Stefan Lyon Foundation Home Page

Help a 12 Year Old Boy Build a School in Africa

Hi, my name is Stefan Lyon. I am 13 years old and I live in San Francisco.

When I was 9, I told my mom I wanted to raise money to build a school in Africa. She said it was a good idea but we needed a plan. We went to a grocery store nearby and the manager said he would give us free cookie dough to help us out. After baking the cookies, we sold them from my red wagon in front of the store. In 2005, we raised more than $2,000 selling cookies, but we still needed to raise more money.

I wrote a book, My Adventures with Stitch, about my pet rat in order to raise the extra money. The book is filled with true stories and pictures I took with my camera.

In 2006, I raised enough money from the book sales to convert an old cow shed in Kakamega, Western Kenya, into a two-room schoolhouse we named Stefan’s Wing. I even made enough money to buy materials to build desks for the children.

"The children were very happy with their beautiful new school," my mom and grandma said after visiting Stefan's Wing in the summer of 2008. Now the children in my schoolhouse use my book to learn how to read English.

My mom and grandma also visited the nearby village of Bungoma, about 125 kilometers (79 miles) from Stefan's Wing, where they saw many children studying outside on benches under the hot sun. These kids really needed a school. I told my mom I wanted to build them a large school, grades 1-8. My dad said I needed to raise $60,000 to build this school so I wrote my next book, Stitch and Molly Tour San Francisco.

This abandoned cow shed in Kakamega, Western Kenya, was used for the original schoolhouse.

Students inside Stefan's Wing, renovated from an old abandoned cow shed, 8/2007.

All donations support the building of schoolhouses in Africa (Project Africa).

Once a cowshed, this new schoolhouse, called Stefan's Wing, was completed in 2007. Sixty five children attend classes here.

In the fall of 2007, we began the construction of Stefan's Academy. Students presently attend grades 1-5, and the school is scheduled for completion in 2009. Brother Misiati is managing this project (as well as Stefan's Wing), and the Brother's of St. Charles Lwanga are building it. Their misson is to care for and educate the poor children in Eastern Africa. The Brothers teach and oversee the needs of the children in both schools.

In November, 2008, I published my third book, Stitch and Friends Go Green, which gives kids and their parents fun ideas and activities, like recycling, to be green citizens. All the money from book sales goes to the completion of Stefan's Academy.

Children in front of Stefan's Academy, 2/2009.

Students in new classroom of Stefan's Academy, 2/2009.

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