Team Profiles

Peggy Walenda Mativo

Peggy is an undergraduate at Harvard University where she majors in Chemistry, minors in East Asian Studies and has earned a citation in Mandarin. Outside the classroom, she has worked as a Mentor and tutor in the Harvard-Alston Educational Portal, a Campus Ambassador with Teach for China and a Captain at DormCrew, Harvard’s largest student-run, student-managed employer on campus. Peggy is passionate about education access and community engagement and works at various levels of their intersection to connect the right people with the resources they need to succeed. She’s currently on a year off from Harvard to focus on building PACE (PACE stands for Promoting Access to Community Education) and the PanAfrican Scholars Program(PanASP), both of which she founded earlier on this year. Peggy’s most recent achievements include winning a Clinton Global Initiate University Commitment of the Year award, joining the Harambe Entrepreneurial Alliance as an affiliate and completing a prestigious summer research fellowship with Harvard’s PRISE (Program for Research in Science and Engineering). She also gave an inspiring Student Address at Harvard’s annual Convocation ceremony to welcome the 1600 freshman in Harvard’s class of 2016. Having taught as a volunteer in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania and led pre-university programs for her church, Parklands Baptist, she brings more than 2 years of experience in effectively working with and facilitating young volunteers.

Fransiscah Nzanga

Franciscah is an Actuarial Science graduate from Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology. She is an actuary-in- training at MicroEnsure where she assesses customer satisfaction and oversees the maintenance and follow-up of claims records. In addition, she is a former intern at Kenya Airways’ customer service, where she acquired the skills of being an articulate problem solver who brings motivation, great customer service and negotiation skills to the team. Furthermore, being a former St. John’s member and current Red Cross member she has acquired knowledge into volunteer management and the general individual relationship required for PACE. She is also a fun and relaxed lady who enjoys swimming on an occasional basis and writing poetry.

Rebekah Mwanza 

Rebekah is a senior undergraduate at the United States International University whose focus is in the fields of International Relations and Business Management. She has worked in the Marketing and IT divisions of Mwembela Co. Limited and has been deeply involved in planning the residential program with the Aga Khan Academy in Mombasa. She’s the current director of Qladi.com and manages her own entrepreneurial venture. More so, she continues to be a mentor to four (4) girls in Mombasa with whom she worked with while working on her World Studies Extended Essay as partially required by the International Baccalaureate’s Diploma Programme.

 

 Patrick Andrew Otieno

Patrick Andrew Otieno is a senior accountant at Easco Africa, a registered company specializing consultations and constructions but has had a lengthy experience working as a bookkeeping consultant for small businesses. Prior to joining Easco, Patrick worked as a data analyst and knowledge manager at Norpy General Agencies, a sub company of Easco. Patrick holds a Bsc. in International Business Administration from the United States International University.

Lillian Mwendwa Kubai

Lillian is an undergraduate of the Bachelor of Laws Degree program (LLB) at the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, currently awaiting graduation at the end of November 2012 .She is currently doing her legal internship at NEMA , alongside a CPS course as she works as a Field Coordinator with CPI-Kenya. Lillian has also been working with the youth of her church, St. Peters Methodist Church, where she is currently the Chair lady. Other than that, she has volunteered with the Kenya Red Cross and other similar ventures which has given her experience with volunteerism .

Yvonne Odhiambo

Yvonne is currently an undergraduate student at Moi University studying Bachelor of Arts and Social Science majoring in sociology and economics.She also holds a Diploma in Community Development from Moi University and a certificate in HIV/AIDS Management from University of Nairobi.During her break she was an intern at USAID  Afia Plus Western Kenya where she closely worked with the community doing what she loves most,interacting with others,more so she is efficiently equipped in community work and social issues where she has her expertise in leadership development and women empowerment.
She finds great joy in making new  friends,learning about new cultures,innovation and creation and networking.She is fluent in four languages this enables her to efficiently communicate with others and working with her people in the communities.

 

Founder's Word.

PACE, like most other organizations, started as an itch - a growing discomfort with the status quo that became too big to ignore. I can still point to the exact moment when the PACE spark occurred for me.

 I was in rural Tanzania as part of a team of volunteers who taught the community about HIV/AIDS. That afternoon, we were working in a secondary school, where I noticed how young most of the teachers were. I was curious, so as we sat chatting, I asked them how they became teachers. They told me that right after they just finished their Form Four studies, the head teacher had invited them to teach to make up for the shortage of teachers in the school.

I wasn’t surprised. I’d heard about Form Four graduates teaching in under-resourced schools in Kenya, especially in the rural areas. Due to the lack of resources in these areas: piped water, electricity, public transportation and technology - most qualified teachers preferred not to teach in these rural schools. The lack of teachers would result in poor syllabus coverage, and eventually poor performance - that would make the schools even more unattractive to qualified teachers, continuing the vicious cycle. As I asked around, I found out that teacher shortage was not just a problem with schools in rural areas; public schools in slums in urban areas also experienced a similar shortfall.

As I thought about the young teachers in Tanzania, it hit me that they had the potential to alleviate the shortage of teachers. Informal teacher recruitment was already happening in many different schools on an individual level - but it could be improved upon.  However, we needed a different strategy: one that would take into consideration the capacity, ability, training and availability of the high school graduates. We needed a system that would consolidate and leverage the number of willing high school graduates, empower them and engage them at the right level of commitment and recognize their efforts. Thus, PACE was born.

We started our journey in August 2011 armed with only a dream on a sheet of paper. The dream is that willing volunteers from all over the continent could be trained, empowered, supported and rewarded as they strove to make a difference to students in under-resourced schools. As we spoke to more people about the vision, we received recognition from the Clinton Global Initiative University and joined the Harambe Entrepreneurial Alliance under the “Teach for Africa” project. Over time, the team behind the vision grew, and the vision became more refined. Eventually, we rebranded and chose the name PACE (Promoting Access to Community Education) as it was a better reflection of the identity and nature we wanted the organization to represent.

PACE has come a long way from the days when it was a fuzzy idea in my head.  We know why we exist: to empower today’s youth so we can impact tomorrow’s Africa by touching education today. We have a growing community of 50 high school graduates who have applied to join the program as volunteers, and an expanding network of mentors and advisors. Based on the responses we receive as we implement the initial stages of our pilot, we are improving on the quality of the volunteer program’s future iterations.

The promise that PACE makes is that we will continue to:

1) listen to the communities we are involved in,

2) learn from their feedback and support,

3) lead through service and engagement

4) live out the positive influence that we seek to be within our society.

For our volunteers and supporters, we thank you for joining us as we strive to create enriching and rewarding service experiences as well as a nurturing community. PACE is bound to be an adventure filled journey, but one that will make a significant difference to the lives  of all those walking with us. We look forward to working with you on this one. Thank you for journeying with us.

For PACE Team,
Peggy Mativo


Please see the CGIU video at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQzjc9g9PYU&feature=share