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FEATURE: Serena Williams helps students in Kenya

She wiggled her hips in tandem to the vernacular music that vibrated across the small dusty school that bears her name in one of Kenya’s most arid and impoverished regions.

As the excited children belted out ballads praising their benefactor, Serena Williams could not help but keep smiling.

“I feel so honored to be here,” said the nine-time Grand Slam champion. “Thanks so much for receiving me for my first time in Kenya.”

The US tennis star was on the second and final leg of an African charity mission. Initially, she was in South Africa, where she opened a new secondary school that she helped build and donated computers.

The mixed gender school, perched on a hilly slope, about 148km southeast of the capital Nairobi, is situated in an area that has the highest school drop-out rate in the country.

Because the school — accepting its first patch of secondary students next year — is not easily accessed by road, worsened by recent heavy rains, Serena and her entourage were flown there by three helicopters.

Donning a black tracksuit, the 28-year-old star arrived in the first chopper accompanied by Kenyan government officials, including Education Minister Sam Ongeri.

They immediately inaugurated the school and took students through the maiden computer and internet lessons.

Due to lack of electricity, the computers were powered by solar panels but Serena promised that she would work with the government to bring electricity as well as boost educational standards.

Serena, accompanied by her mother and younger sister, pledged to open more schools for poor children, saying it was the finest achievement of her life.

“This is my first of many schools I plan to open up in Kenya. It is amazing how education has uplifted the lives of many people and have empowered them to determine their own future,” she said.

“It is the best achievement that I have done in my life,” she said.

“This lady has done a great thing for, not only our school, but the whole location,” said Serena Williams Secondary School headmaster Simon Mbuvi.

“Due to geographical factors, the school has seen little growth since it was started in 1952. But through her assistance, we have been able to finish building the secondary school in just under one month ready for the intake next year,” Mbuvi said.

On Saturday, Serena conducted a tennis clinic for children in Nairobi before concluding her four-day Kenyan visit.
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