Living and learning in the “New White House Academy”

Synopsis

Early morning at the “NEW WHITE HOUSE ACADEMY” in Kenya, it is still dark. The lights are already on in the classrooms and a teacher steps out of one of the rooms. As the sun slowly rises, the elementary school children gradually emerge from their classrooms and start cleaning up in front of their school buildings. In the secondary school, it is the first tea break and the boys and girls are crowded together at the tea counter with their cups, waiting for their black tea.

Dickson Yaa, the school manager, explains to us in which school we are here. It is a school for children from the poorest backgrounds, who often have only one parent or no parents at all.

Then a second level of action is added: We see several Europeans in a safari jeep and learn that they are going to the New White House Academy. They are the president and vice-president of Kenyan Children Help and four sponsors of the school. (Kenyan Children Help is based in Switzerland and runs the school in Kenya). The group arrives at the school and meets the manager Dickson. The president, Klement Biberstein, and Dickson guide the visitors through the school, giving the viewer some information about life in the school.

We continue with a parallel montage of interviews with the president, the vice president and the manager, through which we learn a lot about the development of the school and the current situation. The interviews are broken up by the storyline of the group of visitors, who we see in the kindergarten as they distribute their presents and tell us their impressions of the school.

A short detour takes us out of the school with two graduates of the New White House Academy to a college in the town of Voi, where the graduates are studying. They talk about their experiences at school and describe the family backgrounds they come from and the opportunities their schooling has given them. ?Back at the New White House Academy, we are back with the three interview partners, the manager, president and vice-president, who talk about their work as an association and the subject of donations, development aid, etc.

The touching conclusion is provided by an elementary school teacher who expresses her deepest gratitude to the school's operators and supporters. After all, this is the only way to provide education for the children of poor families.

Objectives

The aim of the film is to present the “NEW WHITE HOUSE ACADEMY” school run by the Swiss aid organization KENYAN CHILDREN HELP to a broad public and thus make it better known. At the same time, previous supporters and donors are shown what has been achieved with their help and how young people are supported and helped to progress. The film aims to subliminally motivate supporters to continue donating and at the same time to find new donors. Because, as the film shows, it's worth it: where is money better invested than with children, who have a decisive influence on our future? Development aid is provided here and the film shows that the donations also reach the children at school 1:1.