George Kienga, from Awendo, Kenya, was frustrated because he could not make enough as a teacher and a farmer to support his family. In 2012, he attended PPI’s Create Own Grow training in Nairobi, Kenya. He was a quiet, unassuming man, but he left determined to go home and to put what he learned to work.
First, George started with what he had. He started being more intentional in running his farm as a business to create the best value he could.
Then, again, he started with what he had. He had the ability to teach, and he started a preschool for the children of the farmers in his area. He started in a little tin metal shack on the corner of his property. He charged a small tuition to feed them and to teach them. The next year, he added a first-grade class at his school. He kept adding a grade per year.
He also started teaching the farmers in his community how to improve their farming to make more money so they could pay the tuition to send their children to his school. He has created 25-plus jobs for faculty and staff at Golden State Academy and more for his farms.
Golden State Academy has grown to 380 students in grades K through 8th grade, and he plans to keep expanding through high school. They have 80 boarding students. One hundred three of their students come from extreme poverty where they would often have days where they did not eat. At Golden State, they eat every day, and they are learning to become economically empowered as they grow up. Amazingly, Golden State is self-supporting. Their resources are meager, but they keep creating value. Golden State has ranked #1 in academic testing in their county for the last three years. They are the Flagship School of PPI which means:
It was the first school founded on PPI Principles.
It was the first school to teach our PPI curricula that will go to thousands of schools globally.
We will help them develop their campus and resources so their students can become the leaders of solving poverty in Africa.
(pictured: Golden State Academy students)
Today, George owns three sugarcane farms, 6 acres, 3 tractors and harvesting trailers, and he contracts for harvesting. And he has built a new house for his family.
