Meet the team
Will Tudor-Evans
Will Tudor-Evans is the co-founder of the Saramek Trust. He takes an active role in the fundraising, money management and communications side of the Trust. He returned to Kenya in 2006 and 2011 to vist the scholars and their families, and to thank everyone for the hard work they had put in to make the Saramek Trust a success.
Will started work with Deloitte in London in October 2009 having previously graduated from Bristol with a degree in Economics.
Ollie Webb
Ollie Webb is the Trust’s other founder. He undertook a great deal of groundwork in Kenya in the summer of 2006 and is delighted to see the Trust's progress. He has also assisted with fundraising, and is keen to further the Trust’s potential with some exciting ideas for the future.
Having graduated from York University with a degree in Linguistics, Ollie now works for coporate promotion WhyNot in London. He also hopes very much to go out to Kenya again before long to visit the children and the schools involved with the Saramek Trust.
Shirley Tudor-Evans
Shirley continues to play a pivotal role in the running of the Trust and has done much to help on the fundraising side. She joined Will on a trip to Kenya in May 2012 to visit the scholars and returned feeling that the money raised so far had gone to all the right places. It was also a chance for her to see a side of Kenya she hadn't previously witnessed and to experience her own mini gap-year - a real eye opener!
Roger Hollingworth
None of this would have been possible without Roger Hollingworth. He already sponsors a number of children himself throughout their education and beyond, and his quiet, but infectious enthusiasm, has encouraged others from his UK home area near Sheffield to help with fundraising too.
He also has a house near Londiani about two hours from Kericho - the journey is usually undertaken on foot and then matatu - where he spends about eight months of the year. He has been largely instrumental in setting up a secondary school in his village where he teaches science - it seems that ‘retirement’ is still some way off! Will and Shirley spend a night with him there and although there is no electricity in the village he is able to keep in constant touch with the outside world by way of a solar powered laptop and with his mobile charged the same way.
He keeps an eye on the children’s progress as well as helping with the selection and arranges the payment of the school fees etc. and is in regular touch with Sarah and Stanley.
Stanley Mutai
Stanley Mutai was headmaster at Saramek after Sarah Njambi but is now headmaster at Manyoror near Kericho. He took some time off to take Will and Shirley round the schools so they were able to visit Moses, Nicholas, Billian and Beatrice as well as meeting Bernina, Beatrice’s guardian and also Nicholas’s parents and showing Shirley Saramek where Will spent part of his gap year.
He now liaises with Roger Hollingworth (see below) and arranges payment of school fees and helps with the selection of possible children for the Trust to sponsor. He also keeps in touch with Shirley via the occasional text and email and arranged the hospital visits for Nicholas.
Sarah Njambi
Sarah Njambi had a good position as Headmistress of Saramek Primary. She is a Kikuyu and in the middle of January 2008 received a warning ‘to leave or else’. She slept outside in the fields with the boys to avoid being caught and the next day they left to stay with her aunt at Ngecha. The bus journey took 7 days because of the hold-ups on the road. Her own son followed later as he was waiting for his KCSE (Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education) results from Kericho High School. It is very unlikely that they will be able to return to the Kericho area as she says: ‘the place is not safe especially for Kikuyu men and boys’.
Sarah now teaches at Kabuku Primary School at Ngecha and Simon and Jeremiah spend their holidays with her. Like many Kenyans she also has a mobile (landlines seemed to have been passed by) and is good at her text messaging so a useful way to keep in touch!
She came to Nairobi in May to meet up with Will and Shirley. She arrived two hours late but with two huge bunches of flowers – see photo! She is in regular touch with Roger Hollingworth and also with Stanley Mutai.