Dear Friend,
Thank you for taking the time to visit the website of the Global Secondary Education Fund. This fund started with a Facebook post. My long-time business acquaintance, a soapstone carver in Kisii, Kenya, named Richard, lamented that eleven boys had been expelled from a local secondary school because the grants that were supposed to cover their fees did not materialize. I could sense the anger, sadness, and despair in that post, and I immediately texted Richard. I asked him for more information–how much were school fees? Why were the funds delayed? What could be done? His reply was angry and confused–why would I ask such questions? Eventually, he shared that school fees were $420 per year. I said I would raise it. He couldn’t believe me.
I asked my congregation, Prince of Peace Lutheran Church in Des Moines, Iowa, to accept the gifts I had intended to raise. They eagerly agreed. I began making my own Facebook posts, sharing the stories at church, and haranguing everyone I could. The schools readmitted the students, on faith that I would get this done. In three weeks, we had transferred all of the funds for the eleven boys—and we found at four girls at a nearby school and helped them too.
Since then, we’ve honored our commitment to those students, and each year, we’ve added more. We don’t select the students–we ask our local partners to find the poorest students, and support their decisions. We also don’t share pictures of the students. Our students are not adults. Many don’t have parents who can consent to using their photos; many of the parents aren’t familiar with the media we use. Therefore, it is nearly impossible to gain consent. We will share photos of our graduates, and we may tell student’s stories with names changed. But we always want to honor the right of the people we serve to control their own story. We are simply a small part of that story, which they may or may not choose to tell.
Since we’ve started, we’ve expanded into new sites. In 2024, I met Tafadzwa at a chance encounter while we were both volunteering at the West Des Moines United Methodist Church food stand at the Iowa State Fair. Neither of us were supposed to be there that day, but there we were, and we sat down after our shift, tired and sweaty, and Tafadzwa shared about her work with primary students in Zimbabwe. We committed at that moment to help her students go to secondary school as well. In 2025, we learned that the graduates of a primary school in Jacmel, Haiti, which my family had visited in the past, were having difficulty finding funds to go to secondary school, despite exemplary academic achievement. Once again, we committed to help.
I invite you to take a look at our website. See our team, both in the US and abroad, and learn more about our work. I hope you are motivated to help too. We know this approach works. One of our earliest students we sponsored was able to attend university in Kenya (the fees are roughly the same as secondary school) and is now a practicing dentist in Nairobi. He shared with me the despair he felt when he was sent home. His dreams had ended, as you have to complete secondary school to go to university. But then Richard found help–we love that the student associates the help with Richard, although he knows about us too. He shared that his dream came back, and his life was forever changed He asked Richard to share a simple message of thanks.
I share that thanks with you today. Thank you for helping to make secondary school possible for our students. We hope someday that we are no longer needed–that governments, international organizations and donors will value secondary education in the same way they do primary. But until then, we can help to make this path out of poverty possible. Thank you for joining us!
Best regards,
Joe Nolte, President
Global Secondary Education Fund