All posts by Brett Weiss

Brett Weiss has spent eighteen years teaching high school social studies and over twenty years in the software business. He has been married to Christine for 36 years and has two adult children and one grandchild. He started the “Bernard and Elsie Weiss Dago Scholarship” program in 2011 named after his late parents. (www.hopefordago.org). Earlier this year his book about his trips to Kenya and the Scholarship Fund was published. It is titled, “Just Give Them A Hug…And The Rest Is Easy”. It is available at www.iuniverse.com, www.amazon.com and many other web sites.

Making Dago and the World A Better Place, One Child at a Time – by Brett Weiss

DAGO, KENYA

In 2009, I spent about two weeks in the tiny village of Dago, Kenya and came away determined to do what I could to improve the lives of these hard-working, incredibly kind but extremely poor people. I decided I wanted to make the world a better place, one child at a time. Most of us think about how we can make the world a better place but we all struggle with just how to do it. The challenge is daunting.

Dago is a village in southwestern Kenya of 3,000 people where the average family income is less than $2 per day. They live in tiny mud huts with no plumbing. There has been no electricity but this year the school, orphanage and a few homes have obtained limited electricity.  AIDS is a major problem and most people will have little to no medical care in their life. Average life expectancy is early forties. Most clothes are hand-me-downs from charities and food insecurity is a major problem. The average person has only four years of education and few have ever gone to high school because the government does not pay any of the costs of high school.

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