POET employees going to Kenya on mission trip

POET employees from last year’s trip begin work on a new kitchen and dining hall/worship center for the Travelers’ Oasis Center, an all-girls’ school in Kenya that has been sponsored by POET since 2013. At right, some of the students capture the moment.

Courtesy photo

This year the local POET Biorefinery will send two employees -- Dana Syrus (maintenance clerk) and Jake Rittzle (maintenance supervisor) -- to Kenya to help improve the classrooms and grounds of an all-girls’ school there.

“When I went last year for the first time, I did not know what to expect,” Syrus said. “This time I’m going back just so happy to take part in it again, and to see some of the girls that I met. I can’t wait to see some of these girls again.”

The mission trip is part of Mission Greenhouse, which operates under Seeds of Change. The philanthropic organization was established by POET’s founder and CEO Jeff Broin in 2013. The first trip to the Travelers’ Oasis Centre was with World Servants when the group helped to build a greenhouse, but after seeing how much they had helped Broin establised Seeds of Change.

Courtesy photo

Since then, he has donated $1,000 to every employee who goes on the trip each year. In 2014 and 2015 Mission Greenhouse helped to build a new dorm, and last year a new kitchen and dining hall, which will also serve as a worship center, was added.

“We love POET,” Syrus said. “It’s a wonderful, wonderful company to work for. They have a lot of humanitarian efforts not only in Kenya, but also in Haiti. And they are constantly branching out. I’m glad that POET isn’t a company that’s out to make money without improving the world, and that’s in part of their statement.”

From May 26 to June 6, Syrus, Rittzle and 25 other employees from plants across the Midwest will remodel the classrooms -- some of which don’t even have windows -- and clear off clutter and trash from the grounds. And it’s all back-breaking work done with rudimentary tools like axes and shovels. But to Syrus and Rittzle, it’s all worth it.

“They’re incredibly intelligent young women,” Syrus said. “They have great aspirations. They all want to go on to college ... they have career goals and they have a path set. We know that with better conditions, they can learn more and accomplish more.”

The school was started by a local couple, Esther and Shadrack, with just a few girls in their living room. Now more than 160 girls attend the boarding school, which provides everything from food and lodging to education. Many of the girls come from poor families or from abusive situations, so the school serves as a step up for them.

“It’s a stop in the road,” Syrus said. “It’s a very well-traveled highway. That’s one of the reasons that we want to be sure that these girls are taken care of. Because they can end up spending their time with a trucker going back and forth on that highway, and getting dropped off and picked up again. And some of the girls have been in that situation. You see that you can help, so you help.”

But a strange phenomenon prevails here, as in other impoverished places, that surprises and always inspires first world citizens.

“You go over there thinking they’re so poor,” Syrus said, “and they’re so rich. Their spirit, everything, they have such an advantage over us in a lot of ways.”