Interact students have Westerville-Kenya Zoom meeting

On Oct. 15, the first ever international Zoom call took place between Interact students in Westerville and Kitale, Kenya.

Interact Rotary program for high school students. The Westerville-Kitale conference call took place despite a seven-hour time difference between the two communities.

Kitale is located in the Northwest part of the Kenya on the equator. The Kitale Club is a sister club of the Rotary Club of Westerville.

This first cultural exchange was dedicated to discussing community service initiatives by all four high schools.

This included Boma High School’s tree planting and school clean-up efforts while the Westerville high schoolers communicated about their donations to local food banks, youth shelters, and environmental initiatives to collect pop tops for the Ronald McDonald House which helps families of critically ill children.

The students also had a chance to compare and contrast their school day and after school opportunities, including various sports like soccer and basketball as well as environmental, chess and other clubs of interest to the Westerville students.

In Kenya, November is national exam month. This discussion brought up the pressing needs of Boma high school students particularly regarding technology for exam preparation.

The Kenyan students lack access to computers and reliable Internet connections, which hampers their learning. They also lack basic supplies like calculators and geometry sets to effectively face their national exams.

Because of this need both the Westerville and Kitale Rotary Clubs hope to work together to apply for a Rotary Global Grant to help meet this technological void.

Students from the Westerville high schools and Boma high school along with the adults from Westerville and Kitale’s Rotary Clubs will work together to identify the specific needs.

If successful, the plan would be to include Westerville high school students traveling to Kitale to help install and train their peers.

Overall, this first call successfully facilitated a rich exchange of ideas and experiences, strengthening the connection between the participating schools and communities.