Once in 2 months I like to organise a time trial for student-athletes. These are Kenyan boys and girls, age 18-21, who just finished high-school and would like to get a scholarship for an American University. I'm glad American universities offer this opportunity; once a student got a scholarship, the university litteraly pays everything for him/her. Schoolfees, books, house, food, everything is paid for. Some universities (like the University of Arizona, where Hilda's sister Elvin graduated and where her brother Collins is now studying) even pay the students pocket money, which enables them to safe, buy a laptop, phone, etc. But more than that, it's just great that Kenyan students get a chance to study at some of the best universities in the world. The only thing the students have to do in return is to run, preferably very fast.

However, to get a scholarship, it's not enough te run fast, you also have to be a good student. If your high-school grades were low, you will not get a scholarship. And even if you do (because you might find a small college in the US that wants to give you a scholarship), the American Embassy won't give you the visa. And then all the money that you spend in order to get that scholarship is wasted. Because as long as the Kenyans are still in Kenya, they have to pay everything for themselves. The universities are not allowed to help there. This means spending money on doing the SAT and TOEFL (tests of English and maths), sending documents to the US, registering with the NCAA, paying the SEVIS fee, embassy fee, etc. A total of 700-1000 USD. That's a lot of money in Kenya. So you can imagine; once someone has spent all that money, and shows up at the American embassy, but doesn't get a visa to the US, their world collapses. On the other hand, when they do get the visa, their world changes completely. They will travel to the other side of the world, might or might not come back, and will get a very good education at no cost.

But showing up at the American embassy is the last step in a long process. I'm trying to help at the start of that process; by offering them the opportunity to do a time trial and then sending these results to many American university coaches. When a coach sees the result of the time-trial, he/she often decides that he is interested in one of the runners. I then make sure there is contact between the two and from there they arrange it together. But if necessary, I advise them on the whole process. I don't help them by paying their expenses (there are too many to do that), but on the other hand I also don't charge them anything for what I'm doing. It's just a way of trying to help them get a better life. It's fun to do and when some of them end up at an American university, it feels good to have helped.

 

Some of the runners at the last time trial. All the top runners were given shoes that were donated to Kibet4Kids by American runners.