Kelly Ann Leininger's Mission

Kelly Ann Leininger's most important mission was to help underprivileged children in the rural communities get a proper education. She joined a rural school as a volunteer English teacher to realize her passion for both teaching and languages.

Soon she encountered the problems and challenges in teaching in rural areas in Peru caused by the lack of proper funding, resources and sufficient teaching materials in schools. That's when she realized she should take action.

The first thing Kelly Ann undertook was starting a fundraising campaign to renovate the school building, equip it with new furniture and equipment, and buy not only the necessary teaching materials but also books and other much needed stationary for the students. The social media pages created for this purpose, as well as several local events organized to raise money for this important cause became much more successful than she had expected. Her friends and former colleagues started to donate, and soon funds started to arrive from other people and organizations, too.

Just a couple of weeks later, the target amount of donations was gathered and in a few months Kelly's project became a reality. She began coordinating fundraising events for other schools, too. She is also much appreciated for her efforts in organizing events to address the issues and challenges of the whole community.

Now Kelly Ann teaches English not only to young children but also to adults who will benefit from the ability to speak English as they can secure better jobs in many spheres, especially in tourism, which is the backbone of the country. As most of the local schools lack trained teachers, she also trains them for innovative ways of teaching.

As one of the community members talked about her, Kelly Ann was able to make many disadvantaged children capable of dreaming of a better future.