who want to escape an impending child marriage or genital mutilation (FGM). Other girls are escaping forced prostitution, sometimes having been forced into relationships with much older men.
In addition, there are, of course, other scenarios that bring the girls here.
The end result is a school that really looks out for these teen moms. The students seem to be overall really happy and look out for each other, as well. When we first visited, we realized this was a place that was very aligned with Tuko Pamoja in terms of mission. We have one girl and her son enrolled at Greenland so far.
Our goal this day was to deliver a month’s worth of porridge. The school doesn’t have a regular supply for porridge and was very happy to have it. The porridge will feed all the girls, the toddlers old enough to drink it (possibly multiple times a day), and the staff. One high-priority goal for us is to provide a monthly porridge program for them that they can depend on, as opposed to getting random deliveries for a month or less at a time. Once in place, this would be our 6th school porridge program.
We also want to start teaching self-defense classes at Greenland. Given the history of the girls, this was a top priority for me after visiting in January 2025.
When we arrived, we met with the leadership and gathered some more information while having tea.
We then went out to the courtyard for a presentation. We found we were the guests of honor for the festivities, including lots of dancing and singing by the girls. We were seated at a table on the porch, and the festivities started.
For the most part, it appeared the girls were able to pick and choreograph their own performances. The whole school was in attendance, so there was a LOT of celebrating. As I fully expected, and Nathan and Jaime had no clue about, we were soon pulled off the stage to dance with the girls.
At one point, I was behind a girl with braids down to her upper thighs. She started whipping her head around and I think I suffered permanent injuries from the lashing I took.
The celebration was truly joyful. It was great to see the girls so happy and having fun. Sometimes with babies in tow.
We have another school photographer with a cardboard camera on the left.
Our sponsored baby Alvin joined the festivities for a while.
After the program, we presented the porridge and two soccer balls we had brought for them.
We then took a tour of the school. Several of our group had never been there before, and I hadn’t seen the school since January. I was eager to see what had changed.
We toured one of the dorms, then headed to the main attraction: the nursery area.
Below, Jaime and Nathan headed in the right direction, after checking out the school bunnies.
We met with a bunch of the babies. Alvin, the son of Ruth, our sponsored girl, was among them. When he sees Virginia at the school, he pretends he’s asleep. They got him up to come see us.
Below, Jaime is discussing world events with one of the babies.
The school has also planted some vertical garden crops. They intend to move the garden, so they can extend the play area for the babies.
Below, a photo op with our team and some of the Greenland team.
After lunch, we started the self-defense class. It was offered on a voluntary basis, so we got a little over half the girls—about 120. We formed a giant circle on their football field, with the Tuko team in the middle.
As we were walking down to the field, one girl had a seizure. Cedric, a trained EMT, stayed back to help her. She was OK after a while, and Cedric joined us.
I did most of the teaching, as the girls understand English well enough. And I can project my voice to be heard outside for that size of group. We had 6 instructors, which helped with that size of group.
Wangari was working with a girl on a technique when the girl said, “I wish I’d known this before I was raped.” You know you’re doing the right thing to teach this curriculum when you hear something like that.
Things were going along pretty nicely, but storms started moving in. We were maybe halfway through the class when it started to sprinkle. We tried to cover one last topic, but Mother Nature decided otherwise.
First it started raining. Hard. We started for the shelter of the school buildings and dorms. Within seconds, it started hailing.
I was headed for the nearest building. But due to too many birthday cakes, joint replacements, and random injuries, I don’t run anymore. Two of the girls insisted on staying with me. The wonderful young woman below was adamant that her jacket be held over my head instead of hers. It was very sweet.
Normally it wouldn’t have even been an issue due to my omnipresent ball cap. But my dear “Kenyan daughter” Wangari had grabbed my hat off my head at the first raindrop, and ran. She needed to protect her braids.
The rest of the class was washed out. We will go back in January 2026 and finish up. And hopefully bring more porridge.
The team:
Jaime
Wangari
Cedric
Kikey
Nathan