From Newport to Nairobi

Newport Beach resident Jene Meece has worked so hard helping to raise money to build a new school for some of the poorest children in Kenya that she wants to help build part of it now.

“I just feel I have to get my hands on it and experience it myself,” she said.

Meece helped to raise $400,000 for the Newport Beach-based charity African Child Fund to start construction on a new school for children who live in slums outside of Nairobi, Kenya.

The group hopes to raise $1.4 million to complete the school.

Meece will lead a team of nine local women on a trip to Kenya in May to help document the work African Child Fund is doing there. Working with a Kenyan priest who has dedicated his life to educating orphans in his country, the nonprofit group raises money to clothe, house, feed and school poor children.

Outside of helping construction crews work on the new, Africa Child Fund-sponsored school, the women will bring laptop computers and clothing to the children.

The women also will spend time shooting video of some of the orphans, the charity sponsors and helping children make jewelry and cards to sell at African Child fundraising events.

Many of the children sponsored by Africa Child Fund are AIDS orphans, who have no access to medical care or education, Meece said.

“The focus is on education for these children and getting them through school, so they can get better lives — without that, there’s no future for any of them. That’s what really got me involved,” said Viola Chisholm, who volunteers doing financial bookkeeping for Africa Child Fund.

Chisholm will travel to Kenya in May because she feels she has to see the work the charity is doing there first-hand.

“I think it will really drive it home what it is we’re doing,” Chisholm said. “I think it’s going to be a very life-changing experience for me.”

Newport Beach resident Diane Teitscheid has sponsored Banard, an 8-year-old Kenyan boy, for the past six months through African Child Fund, sending $30 a month to support his education through the charity. She and her 19-year-old daughter will travel to Kenya with the African Child Fund group to meet Banard.

“He’s really a cute little guy who likes to play soccer,” said Teitscheid, who has gotten to know Banard through letters.

“This is something that just really spoke to my heart and told me I had to do this,” she said.

For more information about African Child Fund, visit africanchildfund.org.

Reporter BRIANNA BAILEY may be reached at (714) 966-4625 or at brianna.bailey@latimes.com.