2023-February-28

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Going The Distance to Change Lives

BY LAURENT BURAIS · STRATEGY AND PLANNING MANAGER · FRANCE

WITH HELEN GALL

5 MINUTE READ · 7 MINUTE LISTEN

I’m a Strategy and Planning Manager in CX Global Operations and have worked for Cisco for more than 22 years. I live in the south of France with my wife, Dominique. 

We’re both keen runners and enjoy long-distance running in beautiful places, like Morocco, Mongolia, Madagascar, and Senegal.

In 2018, keen to take our running to a new level, we signed up for Kimbia Kenya. It’s a five-stage race in the town of Iten, Kenya, the “home of the champions.” Most of the top long-distance runners in the world come from this area, including Eliut Kipchoge, the first sub-two-hour marathon runner.

Kimbia Kenya is not only a race but also an eco-solidarity project, where all stages leave, cross, or arrive in a local school.

Each morning, we would run 20 kilometers (about 12.43 miles), often crossing zebra and giraffe herds. Every afternoon, we would visit schools and families to deliver food and furniture. The experience exposed us to Kenyan life and was a wonderful opportunity to connect with the local community.

However, we still felt too much like tourists. We wanted to make a bigger impact on the community, so we decided to return that summer for a two-week work camp using Cisco’s generous Time2Give benefit to build a new classroom at Mbegi Primary School in Gilgil, Kenya.

The more time we spent together, the more we gained new perspectives about each other’s culture.

Dominique and I learned over a lunch conversation that 50 percent of the pupils at Mbegi Primary School had no food for lunch and likely had no breakfast — only a light dinner the previous evening.

Having such little fuel negatively impacted the students in the classroom. We had to do something about it.

We wanted to ensure that all students could focus on learning, not worrying about getting their basic needs met.

Drawing on my experience in business operations and Dominique’s background in finance, we set up our own charity when we got back to France. We called it Un Espoir Ensemble Ici Et Là-Bas, which means “Hope Together, Here and There.”

We added it to Bright Funds, so that others at Cisco could support the Kenyan community with donations matched by the Cisco Foundation. Our vision was to help grow the food needed each week, sustain the kitchen, provide tuition assistance, and deliver school supplies to the students.

In early 2020, we returned to Kenya and met with local community leaders to develop a plan.

The community committed to building a new kitchen — an iron hut to protect the fireplaces. We went to the local marketplace and bought huge quantities of rice, beans, corn, and a large quantity of firewood. We loaded it all into a boda boda, a type of motorcycle taxi. These materials were for the newly-hired cook from the local community to prepare and cook daily lunch for the children.

On January 19, 2020, we ran our first lunch service, serving lunch to 200 students. It left them with smiling faces and full stomachs. The community now owns and runs this program, serving 100 kilograms (about 220 pounds) of rice and dengu, a type of bean stew, each week, funded by our organization.

Two years and 100,000 plates later, the school board, teachers, and parents are reporting a domino effect.

Because families know that their children will receive a free lunch if they go to school, attendance is now at 99 percent. The student population has grown from 200 to 300 children, and new primary classrooms have been built to accommodate the new pupils, as well as a new secondary school.

With students now able to focus on learning, average exam scores have increased by 15 percent. The school chairman is pleased with the results, noting, "Our food program is paying back in terms of attendance, discipline, and performance.”

Since there are tuition costs for secondary school in Kenya, we have also established five scholarships. They help give the first cohort of primary school graduates the chance to pursue secondary education.

As we continue our efforts, I’m amazed at how much impact even a small donation can make. A donation of $50 pays the school term fee for one child. $100 funds a week of food for 250 students.

I hope you will join our efforts to make a difference in the lives of these young students and further our Cisco purpose to power an inclusive future for all.

Employee Resources

• Un Espoir Ensemble Ici Et Là-Bas
• Kimbia Kenya
• Our Impact - CSR and Time2Give
• Cisco Purpose Report 2022
• Careers at Cisco

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