Alison was first interested in PA-MOJA when Silvia Knittel (co-founder, visionary, and previous president) introduced her to the charitable organization while they were both in Kenya. She has a PhD in Evolutionary Biology and is a science teacher. Because PA-MOJA’s mission is to support student education and wildlife conservation, Alison wanted to be involved immediately; her core values aligned with PA-MOJA’s perfectly, so she joined the organization in 2010.
Alison describes her involvement with PA-MOJA as “incredibly rewarding,” because it connects her with many different people, protects crucial wildlife and offers new experiences. Alison has many roles and responsibilities as a PA-MOJA co-chair: she coordinates connections with Kenya, co-organizes summer trips to Kenya, facilitates the Butterfly Effect online learning platform, and supports Grandma Mary’s kids, to name a few. Alison really appreciates the partnership she shares with Ian and Amber, who meet at least once every month (often every week) to discuss the budget for disbursement of all the PA-MOJA funds and collaborate on the Kenyan day-to-day operations of the organization.
In 2013, Alison and Silvia realized that high school students in Kenya and Canada did not have an authentic way of connecting with each other. So, Alison started working with 6 students at Tigithi Secondary School in Kenya, one of the few schools in the area to have internet at that time. She and Silvia got the students online for the first time in their lives and taught them how to navigate, research and write about a topic of their own personal interest. They were the first students to join Butterfly Effect. Upon their return to Canada, Alison got 6 Canadian students at her school in BC to also join the website so that students could learn together. Since then, Butterfly Effect has had about 75 Kenyan students and 200 Canadian Students be a part of the program. Our top 15 Butterfly Effect students in Kenya have traveled to Canada to work directly with Canadian Butterfly Effect students as well as be ambassadors of PA-MOJA throughout the BC lower mainland.
In 2019, Alison was given the opportunity to present at the TEDX in Langley (Not All Giving is Good) about the lessons that PA-MOJA has learned about giving throughout the many years of the partnership between OPC and PA-MOJA. She is proud of the evolution of PA-MOJA and that it has remained a volunteer based organization with all funds going directly to providing support for Ol Pejeta’s scholarship program (other than small administrative costs).
“We are a small but mighty team and I’m very happy to be celebrating the diversity and depth of the people involved in the organization. ” Alison Stuart
